MISSIONARY POSITIONS:
CHRISTIANITY AND NEPALI SOCIETY
John Whelpton
HKAS 12/1/2012
`Go into the whole world and preach the gospel; those who
believe and are baptised will be saved and those who do
not believe will be damned’ (Mark 16: 15-16)
(Illustration is the frontispiece of Satya Sakshi Parmesvarya Mahima (1740))
RECENT EVENTS
•
1990: Popular protests (`Janandolan I’)force re-introduction of parliamentary democracy after
three decades of royal rule
•
1996: Start of Maoists’ `People’s War’
•
2001: `Royal Massacre’, accession of King Gyanendra and State of Emergency following Maoist
attack on the national army
•
2005: Gyanendra’s imposition of direct royal rule leads to rapprochment between Maoists and the
parliamentary parties
•
2006: Popular protests (`Janandolan II) force Gyanendra to restore parliament, followed by
ceasefire and power sharing between Maoists and parliamentary parties
•
2008: Maoists emerge as largest single party (30% of popular vote, 37% of seats) in election for
constituent assembly, followed by Congress and the United Marxist-Leninists (UML),the dominant
parties in the 1990s, with 20% each.
•
2009: Maoist-led coalition government falls over attempt to assert greater control over the army,
replaced by coalition of non-Maoists parties led by UML
•
Feb 2011: Maoist-UML coalition government installed with UML premier
•
Aug 2011: Maoist-led coalition with Tarai regionalist parties
JOÃO CABRAL, S.J., 1599-1669
• First European known to have visited Bhutan, Tibet and
Nepal
• After stays in Bhutan and Tibet, returned to India via the
Nepal Valley in 1628 and recommended the route as
superior to the more easterly one through Kooch-Behar
he had previously used.
• His visit to Nepal is known only through a letter in the
Jesuit archives published by Wessels in 1924, which
gives no further details
• English text and a brief discussion available in Nancy M.
Gettelman `Letter of the first westerner to visit BhutanTibet-Nepal’ Kailas, vol.9, no. 1, 1982, pp. 97-110
http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/kailash/pdf/kailash_09_01_04.pdf
Kircher’s CHINA ILLUSTRATA (1667)
FRS. GRUEBER AND DORVILLE IN
THE KATHMANDU VALLEY, 1662
•
…Rex insignem Patribus benevolentiam exhibuit, praesertim ob tubum
Opticum, de quo nihil iis unquam innotuerat, aliamque curiosam Matheseos
suppelictilem ipsi exhibitam, quibus adeo captus est , ut Patres prorsus
apud se retinere constituerit, neque discedere inde passus sit, nisi ubi fide
data illuc se reversuros spondissent; quod si facerent, domum inibi in
nostrorum usum et exercitum se exstructuram amplissimis redditibus
instructam, una cum plena ad Christi Legem in suum Regnum
introducendam facultate concessa, pollicitus est.
•
..the King [of Kathmandu] showed remarkable kindness to the Fathers,
especially because of the telescope, of which they had no previous
knowledge, and other strange scientific equipment shown to him, by which
he was so enthralled that he actually decided to keep the fathers with him
and did not let them leave until they had solemnly pledged to return, if they
did which, he promised he would construct a house for use by our people
and assign a very large revenue to it, as well as giving full permission for
the introduction of Christ’s Law into his Kingdom.
IPPOLITO DESIDERI, S.J. (1684-1733),
IN NEPAL
• Reaches Lhasa in March 1716
• Leaves in April 1721 after Capuchins show him
the decree of the Sacra Congregatio de
Propaganda Fide giving them the exclusive right
to missionary activity in Tibet.
• Reaches Kuti on Nepal-Tibet border in spring
1721and stays several months
• Travels south through the Kathmandu Valley and
crosses the Tarai into India the following winter
CROSSING THE TIBETAN
MOUNTAINS
During the journey we crossed the high and
difficult mountain called Langur. Everyone
suffers from violent headache, oppression of the
chest and shortness of breath during the ascent,
and often from fever, as happened to me.
Although it was nearly the end of May there was
deep snow, the cold was intense and the wind
so penetrating that, though I was wrapped in
woollen rugs, my lungs and heart were so
affected that I thought my end was near.
An Account of Tibet, pg.310
THE ROAD TO KATHMANDU
During the journey from Kutti to Kattmandù….
