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1GMS 2004

Misereor-Hungertuch aus Indienvon Iyoti Sahi

© MVG Medienproduktion, Aachen, 1984

Description of the painting

1 Lazarus standing in front of his tomb. The tomb is represented by an Indian Muslim mausoleum. The roots

of the fig tree, which is considered sacred in India, are embedded in the walls of the mausoleum.

2 Mary, the sister of Lazarus. Mary is represented within a tear in the shape of an almond.

3 A prickly pear. Hindus consider it the sacred tree of life.

4 A group of migrant workers and untouchables. As they look for work in the cities, they build sheds on

“forbidden” ground – the cemeteries – since they have nowhere else to stay.

5 The man born blind. He is kneeling on the bank of a wide river, with his hands held out, begging. He is blind,

and as an untouchable, he is doubly disadvantaged.

6 Christ. He reveals God and is the mediator between God and humanity. He is the Transfigured one and

the servant of God.

7 Moses. With his saffron coloured robes, he represents a Sannjasin, an Indian wise man.

8 The skeleton. This represents Adam, through whom sin entered the world, and the millions of people

condemned to die of famine and who have to bear the social “death” of the untouchables.

9 The Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. The tree (cassia fistula) represents the holiness of this place.

10 Lotus flowers sprout from the jar. The jug of water is beside the river of life (referring to Ezekiel’s vision

of the bones).

The canvas reproduced in this Dossier is the work of Iyoti Sahi which he created for the 1984 Misereor campaign. It is reproduced here with Misereor’s permission.

The themes treated by the artist seem particularly relevant to this Dossier.

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10 “The Image of light”

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Christ, the water of lifeThe centre of the canvas is dominated by the figure of Christ with upraised face, his hands reaching down to take up the needs of those who are “oppressed and heav-ily burdened” (Mt 11,28). The Sanskrit symbolOm, which in Hinduism stands for the SupremePower, is drawn on the left sleeve of Christ’scloak and indicates that he is the only one chosen to reveal and spread the word of God.“This is my beloved son in whom I am wellpleased. Listen to him” (Mt 17,5). Sparkling wa-ter flows down on Christ from on high, immers-es him and washes his feet, to form a stream:Christ is the Water of Life for all those whohunger and thirst for honesty.In using water as the symbol of life, the artist Iyoti Sahi is recalling the myths of the Descentof Ganges. One day a great drought was threat-ening to destroy every living being on the earth,but a wise king, Bhagirat, through his prayersand penance, managed to gain the attention ofdivine grace and light in the form of water. See-ing that the power of the water threatened todestroy the earth, Siva made the water flowfrom his head in such a way that it restrained itsvehemence and made it flow more gentlythrough the Indian plains like the sacred riverGanges. Christ is the “New Bhagirat” and Lordof the Transfiguration. He offers himself as asacrifice, “taking the nature of a slave, and mak-ing himself like people” (Phil 2,7) was obedienteven unto death on the cross. He became theservant of God, obeying the will of the Fatherand the rules of this world.The prophet of his people, Moses, who struckthe rock to make water gush forth, is also thepurity which opens the source of divine grace

for himself and others through his mortified lifeand meditation. This points to the new Moseswho proclaims the law to his people.

Light as a symbol of lifeThe artist sees light as another symbol of life.The light shines on the mausoleum and on thefigure of Lazarus: it is the light of the resurrec-tion and of Easter morn. It is light that gives theman born blind his vision and a new life. It en-lightens the people carrying their water jars, themigrant workers and the untouchables: they tooare called to a new life. Those who are beatenand brought low will lift up their heads, aware oftheir own dignity as human beings. The lightblends with the purity of the water that runsdown over the figure of Christ. It comes fromthe tree, it lights up the well and it falls on the lo-tus flowers blossoming in the jug in the fore-ground of the picture.

Multiplicity of sources of revelationThe artist is prodding us to appreciate the value of other religions and of the diverse viewsof life, and to follow the way of dialogue.For the artist, the four sources of light are thefour ways in which God reveals himself:– the light shining on the mausoleum from the

left represents the way in which Islam firmlybelieves in the resurrection of the dead.

– the second light source recalls Hinduism andBuddhism. For them “the river” and “the tree”are particularly important: the river starts fromthe sacred tree (the prickly pear) right at thespot where the ray of light touches the ground.

– the third light source is from the figure of Christ,Christ who has been glorified by the Father.

– The fourth light source, on the right hand sideof the picture, shines on a woman near the

GMS 2004

The meaning of the painting

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well and this reminds us of people’s naturalperception of God in the man “who was thetrue light, which enlightens everyone whocomes into this world” (Jn 1,9).

Humanity as a life resourceThe artist fervently puts his hope in the resur-rection and life. Humanity has the chance toparticipate in Christ’s resurrection. Such a hopeis based on the rich gift of human life:• The group of dark-skinned people on the leftof the picture shows they belong to the lowestsocial group. Their faces are turned towards thedark face of Christ who, like a suffering servant,has always been on the side of the humble, thepoor and those who are rejected, outcasts. Heleads the lowest in society to take their properplace, based on their inherent human dignity.• The dark-skinned Samaritan woman, at Ja-cob’s Well, is wearing a typical sari of the un-touchables, similar to that worn by Harija Indi-an women who are not allowed offer water toother castes, as this would contaminate them.Christ knocks down all social barriers betweenJews and Samaritans, between those who be-long to India’s high castes and the untouch-ables. He takes water from this woman, he ho-nours her by accepting what she offers andshows that this woman belongs to no caste,and is worthy to offer people a drink.• The lady in the almond is painted as a tear that is shared with Jesus. It is Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who is crying for her brother. Jesus wants to share all humanity’s sufferings.

The composition and meaning of the Image of lightThis is one of the many examples ofChristian art commissioned over the cen-turies. This painting in particular comes

from India, is very closely connected with Lentand inspired by the liturgical texts of the fiveSundays in Lent.

The theme of this painting is Life – symbolisedby water and light – and the artist sets out torepresent pictorially many distinct aspects usingthree levels:Concrete realityThe artist links the subject matter of the Imageof light to India’s social reality today. The draw-ing shows the poor and the outcasts, the un-touchables and those who belong to the lowestcastes in society. Amongst these, women areparticularly highlighted as the most discriminat-ed against and exploited.SymbolismAt the same time, the artist deals with the real-ity of life, of which water and light are the deep-est symbols. These represent life which is givenand life as it reflects the divine. Iyoti Sahi takesup some of the sacred symbols of the great In-dian religions – Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam– and uses them to point out the many variedaspects of Revelation, and to sharpen ourawareness of “the infinite variety of God’s wis-dom” which is found also in the Christian reli-gion (Eph 3,10).Biblical revelationAs a Christian, the artist speaks of the revelationgiven to Jesus – a revelation which is the highpoint of human existence. Christ, drawn with

dark skin, is shown as the One who belongsto a lower caste, but is none the less, the

figure who dominates the whole picture.He brings us the promise of salvationand eternal life, “the water I will give himwill become in him a fountain of water

bubbling up into eternal life” (Jn 4,14). “I am the light of the world” (Jn 8, 12). “I am

the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11,25).

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ordial greetings and bestwishes for a fruitful cele-

bration of the Salesian Mis-sionary Day 2004. I am writingto you on a date that is verysignificant for the whole of hu-manity, and particularly for theChurch and our Congregation.The solemnity of the Immacu-late Conception of Mary showsus what God’s original planwas for the world. It remindsus that Mary’s “yes” signalleda turning point in the history ofhumanity and it invites us tooto be God’s collaborators.

For us Salesians things alsobegan one 8th of December.Today the Congregation andthe Salesian Family is presentin 128 countries worldwide asmissionaries of young people.

The theme chosen for this yearis Arunachal Pradesh, an areaof great poverty which is underdeveloped, where the Gospelis not yet well known. Our con-freres have already set in mo-tion various initiatives in thearea of human promotion, withan emphasis on education.Precisely because salvationhas to do with the totality of the human person, todayevangelization is more than

ever inseparable from socialpromotion. It means workingto change situations not inkeeping with people’s dignity toones which are more human.

From this Dossier, ArunachalPradesh emerges as a greatchallenge for the needs wewant to meet, and as an op-portunity to show our faith in acharity that is up and active,bringing hope and theprospects of a better future tothis people’s life. We are awarethat it is the people them-selves who are responsible fortheir own development, andalso of their right to keep theirown culture. Our task is to bein solidarity with them, to benear them and to be compas-sionate towards them.

