211th Story - 1
Madras Christian College and its three famous student/staff ... Dr S Radhakrishnan, Prof AG Hogg, Vedanayagam Pillai (Maraimali Adigal) ...... 1
In the early part of the 20th century Madras Christian College was the seat of some of the most far reaching philosophical , linguistic, social and religious discussions and debates and writing ....
The earliest Christian theological response to the predominantly Hindu Indian society was the way the traditional South Indian "St. Thomas Christians” in the early centuries adapted their community’s life-pattern to the socio-cultural life of their non-Christian neighbours. The Church, as an organised religious congregation, had periodic celebrations of the Eucharist which expressed the Christian acknowledgement of the deity of Christ and set them apart as Christians from their Hindu neighbours and their worship patterns. It is important to note that the St. Thomas Christians did attempt an integration between the Christian faith with its Semitic roots and the religious ethos of Hinduism. Thus, while they demarcated themselves from the rest of the society by professing and practising their Christian religion, they, along with their Hindu neighbours, believed that every religion was effective as a means of salvation for its adherents and also, adapted themselves socially within the caste-hierarchy prevalent in India. This attitude of St. Thomas Christians to other religions might not have been worked out at any deep theological level. Nevertheless, its historical significance for any contemporary discussion on the role and relevance of the Christian faith in a pluralistic context should not be minimised.
However, with the arrival of the Catholic and the Protestant missionaries in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries respectively, the socio-theological position of the Indian Church underwent a sea change. The Western missionaries pronounced as heretical many of the traditional doctrines of Indian Christians. Under the pressure of the Portuguese Catholic Mission in the sixteenth century, the Udayamperoor (Diampar) synod of the St. Thomas Church met and repudiated the view of the self- sufficiency of every religion for human salvation. The attempt here was to assert the Catholic position that there is ‘no salvation outside the Church.’ Mathias Mundaden, CMI, the well-known Indian Church historian, in his monograph: Emergence of Catholic Theological Consciousness in India (Alwave, St. Thomas Academy for Research-Document 7; 1985) points out that Act III Decree 4 of the Synod of Diampar (1599) condemned the traditional attitude that “each one can be saved in his own dharma (religion): all dharmas (religions) are right”-in the following words:
“This is fully erroneous and a most shameful heresy. There is no dharma in which we may be saved except the dharma of Christ our saviour.”
A footnote to it added that the idea of the saving efficiency of all dharmas is “a perverse dogma” instilling tolerance and indifference which will make Christians “wander very far from the truth.”
Similarly, the Protestant missions which started their work in India in the nineteenth century also repudiated the belief that every religion is an effective means of salvation for its adherents. While the Catholic missions underscored the indispensability of the Church for salvation, Protestants affirmed the uniqueness of the Person of Christ and the need for a personal belief in him in order to be saved. In short, both the Missions intended into traditional Indian Christianity, an exclusive missiological theology which asserted that the only means for human salvation is the Christian faith.
On the whole, this attitude and the proselytism it led to set off a chain of reactions on various sides. For Hinduism with its holistic and inclusive world view, this systematised interpretation of Christianity by the western missions seemed arbitrarily self-righteous, exclusive and anthropocentric.
This made the 19th Century (and the early part of 20th century) a crucial period in India’s cultural history, with the emergence of Neo-Hindu movements in dialogue with western culture and Christianity. Thus, renascent Hinduism and Hindu leaders of the Indian renaissance began grappling with Christ, Christianity and western culture, all of which have been sources of the self-awakening of Hinduism as well as of the Indian people. Here we are thinking specially of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshub Chunder Sen and P. C. Mozoomdar of the Brahma Samaj, Bengal, Govinda Ranade of Prarthana Samaj, Maharashtra, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Vivekananda of the Ramakrishna Movement, Mahatma Gandhi, the non-violent leader of the nationalist struggle, Rabindranath Tagore of Viswa Bharati, S. Radhakrishnan and others. They highlighted the Christ of the Sermon on the Mount (Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Mahatma Gandhi), the Oriental Christ (P. C. Mozoomdar), Christ the Jeevanmukta (Ramakrishna and Vivekananda), Christ the Son of Man identified with suffering humanity (Tagore) and so on, acknowledging the ultimacy ot the Christ-principle rather than of Person of Jesus Christ (See M. M Thomas: The Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance, 1969). Their contributions to Indian Christian theology are quite substantial. They not only challenged Christian thinking both western and Indian, to make Christian theology indigenous; but they also produced some of the seminal Indian categories in which such theologisation could be pursued.
