Caste, Class and Catholicism in India 1789-1914

Kenneth Ballhatchet

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781032524412
• eBook ISBN: 9781136816963
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This is a study of the ways in which changing social expectations among Indian Catholics confronted the Roman Church with new questions, as well as giving fresh urgency to the old problem of the persistence of caste among Christians. Low-caste restiveness prompted different reactions among European missionaries and high-caste Indian priests, and the socio-economic significance of religious conversion became a problem that reached the level of the Apostolic Delegate, and eventually of the Pope. The English brought their social attitudes to India, where they became racial attitudes while retaining their triple functions of supporting authority structures, protecting vested interests and providing psychological reinforcement, Roman Catholic missionaries came from different European countries and brought with them different national attitudes to social mores. A major question asked in this book is how far such national differences were reflected in attitudes to caste, class and sexual behaviour, how similar were the attitudes of Indian Christians, and how far the functions of such attitudes remained constant.

Notes

Preface

1 London, 1980.

2 Ambrosius a S. Theresia, Historia Carmelitana, iv (Rome, 1938), 236.

3 Fr P. Antony Raj, S.J. After gaining his Ph.D. at the Loyala University of Chicago in 1987, he returned to India and was President of the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement from 1989 to 1992, now Research Director at the IDEAS Centre in Madurai.

Chapter I

1 Nestorian: based on the proposition that there are two natures, divine and human, in Christ.

2 Technically, the Vicar Apostolic who lived in Bombay, and was often called the Catholic Bishop of Bombay, was assigned responsibility for Catholics in the Mughal empire, but that empire was now obsolescent.

3 N. Kowalsky, ‘Die Errichtung des Apostollschen Vikariates Madras nach den Akten des Propagandaarchivs‘, NZM, viii (1953), 36–48, 119–26, 193–210.

4 Bishops Carew and Fennelly. J. Michie to B.F., 8-9-1845, SC Ind. Or. 10, 408–11.

5 Dubois, ‘Notice sur les missions Portugaises due Maduré dans l’Inde, AP (Archives of Propaganda Fide), SC Ind. Or. 5, 655.

6 Fr. António Tristão Vaz Teizeira was appointed in 1836 but his appointment was never confirmed by the Pope. After his death in 1852 the Portuguese claimed that Mailapur was administered by an episcopal governor, although from the Vatican’s viewpoint it had been suppressed. Fortunato de Almeida, História da Igreja em Portugal, iii (Lisbon, 1970), 611.

7 Josef Metzler, ‘Die Aufnahme des Apostolischen Breves “Multa Praeclare” in Indien. Nach den Akten des Propagandaarchivs‘, Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft, xxxviii (1954), 295–310.

8 José Maria da Silva Torres. Almeida, op. cit., 619–20. Josef Metzler, ‘Die Patronatswirren in Indien unter Erzbischof Silva Torres (1843–1849), Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft, xlii (1958), 292–308.

9 Catholic Examiner, quoted in Times of India, 6-7-1861, SC Ind. Or. 17, 1960.

10 Strickland to Mgr Buratti, May 1860, ibid., 1235–6. Buratti was one of the minutanti on the staff of Propaganda Fide.

11 Ristretto of 1864, AP, CP Ind. Or. 160, 125–37v.

12 J. Sewell, to Father-General, 27-2-1895, ARSI (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu), Missio Madur, 1-x-10.

13 Duncan Forrester, Caste and Christianity. Attitudes and Policies on Caste of Anglo-Saxon Protestant Missionaries in India (London, 1980).

14 Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings. Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700–1900 (Cambridge, 1989).

15 Constitution Omnium Sollicitudinum, 12-9-1744, Collectanea S. Congregations de Propaganda Fide seu Decreta Instructiones Rescripta pro Apostolicis Missionibus, i (Rome, 1907), 153–73.

16 P.F., Instructio, 7-1-1778, Collectanea S. Congregationis de Propaganda Fide seu Decreta Instructiones Rescripta pro Apostolicis Missionibus, i (Rome, 1907), 324.

17 J.L. Condé et al. to P.F., 6-1-1781, AP, SOCG 862, 129–30; P.F. to Condé et al., 9-4-1783, LDB 242, 300–4; P.F. to Brigot, Bishop of Tabraca in part., 9-4-1783, LDB 242, 304–9.

18 P.F. to Bishop Saverio, 2-6-1832, LDB 313, 500–2.

19 Bertrand to Father-General, 15-4-1841, Missio Madur., 1-vi-8.

20 Father-General to Bertrand, 28-12-1841, ARSI, Missiones II, 72.

21 Ladislao Zaleski to P.F., 6-11-1894, AP, NS 71, 429–32.

22 Luquet to P.F., 9-4-1845, AP, Acta 208, 130ff; Carlo Merces de Melo, The Recruitment and Formation of the Native Clergy in India (16th–19th Century): an Historical-Canonical Study (Lisbon, 1955), 257ff.

23 P.F. to Bishop of Pondichéry, 26-7-1845, AP, LDB 332, 504–7; Launay ii, 295.

24 ‘Oeuvres de la Mission de Maduré pendant l’année 1845’, SC Ind. Or. 10, 676.

25 Luquet, op. cit., 227–8.

26 ‘Remarques sue les Eclaircissements de Mr. Luquet’, encl. with Roothaan to P.F., ibid., 245–64.

27 Roothaan to R. St Leger, 1-5-1838, ARSI, Missiones 1832–40, 167–8.

28 Report of discussion, 21-9-1869, SC Ind. Or. 20, 760ff.

29 Congregazione degli Affari Ecclesiastici Straordinarii, Acta, Dec. 1891, AP, Acta 262, 47v. Also Carlo Merces de Melo, op. cit.

30 Historia fundationis seminarii pontifici Kandyensis scripta a P. Grosjean, ARSI, Missio Beng. 3-xv-1.

31 Léon Barbier to Provincial, 15-7-1891, Jesuit Archives, Toul...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Biographical Note
• Maps
• I The Vatican and the East Indian Company
• II The East India Company
• III Carmelites, Caste, Sex and Conflict in Kerala
• IV Carmelites and Social Conflict in Bombay
• V Capuchins, Boatmen and Irishmen in Madras
• VI French Jesuits and Caste in Tamil Nadu
• Postscript
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index