Abstract
South Asian region has largely been under the influence of Indian, Chinese and Arabic cultures. All of the religious traditions have been strongly localized and tolerated various forms of folk cultures. Christianity in this region came in the early sixteenth century and flourished in the colonial era. It is normally assumed that it escaped from the process of adaptation and syncretism. However, this is not the case, as there were a number of missionaries not interested in Europeanizing their converts as in the case of Jesuits missionaries in India. Here in this article an attempt has been made to explicate the early attempt of western missionaries and local Christian to localize Christianity. To achieve this goal this paper has been divided into three sections. First section sheds light upon the overall attitude of early missionaries to the indigenous cultures and religions of India. Second section deals with the early efforts of contemporization in Indian Subcontinent. Third section will illustrate the situation church had to face after the partition of India, and how this partition impeded the process of contemporization movement. As a method, this article reviews the efforts of both native Christians and missionaries to indigenize Christianity in Indian first chronologically and then thematically.
Highlights
This paper highlights the early contact of Christian missionaries with the religions and cultures of India and the process of contextualization in South Asia during 1542-1947
This paper addresses these basic questions: how early missionaries viewed Indian culture and its religions? How the early contacts of missionaries and natives helped to shape their understanding about each other’s religions and cultures? How the process of contextualization which is widely
Contextualizing Christian Theology in South Asia known today in South Asian context was emerged? Who were the pioneers of this movement? What were the basic characteristics of the earlier forms of contextualization? And what are the new trends in Christian missionary attitudes regarding the cultures and religion of South Asia?
Summary
This paper highlights the early contact of Christian missionaries with the religions and cultures of India and the process of contextualization in South Asia during 1542-1947. In 1736 an edict was issued form Rome which invalidated several indigenous practices they accustomed to like such as the use of Gita and Hindu musical instruments in the Marriage ceremonies, wedding gifts not to be handed over to the parents of bride or bridegroom but through an ecclesiastical person, when dowry was taken to bridegroom’s home after wedding no gifts would be exchanged, folksong known as vovios should not be sung in ceremonies either in public or private, fixed days to crush rice, grind condiments or flour, fry cakes and etc., during marriage ceremonies, anointing of bride or bridegroom (known in Punjab as Mayon bithana) was banned, rituals at the time of child birth, six day of the birth of a child (probably Muslim ritual ‘aqiqah) was prohibited, prohibition of fasting on the eleventh day of the moon or in Hindu days, prohibition of wearing dhoti (a garment worn by male Hindus, consisting of a piece of material tied around the waist and extending to cover most of the legs) by men and cholis (a shortsleeved bodice worn under a sari by Indian women) by women and last but not least not to call any Christian with Hindu surname.43 This edict abolished all previous efforts made to indigenize Christianity in India and Nobili’s new method of preaching, hampering the growth of Christianity in India. He forced the Papacy in 1973 to suppress the society completely in the Church.” Jesuits could not restart their mission in India until 1860
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