[the] road skirted frightful precipices and we
climbed mountains by holes just large enough to
put one’s toe into, cut out of the rock like a
staircase. At one place a chasm was crossed by
a plank only the width or a man’s foot, while the
wooden bridges over large rivers flowing in the
deep valleys swayed and oscillated most
alarmingly.
An Account of Tibet, pg.311
HE WAS NOT EXAGGERATING!
DESIDERI ON THE NEWARS – THE INDIGENOUS
POPULATION OF THE KATHMANDU VALLEY
These Neuârs are active, intelligent and very industrious, clever at
engraving and melting metal, but unstable, turbulent and traitorous.
They are of medium height, dark skinned and generally well made,
but nearly all bear deceit written on their faces, so that anyone
knowing these countries would pick out a Neuâr from among a
thousand Indians. They are cowardly, mean and avaricious, spend
little on their food and are dirty in their habits.
An Account of Tibet, p.314
THE CAPUCHIN MISSION, 1715-1769
• The missionaries (mostly Italian but also some French)
were generally protected by the Kathmandu Valley rulers
but made few converts
• They became unpopular during a plague which killed
20,000 in 1717 as they allegedly refused to treat those
unwilling to convert.
• They initially enjoyed fairly cordial relations with Prithvi
Narayan Shah of Gorkha, whose campaign to conquer
the Valley lasted from 1743 to 1769, but were expelled in
April that year because the failed British intervention to
protect the Newar rulers had heightened his suspicions
of all Europeans. The country was to remain closed to
missionaries (and almost all Europeans) until 1950.
• Their correspondence, published by Luciano Petech as I
missionary italiani nel Tibet e nel Nepal, is an important
source for the period.
DARJEELING – A `HILL STATION’ JUST
EAST OF THE NEPAL-INDIA BORDER
THE GROWTH OF DARJEELING
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Area originally part of Sikkim but `gifted’ to the British in 1839
Migration from eastern Nepal both because of the availability of work on tea
plantations and because of exactions of Kathmandu government
Large number of `tribals’ and `low castes’ with a stronger tendency to
amalgamation into a single `Nepali’ or `Gorkha’ mainstream than in Nepalproper
Missionary activity from 1842, with permanent Church of Scotland mission
station from 1870. Number of converts small (2000 census shows only 3%
of the town’s population as Christians) but converts were particularly likely
to switch to Nepali from their own `tribal’ language and missionaries had
strong cultural influence.
Higher levels of literacy than in Nepal – as a result both of missionary and
government efforts – and development of an intellectual base for the Nepali
nationalism that became the government-sponsored orthodoxy in Nepal
itself after 1950-51.
Currently still part of West Bengal but there is a continuing agitation for the
area to be made into a separate state (`Gorkhaland’) within India. Pressure
from the area secured the adoption of Nepali as one of India’s
constitutionally recognised languages in 1992
Movement of a number of Darjeeling intellectuals into Nepal, with King
Mahendra’s encouragement, after 1951. At this time any Christians you
found in Nepal were normally from Darjeeling.
THE RETURN OF MISSIONARIES
TO NEPAL
• November 1950: Rana regime invites Fr Moran,
S.J., to establish a school at Godavari in the
Kathmandu Valley – St. Xavier’s.
• Following the fall of the Rana regime in February
1951, various missionary groups, some of whom
had previously been working in settlements just
across the Indian border and hoping for such an
opportunity, enter the country with a mandate to
carry out medical, educational and other forms
of social service.
RELIGIOUS ADHERENCE IN NEPAL
1981
1991
2001
• Hinduism
89.5
86.5
80.6
• Buddhism
5.3
7.8
10.7
• Islam
2.7
3.5
4.2
• Christianity
-
0.17
0.4
•
The absolute rise over the last ten years was from 31,280 to 101,976 (i.e an increase of 226%).
Adjustment for excluded areas would give a 2001 total of 103,914 and an increase of 232%. In
view of the reports of large-scale conversion over the last ten years (e.g. amongst the Tamangs),
the real figure may be even higher, though nowhere near the claim of a Christian taxi driver in
Kathmandu (originally from the tarai) who (if I understood his Nepali properly) told me one third of
Nepal’s population is now Christian. He also said there were now 100 churches in Kathmandu.
