MISSIONARY POSITIONS:
CHRISTIANITY AND NEPALI SOCIETY
John Whelpton HKAS 12/1/2012
`Go into the whole world and preach the gospel; those who
believe and are baptised will be saved and those who do n
ot believe will be damned’ (Mark 16: 15-16)
(Illustration is the frontispiece of Satya Sakshi Parmesvarya Mahima (1740))
RECENT EVENTS
• 1990: Popular protests (`Janandolan I’)force re-introduction of parliamentary democracy after thr
ee decades of royal rule
• 1996: Start of Maoists’ `People’s War’
• 2001: `Royal Massacre’, accession of King Gyanendra and State of Emergency following Maoist
attack on the national army
• 2005: Gyanendra’s imposition of direct royal rule leads to rapprochment between Maoists and the
parliamentary parties
• 2006: Popular protests (`Janandolan II) force Gyanendra to restore parliament, followed by cease
fire and power sharing between Maoists and parliamentary parties
• 2008: Maoists emerge as largest single party (30% of popular vote, 37% of seats) in election for
constituent assembly, followed by Congress and the United Marxist-Leninists (UML),the dominan
t parties in the 1990s, with 20% each.
• 2009: Maoist-led coalition government falls over attempt to assert greater control over the army, r
eplaced by coalition of non-Maoists parties led by UML
• Feb 2011: Maoist-UML coalition government installed with UML premier
• Aug 2011: Maoist-led coalition with Tarai regionalist parties
JOÃO CABRAL, S.J., 1599-1669
• First European known to have visited Bhutan, Tibet and
Nepal
• After stays in Bhutan and Tibet, returned to India via the
Nepal Valley in 1628 and recommended the route as sup
erior to the more easterly one through Kooch-Behar he h
ad previously used.
• His visit to Nepal is known only through a letter in the Jes
uit archives published by Wessels in 1924, which gives n
o further details
• English text and a brief discussion available in Nancy M.
Gettelman `Letter of the first westerner to visit Bhutan-Tib
et-Nepal’ Kailas, vol.9, no. 1, 1982, pp. 97-110
http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/kailash/pdf/kailash_09_01_04.pdf
Kircher’s CHINA ILLUSTRATA (1667)
FRS. GRUEBER AND DORVILLE IN
THE KATHMANDU VALLEY, 1662
• …Rex insignem Patribus benevolentiam exhibuit, praesertim ob tubum Opti
cum, de quo nihil iis unquam innotuerat, aliamque curiosam Matheseos sup
pelictilem ipsi exhibitam, quibus adeo captus est , ut Patres prorsus apud se
retinere constituerit, neque discedere inde passus sit, nisi ubi fide data illuc
se reversuros spondissent; quod si facerent, domum inibi in nostrorum usu
m et exercitum se exstructuram amplissimis redditibus instructam, una cum
plena ad Christi Legem in suum Regnum introducendam facultate concessa,
pollicitus est.
• ..the King [of Kathmandu] showed remarkable kindness to the Fathers, espe
cially because of the telescope, of which they had no previous knowledge, a
nd other strange scientific equipment shown to him, by which he was so ent
hralled that he actually decided to keep the fathers with him and did not let t
hem leave until they had solemnly pledged to return, if they did which, he pr
omised he would construct a house for use by our people and assign a very
large revenue to it, as well as giving full permission for the introduction of Ch
rist’s Law into his Kingdom.
IPPOLITO DESIDERI, S.J. (1684-1733),
IN NEPAL
• Reaches Lhasa in March 1716
• Leaves in April 1721 after Capuchins show him t
he decree of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaga
nda Fide giving them the exclusive right to missi
onary activity in Tibet.
• Reaches Kuti on Nepal-Tibet border in spring 17
21and stays several months
• Travels south through the Kathmandu Valley an
d crosses the Tarai into India the following winter
CROSSING THE TIBETAN
MOUNTAINS
During the journey we crossed the high and diffic
ult mountain called Langur. Everyone suffers fro
m violent headache, oppression of the chest and
shortness of breath during the ascent, and often
from fever, as happened to me. Although it was
nearly the end of May there was deep snow, the
cold was intense and the wind so penetrating th
at, though I was wrapped in woollen rugs, my lun
gs and heart were so affected that I thought my
end was near.
An Account of Tibet, pg.310
THE ROAD TO KATHMANDU
During the journey from Kutti to Kattmandù…. [th
e] road skirted frightful precipices and we climbed
mountains by holes just large enough to put one’
s toe into, cut out of the rock like a staircase. At o
ne place a chasm was crossed by a plank only th
e width or a man’s foot, while the wooden bridges
over large rivers flowing in the deep valleys sway
ed and oscillated most alarmingly.
