Indian Church and Nation Building

 

Indian Church and Nation Building

By Madhu Chandra

India Christians set to celebrate the 1970 years of Christianity in India on 3 July 2021. Historically, Indian Christians observe the martyrdom day of St Thomas on 3rd July every year.

Christianity in India is as old as many other religions in India. It has existed in India from the very first century. Two historical accounts about the coming of St Thomas, one of twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. Churches in India believe St Thomas came to the southern part of India and established the first church in 52 AD and believed of being killed in 72 AD by the opponents of the gospel he was preaching to the people. 

The second historical account, James Kodangallur, in his book “First Voyage the Apostle Thomas to India” claims St. Thomas visited India during 43-44 AD before he came to South India. He travelled breadth and length from Afghanistan to North India. It also suggests his involvement in social activities during his first visit to India. This is exactly what the Church has been involved in national building ever since its birth in India and worldwide. 

As Indian Church celebrates the 1970 years of Christianity in the country, it will be worth making some of the contributions given by the Indian church toward nation-building. 

Christians in the Interest of National Defence 

Like all other communities, irrespective of religion, caste, or creed, the Indian church has contributed toward the national defence services. Two of them served as Chiefs of Naval Staff, one each, Air Chief of Indian Air Force and as Indian Chief of Army Staff.

Admiral Ronald Lynsdale Pereira was the first Indian Christian to serve as 10th Chief of Naval Staff from 1972 - 1982. He hails from the Kannur family of Kerala in South India. 

In his 39-year illustrious naval career, Pereira held prestigious appointments of Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, Flag Officer Commanding Southern Naval Command, and the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command.

Oscar Stanley Dawson was the second Indian, served as 11th Chief of Naval Staff from 1982 to 1984. He comes from the Nadar community of Tamil Nadu in South India and was the recipient of both the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) and Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM). 

The Hindu in its outbreak news of Oscar Stanley Dawson's, says, "It was during Admiral Dawson's tenure as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command, at Kochi from March 1979 to February 1982, that the site for the future Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala was identified." 

He was the Director of Naval Operations during the India-Pakistan conflict in 1971, for which he was awarded the AVSM. During the latter half of his tenure as the Navy Chief, Admiral Dawson was also Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), and later, after retirement, he was assigned as Indian High Commissioner to New Zealand from 1985 to 1987. 

Then Admiral Denis Anthony La Fontaine served as 13th Air Chief Marshall of India from 1985 to 1988. He also hails from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He joined the IAF as a fighter pilot in 1950 and rose to become its 13th Chief in July 1985. 

He was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal (VSM), Ati-Vishisht Seval Medal, and Param-Vishisht Seva Medal during his illustrious career. 

General Sunith Francis Rodrigues served as India's army chief of staff for three years term in 1990. The first Christian to head the world´s fourth-largest army, General Rodrigues is from the western coastal state of Goa, studied at Bombay´s Jesuit-run Saint Xavier´s High School. 

He joined the National Defence Academy in 1949 and was commissioned in 1952. In 1972 he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished service during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. He was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal for his distinguished service of the most exceptional order on Jan. 26, 1989. 

Impact on Secular Idea of India 

The idea of India was invented by Mahatma Gandhi through the influences of Rabindranath Tagore, explored by Jawaharlal Nehru, and later redefined by B. R. Ambedkar. The idea of India, according to the founding fathers mentioned above is a secular state and democratic nation. 

Indian Churches had a role in making India a secular state and democratic country. The campaign against the Sati system and female infanticide led by William Carey and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a reformer influenced by Christian missionaries is the landmark of Indian churches' role in making India a secular state and democratic nation. 

A few of those who influenced Indian reformers who played a vital role in making India a secular state and democratic nation are Friedrich Schwartz of German missionary at Tranquebar, who influence Tulsi Raja, and Muslim ruler Hyder Ali. 

CF Andrews another missionary has a close influence upon India by his identification with Mahatma Gandhi and Tagore. Bishop Waskon Pickett, an American Methodist Bishop associated with Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr B R Ambedkar, and Indira Gandhi. 

When Gandhi was assassinated, it was Bishop Pickett was conducted the first memorial service in the Lucknow Methodist Church. He also took part in sorting out national problems when there were community clashes between Sikhs and Hindus. Bishop Pickett was a close friend of Dr B. R. Ambedkar the father of the Indian Constitution and messiah of Dalit emancipation. Dr Radha Krishnan praised Bishop Pickett in 1969 for the impact of Indian Christians on national influence and participation. 

Impact on Indian Education 

Exceptional is the educational contribution by pioneering missionaries. Long before, Governments established schools; it was Christian missions that started mission schools. The educational contribution of Indian churches is a household icon of every Indian. 