A number of western missionaries took Hindu religion and culture seriously. Among the Catholics, the names of Robert De Nobili (1577-1656) and Pierre Johanns (1882-1955), Jules Monehanin (1895-1957) and Swami Abhishiktananda (1910- 1973) are well known. De Nobili acknowledged valuable elements in Hindu sacred writings but considered the caste system the non religious part of Hinduism to which the Church might adapt itself. Johanns sought to build an Indian Thomist Philosophical system based on the Vedanta. Monehanin and Abhishiktananda took advaitic mystic experience as the main meeting point between Hinduism and Christianity.
Among the Protestant western missionaries the names William Miller and A. G. Hogg of the Madras Christian College, Bernard Lucas and T. E. Slater of the L. M. S. in South India, J. N. Farquhar of the Indian YMCA, and C. F. Andrews of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi are noteworthy. William Miller acknowledged the thesis that God used all religions and nations in the education of mankind and that Jesus Christ stood at the apex of the religious history of all humanity (Christian Conception of God's Dealings with Mankind\ 1890. The Place of Hinduism in the Story of the World, 1895). Bernard Lucas discerned the work of Christ and His Spirit in Hinduism and defined evangelisation as the Christianisation of Hinduism (Our Task in India-Shall We Proselytise or Evangelise India?). Slater and Farquhar believed in the evolution of all religions towards Christianity (Crown of Hinduism, 1919). C.F. Andrews responded positively to the national awakening of India and became closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent struggles for national freedom and with poet Rabindranath Tagore’s involvement in the cultural aspects of the Indian renaissance; he built his theology of Indian nationalism and inter-religious relation within those contexts (Renaissance of India, 1912; What I owe to Christ, 1932). A. G. Hogg's Karma and Redemption and Christian Message to the Hindu were solid attempts to build a Christian theology in dialogue with Hindu religion and philosophy.
Among the Indian Christian leaders, K. M. Banerji and Lai Behari Dey among Protestants and Brahmobandhav Upadhyay among Catholics came out of the same Bengal renaissance which produced Brahmoism, and became theological defenders of Christian faith against Brahmo theism on the one hand, and pioneers of indigenous theology on the other. Banerji spoke of Christ in terms of Prajapathi who, in the Vedas, creates the world and preserves it through self sacrifice. Dey urged the formation of a National Church in India, uniting all the churches including the Catholics, on the basis of common belief in the Apostles Creed. And Brahmobandhav interpreted the Trinity in terms of the Hindu idea of the Ultimate as Sat-Chit-Anand and sought to build an order of Indian Sannyasins; he joined the nationalist struggle and died in prison.
And at a time when this churn in the theological debate was going on a young AG Hogg joined the Philosophy dept of the MCC , and in due course of time went on to go to become the Head of Dept of Philosophy and the Principal of MCC for 10 years from 1928 to 1938 and become one of the greatest christian theologians of the 20th century ; two years later a bright young student by the name of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan joined the MCC for his UG and PG courses in Philosophy , and his interaction and debates and the influence of AG Hogg made him go deep into ancient India Philosophy and sacred literature and write books and articles that made him a world renowned scholar in Philosophy. Also around this same time another young man joined MCC as a Tamil lecturer. Vedanayagam Pillai or Maraimalai Adigal as he preferred to be known later on , who went on to spearhead the Pure Tamil movement and a non-brahmin socio political organisation that morphed into the Self respect movement of EVR and then to DK , the forerunners of the present day Dravidian politics and parties.
This story will make an attempt to tell the impact and influence that Madras Christian College and its three famous student/staff ... Dr S Radhakrishnan, Prof AG Hogg, Vedanayagam Pillai (Maraimali Adigal) had on the socio-religious and political landscape of the country in the turn of the 20th century and how those influences still very much impact the socio-religious and political environment in the country.