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Hindu–Christian relations are a mixed affair. Hinduism's historical tendency has been to recognize the divine basis of various other religions, and to revere their founders and saintly practitioners; this continues today. The declaration Nostra aetate by the Second Vatican Council officially established inter-religious dialogue between Catholics and Hindus, promoting common values between the two religions (among others). There are over 17.3 million Catholics in India, which represents less than 2% of the total population, still making it the largest Christian church in India.

History

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Saint Thomas Christians

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See also: Saint Thomas Christians

Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church, Bar-Daisan (154–223 CE) reports that in his time there were Christian tribes in North India which claimed to have been converted by Thomas and to have books and relics to prove it.[1]

Saint Thomas Christians typically followed the social customs of their Hindu neighbours, and the vestiges of Hindu symbolism could be seen in their devotional practices.[2] Social sins like untouchability entered their practices and the Synod of Diamper abolished it.[3] The sacraments related to birth, marriage, pregnancy, death, and other things also adapted nuances from Hindu religious practices. Even today, tying Minnu, a Hindu symbol of marriage, is the most important rite in Christian marriages as well. In 1519, Portuguese traveler Duarte Barbosa, on his visit to Malabar, commented on the practice of Saint Thomas Christian priests using Kudumi similar to that of Hindus in his manuscript "Book of Duarte Barbosa".[4]

In the social stratification of medieval Malabar, Saint Thomas Christians succeeded in relating their social status with that of upper-caste Hindus on account of their numerical strength and influence and observance of many Brahmin and upper caste customs.[3][5] In the 13th and 14th centuries, many Saint Thomas Christians were involved in the pepper trade for the local rulers and many were appointed as port revenue officers. The local rulers rewarded them with grants of land and many other privileges. With growing numerical strength, a large number of Saint Thomas Christians settled in the inland pepper-growing regions.[6] They had the right to recruit and train soldiers and Christian trainers were given the honorary title "Panikkar" like their Nair counterparts.[7] They were also entitled with the privilege to collect taxes, and tax collectors were honored with the title "Tharakan".

Like Brahmins, they had the right to sit before kings and ride on horses or elephants like the royals.[3] They were protectors of seventeen underprivileged castes and communities, hence they were called Lords of Seventeen Castes.[3][8] They did not allow the lower castes to join their community for fear that it could imperil their upper-caste status.[8][9] This regal period ended when the community fell under the power of the Rajas of Cochin and Travancore.[10] They owned a large number of Kalaripayattu training centers and the Rajas of Travancore and Cochin, including the renowned Marthanda Varma, recruited trained Christian warriors to defend their kingdom.[11]

The upper-caste Hindus and Saint Thomas Christians took part in one another's festival celebrations and in some places in Kerala, the Hindu temples and Saint Thomas Christian churches were built on adjoining sites by the Hindu kings. Until the 19th century, Saint Thomas Christians had the right of access to Hindu temples, and some leading Saint Thomas Christians held the status of sponsors at Hindu shrines and temple festivals.[12] But in the 19th century, Saint Thomas Christian integration with the Hindu caste system was disrupted: their clean-caste status was questioned in some localities, and they were denied access to many Hindu temples. They tried to retaliate by denouncing Hindu festivals as heathen idolatry. Clashes between upper-caste Hindus and Saint Thomas Christians occurred from the late 1880s, especially when festivals coincided. Internecine violence among various Saint Thomas Christian denominations aggravated their problems.[13]

Goa under Portuguese colonial rule

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See also: Portuguese India

The Goa Inquisition was established in 1560, briefly stopped from 1774 to 1778, and was re-instated and continued until it was finally abolished in 1812.[14] The Portuguese used forced conversion to spread Catholicism. The resulting crypto-Hinduism was viewed as a challenge to the Church's absolute religious control. Those accused of such practices were often instructed to confess and realign with Catholic teachings. Imprisonment, torture, death penalties, and intimidating people into exile were used by the Inquisition to enforce Catholic religious control.[15][16][17][18][19] The Inquisitors also seized and burned books written in Sanskrit, Dutch, English, or Konkani, as they were suspected of containing teachings that deviated from Catholic doctrine or promoted Protestant, Polytheistic and/or Pagan ideas. The Inquisitors aimed ensure Catholic teachings were absolutely enforced.[20]

