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Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 21 Article 9

January 2008

Missionary Views of

Catherine Cornille

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Recommended Citation Cornille, Catherine (2008) "Missionary Views of Hinduism," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 21, Article 9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1408

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Cornille: Missionary Views of Hinduism

\ rf~ I ! Missionary Views of Hinduism

Catherine Cornille Boston College

SINCE the beginning of the modem missionary religious concern with the truth. This expresses movement, Christian missionary views of itself in a somewhat selective engagement with Hinduism have changed simificantly, partly as a the Hindu tradition and in the presence of result of linguistic developments (to which some explicit or implicit value judgments. While missionaries contributed in important ways) and traditional missionaries often expressed their partly as a result of theological shifts personal (and sometimes negative) judgment of (themselves also at times inspired by missionary the teachings and practices of Hinduism openly insights and experiences). The views of an and without reservation, modem missionaries eighteenth century Christian missionary thus might express it more implicitly in the particular differ radically from those of missionaries able focus that their interests and engagements to profit from the translation efforts of display. A good number of modem missionaries nineteenth and twentieth century scholarship, (Henri Le Saux, Bede Griffiths, Sara Grant, etc.) and the views of a contemporary Roman have focused almost exclusively on the tradition Catholic missionary may bear little resemblance of Advaita Vedanta, mainly out of a genuine to that of an Evangelical Protestant. 1 respect for and admiration of its teachings and While it is therefore impossible to speak of practices. "the" missionary view of Hinduism, one may As such, Ill1SSlOnary approaches to point to certain characteristics which distinguish Hinduism may seem far removed from the ideals missionary approaches from purely historical or of pure objectivity and neutrality that have come social scientific ones. First, missionaries to dominate the scientific study of religion. approach other from an unabashedly Missionary views are rarely part of standard normative perspective or from a clearly defmed textbooks on Hinduism, as they are a priori confessional stance. Rather than historical regarded as tainted and suspect. This begs the interest or intellectual curiosity, it is the question question of whether religious bias necessarily of religious truth which inspires missionary leads to a distortion of the other religion? While encounter with other religions. For traditional it is certainly true that religious prejudice often missionaries, this truth was believed to be fully impeded genuine understanding of Hinduism, expressed within Christian teachings and one cannot deny the fact that some missionaries practices, and the study of the other religion was were able to capture the religious life of the thus mainly inspired by a desire to more with remarkable, detail and accuracy. effectively communicate the Christian truth This is the case, for example, with the famous andlor to demonstrate the superiority of work Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies . F or more contemporary (1817) allegedly written by the Abbe Jean­ missionaries, interest in Hinduism may also be Antoine Dubois. While permeated with critical grounded in a desire to discover elements of judgments and haughty denunciations of truth within Hinduism itself and to enter into a particular teachings and practices, this work has genuine dialogue with the tradition. But in each been hailed (even by some Hindus) as a model case, the study of Hinduism is guided by a of "shrewd common sense, clearsightedness, and 1.<

Catherine Cornille is associate professor of Comparative at Boston College. Her scholarly interests focus mainly on theoretical and theological issues in , interreligious dialogue and the theology of religions. She is managing editor of the series "Christian Commentaries on non-Christian Sacred Tests." Her recent publications include (ed.) Many Mansions? Multiple Religious Belonging and Christian Identity (Orbis, 2002), (ed.) Song Divine, Christian Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita (peeters, 2006), and The 1m-POSSibility of Interreligious Dialogue (Crossroads, 2008).