Current estimates by the churches themselves range between 700,000 to over a million –
probably about 3% of the population
`LIES, DAMNED LIES AND
STATISTICS’
• The boundary between Hinduism and Buddhism has
always been a fuzzy one, though more distinct at higher
levels in the status hierarchy – this is seen most clearly
in the two-headed structure of Newar society in the
Kathmandu Valley: distinctly Buddhist Bajracharyas and
Shakyas and Hindu Rajopadhyaya Brahmans at the top
and Hindu-Buddhist Jyapu peasantry at the bottom
• The figure for Hindusim (like the figure for those
speaking Nepali rather than another mother tongue) was
boosted in the past by the religion’s establishment status.
Pressure now also the other way as Buddhist activists try
to boost their own numbers.
SYNCRETISM AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL AS SEEN
BY 17th CENTURY FRANCISCANS IN THE
BALKANS
• Fra Cherubino reported disapprovingly after his visit to
Kosovo that the Catholics were getting Muslims to act as
godfathers for their children, and that they were letting
the Muslims use holy chrism on their own children
because it would guard them against diseases of the eye.
In a village outside Gjakova he and his companion had
been welcomed into one house with the words `Come in,
Fathers; in our house we have Catholicism, Islam and
Orthodoxy‘; in shocked tones, Fra Cherubino reported
that `they seemed to glory in the diversity of religions.’
– Noel Malcolm, Kosovo – A Short History. London: Macmillan,
1998, pg.130
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
•
The Nepalese state from unification onwards legitimised itself in term of
Hinduism, with the king upholding the caste hierarchy and particularly the
sacred status of Brahmans.
•
This was made explicit in the 1962 constitution and, despite strong
demands from some groups for a secular state, retained in the 1990
constitution. The latter implicitly removed a ban on individuals’ changing
their own religion but stated there was no right to conduct active
proselytisation (dharmaparivartan garaaune). Provisions against
proselytisation in the existing criminal code have remained a dead letter,
though a proposal to re-activate them in a revised form was made in 2011
•
Nepal was declared a secular state in the aftermath of the protest
movement which forced King Gyanendra to cede power in 2006 but some
traditionalists continue to demand a referendum on the issue and small
extremist groups such as the Shiva Sena Nepal have resorted to violent
action to press for reversal of the change. Less extreme groups, but
representing the Hindu `high castes’, have also recently become more
assertive in response to ethnic activism directed against these castes’
traditionally dominance.
THE THREE BLOCKS
• Catholic Church
– Education – St Xavier’s and St Mary’s schools
– Academic research (Human Resources Centre)
• Fr Ludwig Stiller (historian)
• Fr. John Locke (Buddhologist)
• United Mission to Nepal
– Medical services
– Butwal Power Company
• The International Nepal Fellowship http://www.inf.org/
– Medical services
– Development work in poor communities
FR. MARSHAL MORAN, S.J.,19061992, IN HIS `HAM SHACK’
LUDWIG STILLER, S.J.1928 - 2009
Hong Kong delegation on a clandestine visit to a
church in a Rai area of eastern Nepal (April 2007)
SUMMER INSTITUTE OF
LINGUISTICS
• American based organisation studying undeveloped
languages as base for translations of the Bible
• December 1966: Nepal government signs contract for
SIL to document Nepalese languages and train
Nepalese linguists.
• Output includes Austin Hale & David Watters (eds)
Clause, Sentence and Discourse Patterns (Kathmandu:
SIL, 1973, 4 vols.) Full list in Alan C. Wores,
Bibliography of the Summer Institute of Linguistics,
1979-1986 (2 vols, supplm.)
• June 1976: Government orders SIL to quit Nepal by
September. No reason cited but suspected to be
because of proselytizing activities or (less probably)
support for the Free Tibet movement.
Hvalkof, Søren and Peter Araby (eds). 1981. Is God an American? An
anthropological Perspective on the missionary Work of the Summer Institute
of Linguistics. Copenhagen; International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
http://www.iwgia.org/sw23651.asp
The Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT)/Summer Institute of Linguistics
(SIL), one of the largest missionary enterprises in the world, aims to
bring »the Word« to the »Bibleless tribes«. In pursuit of converts,
SIL missionaries have profoundly affected indigenous societies
throughout the world.
SIL's method of proselytising and its relationships with host
countries have provoked many questions and criticisms. Especially
in South America SIL has been accused of acting as a cover for CIA
and US military activities, for drug trafficking, for uranium
prospecting. But the precise impact of SIL on indigenous peoples
has received much less attention. How has the SIL affected the lives
and aspirations of native peoples? Have the benefits of literacy,
better health care, etc. brought by the missionaries outweighed the
damage wrought by the destruction of traditional belief?