An Account of Tibet, pg.311
HE WAS NOT EXAGGERATING!
DESIDERI ON THE NEWARS – THE INDIGENOUS
POPULATION OF THE KATHMANDU VALLEY
These Neuârs are active, intelligent and very industrious,
clever at engraving and melting metal, but unstable, turbule
nt and traitorous. They are of medium height, dark skinned a
nd generally well made, but nearly all bear deceit written o
n their faces, so that anyone knowing these countries would
pick out a Neuâr from among a thousand Indians. They are co
wardly, mean and avaricious, spend little on their food and
are dirty in their habits.
An Account of Tibet, p.314
THE CAPUCHIN MISSION, 1715-1769
• The missionaries (mostly Italian but also some French) were ge
nerally protected by the Kathmandu Valley rulers but made few
converts
• They became unpopular during a plague which killed 20,000 in
1717 as they allegedly refused to treat those unwilling to conver
t.
• They initially enjoyed fairly cordial relations with Prithvi Narayan
Shah of Gorkha, whose campaign to conquer the Valley lasted
from 1743 to 1769, but were expelled in April that year because
the failed British intervention to protect the Newar rulers had hei
ghtened his suspicions of all Europeans. The country was to
remain closed to missionaries (and almost all Europeans)
until 1950.
• Their correspondence, published by Luciano Petech as I
missionary italiani nel Tibet e nel Nepal, is an important source
for the period.
DARJEELING – A `HILL STATION’ JUST
EAST OF THE NEPAL-INDIA BORDER
THE GROWTH OF DARJEELING
• Area originally part of Sikkim but `gifted’ to the British in 1839
• Migration from eastern Nepal both because of the availability of work on tea
plantations and because of exactions of Kathmandu government
• Large number of `tribals’ and `low castes’ with a stronger tendency to amalg
amation into a single `Nepali’ or `Gorkha’ mainstream than in Nepal-proper
• Missionary activity from 1842, with permanent Church of Scotland mission s
tation from 1870. Number of converts small (2000 census shows only 3% of
the town’s population as Christians) but converts were particularly likely to s
witch to Nepali from their own `tribal’ language and missionaries had strong
cultural influence.
• Higher levels of literacy than in Nepal – as a result both of missionary and g
overnment efforts – and development of an intellectual base for the Nepali
nationalism that became the government-sponsored orthodoxy in Nepal itsel
f after 1950-51.
• Currently still part of West Bengal but there is a continuing agitation for the a
rea to be made into a separate state (`Gorkhaland’) within India. Pressure fr
om the area secured the adoption of Nepali as one of India’s constitutionally
recognised languages in 1992
• Movement of a number of Darjeeling intellectuals into Nepal, with King Mah
endra’s encouragement, after 1951. At this time any Christians you found in
Nepal were normally from Darjeeling.
THE RETURN OF MISSIONARIES
TO NEPAL
• November 1950: Rana regime invites Fr Moran,
S.J., to establish a school at Godavari in the Kat
hmandu Valley – St. Xavier’s.
• Following the fall of the Rana regime in February
1951, various missionary groups, some of who
m had previously been working in settlements ju
st across the Indian border and hoping for such
an opportunity, enter the country with a mandate
to carry out medical, educational and other form
s of social service.
RELIGIOUS ADHERENCE IN NEPAL
1981 1991 2001
• Hinduism 89.5 86.5 80.6
• Buddhism 5.3 7.8 10.7
• Islam 2.7 3.5 4.2
• Christianity - 0.17 0.4
• The absolute rise over the last ten years was from 31,280 to 101,976 (i.e an increase of 226%).
Adjustment for excluded areas would give a 2001 total of 103,914 and an increase of 232%. In vi
ew of the reports of large-scale conversion over the last ten years (e.g. amongst the Tamangs), t
he real figure may be even higher, though nowhere near the claim of a Christian taxi driver in Kat
hmandu (originally from the tarai) who (if I understood his Nepali properly) told me one third of Ne
pal’s population is now Christian. He also said there were now 100 churches in Kathmandu. Curr
ent estimates by the churches themselves range between 700,000 to over a million – proba
bly about 3% of the population
`LIES, DAMNED LIES AND
STATISTICS’
• The boundary between Hinduism and Buddhism has alw
ays been a fuzzy one, though more distinct at higher level
s in the status hierarchy – this is seen most clearly in the
two-headed structure of Newar society in the Kathmandu
Valley: distinctly Buddhist Bajracharyas and Shakyas and
Hindu Rajopadhyaya Brahmans at the top and Hindu-Bud
dhist Jyapu peasantry at the bottom
• The figure for Hindusim (like the figure for those speaking
Nepali rather than another mother tongue) was boosted i
n the past by the religion’s establishment status. Pressur
e now also the other way as Buddhist activists try to boos
t their own numbers.
