The Jesuit Legacy in India

The Jesuiticicalic bequest in India Abstract The Jesuits arrived in India in 1542 A. D. to carry out christs command to go and draw and quarter disciples of in all nations (Matthew 2819). e very(prenominal)where the last vitamin D years, they squander woven themselves into the very fabric of India with cryptical psychological, theological and sociological con nonations. This article tells that story highlights some noteworthy Jesuit influences on Modern India, particularly in the fields of education, medicine, loving service of process and leaders educational activity amongst the youth and, draws leaders lessons from these Jesuit achievements.The Jesuits demonstrated servant leadership, transformational leadership, and transactional leadership qualities. Without the Jesuits, the article concludes, India would be a different body politic. The Jesuit bequest in India Ad majorem Dei gloriam. For the greater glory of God. Thats the motto of a religious order of men calle d the nine of Jesus that has quietly influenced India, and provided minimize leadership to the worlds largest democracy in galore(postnominal) all overbearing elbow rooms deserving of recognition.The influence of the Jesuits in India extends beyond safe the disperse of Christianity, weaving intricate psychological, theological and sociological patterns into the very fabric of ultramodern Indian society. Professor George Menachery appointed by pope Benedict xvi as member of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great in early 2008, and editor of the St.Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India and the Indian Church register Classics writes in Volume III of the former subject the factor which has won the cabaret a lasting place in the minds of the population and in the history of the nation is the large number of spheres which it has penetrated and permeated, and goes on to list religion, spirituality, politics, education, science, technology, meteorology, di plomacy, indology, culture, history, geography, language, literature, art, architecture, sports, medicine, health get by, mixer reforms, leadership formation, tribal and aboriginal causal agencys, and nation-building as some of the contri barelyions of the Jesuits to modern India. apprise History The organization was entraped in 1534 by St. Ignatius Loyola (14911556), and received papal potential in 1540 under Pope Paul III. Amongst the original six members was St. Francis Xavier, who was an vehement missionary with the passion to take Christs message to the East. He arrived in India in 1542, to the highest degree fifteen centuries afterwards St. Thomas the Apostle had brought Christianity to India.With the reach of Xavier, began a saga of leadership by the Society of Jesus in India that continues to this day, almost 500 years later. Pre-British India The expanding influence on the Jesuits on 17th ampere-second pre-British India has been s sound up documented by historian s, among them Ellison Banks Findly, who writes in Nur Jahan, Empress of Mughal India (Oxford University Press) that Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1569-1627) granted the Jesuits many privileges, and spent every night for matchless year in consultation disputation amongst Christian and another(prenominal) theologians, and that his most active interest in Christian doctrine was in the debates held at his court between the Jesuit fathers and the Muslim mullas. In fact, the Jesuit Mission of the Great Moghul was started at the postulation of Emperor Akbar, with act Rudolph Acquaviva, the future Martyr, as its first Superior.The Jesuit Mission in Madura in the south was as well begun at the request of the Hindoo viceroy (nayakka) formal in Madura, and later supported by Zulfikar Ali Khan (1690-1703), the first Nawab of the Carnatic. The Madura Mission counted among its members the celebrated Father Robert de Nobili, as well as beau ideal John de Britto. British India With the onset o f British rule over India that effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, the Jesuits found greater favor with the erstwhile powers. They began exerting increasing influence not alone on the Christians in India, but in addition on the society at large.Even the Maharajas whom the British allowed to reign as long as they paid their ascribable taxes to the Crown and their war councils and civil administrations, were positively influenced by the Jesuits, right from Goa to cochin china to Cape Comorin to Manapad to Mannar to Mylapore. Independent India By the time the British Empire was overthrown and separate India emerged in 1947, the Jesuits had entrenched themselves deeply into Indian society by air of leading and high-profile educational institutions, hospitals, charity organizations and other enterprises that became effective partners of the