Baba Padmanji

Vernacular Christianity in Colonial India

Deepra Dandekar

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000336139
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book is a critical biography of Baba Padmanji (1831-1906), a firebrand native Christian missionary, ideologue, and litterateur from 19th-century Bombay Presidency. Though Padmanji was well-known, and a very influential figure among Christian converts, his contributions have received inadequate attention from the perspective of 'social reform' — an intellectual domain dominated by offshoots of the Brahmo Samaj movement, like the Prarthana Samaj in Bombay.

This book constitutes an in-depth analysis of Padmanji's relationships with questions of reform, education, modernity, feminism, and religion, that had wide-ranging repercussions on the intellectual horizon of 19th-century India. It presents Padmanji's integrated writing persona and identity as a revolutionary pathfinder of his times who amalgamated and blended vernacular ideas of Christianity together with early feminism, modernity, and incipient nationalism.

Drawing on a variety of primary and secondary sources, this unique book will be of great interest for area studies scholars (especially Maharashtra), and to researchers of modern India, engaged with the history of colonialism and missions, religion, global Christianity, South Asian intellectual history, and literature.

1

Autobiography and hagiography

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Padmanji staged himself as a powerfully devout militant but saintly native Christian leader by interweaving endorsements of other missionaries in his autobiography, thereby showcasing himself at the helm of the vernacular mission field as an influential “game changing” agent. Padmanji’s self-fashioned image emerges in particular from his autobiography Arunodaya or AD (second edition 1908, “Sunrise”), and from his published memoirs that he calls Spiritual Experiences, Anubhavasangraha or AS (1904, “A Collection of Experiences”), subsequently translated and paraphrased in English.

A particularly important aspect of Padmanji’s autobiographical style is the manner in which he splits his recounted Hindu past from his “present” writing Christian self. While Israel (2018) analyses this as symptomatic of the general convert autobiographical style encountered in 19th-century India, this chapter proposes additional layers to Israel’s analysis, identifying this autobiographical “split”, as reflecting the “trace” of truncated Hinduism implicit in Padmanji’s conversion. The phantom presence of Padmanji’s truncated Hindu past in his autobiographical texts transformed these into a compulsive recounting of the haunting spectre of his “difference” from Hinduism after conversion. And this haunting spectre lay at the very heart of Padmanji’s self-justificatory ideological battles with Hindu reformers and those he considered recalcitrant converts, who he felt had not adequately truncated themselves from their Hindu past.

“Trace” is a Lacanian concept extensively developed by Derrida, and in this chapter, I draw on Kleinberg’s notion of hauntology that discusses Derrida’s deconstruction of the historian’s “ontological realism” (2017: 1–12) arising out of a conflation between history-writing and truth. This conflation between a meaningful truth and the production of discursive situational reality is exactly the “split” that Israel refers to when describing Padmanji’s autobiographical writings: all his life events before the split/his conversion are narratively justified and written from the perspective of an already achieved, discursive (missionary) identity of a convert and native Christian leader emerging from that split. Extending Kleinberg’s warnings about the fragmentation between discursive history-writing and truth to Padmanji’s life-writing about his own truncated Hindu past, it becomes clear that Padmanji’s Christian writing “self” constantly battled this truncated Hindu “difference” that was always lurking close at hand like a haunting spectre. His autobiographical narratives describing conversion, hence, produced Hinduism as a “stigma” (in the original Greek meaning of “mark”), born from truncation, that celebrated the holy wound constituted by an emerging Christian identity. This stigma further assisted Padmanji in identifying other “true” converts, accompanied by their own stigma, as members of a separate social collective signified by the vernacular mission field. Padmanji’s nostalgic, self-depreciating autobiographical writing about his own “heathenism” thus suffered from the narrative burden of justifying his acquisition of “stigma”, born out of an educated and passionate introspection that allowed him to identify his past as “heathen” and truncate it. This narrative burden transformed his autobiography into a teleological hagiography that recounted the antecedents of his conversion from the post-event perspective. A beautiful example of this is provided by his quote of John Newton in the title page of AD: “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, and I am not what I hope to be, but by the grace of God I am not what I once was”.

