Hinduism, Christianity Travel Together at a Church in Bihar

Proselytising religions, Christianity and Islam, have been flexible in adapting themselves to rituals of other religions to pursue conversion to swell their ranks. Several sects of these two religions in India allow people who convert to them to carry over their rituals and cultural practices and observe them along with those of their new faiths.

The Christians’ Nazareth Mission has experimented it very successfully at Mokama in Bihar, where noted writer Jim Corbett functioned in various capacities, as fuel inspector, assistant station master and lastly as transhipment contractor during the British rule in Bihar.

Mokama is also a place where teenage revolutionary Praful Chandra Chaki died by suicide at the Railway platform to avoid arrest by the British police. The Mission was a household name four or five decades ago, colloquially known as ‘Padariya’ as it ran a well-maintained, squeaky clean big hospital at Mokama in the midst of drought of government hospitals in the area.

It catered to people living in remote and difficult-to-access areas with affordable charges. The staff were very affable and polite. Sadly, it shut down later due to internal or local circumstances.  A few years ago, local people took initiatives to get it revived but nothing happened.

But the Mission continued to spread the message of compassion and succour of Jesus Christ. It worked silently without trampling on the sentiments of followers of other religions.

It co-opted hundreds of local Hindus in its mission by giving them a feeling that their old faith is not lost completely by borrowing some nomenclatures and rituals from Hindu faith and giving them a holy space at the church.

 It served them as well as the converts well. Their reach widened in the surrounding areas and the converts did not find themselves completely uprooted from their moorings with the vibes of brotherhood vibes and other consequential benefits extended to them.

Those who felt virtually ostracised among Caste Hindus flocked to them. They have built an abode to Mother Mary and named it ‘Mariyam Mata Mandir’ to make it amenable to local converted Hindu devouts.

A beautiful idol of Mother Mary with child Jesus in her lap is installed inside the temple. People offer prayers and make offerings to the idol. On first Sunday of February every year, a religious mela is organised where thousands of people gather to worship at the ‘Mata Mariyam Mandir.’

Besides, hundreds of people walk barefoot on the same Sunday to the Mandir with slings across their shoulders and mumbling some prayer along the way to the ‘Maa Mariyam Tirthdham’. The pilgrimage place has been named ‘Maa Mariyam Tirthdham’ to accord with Hindu religious places.

Dham refers to an abode or a sacred place. Recently, a big controversy broke out between West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi over Mamata adding Dham to a newly-built Jagannath temple at Digha in the state.  It became a copyright issue, with Majhi accusing Mamata of stealing Dham name.

The religious procession looks like a Kanwar Yatra by Hindus who go on to the Baidyanath Dham at Devghar in Jharkhand to offer the holy Ganga jal (water) at the Shiv temple.

It is alien to Christianity. But it has got traction among the local Christians. The local Hindus are bemused seeing their religious practices being welded into Christianity. But the Church architecture sticks to the classical style.

The Railways run special trains to make the journey of the pilgrims easy to the Dham. There is also a pond at the place where the believers take a holy dip following the fulfilment of their wishes and leave their old clothes there. It is also a borrowing from the Hindu religion.

Outside the Church, there is a huge pillar, a symbol of the faith probably taken from Sikhism without a flag and sign. Along the entry gate of the church are adorned well-sculpted life size 12 statues of the saints of Christianity.

At times, they also organise religious processions in which children participate in large numbers. The rally goes to the nearby churches at Barh, Bakhtiyarpur, Bihar Sharief, Jehanabad, Sheikhpura, Karnauti, Sabnima and Rani Sarai.

Children of the local converts as well as of other faiths study in the schools set up by the Mission. The converts see no conflicts between their old religious belief and the Christian liturgy.

How the local church bureaucracy has reconciled the two beliefs so comfortably is a matter to think over. The Mission has been active in the area for a long time. About five decades ago, they would visit local villages, particularly colonies inhabited by the untouchables, to propagate the faith.

 But the converts never shunned Hindu religion for Christianity. They continued to worship both Jesus as well as Hindu gods and goddesses and observe their respective rituals.

They would keep idols of Christ as well as Hindu gods and goddesses in their ‘puja ghars’. When the missionary official would come to their houses, they were alerted by the word of mouth in advance and would replace the Hindu idols with the Jesus’s, replacing the latter with the former after their departure.

But the local Church authorities do not want to come on record on the queer mix of Hindu and Christian rituals. This reporter tried thrice to seek views of the Father of the local church, but he refused to either meet or talk.  He told him to talk to the higher authorities in Patna who have the final word in such matters.