And as is always the case, asSalesians our strategic choiceis in the field of education on

behalf of young people, con-vinced that the best presentwe can make them is that offitting them to face life with acertain guarantee of successin life which is becoming evermore competitive.

Today we have many morepossibilities of announcingChrist and his Gospel, thanksto the resources at our dis-posal and to social communi-cations. May Mary the VirginMother enliven our missionaryzeal, so that all people maycome to know the marvellousplan God has and they mayplay their part in it.

I encourage you to become enthusiastic animators of thisSalesian Missionary Day 2004,so that its fruits will help us to really promote the dignity of people as we give them a hand in their needs and in their deepest aspirations. In the name of ArunachalPradesh, who will benefit fromyour generosity and solidarity,thank you!

Cordially, in Christ Jesus,

Fr Pascual Chávez VillanuevaRector major

GMS 2004

To the Salesians,Members of the Salesian Familyand “Friends of Don Bosco”

Rome, 8 December 2003Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

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is with great joy that Ipresent this Dossier for

Missionary Animation to you.It is very encouraging to knowthat in most provinces thedossier is used with greatprofit for missionary animation. After reflecting on missionarythemes for the past two years(2002: Refugees; 2003: HumanDevelopment and Evangeliza-tion), this year we return to thepresentation of a region whereSalesians and other membersof the Salesian Family are ac-tively engaged in various activi-ties for the all-round develop-ment of the poor people. “Arunachal Pradesh”, a state in the North East of India, onthe border of China, is at the same time a land of mystery and promise. Thechallenges presented by this region of India are manifold.The various tribes that havelived in oblivion for centuries in this region are now chal-lenged to come out of theirisolation and poverty and to live in conformity with themanifold demands of the fastdeveloping world.Without remaining fossilized ina cultural museum, they areanxious to preserve their richcultural heritage and identity,while not being swallowed up into the modern cauldronof globalization. The greatestchallenge facing these tribes is

the enlightened assimilation ofnew values in harmony withtheir culture and history, whilejettisoning all oppressive anddehumanizing social struc-tures and mores that keepthem isolated from the rest of humanity and slaves to theirown fears.The Catholic Church,and in particular, the Salesians to-gether with othermembers of theSalesian Family, areprotagonists and attimes even catalysts in thisprocess of transformation of the tribes of ArunachalPradesh. Any visitor to this difficult stateis pleasantly surprised andgreatly impressed by the im-portant role played by them forthe human, social and religious development of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. Despitethe lack of roads and themeans of fast communication,they reach out to the peoplescattered in the far-flung villages. Education is themeans used for bringing thepeople out of the darkness of ignorance, superstition andthe tyranny of unhealthy socialcustoms. Our confreres are also doing pioneering work in giving grammar and litera-ture to the exclusively spoken languages of the tribes.

Getting to know the people ofArunachal Pradesh is beingacquainted with the trans-forming work of the Spirit ofGod among underprivilegedpeople through His humble instruments, the Salesians and their collaborators. The

wonders workedon the day ofPentecost are areality even in ourdays. ArunachalPradesh is a wit-ness to this.This Dossier has

been prepared with the coop-eration of many people: Fr.George Palliparambil providedmost of the material and Fr. Walter Schmidt, with the active cooperation of the staffof VIS, under the guidance of Fr. Ferdinando Colombo,did the work of editing and organizing it. To each andevery one of them, in the nameof all of us, I express sincerethanks and appreciation.I wish that this dossier serve to increase the missionaryspirit in all of us and to bringthe much needed help to the people of ArunachalPradesh. May Mary, Queen of the Missions, intercede forthem and strengthen them in their faith.

Fr. Francis AlencherryCouncillor of Mission

GMS 2004

Dear Confreres and Members of the Salesian Family,

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ery early in the morning,before dawn, Fr. Joseph,

the driver, a young studentand myself left Harmutty Col-lege, where we had spent thenight. A strike was due to takeplace and we were afraid wemight get stuck on the road,and miss out on our adventureto Arunachal Pradesh. As thefirst bright streaks of dawn litthe sky, the street was totallydeserted. It was simply anddeeply moving, tinged with theexcitement of going in for thefirst time to a land that was al-most virginal, unspoiled na-ture, mountains, a few citiesand villages perched onmountain peaks or nestlingwhere valleys meet. I was dy-ing with curiosity as I could atlong last see the legendary“Mitun”, the native cattle that Ihad not managed to spot onall my journey through Naga-land. I was struck by this mar-vellous nature scene, so inac-cessible and covered withforests, and especially by a

number of herds of these im-posing and gentle cattle, withtheir large soft eyes, thatwould one day form a youngbride’s dowry or grace themenu of some big celebration.We had actually already beeninto Arunachal Pradesh for afew fleeting hours some dayspreviously, as we made ourway from Margherita to Ra-janagar. Even though we hadploughed along a track usedvery frequently by elephants,we made good time andreached the village where we were given a warm wel-come by the very busy Fr.Theophilus, students from theschool and especially by theirhighest authority, the king ofthe village in person.I appreciated the presbyterywhich was very much in linewith the local culture and con-sisted of a large circular hut,made of wood, but I wasparticularly impressed by thespirit that animates this mis-sion. The Salesian is truly the

4GMS 2004

Excursion toArunachal Pradesh

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Fr. Giovanni Mazzali,Economer General

of the Salesians

Arunachal Pradesh.Typical village perchedon a mountain peak

driving force of all this work,seen culturally, in valuing theidentity of the different tribalgroups of the Simphos, theNoctes and the Adhivasis; andseen from the point of view ofevangelizing, in the care of thevarious Christian settlementsand in the organizing of themission school’s educationalactivities. I could see a greatsense of community and agreat appreciation for what theSalesians are doing, in DonBosco’s name, in that strip ofArunachal Pradesh. But let me come back to mymain story... to those verysweet and gentle “Mitun”,which remain with me as oneof the most striking symbols ofthe mountains of ArunachalPradesh. It was a land whichfor some time was totallysealed off against evangeliza-tion on the basis of a state law

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4A Sister is responsible for theacademic side of the school,while a Salesian looks after the management of the schooland boarding quarters. Thestudents are disciplined andvery prompt at the sound of thebell. You can sense that theyare very proud of their school,and of this large family in whichthey are laying the foundationsfor their own future.After a hearty breakfast, wepay a quick visit to the differentsections, and make a briefpause in the church - whichbears witness to the begin-nings of this courageous work.Then it is on with our long jour-ney to Palin. The long hours onthe road and the frequent joltsthat keep me awake give methe chance to see the manyhuman settlements scatteredaround these inaccessibleplaces. Their buildings, whichare always in wood, are char-acteristic, and in their size andlayout show that tribal life isstrongly family centred and involves sharing all availablespace. It is something I alsonoticed when we visitedSadiya where there are somesettlements of the large Mish-

GMS 2004Excursion toArunachal Pradesh

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The people are used to snatching limited resources from nature to keep themselves alive

The “Mitun”,legendary sacrificial cattle

Pupils lined up in the large school yard in Yachuli

formed, made possible theentrance of the missionariesand the presence of the priestin the tribal communities scat-tered over the mountains.Our first stop is Yachuli. It is stillearly, the morning is clear andthe mountain air is sharp. Herethe valley is broad, and this hasmade it possible to erect manybuildings which we can seefrom the roof of the Salesianschool in which we are staying.This is a very recent building,administered by the diocese ofTezpur, and the large square infront of it can hold the morethan 500 pupils that attend theschool. These sleep in theSalesian boarding school andthat of the Sisters, or in othersmall hostels around the area.Others travel several kilome-ters each morning from theirown village to come school. It is lovely to see the collabo-ration between the Salesiansand the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians,founded by Mgr Ferrando.They are referred to locally as the “Ferrandines”.

which forbade the entrance of any missionary. And it is interesting to note, that inthese inaccessible regions, thefirst missionaries were thoseyoung people who had beeneducated and trained first inthe Don Bosco TechnicalSchool in Shillong and then inthe Biblical School in Tinsukia.It had been a typical Salesianintuition, supported by the thendirector Fr. Thomas Menam-parampil. Some young peoplefrom Arunachal Pradesh weregiven the chance of profes-sional training and further in-struction in their faith. In thisway, bands of young peoplewere formed who, on return-ing to their tribes, were the firstto preach Jesus Christ, andthey prepared children andadults for baptism. This is achurch which was born of thefaith and missionary sense ofyoung people educated inDon Bosco’s style. They werereal pioneers. They preparedthe ground and, thanks to thesmall Christian communitieswhich had been gradually