– from the IWGIA website blurb (downloaded 25/4/2010)
OTHER CRITIQUES OF MISSIONARY ACTIVITY
• Saubhagya Shah, `The Gospel Comes to the Hindu Kingdom’,
Himal Sept/Oct 1993, on the tension created by conversions at
village level.
• George van Driem, Languages of the Himalayas, Leiden: Brill, 2001
(2 vols.)
– condemns missionaries for erosion of Chepang traditional culture and
notes a 1993 attack (led by Chepang shamans) on Christian Chepangs.
Refers particularly to work of one New Zealand missionary (p.790)
– corroborates from own experience stories of financial inducements to
convert, payment of proselytizers, encouragement of young Christian
Tamangs to make fun of traditional ones etc.
– Suggests parallelism or even causal relationship between the effects of
Christian missionaries in the Kham Magar area of the western hills and
subsequent development of Maoist insurgency there (p.791-20
CLASHES BETWEEN CHRISTIAN
AND NON-CHRISTIANS
•
1993 attack led by Chepang shamans on Chepang Christians
•
Nepal News (web) 2/7/00: Buddhist villagers vandalise homes of 5 Christian
families at Gumda district (Gorkha), claiming they’ve been trying to convert
the village and have slaughtered animals in defiance of Buddhist tradition.
Vice-chairman of District Development Committee has negotiated a
compromise under which the Christians will be rehabilitated but will stop
killing animals.
•
Reports of tension in some Tamang villages north of the Kathmandu valley
•
Murder of Fr. John Prakash, principal of Don Bosco school in Dharan in
summer 2008
•
Bomb explosion at a church in Patan kills 2 in May 2009
SOCIAL WELFARE COUNCIL
REPORT APRIL 2010
• Up to 15 percent of the 200 International Non-Governmental
Organisations (INGO)s working in Nepal are engaged in preaching
their religion in various ways.
• Informal reports received that some INGOs, which took permission
from the SWC to carry out various developmental projects in Nepal,
preach their religion in various ways like forcing them to convert
religion to secure a job, conducting prayers during office hours and
providing information about the religion during official training.
• No formal complaints received so no official action yet taken
http://www.nepalnews.com/main/index.php/news-archive/2-political/5162-15-percent-ingos-preaching-religion-swc.html (downloaded 5April 2010)
CHRIST AND MAO
•
•
•
•
•
Van Driem’s suggestion that missionary undermining of traditional beliefs prepared
ground for the Maoists. A Kathmandu-based American Jesuit was given a similar
analysis for China by a third-generation Chinese Baptist who believes missionaries in
China helped prepare the ground for communism.
Story from one foreign resident of a church in Patan making voluntary donation to the
Maoists during the 2008 election campaign as a means of ensuring a secular state.
Government closing of a Christian funded development project listed by one analyst
among the causes radicalising the area where Maoist insurgency first broke out
The Indian parallel – killing by Maoists in Andhra Pradesh of a Hindu fundamentalist
leader triggered violence against Christians because the Maoists’ recruits are often
from Christianised tribes.
But relations between Christians and Maoists are not as close as Hindu activists
suggest
–
–
–
–
–
Those in the Kham Magar area who actually converted generally didn’t become Maoists
Churches in Everest region under `donation’ pressure and not able to operate normally
during insurgency
A Protestant pastor’s survey of his own congregation in western Nepal before the 2008
election showed support for the Maoists as about the same level (30%) as their actual share
of the national vote.
A Maoist who was briefly Minister of Justice in 2011 spoke in favour of strengthened measure
against proselytisation proposed for inclusion in a revised civil code
This attitude may be widespread in Maoist ranks – a senior trade unionist complained to me
last year about financial inducements to conversion though also thought trying to act against
this would cause trouble with donor community
PROPOSED PROVIONS ON CONVERSION IN DRAFT
REVISED CRIMINAL CODE
(unofficial translation adopted from one supplied by
Catholic journalist Chirendra Satyal – italics mine)
• Section 160.1:No person shall be entitled to convert,
attempt to convert or incite others to convert anyone to
another religion.
• Section 160.2: No person shall act or behave in a
manner which may infringe upon the religion practiced
by any caste, community from ancient times or conduct
publicity for any religion with the intention to convert
whether by inducement or not.
• Section 160.3: Anyone committing offences as specified
in mention on sub-sections (1) and (2) will be liable to up
to 5 years imprisonment and a fine of up to NPR.50000/fine [about US$700].
