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I s s ue 1 9 Tuesday Conference
Theology e-magazine To make humanity united in worshipping God

Our Heavenly Patron

Our attempt in this issue is to argue the cultural context of


India and its repercussions in the religious life of the minority
communities. We make 3 assessments as follows; 1) the Indian
Church must learn to communicate to fellow Hindu brethren in
their language, 2) we need to take the interreligious dialogue to a
further level i.e. to a political dialogue, 3) The interior life and
structure of the Church requires a participatory model of
functioning to overcome the current tensions, we face. All our
assessment are developed using the political tool -the ideology of
clash of the civilizations by Samuel P Huntington.
The Hindu nationalists arouse religious hatred saying;
Hindu is in danger. Christians are unpatriotic & anti-nationals,
outsiders, separatists. They have only one objective; to eliminate
us and establish Christianity. We issue this edition, titled Not in
Gods Name to encourage all to work for interreligious ideals.

When Indian identity is defined by one religion to


the exclusion of others, then we run into serious
political problems.
The Church has to respond to Hindu nationalism as
well as globalization in a progressive and proactive
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manner.

Introduction
Hindu nationalism always requires a foe, a minority
religion, as an object of hatred to survive. The crucial point is
The world that conversion is not actually the issue, or rather, it is a
manufactured issue, a deliberate diversion and a trap ...the real
community is
object is to sway the majority of the people with a hate
disastrously campaign against a minority. As said, following are the major
drifting into a ways in which the Church in India can fight the Hindu
whirl pool of Nationalism and globalization. Before explaining these issue,
clash of we will brief the concept of clash of the civilizations as a
background for our study.
cultures and
civilizations. In
this vortex of
cultural
conflicts and
confrontation
religions of the
world cannot
Clash of Civilizations
We are in a political spectrum of multipolar and multi-
stand idle and
civilizational world. Asian civilizations are expanding and
passive.
asserting themselves with their recent economic strength,
political stability and military might relying on their cultural
sources. The Western universalist claims of its civilization and
concept of development have become obsolete and defunct.
There is an Asian alternative incorporating Asian cultural
sensibilities and values.

In the present unfolding of the world order conflicts are not often in terms of
classes but in the name of cultural ethnicity and entities. Conflicts are mainly
because of the cultural prejudice, ethnic animosity and hatred over the past
centuries among the ethnic communities.
Nations of same cultural heritage come together
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and form a formidable political, and economic axis.
Never
threaten the People separated by the ideology are now united by culture;
self-hood of nations formerly united by imposed political philosophy are
broken, people are re-grouped by their cultural or civilizational
communities.
identities. Western dominated globalization has placed non-
That is the most
western countries on the defensive. Many Islamic countries have
precious
turned inward looking. Buddhism is witnessing a revival in
treasure they
Buddhist countries. Confucianism is showing vitality in East Asia.
have. If There is a re-awakening of cultures
anything we do taking place around the globe,
appears like a resisting western projects imposed
threat to the in the name of human rights,
selfhood of a
political freedom and economic
internationalism. There is an
community,
increasing evidence that
resistance is
globalization has led a cultural
inevitable.
backlash.

Often religions are made to supply cultural archetypes and lineages in the
ongoing revitalization of cultural identities. In this process there is always the
danger that religions become a point of polarization of people on fundamentalist
principles. Thus religions become easy tools for spreading cultural chauvinism and
religious terrorism.
Look at the Islamization of
politics in the West Asian Arab
countries and Hinduization in India.
To cross over this tide we need the
world religions to come to an axis of
creative collaboration and mutual
commitment.

One has to come to terms with the Hindu


perception of their sufferings as a result of
invasion & colonization associated with
Christianity and Islam.
Intercultural Communication Page - 04

Christianity came to India in western grab, categories and concepts trapped in


the cobwebs of unintelligent theological jargon. Living in a post-colonial context
and where Hindu nationalism is telescoping over the decades, Indian Christianity
has to learn to communicate in a multi-religious and multi- cultural arena.
1. Despite running numerous educational, health, and
developmental institutions there appears to be serious
lacuna in the churchs interaction with the mainstream
of Hindu society.
2. The geographical distribution of Christians shows that
they are largely concentrated along coastal areas and
what is popularly called marine Christianity.
3. Christianity in India had little interaction with the cow-belt Hindus.
4. Christians presence has been largely confined to educational and health
institution. In many of these institutions, which are meant for the rich upper castes
or middle classes and others, little knowledge of Christianity or its religious
personnel is disseminated among students.
Apart from Christian institutional presence, can one say that there has been much
intellectual interaction with the religious, political, economic and aesthetic Hindu
Main stream?
Have the Christians developed the print media- newspapers and magazines- to
highlight the image of the Church personnel and their achievements to non-
Christians?

Church personnel however, like to believe


that people come to them for the quality of
education and the values they transmit. There are
few scientific evaluations of Christians institution
for the kind of claims that its personnel make.

A missionary announced We need the Bible. We need the Koran.