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against the steep slope of themountain. There is not muchroom here for a school andboarders. It looks more like atemporary camp. Down thesteep incline leads us to thesmall school yard, with theSalesian residence and thegirls boarding hostel as well.The boys are more fortunatebecause thanks to financialhelp, it has been possible, inthe rather limited space, toerect a brick building. As I lookat these children, these boys,these young women who receive me with such simplewarmth, I smile at the Sale-sians in the midst of them andfeel Don Bosco would be verymuch at home here. This is theIndian interpretation of thePinardi shed, it is the Early Or-atory. That evening, in the darkpierced by a few dim lights,round the little yard with thecharacteristic shawls, as theboys sing and the girls dancein their traditional costumes, Iunderstand what a great gift

GMS 2004Excursion toArunachal Pradesh

the missionaries, the SalesiansStephen, Alphonse and Fran-cis, are for the young peopleof this poor and proud land. Next morning, while it is stilldark, I am awakened by whis-pering and quiet sounds. I getup quietly, and go outside asthe sky brightens. The air isclear and cold and I wrap theample shawl around me. Hud-dled under the portico, in thefaint light of dawn, the youngwomen and girls are studyingin silence and almost withdrawtimidly as they become awareof my presence. As our car moves off, I reachout and wave warmly one last time. I can still remembersome of their faces. Most of allI carry in my mind and heartthe conviction that Don Boscois alive, and that his spirit isembodied in the Salesians Ihave met, and that so manypoor young people, who haveno means, and are far fromhome, can have some hope of a happy future.

Man of the Mishings tribe and (on the right) the typical hut

raised above the ground

The new Don Bosco Schoolat Longding

ings tribe. The hut, which israised above the ground, con-sists of one large space wherethey eat, sleep, talk, and with abit of difficulty, try to study andread. The framework is on theoutside of the hut and all nec-essary family chores are per-formed outside as well.I also notice that we are deal-ing with very poor tribes, witha people that are used to acold climate and to snatchingvery limited pickings from na-ture for their own survival. Wecome across large numbers ofscarcely clad children; someof them run to our car whileothers just look on spellbound.Others again are already hardat work, carrying wood or wa-ter, or bringing in food from thefields. Still others we meet aregroups of students on theirway – sometimes quite a dis-tance – to the nearest school.Finally we reach Palin. Herethe valley widens, providingvery precious land for the cul-tivation of rice and vegetables,which are absolutely essentialfor survival. The Salesian workhere has been able to grow in a very restricted space,

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GMS 2004

Arunachal Pradesh

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Source: Directorate of Information,Public Relations and Printing Government of Arunachal Pradesh, Naharlagun

Capital: Itanagar (district of Pampun Pare)

Area: 83,743 sq. km.Population: 1,091,117 (men: 573,951; women: 517,166)

Rate of Literacy: 54.74%

Educational Universities: 1Institutions: Institutes of Engineering: 1

Polytechnics: 1Technical Institutes: 5High Schools: 171Intermediate Schools: 329Primary Schools: 1.280Kindergartens: 137

Principal Tribes: Adi, Nishis, Apatani, Bugun, Galo, Hrusso,Koro, Meyor, Monpa, Tagin, Sajolang, Sartang,Tai, Khamti, Tangshang Yobin, Singpho,Sherdukpen, Khamba, Memba

Natural Resources: graphite, quartz, coal, limestone,natural gases, ochre, marble

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5GMS 2004

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GEOGRAPHYOF THE TERRITORYArunachal Pradesh, “landof the rising sun”, is thelargest semi-wild state in theNorth-East of India.Composed of snowcappedHimalayan mountain ranges,rain forests and vast plainswith many rivers, it is hometo 110 tribes, each with theirown language, culture, waysand customs. All these tribesare of Mongolian stock andare different to the rest of In-dia not only for their physicallooks but also for the waythey live.They live in villages on the tops of high mountainswhere dense forests acted assafeguards but contributedto their isolation from the oth-er tribes and from the rest ofthe country. This isolation isgradually disappearing due

to the arrival of television,telephones and the con-struction of roads. There arestill many who, despite theadvancing progress, refuseto move away from their an-cestors and their own roots. To this day, the tribes’ majorresources are occupied incultivating the land: this iswhy vast areas of forest arecleared each year, and this isthe main cause of recentchanges in the territory’s cli-mate.

POLITICAL SITUATIONWith the exception of theNoctes and Wanchos of theTirap district, all the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh have a very strong democratic village set up with village eld-ers, a council to guide themand so on. The Noctes and Wanchos

have a very strong “king”system. Here the king occu-pies a very important place inthe day to day and extraordi-nary affairs of the village. Theking receives tithes from thepeople and every strangerentering the village reports tothe king. The king is allowedmarry more than one wife. Infact, even today there aresome village kings who haveup to 50 wives. The king de-termines through special rit-uals the particular area of thevillage forest that will be cutdown for agricultural cultiva-tion each year.Elections to local democraticbodies have now becomecommon and these modernelected structures have hadan impact on the role of theking and the entire monar-chic system of these tribes.

SOCIAL SITUATIONAll the tribes in ArunachalPradesh have a very strongpatrilineal tradition. In fact,the male member of the fam-ily and society was so muchin evidence that until very re-cently, women were hardly

GMS 2004Geo-political-social Analysis

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counted part of the society.For this reason education or other rights were not ac-corded to them and no one,including the women them-selves, felt the deprivation or the need of them. Thingshave been changing a gooddeal recently, though there is still a lot to be done in this regard.Polygamy and child marriageused to be common in someof the tribes, though today,through the spread of edu-cation, the media and chang-ing economic considerations,the practice is fast disap-pearing.The level of literacy and hy-giene and sanitary conditionsin the villages leave a lot to bedesired. Washing is still notcommon and pigs and otheranimals roam freely aroundthe house. The unhealthycustom of leaving dead bod-ies half naked on platformsnear villages helps spreaddisease and many people die each year of leprosy,dysentery, tuberculosis andother illnesses. In the pastfew years great efforts havebeen made to solve theseproblems. Many villages havecome to accept burial astheir principal sanitary prac-tice.Not so long ago, the inhabi-tants of Arunachal Pradesh

were known as the “nakedpopulation”. Only recentlyhave they become used towearing clothes.Typical dwellings, made ofbamboo rods, are long andvery resistant. Built on coldmountains, they make use ofevery sort of ventilation. Thefireplace is considered thecentre of the home and allthe main activities of cooking,eating and socialising takeplace around it.

CULTURAL ASPECTSThe cultural background ofArunachal Pradesh can becalled one of “isolation”. Itsgeographic isolation and in-accessibility left the people ofArunachal totally cut off fromthe rest of the world, includ-ing the Indian sub-continent.The “Innerline” system im-posed by the colonial gov-ernment as the “Bengal East-

ern frontier regulation Act1873” in order to protect itsmen, was used as a tool tokeep the people of ArunachalPradesh locked within theirown territory.While the many tribes of theregion show general com-mon characteristics amongthemselves, such as the im-portance of the community,the social dimension of pri-vate property, the sense ofequality, honesty as an ab-solute value, the dignity ofwork and the love and re-spect of children from theirelders, it is very important tonote that each tribal culturediffers from the others, just ashappens with civilisations.Feasting and doing things in common are part of their life style and these externalmanifestations represent away for inhabitants to meeteach other.

6GMS 2004Geo-political-social Analysis

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Despite all the good qualitiesthat were characteristic ofthe tribes in their golden era,a rapid process of detribali-sation is quickly eroding andthreatening the very survivalof the tribal spirit. Only the fu-ture can tell what will remainof the cultural heritage ofthousands of years. With theintroduction of the moderneducational system, tribalforms of training are nolonger fashionable. Businessand commerce, the econo-my, industrialisation, devel-opment activities and sani-tary services are all leading tothe break-up of the socialfabric that held the tribalcommunity together. The late1970s saw young and pro-gressive men from ArunachalPradesh travel out to otherstates for education. Theybrought back with them

some of what they learnt out-side and this was seen as acultural threat. Today theseyoung people who were edu-cated away from home aretaking charge of their homevillages and their influence isbeginning to make itself felt.