This chapter discusses Padmanji’s autobiographic self-image as masculine and privileged, making Padmanji’s conversion more than just a story of how he acquired “stigmata”. Padmanji’s autobiography is also a story of how these stigmata became celebrated due to his affluence and privilege—a saga of ceaseless educational success, exotic travels, and scintillating social relationships with equals and mentors. Padmanji continued intensifying this privilege by framing his conversion journey as a righteous spiritual marker of holy, celebrated, and saintly status, furthermore describing his post-conversion life as blessed and devoid of complicated suffering. While Padmanji sought to disprove Hindu claims that convert suffered dire consequences by extolling conversion as the pinnacle of spiritual arrival, his disavowal of convert suffering was also theological, rendering any suffering after and conversion as un-Christian and dishonourable, something that brought Christianity a bad name.

Framing a holy life: Padmanji’s life-story between autobiography and hagiography

As already mentioned, Padmanji left behind not only an autobiography (AD)—one of the first autobiographies written in Marathi—but also a volume of memoirs and anecdotes (AS). Framing these in terms of a teleological hagiography, a self-authored mahatmya, Padmanji further bolstered his autobiographies by publishing other documents, such as endorsements, letters, and eulogies, appended to the main text of his autobiography, in various prefaces and appendices. Though Padmanji specifically mentions these additional documents as part of his personal collection (1908: 6), the second edition of his autobiography (AD) contains some additional prefaces supplied by his followers who guarded his inheritance. Padmanji requested his readers not to view his autobiography as a means of self-aggrandisement but to view it as an example of native Christian emergence, wherein memories of specific transformative life events needed to be understood from the perspective of post-conversion enlightenment: “Now I must turn to my main aim of writing this book, and that is to describe the mercy that God has shown me, a poor sinner, a mercy that my readers should experience and praise” (1908: 9). Padmanji identified this remembering, understanding-anew, and writing of conversion as an important Christian practice, documenting the mistakes and pitfalls of a convert’s life with a view to guide converts and encourage non-Christians towards conversion. Padmanji’s writing, hence, constituted a distillation process, wherein past life events were selected to demonstrate the nature of God’s love, mercy, and guidance. Writing a Christian autobiography, in this sense, constituted a hermeneutic of piety that Padmanji claimed helped him renew his faith.

Padmanji claiming to remember only those events that were important to his Christian conversion in AD, while forgetting other “unimportant” memories, hence also acted as a disclaimer. Since Christianity was not a “given” for converts but a state of redemption that was deliberately realised and achieved through spiritual labour, this state also required regular refreshing, renewing, and revisiting, so as to avert the peril of slipping back into “heathenism”. In Israel’s terms (2018), autobiographies like Padmanji’s were subject to a “palimpsest effect” through the repeated recounting of conversion through translation and republication, that incorporated letters, announcements, reviews, and endorsements by other witnesses (cf. De Certeau 1984: 199–203). Such palimpsests served the purpose of presenting convert autobiographers as leaders and representatives of a larger group of inarticulate convert bhaktas or emulators, presenting them with a model they could follow. The convert autobiography (and Padmanji’s autobiography) thus came to serve as a scrapbook that conflated its subject (convert) with its object (conversion), placing the complex self of the writer at the centre of a eulogising social network that simultaneously projected him into the past and future.