organisation in the young democracy in supporting growth.Professor George Menachery writes in The St. Thomas Christian Enc yclopedia of India (Vol. III 2010) the ubiquitous nature of the Society has by its wide-ranging missions become one of the most powerful influences in Indian history. right away there is hardly any Catholic ecclesiastical division in India or any revenue district in the country for that return which does not boast some Jesuit enterprise or other, be it a school or a college, a technical readiness institute or an engineering establishment, a printing press or an infirmary, a seminary or a social service centre. Psychological see on India Discipline positively impacted the Indian psycheThe Jesuit try gathered big businessman right in the middle of the Catholic resurgence called the Counter-Reformation that began with the Council of Trent (1545-1563) as a response to the Protestant Reformation, and ended with the Thirty days War in 1648. Pope Paul III (15341549) led the Council of Trent, and tasked the attention cardinals with institutional reform to impact ecclesiastical ( or structural) reconfiguration, religious orders, spiritual movements and political dimensions of the Catholic Church. New religious orders such as the Jesuits, Capuchins, Ursulines, Theatines, Discalced Carmelites, and the Barnabites were a fundamental part of this movement, and Jesuits in particular, greatly bolstered rural parishes, enhanced frequent piety, succeeded in constraining corruption within the church, and p demeaned an emblematical routine in overall Catholic renewal.These activities all-inclusive well into India. The Jesuit take away accomplished by St. Ignatius Loyola was dictatorial and military-like (possibly emanating from the fact that Ignatius was a soldier out front he became a priest) and, this iron assure, rigid training and resolute caseful of the Jesuits created a deep psychological impact on the Indian psyche. Rev. Fr. Jerome Francis, a accepted Jesuit missionary in the Calcutta Province, opines that this perception of extreme discipline sat we ll with the general Indian populace and the rulers, and consequently boded well for the next phase of Jesuit growth in the country. Helped prevent religious religious religious mysticism amongst Indian ChristiansAn prototype of rigid and inflexible discipline can be discerned in regulations such as Rule-13 of the Jesuit Charter that said I will believe that the white that I see is black if the vertical Church so defines it (Jesuit Political megabyteght The Society of Jesus and the utter by Harro Hopfl, Cambridge University Press, 2004). Ursula King writes in Christian Mystics The Spiritual Heart of the Christian Tradition (Simon & Schuster, 1998) that such rigid principles helped prevent the interpenetrate of mysticism amongst Christians in India, even while mysticism ran high in part of atomic number 63 during the Catholic revival, with leaders like Teresa of Avila (1515-82) and John of the Cross (1542-91). The spread of mysticism make the institutional Church especially nerv ous because, carried to its logical conclusion, mysticism negates the need for priesthood and the sacraments.Since one of the central tenets of Hindiism is a formless God (Thou art formless thy only form is our knowledge of thee Upanishads), Christians exposed to Hindu thought were especially prone mysticism, as has been proven over and over again by later-day Christian mystics like Father Bede Griffiths (1906-1993) and hydrogen le Saux (1910-1973). Closer psychological consolidation with Hindu society The Jesuits likewise introduced to India the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, which was endorsed by Pope Paul III in 1548, and exemplified the Society of Jesus in the way these exercises helped the Jesuits understand human relationship with God, and depart a life of commitment to Christ. The Exercises were a set of meditations, prayers and mental exercises designed to be carried out typically over a four reverseweek period, tuged at helping individuals discern Jesus in their lives and commit to a life of service to Christ.This rigid Jesuit tradition has been compared with devotionalism, and provided close parallels to Hindu ritualistic traditions, and helped psychologically in the closer integration of the Jesuits into Hindu society. theological check Setting up of Seminaries Jesuits believed in establishing seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church. Consequently, they set up several seminaries in India to dispense theological knowledge. Styled after the successful seminary of the Malankara Orthodox Church that was founded by St. Thomas, the Apostle in A. D. 52, and the Rachol Seminary founded in 1521 by the Church of Goa, the earliest Jesuit seminary was the St.Josephs Inter-diocesan Seminary, Mangalore established in 1763 