RELIGIOUS IDENTITYThe entire population ofArunachal Pradesh can besaid to be of three religiousbackgrounds. The biggestgroup of them will be the an-imists who belong to the Tanifamily. The “Tanis” are the de-scendants of Abo Tani, thecommon ancestor. The ma-jority of the population whoinhabit the central districts,some areas of Assam andpart of the population of theEast Kameng and LowerDibang valleys, as well as theNishis and various sub-

tribes, belong to this religion.The second group is anothergroup of animists who havebeen slightly influenced byHinduism and belong tosmaller tribes. They inhabitthe Tirap, Changlang, Lohitand Upper Dibang Valley dis-tricts. The Noctes, the Wan-chos, the Tangsas, and thevarious Mishmis groups arethe main adherents of this re-ligion. These groups do notgive much prominence to thesun and moon in their reli-gious practices. They talk ofa God who is involved in theirlives. The spirits do not haveas much importance in theirworld as that of the Tanis. Asmentioned above, some ofthem are greatly influencedby Hinduism. In fact, many ofthem do not eat beef and donot find it difficult to under-stand the caste system.The third group consists ofthe various tribes which areBuddhist. The tribes that in-habit Tawang and West Ka-meng are Buddhist. Theseand some of the other tribesalong the border of Tibet fol-low the Lamaistic tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. TheKhamtis in Lohit district andthe Singphos in LohitandChanglang district practiceHinayana Buddhism. Theycame to their present abodefrom Thailand and Myanmar

6GMS 2004Geo-political-social Analysis

College students teach hymns in the village Aru

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(Burma) and still use the ancient scripts from theseplaces.The earliest known contactthe Arunachaleses had withChristianity was in 1817,when Rev. Bronson, an Amer-ican Baptist pastor, opened amission in Namsang, amongthe Noctes. Due to illnessand discouraged by the lackof cooperation from the localpeople, he withdrew to Jaipurin Assam.In 1851, Frs Krick andBernard of the Foreign Mis-sions of Paris ventured intothe Adis country along with a group of British soldiers.They were eager to proclaimthe faith in Tibet. As the local

tribe, the Adis, were happywith them, they stayed withthem a long time, teachingthem and helping them withmedicines. The people ofMebo region in East Siangstill have vague memories ofthe two missionaries stayingin their area. The oral traditionhas not forgotten them, butthere is no record of anyChristian community startedby them. In 1854 the twopriests decided to continuetheir mission of evangeliza-tion in Tibet but were cap-tured and killed by the Mish-mis tribe in the village ofSomme.In the meantime, the Baptistchurch started making con-

tacts with the people ofArunachal from theirmission in Sadiya. It is

said that by 1900, they hadalready translated the NewTestament into some of thetribal dialects. But after sometime the communities split upand today there are count-less denominations.Fr. Aloysius Cerato SDB whowas in Lakhimpur (Assam)made lasting contact with the Apa Tanis tribe in the late 1960s. Some of those he contacted are staunchCatholics today. These andother contacts through theschools in Lakhimpur, Tezpurand Silapathar wrote goldenchapters in the history of the Church in ArunachalPradesh.The Salesians of Don Boscorepresent for Arunachal Pra-desh a significant presence,worthy of respect. The vari-

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The contemplative and patient attitudecharacteristic of the people of Arunachal Pradesh

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ous members of the SalesianFamily, particularly the pastpupils, have taken on a socialrole that could not be morehighly regarded.Contacts with the Salesians,begun at Lakhimpur in the1960s, stayed at the level ofindividuals up to 1978 whenFr. Thomas MenamparampilSDB, then rector of DonBosco School, Shillong, firstmet the young chief of theNoctes tribe, Mr WanglatLowangcha from the villageof Borduria, a village thatboasts the first conversion toCatholicism among all the vil-lages of Arunachal.Fr. Menamparampil (nowArchbishop of Guwahati) facilitated the admission of young people fromArunachal Pradesh into Sale-sian schools and thisstrengthened the links withdifferent villages even more.

The students returned homefor the holidays and the peo-ple began to see howchanged and well trainedtheir children were, and thismade them even more con-vinced that they wanted tosend the new generations of the tribe to the Catholicschools. In 1979, Mr Lo-wangcha, with his family andhundreds of others from thesurrounding villages convert-ed to Catholicism and re-ceived Baptism.In 1992 the first Don BoscoSchool with dormitory at-tached, was opened in thevillage of Borduria. Today the Catholic faith is anintegral part of the life of thelocal tribes. Past pupils ofDon Bosco School occupyimportant positionsin the political andadministrative life ofthe country.

The Salesians are convincedthat, despite the places be-ing so far-flung, and provid-ed they are given fair oppor-tunities, today’s young peo-ple and children guarantee apromising future for the pop-ulation of Arunachal Pradeshand they will be a model ofsuccess and change for the rest of India.

PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTUREThe picture may look veryrosy, but numerous chal-lenges arise for the people of Arunachal Pradesh andthe missionaries. The utterpoverty in the villages is a factthat cannot be avoided. It in-evitably raises questions forthe Salesians as to where to

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Borduria. First church and first Don Bosco School in Arunachal Pradesh

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begin and where to end theirwork.The growing gap betweenthe rich and the poor is be-coming more glaring, espe-cially when often the rich areformer Salesian pupils whohave started becoming self-ish. The primary values ofsharing and love have to beinculcated in them.The universal phenomenonof commercialisation andconsumerism is fast enteringeven the remotest villages.Everyone wants to makemoney any way they can.This is gnawing away at thetribal life style and is taking itstoll on the people’s commit-ment to God and religion.The background of head-hunting, inter village and intertribal warfare has created inmany a sense of the absenceof guilt. This poses a greatthreat to Christian life as theidea of total forgiveness,compassion and gentlenessbecomes very difficult topractice and even to grasp insome cases. Patient insis-tence and relentless prayeron the part of the missionar-ies seems to be the onlything that can help bringabout a change.Polygamy is common insome of the tribes and con-tinues to be a great challenge

to Christian life. Education isseen to be the only remedy,as many of the educatedpeople are realising that thisis a social evil and that chil-dren are not just hands towork, but also need to beeducated and respected,and that this applies also towomen, who are equal tomen in the family, society andthe Church.The Christian sects whichhave been springing up theseyears are fast appearing inArunachal as well and theyare able to capture the peo-ple’s imagination very quicklyas they do not operate with-in any system or tradition,with no background and nounifying authority or point of reference. The militantways they often adopt are ascandal to the entire people.Every tribe has its own richcultural traditions and unique-

ness. The greatest challengeto the Church will be to seethat every positive value inthese tribes is preserved andprotected, and to integrate it-self into this life instead of im-posing on these people a setof values and traditions theyneither understand nor arefamiliar with.Clericalisation can becomeone of the serious challengesto the future church inArunachal Pradesh. A newgeneration of clergy, whomay not be familiar with theheroic roles lay men andwomen played in building thechurch they now head, maycause estrangement, andmake of that laity passivespectators, no longer in-volved in the Church theyonce helped build.

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rchbishop Thomas Menam-parampil speaks of his

mission territory and of howtiring it is trying to evangelizeand bring the figure of Christto a country so distant and dif-ficult as India, in a state likeArunachal Pradesh.There are about six millionpeople in his diocese of Guwa-hati (Assam). Only 50,000of them are Catholic. This istypical of a mission land wherethe wounds inflicted by colo-nialism and historic wrongshave still not been fully healed.Despite this, he says, there isno opposition to Christ assuch and what he represents.When Mahatma Ghandi firstread the Sermon on theMount recounted in theGospel, he found all he hadheard as a child confirmed. Hedid not see it as a foreign mes-sage. He felt the Gospel mes-sage was deeper within him-self and more natural thanmany other doctrines he had

embraced over the years.There have been different im-ages of Christianity in differentperiods of history and in vari-ous parts of the world. In everyepoch and in all places therehave been intuitive men andwomen who saw this religionas the greatest spiritual poweron earth and a point of contactbetween God and people. Butthis message does not gettransmitted by itself. Evangeliz-ers have the task of helpingpeople understand that Chris-tianity is more than the collec-tive interest of a society or civil-isation. It means meeting God.An evangelizer is truly effica-cious only when he himself canbe free of feelings of hurt, eitherpersonal or historical. His taskalso includes healing memoriesof past hurts in the society in which he lives. Forgivenessis the only way to the future.Often the word “conversion”has taken on a negative con-notation in many countries in

Asia. It is not uncommon forpeople to associate the wordwith a change of religion dueto pressure, soliciting or de-ceit. We know that sponta-neous conversion is some-thing different, it means havingyour own experience of God.Therefore the first importantthing is that there be someoneto explain it. The second thingis that the evangelizer beginfrom where the one seeking isat: his passage of Scripture,his problem in life, his interiorstate, how much he under-stands, the aspirations he hasin his heart, the nature of hisculture, the limitations of hishorizons and outlook.Today many missionaries suf-fer from a strong sense of“lack of self esteem”, whichsprings from a sense of guiltabout the past and uncertain-ty about the future. It is impor-tant to remember that certainways of behaviour do notcome from the Gospel. In fact,only the Gospel can raise upthose who have done evil andthose who have suffered evil.It is the Gospel that allowsthem turn their backs on his-tory and move on with confi-dence and to take the futureinto their own hands. Todaymore than ever, even in themost far-flung of places, peo-ple are waiting for this helpfrom the Gospel.