SYNCRETISM AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL AS SEEN
BY 17th CENTURY FRANCISCANS IN THE
BALKANS
• Fra Cherubino reported disapprovingly after his visit to K
osovo that the Catholics were getting Muslims to act as g
odfathers for their children, and that they were letting the
Muslims use holy chrism on their own children because it
would guard them against diseases of the eye. In a villa
ge outside Gjakova he and his companion had been wel
comed into one house with the words `Come in, Fathers;
in our house we have Catholicism, Islam and Orthodoxy‘;
in shocked tones, Fra Cherubino reported that `they see
med to glory in the diversity of religions.’
– Noel Malcolm, Kosovo – A Short History. London: Macmillan, 19
98, pg.130
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
• The Nepalese state from unification onwards legitimised itself in term of Hin
duism, with the king upholding the caste hierarchy and particularly the sacre
d status of Brahmans.
• This was made explicit in the 1962 constitution and, despite strong demand
s from some groups for a secular state, retained in the 1990 constitution. Th
e latter implicitly removed a ban on individuals’ changing their own religion b
ut stated there was no right to conduct active proselytisation (dharmaparivar
tan garaaune). Provisions against proselytisation in the existing criminal cod
e have remained a dead letter, though a proposal to re-activate them in a re
vised form was made in 2011
• Nepal was declared a secular state in the aftermath of the protest movemen
t which forced King Gyanendra to cede power in 2006 but some traditionalis
ts continue to demand a referendum on the issue and small extremist group
s such as the Shiva Sena Nepal have resorted to violent action to press for r
eversal of the change. Less extreme groups, but representing the Hindu `hig
h castes’, have also recently become more assertive in response to ethnic a
ctivism directed against these castes’ traditionally dominance.
THE THREE BLOCKS
• Catholic Church
– Education – St Xavier’s and St Mary’s schools
– Academic research (Human Resources Centre)
• Fr Ludwig Stiller (historian)
• Fr. John Locke (Buddhologist)
• United Mission to Nepal
– Medical services
– Butwal Power Company
• The International Nepal Fellowship http://www.inf.org/
– Medical services
– Development work in poor communities
FR. MARSHAL MORAN, S.J.,1906-
1992, IN HIS `HAM SHACK’
LUDWIG STILLER, S.J.1928 - 2009
Hong Kong delegation on a clandestine visit to a c
hurch in a Rai area of eastern Nepal (April 2007)
SUMMER INSTITUTE OF
LINGUISTICS
• American based organisation studying undeveloped lan
guages as base for translations of the Bible
• December 1966: Nepal government signs contract for SI
L to document Nepalese languages and train Nepalese li
nguists.
• Output includes Austin Hale & David Watters (eds) Claus
e, Sentence and Discourse Patterns (Kathmandu: SIL, 1
973, 4 vols.) Full list in Alan C. Wores, Bibliography of th
e Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1979-1986 (2 vols, sup
plm.)
• June 1976: Government orders SIL to quit Nepal by Sep
tember. No reason cited but suspected to be because of
proselytizing activities or (less probably) support for the
Free Tibet movement.
Hvalkof, Søren and Peter Araby (eds). 1981. Is God an American? An anthr
opological Perspective on the missionary Work of the Summer Institute of Li
nguistics. Copenhagen; International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
http://www.iwgia.org/sw23651.asp
The Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT)/Summer Institute of Linguistic
s (SIL), one of the largest missionary enterprises in the world, aims t
o bring »the Word« to the »Bibleless tribes«. In pursuit of converts,
SIL missionaries have profoundly affected indigenous societies thro
ughout the world.
SIL's method of proselytising and its relationships with host countrie
s have provoked many questions and criticisms. Especially in South
America SIL has been accused of acting as a cover for CIA and US
military activities, for drug trafficking, for uranium prospecting. But th
e precise impact of SIL on indigenous peoples has received much le
ss attention. How has the SIL affected the lives and aspirations of n
ative peoples? Have the benefits of literacy, better health care, etc.
brought by the missionaries outweighed the damage wrought by the
destruction of traditional belief?