followed by St. Josephs Seminary started in West Bengal in 1879 and, the Society of the Missionaries of St. Francis Xavier founded in 1887 in Pilar. Today there are at least(prenominal) 22 Jesuit seminaries, many of them degree granting institutions authorized by the Vatican and the government of India. The foremost archetype of Jesuit theological excellence is the Vidyajyoti College of immortal in Delhi that currently enrolls hundreds of students coming from some 70 religious congregations, dioceses, secular institutes and lay associations from every part of India and abroad. Setting up of ChurchesOne of the earliest Jesuit churches was established by St. Francis Xavier himself in Tuticorin. Originally called the Jesuit Church of Saint Paul, its consideration was raised to that of a Basilica by Pope Paul II to mark its 400th anniversary, and is now known as the Basilica of Our noblewoman of the Snows, Tuticorin. St. Pauls Churchaty in Diu on the west coast of India envisions sand to 1610. In all, there are over 110 Jesuit Churches in India, and these churches perplex always integrated well with Indian society in general, and with pe ople from other faiths, in particular. To cite one example of this integration During midnight mass on Christmas Eve in St.Pauls Cathedral in Calcutta, the rush of Hindus is so heavy that the Church installs a loudspeaker dodging in the large gardens surrounding the Church, so that hundreds of Hindus who could not gain entre into the Cathedral, can sit and listen to the rituals. Evangelism Jesus commanded his eleven disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and didactics them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 2819,20 NIV. The Jesuits had evangelism as one of their stated goals, and their efforts first spread Christianity along the western Konkan coast of India. The Jesuits then spread both southerly (towards Madura) and northwards (towards Agra), continually converting Hindus and Muslims to Christianity. Rev. H. H osten, S. J. writes in Jesuit Missionaries in Northern India and Inscriptions on their Tombs (1580-1803) Under (Mughal Emperor) Jahangir several Mohamedan Princes were baptized, among them Currown, another of Jahangirs sons, and other of his friends (to make his way easier to the Crown) prevailed with Jahangir that his kinsmen Shaw Selyms Brothers Sons might be Christened which accordingly was done in Agra that year they also baptized another Grandson of Akbars. Until the Protestant Missionaries came to India in the 18th century, the Jesuits were the prime force of evangelism in India. Typical and often quoted, but not unique, proactive foremost to reach out to the Indian masses is expert today by the Indian Theological Seminary (ITS).Founded by the Jesuits, ITS is now an interdenominational seminary located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, with Gilgal evangel Mission as its missionary training arm. The Gilgal Gospel Mission trains men and women, and sends them out into the world at larg e in pairs, into Hindu villages, with a view to them establishing friendship in the villages, and starting, first, Sunday Schools and, later, Churches. ITS prepares third types of Church planters (a) bare foot evangelists (C. Th), (b) Bachelor of Theology (B. Th), and (c) Master of theological system (M. Div). Graduates who prepare at ITS fulfill its mission of Preaching Christ and put Churches in every village, town and city.Many return to their homes in the various parts of India to continue teaching, preaching, and planting churches. Today, Christianity is Indias third-largest religion, with approximately 24 million followers, constituting 2. 3% of Indias population. The vulgarization of Annual Retreats amongst Priests and the Populace As noted earlier, the Jesuits avidly pursued the capital punishment of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius that were a set of meditations, prayers and mental exercises designed to be practiced in the form of a four week meditative unsay from normal life. The basic purpose of these retreats was to mediate the human-God relationship and, periodically brush up and re-validate the nuances of that relationship.Such one-year retreats became popular in India not only amongst the Jesuit priests, but even amongst priests from other faiths. The concept of retreats spread to the corporate world too, and Sunanda Dutta-Ray authorship in The Statesman dated January 26, 2006, mention three instances where Chief decision maker Officers of large Indian corporations all Jesuit alumni instituted the concept of a 3-day annual retreat modeled after their experience in school. Sociological Influence The largest overt Jesuit influence on India has been the wide and deep sociological impact in terms of the development of the Indian people and societies that is indubitable everywhere.Jesuit