Journal ofHindu-Christian Studies 21 (2008):28-32 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2008 1 - Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 21 [2008], Art. 9 Missionary Views of Hinduism 29

perfect candor.,,2 And in a prefatory note to the ) and attributed to a certain Nicholas third edition· of the book, Max Muller states that Jacques Desvaulx who was an officer in the it "has always continued to be read and to be French army and stationed in Pondichery.4 quoted with respect, as containing the views of Upon further investigation, and thorough text­ an eye-witness, of a man singularly free from criticism, Murr concludes that both Desvaulx prejudice and of a scholar with a sufficient and Dubois copied their own respective texts knowledge, if not of Sanskrit, yet of Tamil, both from a third and original "ur-text" which she literary and spoken, to be able to enter into the attributes to the Jesuit Father Gaston-Laurent views of the natives, to understand their manners Coeurdoux (1691-1779) who worked as a and customs, and to make allowance for many of missionary in Pondichery.5 Murr argUes that their superstitious opinions and practices, as Dubois copied his text directly from the mere corruptions of an originally far more manuscript of Coeurdoux, rather from that of rational and intelligent form of religion and Desvaulx (which explains some of the .,,3 While one may be amazed or divergences between the two extant texts). 6 amused by the reference to Dubois as "a man Since he later thoroughly reworked the text on singularly free from prejudice" the text does the basis of his own insights and experiences, reflect a concerted attempt to understand the one may conclude that the text Hindu Manners, religious life of the Hindus from within and thus Customs and Ceremonies (Dubois and represents a unique example of a missionary Beauchamp, 1906) contains the reflection of view of Hinduism. The work is also of interest missionary studies of Hinduism spanning two in so far as -it was written prior to the major centuries and two (or three, if Beauchamp is translation efforts of the nineteenth century so included) authors. that it is based almost exclusively on participant observation, rather than on textual knowledge. Hinduism as Brahmanism We shall here point to some of its more distinctive characterizations of Hinduism. One of the first striking features of the book is the distinction between "The Four States of The Author Brahmanical Life" (part II) and "Religion" (part III). This distinction, according to Murr, is one The question of the authorship of Hindu of the characteristic marks of Coeurdoux and Manners, Customs and Ceremonies has become reflective of the Jesuit Malabar 's the object of intriguing scholarly detective work. attitude toward Hinduism (going back to The claimed author of the text is the French Roberto de Nobili). However, the focus on priest Jean-Antoine Dubois (1765-1848) who Brahmanism typifies more broadly the Christian lived and worked in between 1792 missionary attitude toward Hinduism until the and 1823. He was ordained in 1792 and middle of the nineteenth century. The immediately left for India under the auspices of informants of Christian, missionaries often the Missions Etrangeres, fleeing the French belonged to the higher castes, which led to what Revolution. In 1806, he ~old a manuscript to the Geoffrey Oddie calls a "top down understanding East India Company, whereupon it was widely of Hinduism.,,7 The attempt to understand distributed in both English and French and Hinduism in analogy with Christianity also became one of the most reputed sources of naturally resulted in attention to the priestly knowledge of Hinduism in early 19th century caste. However, attitudes toward Brahmanism Europe. In subsequent years, the original differed radically among Protestant and Catholic manuscript seems to have been thoroughly Ill1SSlOnaries. Whereas Protestants generally revised by Dubois, edited by Beauchamp, and viewed it as a form of tyranny and , published in 1906 (and frequently reprinted). In Catholics tended to look upon it in more studying the original manuscript, however, the favorable terms, and' often believed (as did de French researcher Sylvia Murr discovered the Nobili) that conversion of the Brahmans would existence of a version of the manuscript, dated bring about a general conversion of the people 1777 (many years prior to Dubois' arrival in of India. While Coeurdoux also mentions

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol21/iss1/9 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1408 2 Cornille: Missionary Views of Hinduism