The Inquisition also prosecuted violators observing Hindu or Muslim rituals or festivals, and persons who interfered with Portuguese attempts to convert local Muslims and polytheists.[15] The laws of the Goa Inquisition sought to strengthen the spread of Catholicism in the region by criminalising practices that conflicted with Catholic teachings. In this context, the Inquisition prohibited conversion to Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, and restricted the use of the Konkani and Sanskrit languages, which were associated with Hindu religious practices. These measures were intended to force Catholicism on the local population.[18] Although the Goa Inquisition ended in 1812, discrimination against polytheists under Portuguese rule continued in other forms such as the Xenddi tax implemented from 1705 to 1840, which was similar to the Jizya tax.[21][22][23] Religious discrimination ended with the introduction of secularism, via the Portuguese Constitution of 1838 and the subsequent Portuguese Civil Code of Goa and Damaon.[24]

Cuncolim Revolt

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Main article: Cuncolim Massacre

On 15 July 1583, Hindu chieftains in the Portuguese Goa village of Cuncolim massacred and mutilated five Jesuit priests, one Portuguese civilian, and 14 Goan Catholics.[25] The local Portuguese garrison retaliated by executing the village chieftains involved and destroying the economic infrastructure of Cuncolim.[26]

Interfaith relations in modern India

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See also: Christianity in India

Conversion controversies

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Communal disharmony arose even before Indian independence in 1947 on the aforementioned issue of religious conversion. Conversions have been legislated by the provisions of the Freedom of Religion Acts, laws which were replicated in numerous other regions in India. Odisha was one of the first provinces of India after its independence to enact legislation with regards to religious conversions. The Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, mentions that no person shall "convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means".[27][28] Christian missions have been active in Odisha among the tribals and backward Hindu castes from the early years of the twentieth century. Right-wing Hindus have alleged that the increase in the number of Christians in Odisha has been a result of an exploitation of illiteracy and impoverishment by the missionaries in contravention of the law, instead of free will.[29]

Behind the clashes are long-simmering tensions between equally impoverished groups: the Kandha tribe (who are 80% of the population) and the Panas (ପାଣ), which are both original inhabitants of the land. There has been an Indian tradition of untouchability. Dalits, considered lower caste people, are subject to social and economic discrimination, which is outlawed in the Indian constitution, however, the prejudices remain. Conversion from untouchability has encouraged millions of such people to escape from their circumstances by joining other religions. The Panas have converted to Christianity in large numbers and prospered financially.[30] Over the past several decades, most of the Panas have become Dalit Christians.[31]

Anti-Christian violence

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Main article: Violence against Christians in India
Main category: Persecution of Christians by Hindus

Indian Christians were relatively unaffected by communal violence until the end of the 1990s and enjoyed social harmony with their majority Hindu neighbours.[32] However, the late 1990s saw a significant increase in acts of anti-Christian violence, and the year 1998 was the tipping point.[33] In the ensuing years, they were denounced in anti-Christian propaganda and they were targeted for violence by Hindu nationalist groups which wanted to prevent tribal voters and lower-caste voters from converting to Christianity.[32] In March 1998, the BJP started its rule of India and anti-Christian violence dramatically increased.[34][35][36]

Historically, the BJP and the Hindu nationalistic Sangh Parivar organizations were more likely to accept violence against minorities than their rival Congress Party.[35] In most reported cases, the named perpetrators are members of the Sangh Parivar organisations, small subgroups that formed under the umbrella of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an umbrella organisation whose roots date back to 1925. The RSS, who promote a form of nationalism, oppose the spread of "foreign religions" like Islam and Christianity.[37]