While the beginning pages of AD contain reviews of Padmanji’s autobiography by European and American missionaries who praised him for his fortitude and his exemplary conversion, calling for further similar exemplary publications from India (1908: 11–13), the author’s preface has Padmanji thanking his uncle for safely preserving his old documents in a large wooden chest, that he drew from while writing AD. He described how reading these carefully preserved old letters, papers, newspaper reports, and public announcements helped him “refresh old memories”; and he also thanked his associates, colleagues, and friends for sending him essays that reminded him of his forgotten contributions to the Hindu reformist intellectual field (1908: 5–10). That these collected paratexts did not remain static but continued to grow with every new edition is demonstrated by a lengthy hagiography appended to the posthumously published second edition of AD in 1908. This hagiography, which doubles as an obituary, was composed by none other than the Rev. Narayan Waman Tilak (1908: 233–252), another firebrand native Christian leader, who gained eminence in the early 20th century as a noteworthy Christian poet.¹ Tilak hailed Padmanji as a mahatma, a “great soul”, the very spirit of Christian piety and intellectual leadership, considering “autobiography” to be too inadequate a description for AD. Instead, Tilak hails AD to literally constitute the new Christian devotional “sunrise” that would infuse and enthuse many future generations of Marathi Christians with the spirit of convert piety. In Tilak’s estimation, Padmanji’s autobiography disproved, in particular, those detractors who alleged that Christian conversion constituted a defection from family and nation. Instead, AD, Tilak claimed, demonstrated the perfect match between Christianity, the nationalist cause, and familial love, as Padmanji’s own concern for his family, Indian society, and especially downtrodden women became renewed through Christianity. In summarising Padmanji’s life-story, Tilak focused especially on the period after Padmanji’s conversion in 1854, describing Padmanji’s ordination as a priest at the Free Church of Poona in 1867 as an epiphany that brought Padmanji a full circle from his conversion, in revealing the true spiritual meaning and goal of his Christian life.

Central to this framing of Padmanji’s conversion and piety is the description of his fear, pain, and confusion during conversion. These emotions come alive in letters Padmanji received from his mentors, published alongside the main text of AD (1908: 211–226). Letters from the Rev. Taylor of Belgaum and the Rev. Narayan Sheshadri of Bombay dated to August 1854 (1908: 219–223) encourage Padmanji to abandon his old false self and fearlessly embrace a new Christian beginning. Sheshadri, taking further note of Padmanji’s difficulties arising from his tender, emotional nature, reminds the latter of the strength that flourishes within weakness, asking him to remember the fears assailing Martin Luther in the night before appearing at the “Diet of Worms”. Quoting Chalmers,² Sheshadri writes (1908: 221–222):

Chalmers used to say in all matter of conscience we must not give in so much as a hair’s breadth. Is not this a noble sentiment? He acted on this principle and showed its strength to his astonished [sic]—at the memorable Disruption of 1843. I trust you will be able to achieve similar deeds of Christian heroism and prove yourself greater than Alexander, Caesar or Bonaparte.

As any reader of AD was already assured of Padmanji having indeed overcome his fears and obstacles, the publication of these letters served as not too veiled a suggestion that Padmanji indeed surpassed the conquerors of old, proving to be no less than a reformer of the Marathi church, a veritable Indian Luther. Letters addressing Padmanji’s fears on the eve of his conversion highlight a concern that would have struck a sympathetic note in any convert heart of the time: anxieties of alienation, and of possibly losing kith and kin. In the letter quoted above, Sheshadri assures Padmanji that the Rev. Nesbit would accommodate and include Padmanji in his home and family after conversion, urging Padmanji to abandon all the “natural affections” of family ties, home, community, and ancestry in Belgaum, to “overcome the tears and lamentations of those near and dear”, and to instead walk towards the Free Church. Similarly, in a poignant note written from Poona in February 1954, the Rev. Mitchell expressed worries about the emotional pressure Padmanji’s father exerted on him (1908: 216; emphasis in original):

The only question I cannot answer, is this: Why should poor Baba be tossed by this fierce tempest so long? Why is he not amongst us as a brother, rejoicing in his Redeemer, […] you are compelled to wait till your father come. May the Lord bring him speedily! May He give you courage, fidelity, patience! May He soften your father’s heart and direct his will.

This is further added to by a letter by the Rev. John Wilson in August 1854 exhorting Padmanji to not await his father’s return and convert anyways: “It will be well for you, we think, to go to Mr. Taylor, even before your father returns, and to have baptism consummated before you are subject to renewed trials connected with him” (1908: 217). While Padmanji’s fortitude in overcoming obstacles was highlighted in such paratextual materials, such as an extract from a report by the London mission (1908: 226–229) that printed Padmanji’s defence against accusations of abandoning family and the Indian identity and becoming polluted, it also brought the welcome Padmanji received by missionaries to the forefront. Two verses extracted from a poem written by the Rev. John Wilson, the head of the Bombay Scottish Mission, for Padmanji at the time of his conversion highlight the missionary celebration of Padmanji’s sacrifice (1908: 218):

For him thou hast rejected all, thy gods and idols vain; but having him thou hast enough, for thy eternal gain.

