Excerpts from the August 2011 edition...

FROM THE EDITOR

Arundhati Roy, the famous author of the prize-winning novel, The God of Small Things, refers in her recent book to a series of meetings in Delhi, organised by civil liberties groups from all over the country, to discuss what could be done to turn the tide and stop the war which is developing in the heart of the country between the Government and “the Maoists”. The Indian Government has announced Operation Green Hunt, a war against “Maoist” rebels headquartered in the jungles of central India. Roy asserts: “People are engaged in a whole spectrum of struggles all over the country – the landless, the homeless, Dalits, workers, peasants, weavers. They’re pitted against a juggernaut of injustices, including policies that allow a wholesale corporate takeover of people’s land and resources”.

“The Church has to find an appropriate pathway for providing care to the countless, the insignificant and the undiscovered. An uncommon caring is to be imparted by the Church to every segment of its population.” So writes M M Philip, the General Secretary of the CSI Synod, in the June issue of CSI Life. In this issue of Pilgrim, the articles by Ruth Roseveare, Derick Garnier, Stephen Taylor and Frank Tovey describe exactly that – an uncommon caring! Norman Taggart’s discussion of Mission, Witness and Conversion needs careful study and he quotes Charles Ranson with approval: “it is the mission of Christianity to go”. Inderjit Bhogal’s excellent review reminds us that our mission, wherever we are, should extend to dialogue with people of other faiths, and particularly to Sikhs with whom Christians have much in common.

News from India - India 2011 Census

According to the Census of India provisional 2011 Census report:

• India now accounts for 17.5 per cent of the world’s population. It comprises 623.7 million males and 586.5 million females. The population has increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011.
• The growth rate in 2011 is 17.64 % in comparison to 21.15 % in 2001.
• Among the states and Union territories, Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state with 199 million people and Lakshadweep the least populated at 64,429.
• The Census indicated a continuing preference for male children over female children. The latest child sex ratio in is 914 female against 1,000 male (the lowest since Independence).
• The literacy rate has gone up from 64.83 % in 2001 to 74.04 % in 2011 showing an increase of 9.21 %.
• The male population has grown by 17.19 % to reach 623.7 million (62 crore) while the female population has risen by 18.12 % to reach 586.5 million (58 crore).
• The absolute addition to India’s population during the last decade is slightly lower than the population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world.
• Uttar Pradesh has the largest proportion of the country’s population at 16 %, followed by Maharashtra and Bihar 9 % each), West Bengal (8 %) and Andhra Pradesh (7 %).

Norman Taggart: Mission, Witness and Conversion

Mission begins, continues and reaches its fulfilment in and through the triune God.15 God’s being, action and the teaching of scripture broaden our understanding of mission, challenging and encouraging us to re-assess the nature and scope of our involvement. Conceived and nurtured within the heart of God, mission was central to the pivotal acts of Jesus’ life including his birth, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession. Jesus’ followers were and are commissioned to be engaged in mission, called in Charles Wesley’s words ‘to be bold, be Jesus’ witnesses’, and claiming, too, that Jesus ‘lives to quicken all mankind.’16 Christians have no legitimate presence or role in the world if mission is omitted, neglected or too narrowly interpreted. ...

"While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men's hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism." Sadhu Sundar Singh

Ruth Roseveare: Life in Delhi 1946-1983 – Some Recollections

... When I left England, the World War had just been declared over, and the first ship I travelled on was, in fact, a troop ship. It was still very scary to be travelling through the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and then the Suez Canal! It wasn’t any less scary to find myself in a very unsettled India, more so in 1947 when Independence from Britain became a settled agreement and to be separated from the northern states under the flag of Pakistan. ...

Derick Garnier: Bishop Heber – Hymn Writer and Travelling Priest

... The Diocese of Calcutta in those days was pretty widespread and loosely defined. Heber had studied Hindustani and was determined to visit much of it. Not many churches as such had yet been established, but due to the activities of numerous missionaries, many sponsored by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), there were many Christian settlements within the country as well as a large English mercantile community throughout the land. It would be over another 30 years before the Government of India was transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown, so the massive development of India with the installation of railways, telegraphic communications and the improvement of roads was yet to take place. So travelling the country needed considerable organisation and planning.

After less than a year in Calcutta, in June 1824, Bishop Heber with his chaplain embarked on an oared pinnace on the Ganges, and was accompanied by his Archdeacon, his wife and his children on a separate river barge. He visited the mercantile community scattered around the numerous channels of the Ganges Delta. The entourage then proceeded up the River Ganges, reaching Benares and Allahabad in September.

The river trip had to finish here for his long journey ahead overland. This involved a large assembly of horses and an escort to take them to Lucknow, Cawnpore and further north to Almora in the Himalayas bordering on Nepal. From there he returned south to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Ajmer (now known as the Golden Triangle for tourists).

On 13th April 1824 he reached the trading station of Surat on the Indian Ocean and a week later reached Bombay by ship, where he stayed until the middle of August. It is recorded that the Archdeacon of Bombay thought that the Bishop rather lowered the dignity of his office by travelling dressed in a white hat and white trousers!

He toured the West Deccan and Southern India widely with the Archdeacon and then spent a month in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), returning by ship to Calcutta a year and three months after he had left it. But a year and a half later he was off again on an extensive tour of Madras and Southeast India. ...

Stephen Taylor: India Long Ago

... Practising all the various parts of medicine in the absence of electricity and piped water was different. Fortunately, for the nursing staff, this was normal. My first solo caesarean section was carried out with a car headlamp over the operating table, connected to the battery of the hospital car, pulled up against the window. Both mother and baby thrived, in part due to the extremely competent Indian sister on the other side of the operation table. ...

For Table of Contents of this and earlier issues of ‘Pilgrim’ click here.

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