The Human Rights Watch report stated that Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, and RSS (the sister organisations of the BJP) are the most accused organizations for violence against Christians in India.[34] Although these organizations differ significantly in many ways, they have all argued that, since Hindus make up the bulk of Indians, India should be a Hindu state.[38] RSS volunteers are taught to believe that India is a nation solely for the Hindus and that Hindus have suffered at the hands of invaders, notably Muslim rulers and British Christians.[32] Human Rights Watch reported that the attacks against Christians are part of the Sangh Parivar organizations' orchestrated effort to encourage and exploit sectarian violence to raise their political power base.[34]

Doctrine

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Hinduism and Christianity differ on fundamental beliefs on heaven, hell and reincarnation, to name a few. From the Hindu perspective, heaven (Sanskrit: swarga) and hell (naraka) are temporary places, where every soul has to live, either for the good deeds done or for their sins committed. After a soul suffers its due punishment in hell, or after a soul has enjoyed enough in heaven, it again enters the life-death cycle. There is no concept in Hinduism of a permanent hell like that in Christianity; rather, the cycle of "karma" takes over. Permanent heaven or bliss is "moksha".

Indian philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, wrote:

Unfortunately Christian religion inherited the Semitic creed of the ‘jealous God’ in the view of Christ as ‘the only begotten son of God’ so could not brook any rival near the throne. When Europe accepted the Christian religion, in spite of its own broad humanism, it accepted the fierce intolerance which is the natural result of belief in 'the truth once for all delivered to the saints.'[39]

In Hinduism (also in Jainism and Sikhism), the concept of moksha is akin to that of Buddhism's nirvana, but some scholars further claim that it is akin as well to Christianity's doctrine of salvation. Hindu sannyasi Swami Tripurari states:

... in theory the sinners of the world are the beneficiaries of Christ’s sacrifice, but it is God the father for whose pleasure Christ underwent the crucifixion, even when the father’s joy in this scenario lies in the salvation of sinners. Christ represents the intermediary between God and humanity, and his life aptly illustrates the fact that it is sacrifice by which we come to meet our maker. Thus in Christ the Divine teaches us “the way” more than he does the goal. The Christ conception represents “the way” in the sense that the way is sacrifice, out of which love arises. The Krishna conception represents that for which we not only should, but must sacrifice, compelled by the Godhead’s irresistible attributes, etc. depicted therein.[40][better source needed]