He is thy Father, Brother, Friend, thy Prophet, Priest, and King; thy Lamb, Redeemer and Lord, whose praise ’tis joy to sing.

These paratexts provide readers with a realistic picture of Padmanji’s suffering at the time of conversion, compared to his own recounting of it later, which is teleological and glorified. Given that most native Christians, and even European missionaries, left homes, family, and society, often painfully, to serve the mission, these letters provide readers with a guide to “properly” emotionally relating to conversion, especially when contrasted with accusations of converts treating their families cruelly. Though Padmanji’s conversion was doubtless cruel for his family, social and family conflicts were often central to conversion. Religious conversion was, besides, greatly taboo in 19th-century Hindu society, especially since it was radically critical of Hinduism. Just because those who discriminated against converts were themselves hurt in the process, converts could not be held responsible for engineering this hurt or provoking anti-convert persecution. Propagating such simplistic axioms about conversion that universally accused missionaries of cruelty ran the danger of reproducing Hindu-nationalist biases, something Padmanji was himself battling in the form of Hindu ostracism and discrimination.

The contrastive depiction of Padmanji’s journey towards conversion from a post-event perspective is a marked feature of his autobiography, which is also demonstrated by the other framing materials published alongside AD. A letter written by the Rev. Navalkar in 1887 from Poona (1908: 223–226) serves as an interesting example. This letter was one of the many informative essays Padmanji received from older associates and colleagues that reminded him of erstwhile contributions made to intellectual reform groups in Bombay, like the Paramhans Mandali. Navalkar, a convert himself and a student of the Robert Money institution, was associated with Padmanji prior to their conversion, both of them being members of the Paramhans Mandali in Bombay, in 1850. The Paramhans Mandali was a secret discussion group consisting of Hindu reformers and intellectuals established by a certain Ramchandra Balkrishna, who worked as a peon at the office of the Commissioner of Customs. He was supported by Atmaram Pandurang (later, president of the Bombay Prarthana Samaj) and Dadoba Pandurang, a Marathi teacher and Sanskrit scholar who recruited members for the Paramhans Mandali but never attended its meetings.³ The Mandali proceedings, primarily held in Marathi, advocated widow remarriage, religious freedom, and the abolition of caste. Members had to be sworn to secrecy, by passing an initiation ritual that entailed eating bread bought from a Portuguese bakery, sharing it with other members of the Mandali, thereafter dashing water held in their cupped hands to the floor, symbolically demonstrating their abdication of customary superstitions and caste rules. Padmanji apparently suffered intensely from breaking caste rules, feeling afraid to look other upper-caste persons in the eye thereafter, lest they telepathically detect his wrongdoings. Members of the Paramhans Mandali argued about religion and conceded that every member could either follow their own religion or follow a chosen religion agreeable to all. Navalkar reminded Padmanji of the dispute that arose on the matter, when a certain Moroba Vinoba endorsed Christianity as a superior religion, amidst the wide scorn directed at him from other members.⁴ Some members who were bitterly opposed to Christianity accused converts of dividing families and betraying their motherland, and eager to convince other members of the Bible’s absurdities, several members, among them a judge, a customs officer, and two teachers, maligned Christianity. The Mandali, however, soon disbanded after their secret was leaked, its upper-caste members being seized upon by their families for breaking caste rules, with those having Christian sympathies separately regrouping as the Satya Shodhak Mandali to pray, discuss Christianity and the Bible. A schism developed between Padmanji’s Christian faction and the reformed Hindu faction of Bombay, with the brothers Atmaram and Dadoba Pandurang later becoming instrumental in establishing the Prarthana Samaj that was, paradoxically, influenced by the Brahmo Christian Unitarian frameworks advocated by Keshub Chandra Sen. Despite this bitterness, Dadoba Pandurang and Padmanji continued...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Author’s note
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Autobiography and hagiography
• 2 Engaging the avant-garde
• 3 The Christian vernacular genre
• 4 Yamunaparyatan
• 5 Concluding remarks
• References
• Index