American missionaries compiled and published the earliest grammars and dictionaries of Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and Manipuri. Missionaries gave an enormous boost to mass education and we have a legacy of it in the whole nation.

Impact on Women's Education 

Culturally, among Indian societies, women were considered not for education. Any girl having the ability to read and write was practically confined to nautch girls and not for respectable women. Despite local disbelief and pessimism, the missionaries believed that the girls could be educated and transformed. 

The first school for girls in the whole of India was established at Tranquebar in 1707 by missionaries. Mannah Marshman opened a school for girls at Serampore in 1800 and Miss Isabella Thoburn started a women's college on her veranda at Lucknow in 1870 and it became the first women's college in the whole of Asia. 

Ida Scudder, a missionary to South India founded Vellore Christian Medical College in 1900 to train women as doctors and nurses, and men are admitted only in 1947. 

In conclusion, while celebrating the 1970 years of Christianity in India, Indian Christians are very much a part of Indian society from the first century. Christians gave all that they could in terms of nation-building and they shall continue to do the same. 

Many Indian church leaders have called to rethink the mission and its service within the context of the challenge faced by the nation. Some of the challenges are the attack on Indian secularism, the rise of fascism, caste apartheid, anti-Christian and minority policies, human trafficking. Last, not least, the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. The need for healthcare infrastructure is reckoned and forecast of the challenges faced with unemployment amid high inflation. 

Madhu Chandra is a Hyderabad-based freelancer and former spokesperson of the North East Helpline.

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Arambam Saroj Nalini Parratt: Manipur’s First Theologian, First Woman BA, MA

 

Arambam Saroj Nalini Parratt: Manipur’s First Theologian, First Woman BA, MA

By Madhu Chandra

Arambam Saroj Nalini Parratt is well known among the scholars in North East India, yet unknown to the theological students of the same region. Yet she was the first, who did Bachelor of Divinity from London University during the 1950s.

Saroj was born at the Meino Leirak of Imphal, the state capital of Manipur on June 2, 1933. Her father Ibohal Arambam was a well-known educationalist and worked as an offer posted at Jiribam during the war. Saroj began her schooling there and later went to Haflong in Assam for high school. After the completion of high school, Saroj went to Kolkata for college and became the first woman BA and MA graduate from Manipur.

She had Naga Christian friends while studying at Kolkata and came come connection to the Christian faith. She embraced Christianity and look baptism from Walter Corlett, who was then the minister at Lower Circular Road, Kolkata. Walter Corlett served in Manipur during wartime.

Christian faith became a prominent factor in Saroj's life and went to London for theological studies at the beginning of the 1950s and became the first person from Manipur, completed a Bachelor of Divinity. Manipur, like the rest of North East India, has a tradition of marking the name of pioneering individuals in any field, particularly among the churches. Yet, the name of Saroj needs to enter into history as the first theologian of Manipur. As per the work done by Saroj and defining the exact definition of the theologian, Saroj will be a lesser qualification to be named as a theologian, but she is the first person from the state of Manipur, completed Bachelor of Divinity, which is as a theological study.

After completing her theological study at London University, she married John Parratt and had three daughters. Saroj and John wanted to come back to Manipur and work but did not work the place and while going through the frustration, they decided to work in the developing nations and went to Nigeria for work. Saroj worked as a tutor of philosophy at the University of Ile-lfe, while John enrolled in doctorate study at the Australian National University. Later Saroj enrolled in the Ph.D. program under the Department of Asian Studies at the same university. Their student took longer and went to Papua-New Guinea for fieldwork. Later, she came to Manipur in 1972 for field research and she completed her doctorate within the following three years.

Professor Suniti Kumar Chatterji, one of Saroj’s examiner of the work, was interested in North East India and helped Saroj to publish her thesis as a book by Firma KLM, Kolkata in 1980. The publication of Saroj’s thesis as a book became an important step for her life and later her work became inspire the young scholar of Manipur.

Saroj taught in African countries including the universities of Malawi and Botswana from 1975 to 1990. She wrote many articles on the Islam of Botswana and the Christian women of Tswana and many of them were published in different periodicals.

Though Saroj could not come back to her birthplace and work and ended up in the developing countries, working for years, far away from her homeland, yet she never gave up her dreams and passion for Manipur. She was passionate about the Meitei, her ethnic group in North-East India. She came very often to Manipur for her passionate fieldwork. Later developed a close relationship with Manipur University.

She was appointed as an honorary visiting professor there in 2001. She along with John wrote several research papers and presented them in the seminars conducted by Manipur University, many of them were published in the local papers. Saroj’s two main books are 'Queen Empress vs. Tikendrajit, the Anglo-Manipuri Conflict 1891’ and ‘The Pleasing of Gods: Meitei Lai Haraoba’ published by Vikas, New Delhi.