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REFLECTIONS BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF GUWAHATI,MGR THOMAS MENAMPARAMPIL

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SALESIAN PRESENCESalesians of Don Boscoare a “formidable force”

in the Arunachal scene. The various members of theSalesian Family, especially the Past Pupils, assume rolesthat can never be over-estimated. The contacts with the Salesians that had begunat Lakhimpur and otherplaces in the 1960s, remainedat the level of individuals till1978, when the first chancemeeting occurred between Fr. Thomas MenamparampilSDB, rector of Don BoscoSchool, Shillong [now Arch-bishop of Guwahati] and MrWanglat Lowangcha, a youngtribal chief from the Noctestribe, hailing from the “queenvillage” of Borduria. Throughlate in the year, Wanglat wasout in Shillong, the centre oflearning in the North East,searching for some schoolsthat would admit some of hispeople. Fr. Thomas immedi-

ately agreed to take in someboys and this cemented theirrelationship. Bishop RobertKerketta SDB of Dibrugarh(now Tezpur) and the Salesiansuperiors encouraged thiscontact and Fr. Thomas wason a visit to Arunachal by themiddle of August 1978. The visit had to come to anabrupt end as the ricketyjeep they had hired for mov-ing around was knockeddown by an army truck atKapu village. Fr. Thomas waswounded and had his kneecaps badly smashed. Theywere brought to Borduria vil-lage where Fr. Thomas spentthe night writhing in pain.During the night Wanglatasked Fr. Thomas if he andhis family could be baptised.Fr. Thomas immediately agreedand they were baptised thatnight itself in their little house.That day, 20 Au-gust, which had be-gun in tragedy with

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the accident, ended with the opening of a goldenchapter in the history of the Church. Next day, Fr.Thomas was taken down toDibrugarh where he under-went long treatment.The Salesian schools in thewhole province (now Dimapurand Guwahati) took specialcare to admit Arunachali stu-dents and to help them withfee concessions, etc., andthus the contacts grew. Thestudents went back to theirvillages during the holidaysand the people began to seehow well trained their childrenwere. This made them eagerto send their children to theCatholic schools and to ac-cept the faith as that helpedthem to be free of the manydehumanising and expensivesacrifices demanded of themby their tradition.

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Welcome from the Nishis women

A typicalvillage church

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Wanglat was a born leader.By August 1979, he hadcontacted the people of hisvillage and some of theneighbouring villages and600 of them decided to bebaptised. Permission for thepriests and others to enterwas denied. But the bravepeople stood their groundand brought in BishopRobert, Fr. Mathai Kochu-parambil the Salesian Provin-cial (later Bishop of Diphu)and a number of other Sale-sians and Salesian Sistersfrom Assam. The officerscould only stand helplesslyby, as 600 people were bap-tised and a small thatchedroof church was blessed that2 August 1979.Wanglat soon introduced MrTadar Taniang to Fr. Thomasand Bishop Robert who laterbaptised him and christenedhim Robert. Hailing from the Nishis tribe, the largestsingle tribe in Arunachal,Robert contacted others.The faith began to spread inhis region like wild fire, thanksto Fr. Kulandaisamy, a veryzealous priest of the dio-cese of Tezpur and Fr. JobKallarackal SDB. In 1980 Wanglat became thefirst Catholic to enter parlia-ment. Ten years later RobertTaniang was the first Catholicto hold a government minis-

terial office. Today there aresix Don Bosco past pupils inparliament. The Prime Minis-ter himself makes no secretof his leaning towards DonBosco’s teachings. The Min-ister for Education, Mr San-jay Takam, has been associ-ated with the Salesians fromhis earliest school days.In 1992, the first Don BoscoSchool and Hostel wasopened in Borduria. Fr.George Pallipparambil SDBmoved into Borduria fromTinsukia with committed laycollaborators like Mr GeorgeJoseph and Miss MarthaMao. In 1993, Fr. JoseChemparathy SDB, who wasin charge of the Harmuttymission, opened the DonBosco School in the statecapital, Itanagar. They en-dured untold deprivations inthe initial years but boldly putup with it all. The result is theArunachal of today, wherethe Catholic faith is an inte-gral part of tribal life and DonBosco’s charism is an insep-arable part of daily life.The Don Bosco past pupilsare to be seen everywhere in

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the state today, and many ofthem occupy positions ofgreat responsibility in the political and administrativearenas. There is an undying demand for Salesian pres-ences.“Tears well up in my eyeswhen I see the children sosmart and well trained,” saidMr Tashi Ngusso, police su-perintendent of Triap district,attending a function by thechildren of Borduria school inNovember 1995. “How I wishDon Bosco could come toour area and do likewise!” “I must proudly tell you that Iam a past pupil of DonBosco, and I know that it isonly with committed groupslike these that our state candevelop,” declared the PrimeMinister Mr Mukut Mithi, atBorduria in November 2002.“Because I am a Catholicand a past pupil of DonBosco, the others need notfear that they will be neglect-ed,” cautioned Mr SanjayTakam, Minister for Educa-tion, speaking at the DonBosco School in his nativetown of Palin.

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41 What the Church in-tends offering individualsThe Gospel of Christ an-nounces and proclaims thefreedom of the children ofGod. It rejects all slavery thatin the last analysis results fromsin. It respects as somethingsacred the dignity of con-science and its freedom ofchoice. It ceaselessly encour-ages the full use of human tal-ents in the service of God andfor people’s benefit, and, final-ly, it commends everyone tothe charity of all. [...]

42 What the Church in-tends giving human society

[...] In fact, what the Church

contributes to contemporaryhuman society is the effec-tiveness of its faith and love,and not any external powerexercised by purely humanmeans. Since by its missionand nature it is not tied toany particular culture or po-litical, economic or socialsystem, the Church by itsuniversality can form a veryclose link with the diversehuman communities and na-tions, provided these trustthe Church and allow it truefreedom in the fulfilment ofits mission. For this reasonthe Church exhorts its chil-dren, and all people as well,

Gaudium et Spes - Pastoral Constitution of Vatican Council II

12 The work of missionariesTrue to the teaching and example of her divineFounder, who cited the “preaching of theGospel to the poor” (Lk 7,22) as a sign of Hismission, the Church has never failed to fosterthe human progress of the nations to which shebrings faith in Christ. Besides erecting sacred

edifices, her missionaries have al-so promoted construction of hos-pitals, sanatoriums, schools and universities. By teaching the native population how to takefull advantage of natural resources, the mis-sionaries often protected them from the greedof foreigners. We would certainly admit that this work wassometimes far from perfect, since it was thework of men. The missionaries sometimes in-termingled the thought patterns and behaviourpatterns of their native land with the authenticmessage of Christ. Yet, for all this, they did pro-tect and promote indigenous institutions; andmany of them pioneered in promoting the coun-try’s material and cultural progress.

Populorum Progressio - Encyclical of Paul VI, 1967

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to overcome in this familyspirit which is precisely thatof God’s children, all dis-agreement between nationsand races, and to strengthenfrom within legitimate humanassociations. The Council,therefore, looks with greatrespect on all that is true,good and just in those di-verse institutions whichmankind has created andcontinues to create. It alsodeclares that the Churchwants to help and promoteall these institutions, in so faras lies in its power and iscompatible with its mission.[...]

12. The Church’s missionand human freedom

Jesus Christ meets the man ofevery age, including our own,with the same words: “You willknow the truth, and the truthwill make you free”. Thesewords contain both a funda-mental requirement and awarning: the requirement of anhonest relationship with regardto truth as a condition for au-thentic freedom, and the

warning to avoid everykind of illusory freedom,every superficial unilater-al freedom, every free-dom that fails to enter in-to the whole truth aboutman and the world. Today also, even after two thousandyears, we see Christ as theone who brings man freedombased on truth, frees manfrom what curtails, diminishesand as it were breaks off

this freedom at itsroot, in man’s soul, hisheart and his cons-cience. What a stupendousconfirmation of this

has been given and is still being given by those who,thanks to Christ and in Christ,have reached true freedomand have manifested it even in situations of external con-straint!