30 Catherine Cornille r . i.

numerous advantages to the caste system, But what is more remarkable is the fact that Dubois seems to praise it in his own words: these pejorative judgments did not seem to preclude careful attention to the religious F or my part, having lived many years on of the other, and detailed recording of those friendly terms with the Hindus, I have been rituals. In a chapter describing Brahman funeral able to study their national life and character rituals, a paragraph may start by stating that closely, and I have arrived at a quite "The closing moments of a Brahmin's life are opposite decision on the subject of caste. I associated with a number of ridiculous believe caste division to be in many respects ceremonies,,,12 and then proceed with a. concrete the chef d'oeuvre, the happiest effort of description of the rituals in terms fitting the Hindu legislation. I am persuaded that it is highest standards of anthropological simply and solely due to the distribution of observation. Missionary records such as those the people into castes that India did not lapse collected in Hindu Manners, Customs and in the state of barbarism, and that she Ceremonies indeed contain an irreplaceable preserved and perfected the arts and sciences source of information on the religious life of of civilization whilst most other nations of eighteenth and nineteenth century Hindus in a the earth remained in a state ofbarbarism.8 particular region. While missionary attitudes toward the Part II of Hindu Manners, Customs and religious life of the Hindus was undeniably Ceremonies deals with the life and practices of colored by religious prejudices and Brahmans with impeccable attention to detail , concrete engagement with and with a relative absence ofvalue judgments. Hinduism at times also led to shifts or changes within these religious presuppositions. It is for Hinduism as Religion example through encounter with Hinduism that the notion of Christianity as the fulfillment of By contrast, when the actual religious other religions and the old Patristic notion of beliefs and practices are described, the author or other religions as "preparatio evangelic a" were authors do not refrain from using such reinstated. Oddie argues that this more derogatory adjectives as "the disgusting accepting view of the other emerged in the lingam,,,9 the "most contemptible and ridiculous middle- of the nineteenth century out of a need stories concerning the fanciful penances to for new tactics of , old confrontational which the hermits subjected themselves" or approaches having proved themselves "silly beliefs in astrology."l0 Such negative ineffective. 13 However, by the late nineteenth value judgments are known to be the rule rather and early twentieth century, this new approach than the exception in eighteenth and nineteenth to Hinduism was based on a more genuine century missionary tracts. They color particular respect for the tradition largely inspired by a observations as well as general statements of deeper understanding of· the sacred texts and both Protestant and Catholic missionaries. In philosophical traditions. 14 In the course of the pretending an objective description of Hinduism, twentieth century, this led to an increasing Alexander Duff, for example writes that "Our recognition among Christian missionaries of the present purpose not being to expose, but simply value and truth of the Hindu tradition, or at least to exhibit the system of Hinduism, it has all of certain traditions within Hinduism, and to a

I I along been taken for granted that in the eye of more open. and receptive dialogue with the the intelligent Christian, its best confutation tradition. And these developments, in tum, also must be the extravagance and absurdity of its came to affect the official Christian attitudes tenets."ll These pejorative comments on Hindu toward other religions, which in the second half beliefs and practices are of course part of of the twentiet4 century moved from traditional Christian claims to exclusive truth exclusivism to , and to a greater which ruled out any recognition of value and recognition of other religions as "possessing truth in other religious beliefs and practices. rays of truth which enlightens all men" (Nostra Aetate).15

Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2008 3 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 21 [2008], Art. 9 r Missionary Views of Hinduism 31

