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Hindu-Christian Dialogue in the Making in Australia

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Hindu-Christian Dialogue in the Making in Australia Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies Volume 7 Article 9 January 1994 Hindu-Christian Dialogue in the Making in Australia Purushottama Bilimoria Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Bilimoria, Purushottama (1994) "Hindu-Christian Dialogue in the Making in Australia," Journal of Hindu- Christian Studies: Vol. 7, Article 9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1097 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 information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Bilimoria: Hindu-Christian Dialogue in the Making in Australia Hindu-Christian Dialogue in the Making in Australia " I Purushottama Bilimoria Deakin University, Victoria, Australia IT WOULD NOT be an exaggeration to say more urban, educated, upwardly-mobile at the outset that Hindu-Christian dialogue is middle-class' migrants (increasingly the still in its infancy in Australia when dominant cluster in a liberalizing Australia). compared, for instance, to Buddhist­ By 1981 the native Indian population Christian, Jewish-Christian, Mus lim­ increased three-fold, with further intakes Christian, and even Muslim-Jewish dialogue. from Malaysia, Fiji, Mauritius, East and However, there have been some South Africa, and New Zealand. developments in recent times and there is On specifically Hindu migration, clearer something of a history, albeit discontinuous, figures emerge from the 1986 census, which of Hindu-Christian encounters in Australia. identifies 21,500 Hindus (but this includes a variety of Western-based neo-Hindu I. The professional Hindu diaspora followers of gurus, yoga schools, Meher Although the first Hindu labourers were Baba devotees, Hare Krishnas, and so on). brought to Australia by the British in the At a conservative estimate there would have 19th century, it wasn't until the mid-J960s been 20,500 Hindus of non-Australian that the "White Australia" policy was ancestry (regardless of birthplace). The officially disbanded, although reservations break-down of overseas Hindus by country about admitting people with "different of birth (with presumed Indian ancestry) is standards of living, tradition and culture" given as follows: India 35.7%; Fiji 21.5%; persisted. Church leaders seemed ambivalent Sri Lanka 11.0%; Malaysia 7.1 %, U.K. about the issue; some defended the change 4.3 %, South Africa 3.8 %, New Zealand in deference, to the responsibility good 2.5 %, other 14.1 % (this would comprise Christians have towards people of other Hindus from other states of Africa, (poorer) regions, others opposed the changes Southeast Asia, North AInerica, Europe and for the instability this could bring about. the Arab regions). 74% of overseas-born However, a more relaxed immigration Hindus arrived between' 1967 and 1976. system facilitated the arrival of Among Australian-born Hindus 28 % professionals, such as doctors, engineers, indicated Indian ancestry, 25 % reported teachers and technicians, from India. By British ancestry, 12.2 % Australian ancestry, 1966 there were 4411 Indians and between and the rest other ancestry; 300 Aboriginal 1966 and 1971 a total of 6418 "ethnic people identified themselves as of Hindu, Indians" were approved for entry; bringing Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish religion!. Two­ the total Indian population in Australia by fifth of employed Hindus were professionals the end of 1971 close to 11,000; Sri Lankan or para-professionals. A higher. percentage migration also increased among both its of Hindus (alongside Jews) earn an annual ethnic groups - Sinhalese and Tamil Hindus. income in excess of $32,000, which places This trend continued as r employment and Hindus (and Sri Lankan Buddhists) in the educational opportunities attracted more and most affluent group of . all South Asian Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin 7 (1994) 31-38 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 1994 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 7 [1994], Art. 9 32 Purushottama Bilimoria migrants. impressions and sounded less than sanguine By 1991 the Hindu population reached a about the prospects of Vedanta being accept­ 3 record 43,580 (declared Hindus). This ed widely in Australia . Nevertheless, during figure, again, includes people of European his numerous subsequent visits Swami Ran­ descent who have converted to one or other gathananda ran spiritual retreats in which a sect or guru-based popular following (such number of Christians, lay and clerical, as Vedanta, Hare Krishna); but at the same participated. He also took active part in time it does not include South Asians who academic