The 'Indian' thing

                        I have found few interesting things among the South Indians (not sure about Kerala) who belong to the category of 'converted - Christians'. Thought of sharing them now.

                        Before I make these points, I would like to make it clear that criticism is not meant here and the whole post must be read in a positive way. It is just an attempt to understand the Indian Hindu influence on the Indian Christian families.

Beliefs:

                         Hindus generally get wild hallucinations where they start seeing god, talking to god and do funny things like walking on fire, dancing etc. Similarly, Indian Christians are also affected by such things. A Christian woman tried to crucify herself in Guntur. She had been telling people (her followers) that Jesus Christ had appeared in her dream and asked her to crucify herself. Her followers had brought a wooden cross too. The woman is currently in the police custody.

Customs:

                         Marriages are performed in Church via the holy knot (Thali, mangalyam). Telugu Christian thali / mangalyams have a cross inscribed on them. Nalugu, is process of applying a paste of turmeric to the bride and bridegroom in their respective homes which is performed by singing of traditional Christian wedding hymns. People start important work by offering a coconut to Jesus. 'Mary matha utsavams' are common these days. Many women go to church on the  'Varalakshmi Vratham' day for the betterment of their husbands.

Castes:

                       Caste - The main and most important factor in Indian Culture has its impact even on Christianity. 60% of AP Catholics are Kamma / Kapu or Reddy who form the forward caste in Indian society. These days, caste discrimination is growing among Christians in South India. There are separate community halls, burial grounds, and churches for members of the lower castes.  All over India, about 70% of Catholics are lower caste ones (Dalits), but the higher caste priests and nuns control 90% of the Catholic churches' administrative jobs. Moreover, out of the 156 catholic bishops, only 6 are from lower castes. Pope John Paul II also criticized the caste discrimination in the Roman Catholic Church in India. He said "It is the Church's obligation to work unceasingly to change hearts, helping all people to see every human being as a child of God, a brother or sister of Christ, and therefore a member of our own family"

Other interesting things I have noticed these days:

'Gothram' :

                        When anyone visits a temple in south, one should mention his gothram. Gothra is the identification of lineage from the sages. All Hindus have a gothra and incase of not having one, surname becomes their gothra. It  is customary to say that ' so and so gothra abhivrudhyarhdam (for the benefit of so and so gothra) , the following things are performed'. Gothra becomes an important factor while performing any rituals.

                         Yesterday, I have seen an interesting Calvary poster. Calvary Chapel is known as 'Calvary Mandiramu / Temple'.It says, 'Yudhu Gothra Abhivrudhi' - It means for the development / prosperity of descendants of 'Yudhu' - 'Judaism'.  We can clearly see the Indian impact here.

'Name' :

                         For any event, the priest is very important. In India, priest is known as 'Ayya varu', 'Sastry', 'Sharma' etc. A pooja is to performed by such priests and is believed that the rituals are complete only by the pooja done by proper poojari. Now, in the same Calvary poster, the name of the Father was mentioned as - 'Father Joseph Sastry'. Obviously, masses will be attracted by this. I have seen this one at a slum (where many converted ones are present). A small church has a board which says - 'Ayya varu undu velalu (Priest Availability) 6AM to 9AM'.

Innovation in advertising:

                       I have seen one channel in which the presenter was a 'Sanyasi type Swamy'. He wore a Saffron shawl which had some letters written in red. He was preaching something. In general, Hindu priests have such shawls with 'Sri ram' 'Om' written all over in red. It looked exactly like that. The program was, to my surprise, on Bible. So, I have seen the shawl keenly wondering how such conflict would have happened. I have found that the red ones were simple lines on the saffron cloth and the program was designed to attract people. Any preacher or priest will get attention only by wearing a saffron cloth in India (especially among the masses.).

                         Many flyovers, compound walls etc in Hyderabad these have a quote - 'Gita as it is - God will come 7:4'. I used to wonder, where in Bhagavad Gita such a mentioning is there. But, have later realized that the reference in this context is made to 7th Chapter, 4th page of a local book called 'Devuni Gita'.

                         May be in future, we may hear ashtotharam, sahasranama sthothram, god's kada / kankanams etc. One thing that is clear is - the 'Indian' thing can never be taken away from Indians.