We need only mention the ef-forts of Père Charles de Fou-cauld: he compiled a valuabledictionary of the Tuareg lan-

guage, and his charity won him the title, “every-one’s brother.” So We deem it fitting to praise

21 [...] In the process of encountering theworld’s different cultures, the Church not only transmits her truths and values and renews cultures from within, but she alsotakes from the various cultures the positive elements already found in them. This is the obligatory path for evangelizersin presenting the Christian faith and making it part of a people’s cultural heritage. Con-versely, the various cultures, when refined and renewed in the light of the Gospel, can become true expressions of the oneChristian faith.

those often forgotten pioneers who were moti-vated by love for Christ, just as We honour theirimitators and successors who today continueto put themselves at the generous and unselfishservice of those to whom they preach theGospel.

Redemptor Hominis - Encyclical of John Paul II, 1979

Ecclesia in Asia - Apostolic Exhortation of John Paul II, 1999

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842 The Church’s bond withnon-Christian religions is in thefirst place the common originand end of the human race:“All nations form but one com-munity. This is so because allstem from the one stockwhich God created to peoplethe entire earth, and also be-cause all share a commondestiny, namely God. His prov-idence, evident goodness,and saving designs extend toall against the day when theelect are gathered together inthe holy city”.

843 The Catholic Churchrecognises in other religionsthat search, among shadowsand images, for the God whois unknown yet near since hegives life and breath and allthings and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers allgoodness and truth found inthese religions as “a preparationfor the Gospel and given by himwho enlightens all men thatthey may at length have life”.

844 In their religious behav-iour, however, men also dis-play the limits and errors thatdisfigure the image of God inthem: “Very often, deceived bythe Evil One, men have be-

come vain in their reasonings,and have exchanged the truthof God for a lie, and served the creature rather than theCreator. Or else, living and dy-ing in this world without God,they are exposed to ultimatedespair”.

845 To reunite all his children,scattered and led astray bysin, the Father willed to call thewhole of humanity together into his Son’s Church. TheChurch is the place where hu-manity must rediscover its uni-ty and salvation. The Churchis “the world reconciled”. Sheis that bark which “in the fullsail of the Lord’s cross, by the

breath of the Holy Spirit, navi-gates safely in this world”. According to another imagedear to the Church Fathers,she is prefigured by Noah’sark, which alone saves fromthe flood.

853 On her pilgrimage, theChurch has also experiencedthe “discrepancy existing be-tween the message she pro-claims and the human weak-ness of those to whom theGospel has been entrusted”.Only by taking the “way ofpenance and renewal”, the“narrow way of the cross”, can the People of God extendChrist’s reign. For “just as

Catechism of the Catholic Church

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Building complex at Bosco Nagar, Kheti

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Christ carried out the work ofredemption in poverty and op-pression, so the Church iscalled to follow the same pathif she is to communicate thefruits of salvation to men”.

854 By her very mission, “theChurch... travels the samejourney as all humanity andshares the same earthly lotwith the world: she is to be aleaven and, as it were, the soulof human society in its renew-al by Christ and transformationinto the family of God”.Missionary endeavour requirespatience. It begins with the proclamationof the Gospel to peoples andgroups who do not yet believein Christ, continues with theestablishment of Christiancommunities that are “a signof God’s presence in theworld,” and leads to the foun-dation of local churches. Itmust involve a process of in-culturation if the Gospel is totake flesh in each people’s cul-ture. There will be times of de-feat. “With regard to individu-als, groups, and peoples it isonly by degrees that [theChurch] touches and pene-trates them and so receivesthem into a fullness which isCatholic”.

855 The Church’s mission

stimulates efforts towardsChristian unity. Indeed, “divi-sions among Christians pre-vent the Church from realisingin practice the fullness ofcatholicity proper to her inthose of her sons who, thoughjoined to her by Baptism, areyet separated from full com-munion with her. Furthermore,the Church herself finds itmore difficult to express in ac-tual life her full catholicity in allits aspects”.

856 The missionary task im-plies a respectful dialoguewith those who do not yet accept the Gospel. Believers can profit from thisdialogue by learning to appre-ciate better “those elements oftruth and grace which arefound among peoples, andwhich are, as it were, a secretpresence of God”.They proclaim the Good Newsto those who do not know it,in order to consolidate, com-plete, and raise up the truthand the goodness that Godhas distributed among menand nations, and to purifythem from error and evil “forthe glory of God, the confu-sion of the demon, and thehappiness of man”.

2044 The fidelity of the bap-tised is a primordial condition

for the proclamation of theGospel and for the Church’smission in the world. In order that the message ofsalvation can show the powerof its truth and radiance beforemen, it must be authenticatedby the witness of the life ofChristians. “The witness of aChristian life and good worksdone in a supernatural spirithave great power to draw mento the faith and to God”.

2045 Because they are mem-bers of the Body whose Headis Christ, Christians contributeto building up the Church bythe constancy of their convic-tions and their moral lives. TheChurch increases, grows, anddevelops through the holinessof her faithful, until “we all at-tain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of theSon of God, to mature man-hood, to the measure of thestature of the fullness ofChrist” (Eph 4,13).

2046 By living with the mind ofChrist, Christians hasten thecoming of the Reign of God,“a kingdom of justice, love,and peace.”.They do not, for all that, aban-don their earthly tasks; faithfulto their Master, they fulfil themwith uprightness, patience,and love.

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1. What attitude did theChristians of the first cen-turies take towards the cul-ture of their time?

earliest times, in theheart of Christianity,

there were two different ap-proaches.One – that of apparent total re-jection – is most clearly ex-pressed in some representa-tives of African and Syr-ian Christianity, that is, inthe two furthest ends ofthe Greek world.Let us look at the fa-mous remark of Tertul-lian, who indignantlyasked: “What has aphilosopher and a Chris-tian, a disciple of Greeceand a disciple of heav-en, got in common?”(Apologeticum 46,18).Tertullian further asks:“What has Athens andJerusalem got in com-mon? What has theAcademy and the Churchgot in common?” (De prae-scriptione haereticorum 7,9).In reality, Tertullian’s Apolo-geticum, which is directed tothe supreme authority in theEmpire around the year 200,reveals a very complex attitudeto Roman culture and institu-tions.Side by side with positive and

open affirmations, for which he is spoken of as the precur-sor of the alliance betweenChristianity and the empire, Tertullian has expressions sim-ilar to those already quoted - which declare a radical incom-patibility between “Athens andJerusalem”.In any case, this rejection doesnot involve philosophy alone, it

includes the classics of litera-ture, art, the majority of pro-fessions and trades, includingthose of school teachers: in aword, the whole of pagan cul-ture and civilisation.

The other attitude was one ofgreat openness, of critical and

constructive dialogue withGreek culture. This is the atti-tude that began with Justin andwas developed by the schoolof Alexandria, most particular-ly by Clement. Here not only isGreek culture not rejected, it isseen as a preparation for faith.The real line of demarcation be-tween saying “yes” and “no” tothe culture is very deep and

general. It runs throughevery single Christianthinker, because it is asthough two souls live inevery author: a Christiansoul, full of reservationstowards a culture that istotally permeated by pa-gan ideology, and aGreek soul, which issubjugated by it.Overall, the pre-NiceneChurch moves in the direction of an agree-ment between classicalculture and announcingthe Gospel: “The Chris-tians are today’s philoso-

phers and the philosopherswere the Christians of timespast” is how Minucius Felix put it (Octavius 20,1).Precisely for this reason it wasurgent that recourse to paganculture be solidly based andjustified.We recall Justin’s theory of theLogos spermatikos. Its mean-

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open to receiving the “charismof the origins”.

