Part I
Foundations of the Study
Chapter 1
Precedent Literature
Early Pioneers and Present Scholars of Contemporary Yeshu Satsangs
In this chapter I will locate my research within the growing number of studies regarding Hindu Christ-followers, Hindu âinsider movements,â and Yeshu satsangs. Much of this extends from debates regarding baptism and ecclesiology that originated in the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to this, however, several important and influential ânon-conformistâ Indian leaders critiqued and raised questions regarding the ways in which Christian churches related to Indian religious communities. I will thus briefly discuss two important leaders, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay and Kalagara Subba Rao, and their ecclesial perspectives. I will then follow this with a more extensive analysis of recent scholars that have advanced concepts and studies that are pertinent to my focus on Yeshu satsangs and their ecclesial identity.
Early Pioneers: Brahmabandhav Upadhyay and Kalagara Subba Rao
Since the nineteenth century followers of Jesus in various parts of India have critiqued the forms and theologies of established Christian churches and offered their own variations. Though few of the ecclesial groups and institutions that these leaders founded actually outlasted them, several of these reflected on and wrote about their critiques and theologies of church. In this section I will briefly discuss two prominent leaders, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay and Kalagara Subba Rao.
Brahmabandhav Upadhyay
Brahmabandhav Upadhyay (1861â1907) was a pioneering leader in non-conformist ecclesiology. Born into a high-caste Hindu Brahmin family in Bengal, Upadhyay was influenced by family members and friends involved in the nationalist movement. As a result, he joined the Brahmo Samaj and became the disciple of its then-leader, Keshub Chundar Sen.
Upadhyay was influenced by Senâs openness to Christ and the rationalism with which he and the samaj approached religion. In 1890, through interaction with Church Missionary Society missionaries, Upadhyay became convinced of the divinity and supremacy of Christ and was subsequently baptized in 1891. Later that year he investigated and joined the Catholic Church, drawn in part through the Catholicâs respect and regard for Hinduism, as well as their understandings of natural theology. Though he became a member of the Church, Upadhyay retained a strong desire to âclotheâ Christianity in the garments of Hindu vedantic thought. In 1894 he literally clothed himself in the light red garments of a sannyasi (Hindu monk) and adopted a traveling itinerary and lifestyle, for a time, to more closely identify with the Hindu community, while remaining a part of the Catholic Church. An active writer and journal editor, Upadhyay regularly articulated his developing ideas regarding the Christian faith, Hindu philosophy, and politics. Though he did not begin an organization or ecclesial structure, he developed several important ecclesiological ideas and critiques.
First, Upadhyay was convinced of the integrity of the Christian faith, and that God had clearly given this to the Catholic Church. Though he increasingly conflicted with the Catholic Church, he retained a strong core faith in Christ and considered himself a member of the universal Church.
Second, particularly in his earlier years, Upadhyay believed that the Indian culture, and Hindu religion, was âhumid soilâ in which the revelation of Christ could be planted and cultivated. Because of this he became convinced of the need to convert the whole of India to the Catholic Church. In this he had no misgivings about calling Hindus to become followers of Jesus as it was articulated through the historic teachings of the Catholic Church.
Third, though Upadhyay was firm in his Christology and affirmed the idea that God had âdepositedâ the truth of His revelation in the Catholic Church, he had serious misgivings about the way in which Christian churches, including Catholic churches, expressed their faith. If India was to be converted, Upadhyay felt, the Catholic faith needed to rid itself of its European practices and culture and adopt the âclothesâ of the Hindu religion. As part of this Upadhyay regarded himself a âHindu Catholic,â and never insisted that converts to Christ renounce their Hindu identity.
In order to hold these three points together, Upadhyay gradually refined and clarified his understanding of both âChurchâ and âHinduism.â In line with Catholic doctrine, the âChurchâ for Upadhyay was ultimately a universal gathering of those committed to Christ Jesus, capable of incorporating a variety of Christological and ecclesiological expressions. Regarding Hinduism, Upadhyay distinguished between two dharmas, or duties, of the Hindu. The samaj dharma are comprised of social duties, including customs, eating and dressing. The sadhana dharma, on the other hand, are the individual duties that focus on personal devotion and, ultimately, on personal salvation.
Both duties, asserted Upadhyay, are present in Hinduism and Christianity. However, in Hinduism it is the samaj dharma, or social duties, that are most important, while in Christianity it is the personal duties of devotion to Christ that supersede social rules and duties. Thus, Hindus could remain Hindu in their social duties and identities while following a personal devotion to Christ and expressing this devotion using Hindu terminology and philosophical categories. Upadhyay did not explicitly state the ecclesiological implications of this formulation. I will, however, suggest two. First, though Upadhyay affirmed the importance of receiving the sacraments during mass for personal devotion, he did not place high emphasis on the local gathered community of faith as an expression of Church. Rather, he begins to indicate that the âChurchâ could be manifest through a Hindu society committed to Jesus. Second, Upadhyay did not see a tension between a Hindu religious identity and a Christian identity. New Christians thus did not need to renounce their Hindu identity as a pre-requisite for becoming members of a Church.
Upadhyayâs theological formulations of a Hindu-Christian synthesis are recognized as important contributions to an early Indian Christian theology. However, the particular articulations were rarely adopted or developed by ecclesial communities. Indeed, as Jeyaraj has pointed out, the high philosophical nature of Upadhyayâs arguments rarely appeal to most Hindus, the vast majority of whom do not engage in deeply philosophical considerations of the Hindu faith. However, though Upadhyayâs philosophy may have only appealed to a small number of elite Hindus, he identified and grappled with the commonly felt tension between the identity of the Hindu family and the identity of the individual Christian and the Christian community. One way of dealing with this, as I have described, was to divide the Hindu dharma between social and personal devotion and duties. Though many Hindus do not make such formal divisions, Upadhyay nonetheless posited that, in theory, they could be divided and that a disciple community could thus retain a Hindu identity. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church could ultimately not accept this proposition and distanc...