I have come to win your souls We need the Vedas and the Bhagavat Guta.
for Christ. The astonished But not in isolation. If they work in isolation,
villager were wondering who there is always a danger of being used by the
market forces, being politicized & militarized
this Christ was and what he
at the service of market economy and selfish
wanted to do with their souls.
politicians- Antony Kalliath CMI.
Page - 05 Need for a Culturally Sensitive Language
The Hinduvta ideologues have been consistently picking out words and
metaphors like conversion, winning souls for Christ, evangelization 2000,
planting the church and salvation through Christ alone.
Conversion itself is seen as a political m ech an ism and
transference of membership from one religious community to another. This was
projected to cause demographic imbalance among the Hindus. In a one man, one
vote political; set up, numbers do count. And in todays alliance dominated
political culture, it is not only the percentage of a religious community in the
country but its regional distribution and party alliance that make the difference.
Evangelization has been inter pr eted to m ean th at the m issionar ies
have a plan to build churches and convert thousands of villages. Evangelization
2000 has come at a time when the Hindu nationalists are looking for sticks to beat
the missionaries. What the global church means by the term Evangelization 2000
may be understood differently in different cultures and continents. For instance, in
a de-Christianized Europe, it may mean re- Evangelization or re-Christianization.

In India does it mean the conversion of Hindus? Or does it mean


conversion of the Christians themselves to a greater commitment to the
values of Christ? No salvation outside the church was found offensive to
many non-Christians, even the term anonymous Christians.
The missionary approach was
known as conquest theology as if we
were waging war against other
believers- Mathias Mundadan CMI
There is a section in our community & this will include
the clergy & the religious, who have studies abroad, whose
reading reference are more international than national, who
interact more often internationally than with the local cultural
leaders, who often serve for periods of time in Western
countries, the members of whose congregation are aboard in
large numbers, who fight for Asian causes in a non-Asian way,
whose cultural rootedness has become weakin their case the
accusation of VHP may be true!- ArchBp Thomas
Menamparambil SDB.
Page - 06 Interreligious Dialogue as Political Quest
We need The crisis of religions cannot be overcome from single
a culturally religion or culture. The task today is urgently cross-cultural
sensitive because of the inextricable link between culture and religion. We
presentation need to go forward and develop interreligious dialogue
as a political quest. W h ile not denying the im por tance of
of the Gospel
the practice and theology of religions, we do not deal with
for which
religious groups as units of power, nor do they take into the
emerging
account of the power relationships in wider society.
Biblical
A politically- based dialogue is not
scholars
only helpful, but it is inevitable. There is a
should
lot of hesitation to bring the political
immediately question into interreligious dialogue
turn their fearing that this would prejudice and mar
attention. the dialogue process. Felix Wilfred

It is of utmost importance that the religions make a realistic and genuine


assessment of their actual state and the role they play in the society. The first issue is
the failure of religions to respond in any appreciable way to the blatant violations of
human dignity and rights. Secondly, each religions, far from being guardian of
human dignity and rights are themselves, violators of human rights. The attitude of
various religions to those discriminated against and the excluded in the Indian
society is very unfortunate.
Another important issue is the selective use of the religious tradition for
political purposes. Every religions has a wide range of materials, symbols, rituals
could personalities and so on. Which of these are selected and interpreted for public
consumption has become today a political act.

The construction of the identity of a religious community will depend upon the
use of these materials. In the present-day militant & aggressive discourses, we need
to highlight from the same tradition more open and universalistic resources.

We Indians Even the most selfless acts of love and service to other
have become human beings could, in this general climate of lack of trust,
get painted as most selfish when interpreted by another
today a nation
suspecting group. We need to seriously look into the political
of suspicions. import of their inter relationships or power relationships.
Paternalism in the Church
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In many her activities, the modus operandi is paternalistic.
Paternalism The basic approach is that as a teacher, givers, donors, doers, and
treats people problem solvers. The paternalistic model is not conducive to
as passive empowerment, development, democracy and cultural resonance. In
recipients, long run people do not want charity.
objects. It They prefer to safeguard their dignity, human
leads to rights, community consciousness and unity
uneven rather than fragmentation. They prefer
development cultural rootedness rather than alienation.
and ongoing
They want a chance.
dependency
They do not want solutions imposed from outsider. The poor
resulting in the
would like to handle their own destiny and development; they
hero worship
would like to have partners, comrades, agents and mutual sharers.
and
sycophancy. If in the earlier period, missions had problems, now the
missions itself became a problem. Dialogue (with the Marxists
and non- Christians religions), ecumenism (unification within
Christian denominations) and sensitivity to other cultures
through inculturation were concrete steps that the church took to
adapt and make itself relevant in the changing contexts.

Concluding Remarks
India is passing through what can be labeled as a unidirectional Hinduism
through a process of politicizing religion. They want an enemy, the other to
mobilize the Hindu masses. Come what may, the Hindu nationalists will continue
their vicious campaign against the minorities.
But should the minorities play into their hands by not being sensitive to
intercultural communication?
Do Christians need to reinstate the word evangelization or help their Hindu
brethren to understand the activities and the message of Christianity in a
culturally cognitive manner?
But if we are not clarifying them in the intercultural contexts, Hindu
nationalists will continue using them to arouse irrational hostility towards
Christians in India. All the good work done can get buried under the garbage of
irrational hostility generated by the Hindutvavdis.

Editor: Tony Maliyekal VC Published from Vincentian Vidyabhavan, Aluva.

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