An Indian Journey through Lent, Day 33
Diversity & Contrast I
Though it’s almost a commonplace to say that India is a country of mind-boggling diversity examples keep…well…boggling my mind.
Over thirty years ago I attended a Republic Day parade in Delhi in the limousine of the ambassador of the small south American state of Guyana. That evening I caught a train back to my home and workplace about 2000 kilometres south, with an unreserved ticket. I shared a third class, 3 tiered carriage built for 75 people with about 200 others, and spent two nights straddling 2 of the uppermost bunks in a compartment, about two metres above the floor. When I left the train at about 1am on the second night I hitched a ride back to my hospital on the back of a lorry. Oh to be young again!
But yesterday’s events outdid the contrast even of my means of transport all those years ago. Over the next two blogs I’ll describe Sunday, 6th April, a most amazing day, filled with diversity and contrast.
Early in the morning I participated in Christ Church’s English service. You will recall that Christ Church was the Church of England Church that the highest officials of the British Raj attended during the summer months when they resided in Shimla. Rev Mushtaq Malk had me sit in the first pew, but it was only about halfway through the service that I noticed a plaque in front of me inscribed with H.E. THE VICEROY. Being chauffeured in an ambassadorial vehicle of a former colony was one thing; sitting where the first representatives of the King Emperor in the jewel of the Empire had warmed the pews for nearly 100 years (1858 - 1947) was entirely another matter!
It gave me insights into the cool, deist, enlightenment form of Christian religion adopted by the British establishment. Though much has changed and is still changing since the British left, I understand that the whole order of service during the time of the British Raj followed a form closely designed and approved by humans. There was some room for change and spontaneity, but that was entirely at the discretion of the priest who in his turn performed these rites under the watchful eye of the Viceroy. His Excellency The Viceroy sat about 15 metres from where the priest administered the ritual of Holy Communion - far enough away to discourage informality and spontaneity, but close enough to know instantly if the priest was transgressing his boundaries!
Steeply sloping Shimla exists because of its elaborate system of huge retaining walls. On the way back from church I passed one that was especially large, and buttressed. Each of the buttresses, though painted, had a dark stain about 1.5 metres above ground level. I noticed person after person interrupting their walk to touch their foreheads against one or other buttress in a gesture of respect. Above the retaining wall stood a Hindu temple. It reminded me that in our hotel that morning the staff had coordinated their own private worship with the Hindu worship offered on Indian TV. While the priest on TV purified (?) an idol with burning incense to the tolling of bells they burnt incense at the hotel’s counter to several images of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh.
I don’t think there could be two modes of worship more different from each other than the highly organised, formalised, corporate worship to a distant, deist deity offered by the imperial Church of England, and the simple, informal, individual acts of piety offered by Hindus passing by and under the temple as they went about their daily business. The two ways offer up *so* many contrasts; you can surely think of some yourself. I’ll just say that since Hinduism has for nearly a millennium resisted the best efforts of Islam to convert it out of existence it’s not at all surprising that deist Christianity has not succeeded. It’s *because* I’m a passionate Christian that I appreciate the personal relationship with God one finds in Hindu writings. At the heart of my religious belief is a personal, loving relationship with God, whom I understand through Jesus of Nazareth. Although the growing evangelical movement (which in recent years seems to have been all too often carried by its own internal logic to strange, even cruel places) provided a welcome counterpoint, I see little evidence of that personal, loving relationship with God in the deist Christianity of Empire.
Diversity & Contrast I
Though it’s almost a commonplace to say that India is a country of mind-boggling diversity examples keep…well…boggling my mind.
Over thirty years ago I attended a Republic Day parade in Delhi in the limousine of the ambassador of the small south American state of Guyana. That evening I caught a train back to my home and workplace about 2000 kilometres south, with an unreserved ticket. I shared a third class, 3 tiered carriage built for 75 people with about 200 others, and spent two nights straddling 2 of the uppermost bunks in a compartment, about two metres above the floor. When I left the train at about 1am on the second night I hitched a ride back to my hospital on the back of a lorry. Oh to be young again!
But yesterday’s events outdid the contrast even of my means of transport all those years ago. Over the next two blogs I’ll describe Sunday, 6th April, a most amazing day, filled with diversity and contrast.
Early in the morning I participated in Christ Church’s English service. You will recall that Christ Church was the Church of England Church that the highest officials of the British Raj attended during the summer months when they resided in Shimla. Rev Mushtaq Malk had me sit in the first pew, but it was only about halfway through the service that I noticed a plaque in front of me inscribed with H.E. THE VICEROY. Being chauffeured in an ambassadorial vehicle of a former colony was one thing; sitting where the first representatives of the King Emperor in the jewel of the Empire had warmed the pews for nearly 100 years (1858 - 1947) was entirely another matter!
It gave me insights into the cool, deist, enlightenment form of Christian religion adopted by the British establishment. Though much has changed and is still changing since the British left, I understand that the whole order of service during the time of the British Raj followed a form closely designed and approved by humans. There was some room for change and spontaneity, but that was entirely at the discretion of the priest who in his turn performed these rites under the watchful eye of the Viceroy. His Excellency The Viceroy sat about 15 metres from where the priest administered the ritual of Holy Communion - far enough away to discourage informality and spontaneity, but close enough to know instantly if the priest was transgressing his boundaries!
Steeply sloping Shimla exists because of its elaborate system of huge retaining walls. On the way back from church I passed one that was especially large, and buttressed. Each of the buttresses, though painted, had a dark stain about 1.5 metres above ground level. I noticed person after person interrupting their walk to touch their foreheads against one or other buttress in a gesture of respect. Above the retaining wall stood a Hindu temple. It reminded me that in our hotel that morning the staff had coordinated their own private worship with the Hindu worship offered on Indian TV. While the priest on TV purified (?) an idol with burning incense to the tolling of bells they burnt incense at the hotel’s counter to several images of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh.
I don’t think there could be two modes of worship more different from each other than the highly organised, formalised, corporate worship to a distant, deist deity offered by the imperial Church of England, and the simple, informal, individual acts of piety offered by Hindus passing by and under the temple as they went about their daily business. The two ways offer up *so* many contrasts; you can surely think of some yourself. I’ll just say that since Hinduism has for nearly a millennium resisted the best efforts of Islam to convert it out of existence it’s not at all surprising that deist Christianity has not succeeded. It’s *because* I’m a passionate Christian that I appreciate the personal relationship with God one finds in Hindu writings. At the heart of my religious belief is a personal, loving relationship with God, whom I understand through Jesus of Nazareth. Although the growing evangelical movement (which in recent years seems to have been all too often carried by its own internal logic to strange, even cruel places) provided a welcome counterpoint, I see little evidence of that personal, loving relationship with God in the deist Christianity of Empire.
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