– from the IWGIA website blurb (downloaded 25/4/2010)
OTHER CRITIQUES OF MISSIONARY ACTIVITY
• Saubhagya Shah, `The Gospel Comes to the Hindu Kingdom’, Hima
l Sept/Oct 1993, on the tension created by conversions at village le
vel.
• George van Driem, Languages of the Himalayas, Leiden: Brill, 2001
(2 vols.)
– condemns missionaries for erosion of Chepang traditional culture and n
otes a 1993 attack (led by Chepang shamans) on Christian Chepangs.
Refers particularly to work of one New Zealand missionary (p.790)
– corroborates from own experience stories of financial inducements to co
nvert, payment of proselytizers, encouragement of young Christian Tam
angs to make fun of traditional ones etc.
– Suggests parallelism or even causal relationship between the effects of
Christian missionaries in the Kham Magar area of the western hills and
subsequent development of Maoist insurgency there (p.791-20
CLASHES BETWEEN CHRISTIAN
AND NON-CHRISTIANS
• 1993 attack led by Chepang shamans on Chepang Christians
• Nepal News (web) 2/7/00: Buddhist villagers vandalise homes of 5 Christian
families at Gumda district (Gorkha), claiming they’ve been trying to convert t
he village and have slaughtered animals in defiance of Buddhist tradition. Vi
ce-chairman of District Development Committee has negotiated a compromi
se under which the Christians will be rehabilitated but will stop killing animal
s.
• Reports of tension in some Tamang villages north of the Kathmandu valley
• Murder of Fr. John Prakash, principal of Don Bosco school in Dharan in su
mmer 2008
• Bomb explosion at a church in Patan kills 2 in May 2009
SOCIAL WELFARE COUNCIL
REPORT APRIL 2010
• Up to 15 percent of the 200 International Non-Governmental Organi
sations (INGO)s working in Nepal are engaged in preaching their rel
igion in various ways.
• Informal reports received that some INGOs, which took permission f
rom the SWC to carry out various developmental projects in Nepal,
preach their religion in various ways like forcing them to convert reli
gion to secure a job, conducting prayers during office hours and pro
viding information about the religion during official training.
• No formal complaints received so no official action yet taken
http://www.nepalnews.com/main/index.php/news-archive/2-political/5162-15-percent-ingos-preaching-religion-swc
-.html
(downloaded 5April 2010)
CHRIST AND MAO
• Van Driem’s suggestion that missionary undermining of traditional beliefs prepared gr
ound for the Maoists. A Kathmandu-based American Jesuit was given a similar analy
sis for China by a third-generation Chinese Baptist who believes missionaries in Chin
a helped prepare the ground for communism.
• Story from one foreign resident of a church in Patan making voluntary donation to the
Maoists during the 2008 election campaign as a means of ensuring a secular state.
• Government closing of a Christian funded development project listed by one analyst a
mong the causes radicalising the area where Maoist insurgency first broke out
• The Indian parallel – killing by Maoists in Andhra Pradesh of a Hindu fundamentalist l
eader triggered violence against Christians because the Maoists’ recruits are often fro
m Christianised tribes.
• But relations between Christians and Maoists are not as close as Hindu activists sugg
est
– Those in the Kham Magar area who actually converted generally didn’t become Maoists
– Churches in Everest region under `donation’ pressure and not able to operate normally durin
g insurgency
– A Protestant pastor’s survey of his own congregation in western Nepal before the 2008 elect
ion showed support for the Maoists as about the same level (30%) as their actual share of th
e national vote.
– A Maoist who was briefly Minister of Justice in 2011 spoke in favour of strengthened measur
e against proselytisation proposed for inclusion in a revised civil code
– This attitude may be widespread in Maoist ranks – a senior trade unionist complained to me
last year about financial inducements to conversion though also thought trying to act against
this would cause trouble with donor community
PROPOSED PROVIONS ON CONVERSION IN DRAFT R
EVISED CRIMINAL CODE
(unofficial translation adopted from one supplied by Catholi
c journalist Chirendra Satyal – italics mine)
• Section 160.1:No person shall be entitled to convert,
attempt to convert or incite others to convert anyone to
another religion.
• Section 160.2: No person shall act or behave in a
manner which may infringe upon the religion practiced by
any caste, community from ancient times or conduct
publicity for any religion with the intention to convert
whether by inducement or not.
• Section 160.3: Anyone committing offences as specified
in mention on sub-sections (1) and (2) will be liable to up
to 5 years imprisonment and a fine of up to NPR.50000/-
fine [about US$700].