meetings of religious studies are either too shy to disclose their religion, professors, and in one such meeting at or whose identification by sect-names may Sydney University engaged in something of not have registered adequately under a heated discussion on the subject of the "Hinduism", and those who, like the Sufis, Bhagavadgita with Professor Eric Sharpe follow a syncretic religion (although Baha'i and others. does record some 7,500 followers). In any In this period also arrived Transcendent­ event, with recent additions and adjustments, al Meditation and the Hare Krishna move­ it would be safe to say that presently there ment, Swami Muktananda, the Divine Light are close to 45,000 Hindus Australia-wide. order of Guru Maharaji, Rajneeshis, and But this is a small percent-age in comparison spokespersons for spiritual masters such as to the Christian population of Australia, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharsi, Satya Sai which is over 7 million. The statistical Baba, and Swami Sivananda. Apart from the likelihood of a Christian meeting a Hindu is occasional formal reception extended to a 1,000 to 1, although this would be higher in middling Church figure, the gurus or leaders inner urban areas. of these orders did not seek to engage in any kind of serious interaction with Neo-Hindu Groups representative members of the Church. On In the 1960s and 1970s, like in other parts one occasion when a discussion (to be . of the Western world, an assortment of videoed) was arranged between Swami gurus, swamis, babas and yoga teachers Muktananda and a leading Catholic visited Australia. The Sufi-Hindu "Avatar", academic, the colourful Baba gave facile Meher Baba, would be among the earliest of responses to questions put to him, using the such visitors. Each attracted a following of occasion to preach the virtues. of Siddha some sort or another, and most of the Yoga. What was conspicuous by its absence disciples came from Christian or Jewish during the quite visible presence of these backgrounds. The encounter with a tradition gurus and teachers was the positive gesture from the East in one form or another towards ecumenism of the kind that, for inevitably created an ambience or occasion example, Swami Chidan~nda (the successor for discussing within family and peer-group to Swami Sivananda) was engaged in. But circles the appeal and conflicts roused by the Chidananda did not set foot in Australia, and teachings. It was not unusual for the odd his fellow gurus, such as Swami Australian or European migrant to forfeit the Venketesananda (who established a farm­ Christian faith and adopt in a serious way ashram in Perth) and Swami Satyananda, the life-style of a Hindu monk. One such were more interested in getting on with their noted personality was a Polish man who reclusive yoga teachings. The exception to called himself Mauni Sadhu (Paul Brunton's this list was Swami Saccidananda (popularly counterpart in Australia). He remains an known as the "Woodstock" Guru, having icon in some "New Age" spiritual circles. appeared at that famous pop festival), who In 1964 Swami Rangathananda, a senior welcomed any opportunity of coming monk of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda together with religious leaders of diverse Order, arrived in Australia. He wrote of his persuasions and discussing issues of mutual https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol7/iss1/9 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1097 2 r Bilimoria: Hindu-Christian Dialogue in the Making in Australia Hindu-Christian Dialogue in the Making in Australia 33 theological interest. During his visits to students on issues ranging from the alleged Australia he continued the northern polytheism to the life-negating fatalism (a za California style ecumenical celebration of karma) of Hinduism. In his writings too, the "Light". However, during the Kesarcodi-Watson continued a form of discussions preceding one such "ecumenical dialogue between his former theologian-to-be offering", when a participating academic self and his new-found Hindu titman (which attempted to raise serious issues of he rendered as personhood). Perhaps the r,. significant theological concern, the Swami better known of all academics in this area is politely retorted that he began with the Professor Eric Sharpe, who has made assumption that all religions are equal and numerous radio broadcasts on the fruitful one in the eyes of God. The discussion did interactions between Hindus and Christians, not progress much further beyond platitudes whether in India's colonial past or in terms drowned by stem silence of the panel of the possibilities opening up in Australia members. (Saccidananda died last year.) with its increasing Hindu population. Eric Similarly,
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