Saroj and John left Botswana in 2000, came to England, and settled at Carsiles and she continued her work on Manipur until she went to be with Jesus on January 3, 2009.

Before leaving Botswana, Saroj had a desire to translate Cheithārol Kumbaba, the important royal chronicle of Manipur into English. She came to Manipur and had an opportunity to meet the Amāibas and Amāibees, the scholars of the Meitei religion. She could collect a photocopy of Cheithārol Kumbaba, the Royal Chronicle, originally written in ancient Meitei script. Saroj mastered the Meitei script within a short time that she used later in her translation of the royal chronicle of Manipur.

Saroj got an opportunity to work as an honorary fellow of the Institute of Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing of The University of Birmingham, began the translation of the Cheithārol Kumbaba, and continued the work until she breathed the last. After completing the first volume of the translation, the Royal Asiatic Society sponsored The Court Chronicle of the Kings of Manipur: the Cheitharol Kumpapa and published in 2005 by Routledge.

By then, Saroj had developed a terminal illness, and she completed the first draft of the second volume a week before she passed away. John completed later volume 2 and 3, from the work left by Saroj. The translated version of Cheithārol Kumbaba has opened a way wide for future scholars.

Christians in Manipur have not recognized the work of Saroj. It will be a pride for the Christians in Manipur with the fact that Saroj as a Christian, being the first theologian and first woman, completed BA and MA did the translation work of the important historical account of Manipur.

Saroj Nalini Arambam Parratt has earned well known among North-East India and yet to be known among the Christians about the work she and her husband did for the mongoloid people.

Unlike the Christian theologians of the stand, there is no historical record of her involvement in the mission. Having said this, in one of the trips for fieldwork in 1989, she went to different Meitei churches and met them. By then I was posted at Dimapur, Nagaland, and went to Wangjing Mission compound for a month-long program. During the program, Saroj visited the Wangjing Mission compound and she wept after seeing so many new Meitei Christians, she has never seen. Since then, until she breathed last, I had closed exchanges of correspondence and had several discussions on the issues related to Manipur, particularly Meitei Christians. She had a desire to see many Meitei Christians go for higher studies.

Her books are listed at the end of the article, which is widely available online and in shops in Manipur. One the piece, she wrote “The Early Meitei Christians” and presented it in a seminar conducted by Manipur University in 2004, which was published in the local newspaper and its online version was available at kanglaonline.com for a long time but disappeared now. With permission from Saroj, I translated it into Manipuri and it is available on social media and became questionable who was the first Christian in Manipur.

In the article, she has mentioned her finding of early Meitei Christians from the oral resources of the people who lived with those first Christians, which is not found in the work of the theological scholars from Manipur.

Saroj identified the two first Christians of Manipur. Angom Kaboklei from the royal family was one of the queens of Tripura king. Maharaja Birchandra Manikya had many wives including three Meitei women. Kaboklei was the third Meitei wife of Maharaja Birchandra Maikya. Kaboklei became a Christian at Sylhet, which is part of Bangladesh now after she met a missionary in 1894, the year the first missionary to Manipur, William Pettigrew arrived in Manipur. She became a widow after maharaja Birchandra Maikya expired in 1896. Thereafter Kaboklei came to Manipur as a Christian and worked with the few early Christians of Manipur in those early years.

The second first Christian, Saroj mentioned in her work was Angom Porom Singh from Phayeng, who became Christian in 1896, two years after Pettigrew come to Manipur. The historians, yet no attempt done on the finding of Kaboklei consider Angom Porom Singh the first Christian in Manipur. These two individuals are the first Christians of Manipur, who became Christian first; the scholars will need to dig down the history, rather than quoting and requoting from the ones written without much research.  

Works done by Saroj: 1. The Religion of Manipur (Calcutta 1980). 2. The Court Chronicle of the Kings of Manipur, original text, translation, and notes vol. 1 (London and Delhi 2005). 3. The Court Chronicle of the Kings of Manipur, original text, translation, and notes vol. 2 (Delhi 2009). 4. The Court Chronicle of the Kings of Manipur, original text, translation, and notes vol. 3 (Delhi, forthcoming).

Works did with John: 1. Queen-Empress vs. Tikendrajit, the Anglo-Manipur Conflict of 1891 (Delhi 1992). 2. The Pleasing of the Gods, Meetei Lai Haraoba (Delhi 1997).

Madhu Chandra is a Hyderabad based freelancer and former spokesperson of North East Helpline, Delhi.

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