ARTICLE 23 (`RIGHT TO RELIGION’) OF THE
2007 INTERIM CONSTITUTION (UNDP
translation, italics mine)
• (1) Every person shall have the right to profess, practise
and preserve his or her own religion as handed down to
him or her from ancient times paying due regard to social
and cultural traditions. Provided that no person shall be
entitled to convert another person from one religion to
another, and no person shall act or behave in a manner
which may infringe upon the religion of others
• (2) Every religious denomination shall have the right to
maintain its independent existence, and for this purpose
to manage and protect its religious places and religious
trusts, in accordance with law.
THE CONTROVERSY
• 15 May: Proposal to include provisions against
proselytisation in the revised Criminal Code made public
• Campaign by Christians, Buddhists and Mulsims with
some liberal Hindu support, alleging the legislation
inconsistent with Article 23 of the interim constitution and
with article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights
• 23 June: Presented to parliament but not brought to a
vote because of the fall of the UML-Maoist government
at the beginning of August; outgoing prime minister
Jhalanath Khanal reportedly makes a statement in
support of non-Hindu concerns
• The dispute has throughout attracted little attention
outside the groups affected because of concentration on
the replacement of Khanal’s government.
Conversation with a convert
From a column by Niraj Aryal in a column in The Telegraph (right-wing
Kathmandu newspaper), 6/4/10:
“Dai (brother) are you a Catholic or a Protestant?”
“Thuuu (pooh-pooh)….it is better to be a Hindu than a Catholic”, the
person replied.
“Why” surprisingly (sic) I asked.
He preferred not to reply (I felt he did not know the answer and I have no
idea why Protestants hate Catholics or vice versa.)
“What is your name”, I asked him again.
“Jeevan,” he answered.
“Is that your real name or….” I questioned him.
“No, this is the name given to me by my pastor after I accepted
conversion”, he told me.
“Then what is your real name”, my question followed.
(He remained silent for some time and awkwardly replied)
Ram Bahadur B. K.(belongs to Dalit community), he finally answered.
INTER-CHRISTIAN
DISAGREEMENTS
• There is a general perception that Catholics are happy
not to proselytise (the Justice Minister in 2011 explicitly
excluded Catholics from criticism and said the problem
was with some Protestant groups), the International
Nepal Fellowship want to evade the ban and the United
Mission to Nepal includes a range of views on the issue.
• Strong disapproval of Catholics by many evangelicals
because of:
– their non-proselytising approach
– the ritualism of Catholicism, seen as an adulteration of
Christianity by elements of Graeco-Roman paganism (position
articulated by Baptist Udi Gurung in his Tribhuvan university
M.A. thesis)
– their willingness to participate in some rituals connected with
Hinduism, particularly at Dasai
Durga, the mother goddess whose victory over a buffalo demon is
celebrated in Nepal’s most important festival, Dasai.
`My fingers are still red from giving tika to the younger members of my fictive
family in Lubhu. But I just mumble a thoroughly Christian benediction over them
as I give tika.’ (American Jesuit missionary) (Photo: Nicole Farcough
http://www.advocacynet.org/blogs/index.php/2007/11/07/the_great_festiveal_of_nepal_dashain_pro?bl
og=78)
THE CATHOLIC TRADITION
• Willingness by some Catholics to compromise on forms
of religious observance (Mattaeo Ricci, the later
`Chinese rites’ controversy) but still with ultimate
objective of conversion to Christian beliefs.
• Belief that `salvation outside the Church’ is possible in
some circumstances
• Recent adjustment to abandonment of traditional
proselytising altogether – in Nepal as legally required,
but also in some other areas – Catholic schools in Indian
`tribal’ areas no longer `missionising’, in contrast to the
RSS, Hindu revivalist schools which , ironically adopt the
Catholics’ old approach (Sundar 2010). A prominent
Indian Jesuit sociologist has called for an abandonment
of `aggressive’ attempts to promote conversion (Heredia
2007)
Conversion and Religious pluralism
• `Go into the whole world and preach the gospel; those who believe
and are baptised will be saved and those who do not believe will be
damned’.
Mark 16: 15-16
• `My brother kneels (so saith Kabir)
To stone and brass in heathen wise,
But in my brother’s voice I hear
My own unanswered agonies.
His God is as his fates assign –
His prayer is all the world’s – and mine.
Rudyard Kipling, The Prayer