For our part we are convincedthat the study of the early Chris-tian witnesses is a source of discernment for the Churchin every age.In fact the period of the origins

– of which in many as-pects Nicea is the line ofdemarcation – keeps itsparticular charism: it isthe moment in which thedeposit of apostolic faithis consolidated in theChurch’s tradition. Wealso have to recognisethat the way in which themeeting of Christianityand culture was faced inthe first three centuriesgave very decisive fruits– so much so that theycan never be forgotten –and that is on the levelsof language, of the re-covery of the differentcultures and of thewhole of history, of the

singling out of a common“Christian soul” in the world andof the formulation of new pro-posals for human living.Thus attentive and alert re-course to the origins of theChurch is very useful, and in-deed cannot be done without,in order to understand and in-terpret this period, so rich in fer-ment and stimuli on the rela-tions between the Gospel andthe culture of our day.

ing is well known: that Word[Logos] which revealed itselfprophetically (in a figure) to theJews in the Law, also partiallyrevealed itself in the form ofseeds of truth to the Greeks.Now, concludes Justin, sinceChristianity is the historic andpersonal revelation of the Lo-gos in its totality, it fol-lows that “everythingthat has been said byanyone about what isbeautiful (kalos), be-longs to us Christians”(II Apologia 13,4).As can be seen, Justinformulated a long timeago the idea of the im-plicit or “anonymousChristian” which is spo-ken of today. Whileleaving Greek culture itsprofane character andmaintaining its short-comings and contra-dictions, Justin foundthe way, without anysort of integralism, of di-recting everything toChrist. He gave a rational ba-sis to the Christian religion’sclaim to universality.If the Old Testament tends to-wards Christ as the imagetends to its full realisation,Greek truth also tends to Christand the Gospel, as a part tendsto unite itself to the whole.This is why it cannot be opposed to the truth of the Gospel, and Christians can draw on it with confidence

teaching of the early Church, infact, there are two serious risksthat are mutually exclusive thathave to be overcome. On theone hand, there is the risk thatsome think they can find in theChristian origins ideal formulasor recipes that can be immedi-ately used by the Church in to-day’s world.On the other hand, there is therisk run by those who are not

Person prayingCatacombs of Via Latina

as though it were their ownproperty.2. What can the early Churchteach Christians today abouttheir relationship with culture?The question is a very compli-cated one, and needs the an-swer to be spelled out.To harvest the heritage and

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LETTER TO DIOGNETUSV,1For the Christians are not distinguished from oth-er people. 2They neither inhabit cities of their own,nor employ a peculiar form of speech, not lead a lifethat is marked out by any singularity. 3The course ofconduct which they follow has not been devised byany speculation or deliberation of inquisitive me; nordo they, like some, proclaim themselves the advo-cates of any merely human doctrines. 4But, inhabit-ing Greek as well as barbarian cities, according asthe lot of each of them has determined, and follow-ing the customs of the natives in respect to clothing,food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, theydisplay to us their wonderful and confessedly strik-ing method of life. 5They dwell in their own coun-tries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, theyshare in all things with others, and yet endure allthings as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to themas their native country, and every land of their birthas a land of strangers. 6They marry, as do all [oth-ers]; they beget children; but they do not abandontheir new-born children. 7They have a commontable, but not a common bed. 8They are in the flesh,but they do not live after the flesh. 9They pass theirdays on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.10They obey the prescribed laws, and at the sametime surpass the laws by their lives.

JUSTIN, I APOLOGIAXLVI,2We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have shown above that He isthe Word of whom every race of men were partak-ers. And those who lived according to reason [theWord] are Christians, even though they were ad-judged to be atheists, like, among the Greeks,Socrates and Heraclitus, and others like them [...]So that even those who lived before Christ, and didnot live in accordance with reason [the Word], were

wicked and hostile to Christ, and killed those wholived according to reason [the Word]. But those wholived and live according to reason [the Word], areChristians, they are fearless and imperturbable.

JUSTIN, II APOLOGIAVIII,1And we know that the followers of the Stoic school were hated and killed – as were the poets in some cases [...] on account of the seedof reason [the Logos] implanted in every race of people [...]

X,1Our doctrines, then, appear to be greater than allhuman teaching; because Christ, who appeared forour sakes, became the whole rational being, bothbody, and reason, and soul. 2For whatever eitherlawgivers or philosophers uttered well, they elabo-rated by finding and contemplating some part of theWord. 3But since they did not know the whole of theWord, which is Christ, they often contradicted them-selves. 4And those who by human birth were moreancient than Christ, when they attempted to con-sider and prove things by reason, were brought before the tribunals as impious persons and busy-bodies. And Socrates, who was more zealous in thisdirection than all of them, was accused of the verysame crimes as us. [...] [6For no one trusted inSocrates so as to die for this doctrine, but in Christ,who was partially known even by Socrates (for He was and is the Word who is in every man [...]) not only philosophers and scholars believed, but also artisans and people entirely uneducated, despising both glory, and fear, and death [...]

XIII,3For each man spoke well in proportion to theshare he had of the spermatic word, seeing whatwas related to it. [...] 4Whatever things were rightlysaid among all men, are the property of us Chris-tians. [...] 5For all the writers were able to see reali-ties darkly through the sowing of the implanted wordthat was in them. For the seed and imitation im-parted according to capacity is one thing, and quiteanother is the thing itself [...]

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SOME POINTS FROM CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

into the third millennium, we are facedwith old problems and new challenges.

What was considered normal before is nolonger held as such, what was absolute is nowconsidered relative.The world we had known and which hadshaped us was that “small world” of our village,our area or the place in which we grew up.The world in which we live today goes way be-yond and makes us forget the old boundariesthat had a lasting impact on our personal iden-tity and on the collective one from which wedrew our values.Values. That is where it all starts.A group of individuals holds a certain actionright, a certain idea correct. Round this col-lective agreement a consensus grows, and itis that consensus which already categorisespeople as “like us” or “different to us”. It cre-ates the value of the idea itself. Thus “justice”,“law”, “freedom” are lived as fundamental val-ues and are no longer mere abstract concepts.It is from these values that rights arise, those

things that every group holds inescapable and inalienable. They influence the law and leg-islation.This process may seem very complicated. It is in fact totally natural and spontaneous. It is the basis of what is called the “culture” ofa group of individuals.Culture is that gamut of values with which a certain group of persons, whom we call a“people”, identify and which they consider asforming the backbone of their very existence.There naturally follows such distinctions as “internal” and “external”, “near” and “far”, “iden-tity” and “otherness”.What distinguishes one people from anotheris the diverse cultural identity to which they adhere.

DIVERSITYIn judging reality and events we spontaneouslyapply our values and categories as though theywere the only ones capable of explaining lifeas it goes on around us. When we come toknow that somebody interprets the same re-ality with different cultural filters, we start clas-sifying their interpretation as “greater” or “less”than our own. We talk of them as “more” nat-ural or “less”, “more” free or “less”, and so on.Our point of reference still remains our culture,from which we cannot and should not moveanyway.While this attitude may on the one hand pre-serve our cultural identity, it may also lead todangerous prejudices that spring from as-suming our scheme of things is the one un-changeable and axiomatic standard of com-parison.

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Peoples, cultures and new challenges

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The way forward should be to no longer clas-sify all that we see with the two categories of“more” and “less” but to educate ourselves touse the much more anthropologically correctcategory of “diverse”.Some peoples may be economically richer;others more developed technologically, butculturally all peoples are diverse. Seen in this way the world is a mosaic of cul-tural identities.

PLANETARY IDENTITY OF EVERY CULTUREBut today’s world is no longer the “small world”from which we began. Distances are gettingsmaller, the news gives the impression of be-ing right on our doorstep, at times world eventsproduce global reactions, that lead us to di-vide the world into “who’s with us” and “who’sagainst us” without taking into account all pos-sible intermediate positions.Cultures today are faced with the difficulty, and at the same time the challenge, of rephrasing the categories of near/far, inter-nal/external, specific/universal, same/otherwithout absolutising their own cultural valuesor relativising them excessively, while avoidingpresumptuous self-centredness and at thesame time keeping their identity.The challenge is therefore to work out a new planetaryidentity that can find expres-sion in the various culturalidentities.We are not dealing with aplanetary culture but with somany cultures with a plane-tary identity that interact witheach other and will be able to work out identity and

otherness, specificness and universality in a new way.Inevitably Christianity has to face up to a cul-tural scene in rapid evolution. The proclama-tion of the Good News which is for all has tobe able to sink down into life and bring forththe Life which is for all. This is what we call in-culturating the Gospel. It means reliving thesame experience God had in the Incarnationwhen, to meet us, he took on our make-up,biological and cultural.Basically it is making the word of the prophetIsaiah come alive: “On Mount Sion, the Lordof the universe will prepare for all the nationsof the earth a banquet of rich foods and ex-cellent wines.Suddenly he will make disappear on this moun-tain the veil that covered all peoples.”We may think of this veil as the presumptionbuilt into every culture that makes it think itsown answers are the most true and most just,and the disappearance of this veil as the col-lapse of the cultural barriers that still hindergenuine growth inreciprocity.

