India's churches oppose China `model'

Christian Century, Oct 25, 2000

India's church leaders have firmly rejected a proposal by a prominent Hindu fundamentalist group for Christian churches to be reorganized in a system similar to that adopted in China where official churches are regulated by the government and acknowledge no foreign authorities.

One of the main goals of the proposed model is the expulsion of all foreign Christian missionaries, whose presence is a bone of contention between Christian churches and many Hindu leaders.

"Why should foreign churches that do not believe in according equal respect to all faiths be allowed to function from India?" said K. S. Sudarshan, the leader of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or National Volunteer Corps) on October 7. He was apparently referring to a recent Vatican document which states that Catholicism is the true path to salvation and that other religions are therefore "deficient."

Addressing an annual gathering of RSS members at the organization's headquarters at Nagpur in central India, Sudarshan urged Indian Christians to emulate Chinese Christians who have indigenous churches such as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the China Christian Council, a Protestant organization. These religious organizations promote Chinese values and do not recognize foreign religious authorities such as the Vatican. Buddhist and Islamic organizations in China operate under a similar system.

The RSS chief repeated remarks he made October 2 in New Delhi which had been reported in the national media and provoked Christian anger. Sudarshan had told a convention of RSS volunteers: "It is advisable to have a totally Indian church like the one in China, and all foreign churches and missionaries should be asked by the government to pack up and go."

As for the suggestion that India adopt the Chinese model, the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) said in a statement on October 9 that China's example "does not go with the secular democracy of our country. ... For that matter, even Hinduism is not a sarkari [government-controlled] religion. Then how come the call for Indian churches to be sarkari?" The NCCI represents 29 Protestant and Orthodox churches in India.

The RSS proposal and the NCCI response are merely the latest chapter in ongoing arguments about the role of Christianity in mainly Hindu India. Since the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), which promotes Hinduism, came to power at the federal level in 1998, fundamentalist Hindus have waged campaigns, sometimes violent, against churches and their members, and in particular against Christian missionaries. The BJP, the main party in the coalition government, is closely linked to the RSS.

In an interview a Roman Catholic archbishop commented that the RSS proposal was much more than a piece of "advice." The suggestion, said Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Agra, "shows their true colors." Concessao, a vice president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), added: "If they [the BJP] had a clear majority [in India's federal parliament], they would certainly do such things to isolate Indian Christians [from] the outside world."

Dominic Emmanuel, public relations director of the CBCI, said that RSS attempts to portray Christians, especially the Roman Catholic Church, as "foreign" were "unfounded and contrary to the facts." India's 143 Catholic dioceses are led by Indian bishops, and the few foreign missionaries in India had permission to be there from the federal government, Emmanuel said.

K. Rajaratnam, a prominent Lutheran church leader, also rejected the RSS proposal. "We have some mad people in this country making mad statements," said Rajaratnam, who is president of the (Lutheran) Gurukul Theological College in Chennai in southern India. The RSS "advice" was "an insult to Christians," he added.

More than 80 percent of India's 1 billion people are Hindus, while Christians make up only 2.3 per cent of the population.