Media Release

Mangaluru, Oct 19: Christians from South India shaped India’s freedom struggle and its Constitution, but their contribution has largely faded from public memory, speakers said at a national seminar held at St Joseph’s University on Saturday.

The Centre for Religion and Culture (CRC) organised the one-day seminar, 'Christian Voices in the Making of the Nation: Forgotten Histories from South India'. It examined the role of Christian communities in nation-building, as well as caste, the struggle of Dalit Christians for representation, and growing hostility towards religious minorities.

Welcoming the gathering, CRC director Dr (Fr) Bala Kiran Kumar Hrudayaraj SJ quoted Milan Kundera: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” Recognising Christian contributions, he said, is itself a struggle against forgetting.

Inaugurating the seminar, Dr Arokia Raj Satis Kumar, Auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Bangalore, said Christian institutions had helped lay the nation’s foundations. Prof S Japhet, chairman of the Karnataka Christian Community Development Corporation, urged scholars to look beyond institutions to the histories of communities and individuals. He traced Christianity’s imprint on Malenadu, Mangaluru, Kalyana Karnataka, Bengaluru and Kolar.

In his keynote address, former diplomat and Gandhian scholar Amb Pascal Alan Nazareth recalled Christians who joined the freedom movement. Among them were Fr Jerome D’Souza SJ, a member of the Constituent Assembly, and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, who worked alongside Mahatma Gandhi.

The first plenary, moderated by Prof Cheriyan Alexander, heard Dr (Fr) Jose Kalapura SJ, Dr Joshy Mathew and Dr Denis Fernandes describe how Christians were divided over communal electorates. Some, however, joined the Dandi March and the Vaikom Satyagraha, and went to jail. Adv Flavia Agnes traced George Fernandes’s rise from Mangaluru’s trade unions to national leadership against the Emergency.

The second plenary turned the lens inward. Prof D Manohar Chandra Prasad discussed the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission’s recommendation that Scheduled Caste status be extended to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. He also spoke of the Kandhamal violence. Dr Ruth Manorama called conversion 'a political act'” and called for reform of caste and patriarchal practices within churches, saying Dalit women bear a 'triple burden'. Prof Babu Mathew warned of how authoritarianism can rise in the name of nationalism. Moderator Jerrin Chandan recalled B R Ambedkar’s warning about India’s 'life of contradictions'.

In the valedictory address, cultural critic Prof N Manu Chakravarthy drew on the Gospel of Matthew and the life of Ivan Illich to argue that the capacity to accept critique lies at the heart of democracy.

Dr Jane D’Souza proposed the vote of thanks.