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A study of tribal valuesword “Culture” can have various meanings.

It includes customs charac-terizing a social group; socialheredity of a particular com-munity; meanings, customs,values, norms, their actionsand relationships, beliefs,laws; traditions and institu-tions of a society; religion, rit-ual, language, song, dance,feasts, living habits, crafts,equipments, etc., of a socialgroup.My definition of the word “cul-ture” draws something fromall the above meanings. But Iwould like to use the word“culture” in the present con-text primarily to refer to thecharacter traits of a commu-nity, or, values and traditionsthrough which the soul or the inner genius of a peopleexpresses itself.

Soul of a CommunityHow can we get close to thesoul of a community? Howcan we identify its inner self?The soul of a people is re-vealed primarily in the valuesthey cherish. It is true that na-

ture is identical in every human race and community.At the same time it is equallytrue that, as persons havetheir preferences and pre-judices, even so communitiestoo have their collective priorities, mental orientations, interests, fears, ambitionsand aversions. They havetheir own world views andmindsets.Working as I do in North EastIndia, it is the tribal cultureand its main characteristicsthat I would like to presenthere.

Cultural DifferencesWhen we deal with tribal cul-tures, we are inclined to thinkthat they are perfectly iden-

tical wherever they are to be found. There could not bea bigger mistake. One tribalculture differs from another,as one civilization differs fromanother. However, even admitting thisfact, we cannot deny thattribal cultures have a greatdeal in common. We shallstudy some of these com-mon characteristics at somelength.

Community-CentrednessIn tribal society everything is done in community. Plansare made in general villagegatherings, everything is thor-oughly discussed, decisionsare arrived at with the consentof all. Whether the matter

* Extracts from ThomasMenamparampil, “Thoughts onEvangelization”, chapter III

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under discussion is clearingforests, sowing or harvesting,hunting or feasting, imposingof fines or declaring of taboos,everyone has the right to express his mind.Some of these village gather-ings are village parliaments.Through open sharing, thecommunity is able to think together, search together, andarrive at solutions together.Consequently community de-cisions have a certain strengthand validity that a dissentingperson, even an outsider,cannot make light of. Their basic community orien-tation makes tribal peopleshow their evident preferencefor communitarian forms ofreligious events. A Jingiasengor a Sabha will win greater interest than an hour of personal meditation. Conven-tions, congresses and ju-

bilees will be popular. Festivi-ty and solemnity will be greatattractions. It will be easyenough to organize camps,conferences, associations and prayer-groups. But addi-tional effort will be required to inculcate the habit of per-sonal and family prayer, to impress upon one the ne-cessity of seeking personalspiritual guidance and the importance of forming per-sonal convictions.

Social Dimension of Private PropertyTribal society recognizes theright to private property. Butthis right is not absolute. Forexample, the community hascertain rights over a piece of land owned by an individ-ual or a family. Such rightsvary from tribe to tribe: maybe the right of passage, the

right to draw water, to cutbamboos, to pluck an oddfruit, or even the right to use itpartially if it remains unutilized. An owner’s absolute claimsover a piece of property indi-cated by inscriptions like“Trespassers will be prosecut-ed”, “Dogs loose” or “Entryforbidden” do not make muchmeaning in tribal society.The most beautiful tribal virtueis an eagerness to share.Whatever can be spared, is tobe shared. In traditional tribalsociety, the season of abun-dance is the season after the harvest. There is no short-age of generosity during this period. The feasts andcelebrations of this seasonare indicative of the eager-ness of the individual to sharewith the community whateverhe has in surplus or whatever he thinks he has in surplus. In this respect he can even go to the point of improvi-dence. On the other handthere are no beggars in tribalsociety, nor anyone destituteor abandoned.A tribal person’s eagerness to share makes him very hospitable, and at the sametime, makes it difficult for himto be successful in business.An important law of sharing is:The man in real need has a privileged right which mustbe respected.

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As we said earlier, a person’sownership over land was nev-er complete; nor was his abil-ity to part with it ever uncon-ditional. So many others of his kith and kin had varyingmeasures of claim over hisland. So it happens that landalienation is never total.Such norms developed intribal society for the protectionof the weak and the poor. Therich and the powerful couldnever accumulate excessiveamount of land in their handsas it happens in non-tribal so-cieties, nor did the weakstand in danger of losingeverything they owned.

A Sense of EqualityWe have already seen earlierthat tribal societies greatly dif-fer among themselves, somefollowing absolute democracyand others verging on themonarchic. But there is nodoubt that democratic valuesdominate tribal life as a whole.In community discussion,everyone has a right to ex-press his opinion and every-one’s opinion is important.There is general recognition ofthe dignity of a person,whether he is rich or poor,specially gifted or physicallyhandicapped. Women areconsidered equal, and are re-spected. Children are dealtwith like little adults to be per-

suaded and guided, ratherthan scolded and disciplined.No one is treated as a non-entity, as it often happens insophisticated societies. Atribe is truly a larger family. Ina well organized tribe a per-son receives all the attentionand care he receives in a fam-ily. In such an atmosphere,one acquires a sense of self-respect, and even the illiteratefarmer bears himself with dig-nity. He is not afraid to ap-proach anyone, and speak up without embarrassment.He moves among people ofevery category with greatease and familiarity.The earlier tribal society didnot allow accumulation ofwealth in the hands of a few. Ifanyone grew rich, he soughtto win special recognition bycelebrating certain traditionalfeasts at a great cost (e.g.

feeding the whole village),which won him additional re-spect, but which made him aspoor as the others. This gen-erally prevented the develop-ment of dominant and de-pressed classes in “tribal so-ciety”, and consequently, ofsuperiority and inferioritycomplexes. In modern times,this situation has been rapidlychanging.

HonestyHonesty is an absolute valuein tribal society. In traditionaltribal society the houses re-mained unlocked and doorsunbarred with no fear of theft:The granaries that often usedto be located outside the vil-lage for fear of fire, would beuntouched. The property ofanother was sacred. If a per-son cut a bamboo and kept iton the roadside to be taken

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away later, it would remainwhere it was until the one who cut it came along to carry it away.This sense of honesty of tribal people cost them dear-ly when they came into con-tact with outside society.They could never see whyanyone needed to cheat any-one else.

Dignity of LabourThe main concern of a tribalcommunity is “work”, usuallywork in the fields. Unlikecaste-ridden societies, thereis no class set aside for work:Every person is a worker, andno work is below one’s digni-ty. No one is afraid to soil his hands. Working togetheris a pleasure.The entire tribal life is builtaround the rhythm of season-al work. There is no idle manin the village during the sow-ing or reaping season. Amongcertain tribes, even universitystudents and political leaderswill readily go out to help in the fields if they happen to be in the village in the work-ing season.

Love of Parents for ChildrenTribal parents deal with their

children as young adults.They reason with them andcoax them and never forcethem against their will. Theygive reasons to convince and not impose sanctions to compel. This may look a weak approach to a non-tribal person. But it may be more pedagogical andmore Christian than othermethods. Love’s persuasivepower should not be under-estimated. Tribal parents havetheir own way with their chil-dren even in a manner that ismost enviable and get mostthings done as they wish.

Respect for EldersThe supreme norm in tribalsociety is the wisdom of the elders. Older people arerespected and their opinionsare held in high regard. Whenall personal persuasion fails,one can appeal to the wis-dom of the elders, and callupon the older members of the community to help. And it may work like magic.

ConclusionI have limited myself to thestudy of the educator’s re-sponsibility of doing his workin a manner that is in keepingwith the original genius of

the tribal people and his duty to preserve, strengthengenuine tribal values that havea permanent validity. For,when you have saved thecommunity’s soul, you havesaved everything.When a tribe is educatedfrom within, every Ievel anddimension of culture is edu-cated. When it sings a song,it bursts into a hymn of praiseto the Lord. Its social struc-tures and relationships (atfamily and community levels)will be worthy of the family of God. Its laws, traditionsand practices will incarnatethe ethical values.Such a manner of educatinginaugurates the day when the prophecy of prophet Jeremiah is fuIfilled: “The newcovenant that I will make with the people of Israel willbe this: I will put my law with-in them and write it on theirhearts. I will be their God and they willbe my people. None of themwill have to teach his fellowcountryman to know the Lord,because all will know me,from the least to the greatest.I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, havespoken” (Jer 31:33-34).

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