Conclusion these particular traditions, deserving recognition alongside purely historical, ethnographic, and This brief sketch of Hindu Manners, social scientific views. Customs and Ceremonies illustrates the general characteristics and the commonly held Notes presumptions about mIssIOnary views of 1 For a thorough account of Protestant missionary Hinduism. The text is permeated with (mostly attitudes toward Hinduism in the eighteenth and negative) value judgments about the religious nineteenth centuries, see Geoffrey Oddie, Imagined beliefs and practices of the Hindus and the Hinduism. British Protestant Missionary representation of Hinduism itself is shaped to Constructions of Hinduism, 1793-1900: Sage serve missionary purposes. However, what is Publications, 2006. more remarkable about the text IS the 2 Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, p. xxii. commitment of its author or authors to a correct This Hindu was ''the Honourable Dewan Bahadur and detailed representation of the practices Srinavasa Raghava Iyengar" who was Inspector­ General of Registration in Madras and himself author observed. This description clearly exceeds of a book on "the moral and material of purely missionary interests and demonstrates a Southern India under British rule" (and in that sense spirit of inquiry which merits the designation of himself probably not unbiased.) such mISSIOnaries as proto-anthropologists. 3 !b·d1 ., p. Vll... Their observations indeed constitute a unique 4 Sylvia Murr published an annotated edition of the source of knowledge about the accompanied by a study of the thought of praCtices of Hindus between the seventeenth and Coeurdoux in two volumes: L'Inde philosophique nineteenth centuries and thus continue to be of entre Bossuet et Voltaire: Volume I: Moeurs et interest and importance beyond that of purely coutumes . des Indiens (1777) and Volume II: missionary history. l'Indologie du pere Coeurdoux. Strategies, Apologetique et Scientificite. Paris: Ecole Francaise While missionaries were and are undeniably d'Extreme Orient, 1987. influenced by their particular religious 5 Murr develops a detailed case based on historical and by the theological references in the text, literary analysis (comparison of presuppositions (regarding other religions) of the texts with extant letters of Coeurdoux) and logical their day, missionaries also often possess an inference from known religious and historical independent spirit rendering them unafraid of opinions of the author. One of Coeurdoux' interests differing from their established tradition. Going was to show the common Noachite origins of the against the grain of his time, Dubois, for people of the Book and the people of India, as well as example, believed that all missionary efforts to the relationship between Sanskrit and' other Indo­ convert India to Christianity were in vain. 16 And European languages. 6 L 'Indologie du pere Coeurdoux, p. 40. in our day, Christian missionaries and Indian 7 Geoffrey Oddie, Imagined Hinduism, p. 130. Christian theologians are at the origins of some g Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, p. 28. of the most radical and at times controversial 9 Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, p. 173. 17 theological positions regarding other religions. 10 Ibid, p. 379. As such, one may say that in the course of time, 11 India and Indian Missions, 1840. Quoted by Hinduism has modified and shaped Christian Geoffrey Oddie in Imagined Hinduism, p. 199. views about the religious other as much as 12 Ibid., p. 482. Chiistian preconceptions have shaped the 13 Geoffrey Oddie, Imagined Hinduism, p. 305. missionary view of Hinduism. It would thus be 14 The first text to express this genuinely changed attitude toward Hinduism is J.N. Fraquhar's, The unfair to dismiss missionary views of Hinduism Crown ofHinduism, 1913. out of hand as biased or tainted by religious 15 Even though a direct influence of Christian presuppositions. To be sure, missionaries are missionaries in India upon Council fathers has not . inspired by more than a purely factual or (yet) 'been demonstrated, it is well known that a historical curiosity. Their search for truth may theologian such as Henri de Lubac, who exercised lead to a selective focus on certain specific great influence on the , was strands or traditions within Hinduism. But this friendly with Jules Monchanin, one of the early does not preclude a profound understanding of pioneers of a genuine inculturation of Christianity in

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol21/iss1/9 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1408 4 Cornille: Missionary Views of Hinduism rf 32 Catherine Comille !

India. The latter's receptivity to the presence of truth in Hinduism may thus have indirectly exercised some influence on the development of a more open attitude toward other religions. This is similarly the case with the work of Karl Rahner, which was undoubtedly influenced by the work and thought of the numerous missionary Jesuits who left their mark on the Jesuit intellectual tradition. 16 This, clearly, was Dubois' own position, and not one taken over from Coeurdoux.' It figures also prominently in his letters, which stirred considerably controversy in the early nineteenth century. Dubois had already come to recognize the high social toll which came with conversion and the negative images which colonial history had left upon Hindus: "Having witnessed the immoral and disorderly conduct of the Europeans who then overran the whole country, the Hindus would hear no more of a religion which appeared to have so little influence over the behavior of those professing it, and who had been brought up on its tenets" ... "A respectable Hindu who was asked to embrace the, Christian religion would look upon such suggestion as either a joke, or else an insult of the deepest dye." In Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, p. 30l. 17 Henri Le Saux, Bede Griffiths, Sara Grant, Michael Amaladoss, Felix Wilfred, Stanley Samartha, M.M. Thomas, Michael Amaladoss, Raimundo Panikkar, Jacques Dupuis, Francis Clooney, etc.

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