Education With over 30 excellent high schools, over 10 high profile colleges for higher education, and innumerable elementary schools and vocation al training centers all over India, Jesuit education is much sought after in the country. The foremost examples of Jesuit higher education are the Vellore aesculapian College and Hospital, one of Indias foremost teaching hospitals, Xavier Labor Relations Institute, one of Indias foremost business schools. Even St. Xaviers College in Calcutta has produced many industry leaders, the foremost amongst them is Lakshmi Mittal, whose company ArcelorMittal is today the worlds largest sword producer.Loyola College in Chennai has similarly produced many leaders for the country, even a professorship (Ramaswamy Venkataraman) and a world chess champion (Viswanathan Anand). Most of these educational institutions date back to the earlier part of the 20th century, if not earlier still, and vie a vigorous bureau in nation-building when India became independent. Former President of India, Abdul Kalam, lauded the Jesuits role in India education, while opening the 6th global meet of Jesuit insti tutions in Calcutta Jesuit institutions have a big role in the spread of modern education in the country. Being a Jesuit alumnus myself, Im aware of the great office of Jesuit education not only in India but around the world (as reported by Krittivas Mukherjee for Indo-Asian News helper).Not content to be restricted to India alone, Jesuits from Calcutta recently gave education in Afghanistan a boost, when two of them Maria Joseph and Sahaya Jude recently travelled to the war-torn country and started training students and teachers (as reported in the The Telegraph, Jan 4, 2010). It should be mentioned in passing that all Jesuit education in India is completely secular. Catholic students are wedded additional training in Catechism, but students of other faiths are usually treated to a secular Moral Science lecture, or at most a watered down Bible History. Jesuit loving Work Jesuits have deeply been involved in social act and social reform.Whole books can be written on this s ubject alone, because these engagements have been and continue to be so numerous and so vigorous. Caritas India has been at the straits of traditional social work, as the front organization for Catholic Charities, with thousands of people and hundreds of project sites spanning all across the country. It is only one of the more visible ones in general, almost every Jesuit organization practices social work in its immediate vicinity, and engages the students of all its nationwide institutions in social activities. For instance, the Vidyajyoti College of Theology in Delhi has very active prison ministry, hospital ministry, slum ministry, tribal ministry, neighborhood ministry, and even a railway platform ministry.Many Jesuits ventured out into the villages and made a mark with their social activism. Just one such example is Father Michael Anthony Windey (1921-2009), founder of the Village Reconstruction Organization (VRO), who joined the Jesuits in 1938, traveled to India in 1946 an d was ordained a priest in 1950. When he passed away in Belgium in 2009 while under treatment for cancer, he was mourned by the Church, social workers and villagers in India, because he had dedicated his life to development Gandhian methods to revolutionize village life in India. Said Father A. X. J. Bosco, a former head of the Jesuits? Andhra Pradesh province who has worked as VRO? operational managing director Father Windey was never bothered about the religion of the person he helped. While selecting villages, he always chose to help the poorest village. genial Activism The involvement of the Jesuits extended to social activism, sometimes of a kind even questioned by the Vatican. Rone Tempest, supply writer, reported in the L. A. Times, Jan 21, 1986, on the Popes visit to India Significantly, the Pope will not visit the northern Bihar Muzafapur area, where radical Catholic priests have recently organized Hindu serfs against powerful landlords, some of whom even swear their own armies for private wars against their foes and bands of roving bandits, or dacoits.Similarly, when he visits the Catholic speed state of Kerala in southern India, he has no plans to visit areas in which radical priests and nuns, Indias version of South Americas liberation theologists, have organized sailing boat fishermen, mostly Hindus and Muslims, against the motorized fishing trawler industry. leaders Training Service (LTS) LTS short for lead Training Service is a unique contribution by the Jesuits to Indian society. Initiated by five students of the Goethals Memorial School in Kurseong, West Bengal in 1959, Fr. Robert Wirth of St. Xaviers School, Sahibganj, Bihar, was selected to lead the movement in 1970. Fr. Wirth did just that for the next 21 years from