The Christian Ashram Movement, a movement within Christianity in India, embraces Vedanta[41] and the teachings of the East, attempting to combine the Christian faith with the Hindu ashram model, and Christian monasticism with the Hindu sannyasa tradition. In Western countries, Vedanta has influenced some Christian thinkers (see also: Pierre Johanns, Abhishiktananda, Bede Griffiths), while others in the anti-cult movement have reacted against the activities of immigrant gurus and their followers. Brahmoism is considered a syncretism of Hinduism with Protestantism or Lutheranism.[42][43][44][45][46]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ A. E. Medlycott, India and The Apostle Thomas, pp.18–71; M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, pp.364–436; A. E. Medlycott, India and The Apostle Thomas, pp.1–17, 213–97; Eusebius, History, chapter 4:30; J. N. Farquhar, The Apostle Thomas in North India, chapter 4:30; V. A. Smith, Early History of India, p.235; L. W. Brown, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas, p.49-59.
  2. ^ Prasad (2009), pp. 484–487.
  3. ^ a b c d Prasad (2009), pp. 482–483.
  4. ^ Collins (2007), p. 142.
  5. ^ Ananthakrishna Iyer (1926), pp. 205–219.
  6. ^ Bayly (2004), pp. 246–247.
  7. ^ Pothan (1963), p. 58.
  8. ^ a b Vadakkekara (2007), p. 325-330.
  9. ^ Amaladass (1993), pp. 15–19.
  10. ^ Census of India, 1961, India. Office of the Registrar General, p. 290.
  11. ^ Bayly (2004), p. 273.
  12. ^ Bayly (2004), pp. 274–279.
  13. ^ Bayly (2004), pp. 310–315.
  14. ^ Lauren Benton (2002). Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900. Cambridge University Press. pp. 114–126. ISBN 978-0-521-00926-3. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  15. ^ a b Salomon, H. P. and Sassoon, I. S. D., in Saraiva, Antonio Jose. The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765 (Brill, 2001), pp. 345–7.
  16. ^ Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski (2011). Group Identity in the Renaissance World. Cambridge University Press. pp. 215–216 with footnotes 98–100. ISBN 978-1-107-00360-6. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  17. ^ Gustav Henningsen; Marisa Rey-Henningsen (1979). Inquisition and Interdisciplinary History. Dansk folkemindesamling. p. 125. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  18. ^ a b Maria Aurora Couto (2005). Goa: A Daughter's Story. Penguin Books. pp. 109–121, 128–131. ISBN 978-93-5118-095-1. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  19. ^ Augustine Kanjamala (2014). The Future of Christian Mission in India: Toward a New Paradigm for the Third Millennium. Wipf and Stock. pp. 165–166. ISBN 978-1-62032-315-1. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  20. ^ Haig A. Bosmajian (2006). Burning Books. McFarland. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7864-2208-1. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  21. ^ Teotonio R. De Souza (1994). Discoveries, Missionary Expansion, and Asian Cultures. Concept. pp. 93–95. ISBN 978-81-7022-497-6. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  22. ^ Teotonio R. De Souza (1994). Goa to Me. Concept. pp. 112–113. ISBN 978-81-7022-504-1.
  23. ^ Rene J. Barendse (2009). Arabian Seas, 1700 – 1763. BRILL Academic. pp. 697–698. ISBN 978-90-04-17658-4.
  24. ^ C K Mathew (26 October 2019). "Uniform Civil Code: The Importance of an Inclusive and Voluntary Approach". Issue Brief. 10. The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  25. ^ D'Souza, Anthony X. (1913). "Martyrs of Cuncolim" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  26. ^ India's First Revolt Against foreign Rule in 1583 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine.
  27. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  28. ^ "Orissa Freedom of Religion Rules, 1989" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2008.
  29. ^ [1][dead link]
  30. ^ "Caste, tribe, conversion make Orissa district volatile".
  31. ^ Sengupta, Somini (13 October 2008). "Hindu Threat to Christians: Convert or Flee". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  32. ^ a b c "III. The Context of Anti-Christian Violence". Human rights watch. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  33. ^ Bauman 2013, p. 633.
  34. ^ a b c "Anti-Christian Violence on the Rise in India". Human Rights Watch. 29 September 1999. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009.
  35. ^ a b Bauman 2013, p. 634.
  36. ^ Bauman 2013, p. 641.
  37. ^ Bauman, Chad M. (2015-02-02). Pentecostals, Proselytization, and Anti-Christian Violence in Contemporary India. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-026631-8.
  38. ^ "I. SUMMARY". Human Rights watch. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  39. ^ The Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, by Paul Arthur Schilpp, page = 641
  40. ^ Tripurari, Swami, Christ, Krishna, Caitanya Archived 9 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine, The Harmonist Archived 3 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine, May 31, 2009.[better source needed]
  41. ^ "Exploring the Harmonious Convergence of Christian Vedanta". Ecerkva. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  42. ^ Natesan, G.A. (1948). The Indian Review. G. A. Natesan & Company. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  43. ^ Bergunder, M.; Frese, H.; Schröder, U. (2011). Ritual, Caste, and Religion in Colonial South India. Primus Books. p. 319. ISBN 978-93-80607-21-4. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  44. ^ van Bijlert, V.A. (2020). Vedantic Hinduism in Colonial Bengal: Reformed Hinduism and Western Protestantism. Routledge Studies in Religion. Taylor & Francis. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-000-16997-3. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  45. ^ Indian Institute of World Culture (1993). Transaction - Indian Institute of World Culture. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  46. ^ The Court Journal: Court Circular & Fashionable Gazette. Alabaster, Pasemore & sons, Limited. 1833. p. 723. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
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