ARTICLE 23 (`RIGHT TO RELIGION’) OF THE
2007 INTERIM CONSTITUTION (UNDP
translation, italics mine)
• (1) Every person shall have the right to profess, practise
and preserve his or her own religion as handed down to
him or her from ancient times paying due regard to social
and cultural traditions. Provided that no person shall be e
ntitled to convert another person from one religion to ano
ther, and no person shall act or behave in a manner whic
h may infringe upon the religion of others
• (2) Every religious denomination shall have the right to m
aintain its independent existence, and for this purpose to
manage and protect its religious places and religious trus
ts, in accordance with law.
THE CONTROVERSY
• 15 May: Proposal to include provisions against proselytis
ation in the revised Criminal Code made public
• Campaign by Christians, Buddhists and Mulsims with so
me liberal Hindu support, alleging the legislation inconsis
tent with Article 23 of the interim constitution and with arti
cle 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights
• 23 June: Presented to parliament but not brought to a vo
te because of the fall of the UML-Maoist government at t
he beginning of August; outgoing prime minister Jhalanat
h Khanal reportedly makes a statement in support of no
n-Hindu concerns
• The dispute has throughout attracted little attention outsi
de the groups affected because of concentration on the r
eplacement of Khanal’s government.
Conversation with a convert
From a column by Niraj Aryal in a column in The Telegraph (right-wing
Kathmandu newspaper), 6/4/10:
“Dai (brother) are you a Catholic or a Protestant?”
“Thuuu (pooh-pooh)….it is better to be a Hindu than a Catholic”, the p
erson replied.
“Why” surprisingly (sic) I asked.
He preferred not to reply (I felt he did not know the answer and I have no ide
a why Protestants hate Catholics or vice versa.)
“What is your name”, I asked him again.
“Jeevan,” he answered.
“Is that your real name or….” I questioned him.
“No, this is the name given to me by my pastor after I accepted conver
sion”, he told me.
“Then what is your real name”, my question followed.
(He remained silent for some time and awkwardly replied)
Ram Bahadur B. K.(belongs to Dalit community), he finally answered.
INTER-CHRISTIAN
DISAGREEMENTS
• There is a general perception that Catholics are happy not to pro
selytise (the Justice Minister in 2011 explicitly excluded Catholics
from criticism and said the problem was with some Protestant gr
oups), the International Nepal Fellowship want to evade the ban
and the United Mission to Nepal includes a range of views on the
issue.
• Strong disapproval of Catholics by many evangelicals because of:
– their non-proselytising approach
– the ritualism of Catholicism, seen as an adulteration of Christianity by ele
ments of Graeco-Roman paganism (position articulated by Baptist Udi Gur
ung in his Tribhuvan university M.A. thesis)
– their willingness to participate in some rituals connected with Hinduism, pa
rticularly at Dasai
Durga, the mother goddess whose victory over a buffalo demon is c
elebrated in Nepal’s most important festival, Dasai.
`My fingers are still red from giving tika to the younger members of my fictive fa
mily in Lubhu. But I just mumble a thoroughly Christian benediction over them a
s I give tika.’ (American Jesuit missionary) (Photo: Nicole Farcough http://www.advocacy
net.org/blogs/index.php/2007/11/07/the_great_festiveal_of_nepal_dashain_pro?blog=78)
THE CATHOLIC TRADITION
• Willingness by some Catholics to compromise on forms
of religious observance (Mattaeo Ricci, the later `Chines
e rites’ controversy) but still with ultimate objective of con
version to Christian beliefs.
• Belief that `salvation outside the Church’ is possible in so
me circumstances
• Recent adjustment to abandonment of traditional prosely
tising altogether – in Nepal as legally required, but also i
n some other areas – Catholic schools in Indian `tribal’ ar
eas no longer `missionising’, in contrast to the RSS, Hind
u revivalist schools which , ironically adopt the Catholics’
old approach (Sundar 2010). A prominent Indian Jesuit
sociologist has called for an abandonment of `aggressive
’ attempts to promote conversion (Heredia 2007)
Conversion and Religious pluralism
• `Go into the whole world and preach the gospel; those who believe
and are baptised will be saved and those who do not believe will be
damned’.
Mark 16: 15-16
• `My brother kneels (so saith Kabir)
To stone and brass in heathen wise,
But in my brother’s voice I hear
My own unanswered agonies.
His God is as his fates assign – H
is prayer is all the world’s – and mine.
Rudyard Kipli
ng, The Prayer