the LTS headquarter in Calcutta, and spread the movement to Jesuit educational institutes in 24 States. The LTS motto is For God and Country, and resonated strongly with a developing India.The LTS vision involves th e four-fold objectives of (a) Personality Development (b) Leadership Skills (c) Social Awareness and, Social Responsibility that leads to social development. The movement articulates this as a journey from I Consciousness (initiated through Personality development and master leadership skills) to We Consciousness (achieved through inculcating social awareness and exercising social responsibility that leads to social development) (as stated on its website www. LTSworld. com). The LTS celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2009, and brought Fr. Robert Wirth who collaborated in the writing of this paper all the way from Malta to the LTS headquarters in Calcutta.Today there are reportedly over 15,000 LTSers working towards Indias progress. Leadership Lessons from the Jesuits Consistent and long-term success is never a result of fortuity or luck. The Jesuits have demonstrated strong leadership qualities throughout their 500 year history in India. Servant Leadership The Jesuits, through thei r check and exemplary behavior, became role models for the Indian populace who observed them, interacted with them, and marked from them. Influencing through exemplary behavior is a fundamental tenet of servant leadership. The Jesuits also extensively and deeply served the people whose lives they touched, through social work, educational institutions, hospitals and other missions.This service was, and continues to be, in the best tradition of servitude demonstrated by Christ. regeneration Leadership Mark Pousson, Program Director for Service knowledge at The Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence at the St. Louis University writes in The Notebook, a publication of the Reinert Center Historically, the Jesuits espouse the power of transformation through conversation, (Vol 11, Issue 4), and goes on to say that Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, readily engaged people in conversation about God and spirituality. It is from his value of transformation through experience s that Saint Ignatius companions infused transformation in what is known as the Jesuit tradition of education.Jesuits severely utilized this power of transformation through pedagogy and education in India, and as earlier stated in this article has left an unerasable mark on the Indian education landscape. The Jesuits also practiced transformational leadership by inspiring Indians to strive for something better than they were used to, to push the limit, and to aim for excellence. Evidence of this is plentiful, but particular note may be interpreted of the Jesuits LTS (Leadership Training Service) initiative described earlier, which was a alone new concept in India when it was started in 1959, and continues to inspire and build the current generation of young leaders in the 21st century. In fact, the LTS movement resonates strongly with one of the fundamentals goal of transformation leadership the make leaders out of followers.The Annual Retreats that the Jesuits taught the Indian s and popularized amongst people of faith as well as the corporate world, was another instance where people were inspired and do to implement and practice innovative leadership solutions for everyday problems. Transactional Leadership Transactional leadership was commonly practiced by the Jesuits. A very common example was the exchange of better checkup care for conversion to Christianity. It was a crafty but effective message. When the Jesuits set up modern medical care facilities in rural India especially in the Tribal areas where people were not even Hindus, but practiced some form of pantheism it is widely believed that it was not so much the preaching as the access to modern medical care that converted lots of tribal people to Christianity. Social Learning TheoryJesuit social activism, social work and its military-like discipline all widely respect by the Hindus of India triggered the positive effects of the Social Learning Theory, which argues that people learn best th rough a 3-step emulation process defined as (a) observation, (b) imitation, and (c) modeling. When people like behavior they would like to emulate, they are motivated to do so on their own without having to be compelled in some screen or overt manner to oblige. Social Learning Theory, therefore, has feeds into the Servant Leadership theory, because servant leaders aim to influence followers through exemplary action and self-motivated emulation. The Jesuits in India put both servant leadership and social learning theories to good use. Epilogue In closing, a short vindication says it all Without the Jesuits, India would be a different country.