Tutorial-2

Course: Catholic Religious Frontiers in Portuguese Asia

Submitted to: Prof. Joy L. K. Pachuau
Submitted by: Divya Tiwari,
M.A., 2nd semester,
CHS (medieval), SSS, JNU

Topic- Compare and contrast Jesuit involvement with local

culture and religions in India and Far-East (China). What
were the constraints they faced?

Within just few years since their inception, the Jesuit Missionary activities
spread far and wide in Europe and rest of the world specially America and
Asia. The charismatic missionaries left many accounts of their travels and
interactions with the societies where they worked for the expansion of the
Christian faith. Francis Xavier, who is one of the best known missionaries in
the early career of the Society of Jesus, spent ten years shuttling across
Maritime Asia, between India, South-east Asia and Japan, attempting to
open new mission fields1. He was helped by many Europeans who already
inhabited these far off lands. However he wasn’t benefitted much by their
presence since his work demanded strong personal devotion to the cause of
evangelizing mission. Jesuits were very active in both India and China from
the late sixteenth century onwards. They tried vigorously in propagating
their faith through measures ranging from the use of force to peaceful
accommodation of even some anti- catholic elements found in some
cultures.
 In spite of many variations within the Jesuit missionary activities across
India and China, there were some general trends in the overall nature of
their dialogue with the societies of the east. Similarities stemmed basically
from their well devised plan of proselytization of the Catholicism in the
foreign lands. The study of native traditions was central to their strategy of
propagation in these lands. However for convincing the people of other faith
of the validity of the Christian doctrine, knowledge was not enough, rather it
was with the knowledge in addition to the rhetorical skills and a
predisposition for debate that was needed to make an impact on the minds
of the foreign people2. The use of common vows, procedures of governance,
educational norms and devotions, and pastoral practices, all contributed to
forging the Society’s institutional identity3.

In the case of India, scholar M.N.Pearson in his book The Portuguese in

India says that the Portuguese generally favored conversions of the
indigenous people. Though, they were comparatively tolerant in their
attitude towards it. However this trend changed from 1540 with the arrival
of the ideology of Counter- Reformation in Goa and with it the Jesuits. Their
arrival gave impetus to the conversion drive. Pearson says that in 1540, in
order to encourage conversions all temples in Goa were destroyed. Orphans
were kidnapped and converted, rice Christianity flourished and hindus were
discriminated against by the government in a multitude of ways4. The
Estado financed the activities of the missionaries and the Crown also
provided logistic support as transport and protection5. As a result of the
conversions a new religious community was created in India, though it was a
tiny one.6 Pearson gives us some figures, he says, that by 1600, there were
about 175,000 Christians in all India and one-fifth of it i.e. at least 50,000
were Goans. Most of these converts were lower castes fishing communities.
There were rarely any Muslim converts. Even among hindus, the upper
castes mostly resisted. However it should be kept in mind that such
intolerant behavior was not the hallmark of the Jesuits around other areas of
the subcontinent. Moreover it must also be noted that here that unlike the
case of Portuguese Goa, missionaries did not always succeeded in their
conversion drive with the same magnitude. The case of Mughal North India
is an example of such a failure. However Jesuits political role cannot be
ignored since the information they gathered in the Mughal court was often
valuable for the governors of Portuguese India7.

In the Mughal Court upon arriving, Jesuits encountered a diverse political

situation. Since they heard a lot about the tolerant and liberal behavior of
mughal rulers, they were sure to some extent to convert the king. However
they misunderstood the nature of these rulers who were only curious about
other religions and wanted to have a debate between the theologians of
various religions. Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam in their article
on the Jesuit mission during Jahangir’s reign throw light on the various
missions that arrived in his court starting with the first Jesuit encounter.
Article also talks about how in the letters send by the Jesuits contained their
successful dealings with the mughals. In all the three missions in Akbar’s
court, Jesuits were not able to make any effective advance. However, the
translation of the Bible and other important Jesuit works into Persian was an
important development. Some of these important works were in fact
products of joint authorship by the Jesuits and the scholars who served the
mughals. Most worthy of mention is a person named Abdus Sattar ibn Qasim
Lahauri8.
 There were many areas where Jesuits failed to prove their point during the
discussions and debates in the Mughal court. This can attributed partly to
their inefficiency in the Persian language and partly to some of the basic
tenets of Christianity which proved to be a point of contention between
them and the rulers. One such area was the practice of monogamy which is
so highly valued by the Jesuits but it was not very well taken by the Muslims
in the court. Moreover conflicts also stemmed from the possible and more
accurate interpretations of the Gospel. What is important to underline here
is the engagement of the Jesuits with the variety of religious scholars mostly
muslims in complex theological debates in order to persuade the emperor,
the universality of their faith. The mughals on the other hand were curious
about Europe and attracted by the number of aspects of the material culture
of the Europeans, be it their paintings their clocks or their firearms9.

Unlike India, where the Jesuit missions arrived as soon as the Society of
Jesus was formed in Europe, the China mission began in the 1580s10. By the
time Jesuits entered China, their order had developed effective techniques
for conducting missionary work by channeling their pastoral energy toward
teaching doctrine, preaching sermons, hearing confessions and seeking to
reconcile feuding parties11. Also, another important comparison between the
Indian mission esp. the Goan Jesuit missionary activities was that the men
who requested missionary assignments in China were well aware that they
would have to carry out their apostolic activities without the protection of
colonial arms and that no coercive force would come to their aid in the ace
of indigenous hostility12. However this was not some kind of universal
distinction between the two countries. Comparisons can be made between
the different strategies adopted by various missionaries dealing with the
particular socio-cultural situations. For instance the kind of adaptionist policy
adopted by the roman Jesuit Roberto Nobili in his Madurai mission bear
strong similarities with the Chinese Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci’s policy of
cultural accommodation.

The number of converts in any case was higher in China that in India.
While in India, the Jesuit mission almost disappeared in the Mughal North
India by the mid-17th century onwards, the golden age of Christian mission in
China came in the years between 1662-1706, when the Chinese Christians
increased from 80,000 to 200,00013. Whereas in India, the political situation
was relatively stable when Jesuits came with their mission, in China, they
encountered a different situation and this was one of their reasons for
success. Catholicism, a foreign religion with its promise of an ideal society,
represented a strong message of hope during the collapse of Ming rule
amidst natural disasters, flooding, famines, war and popular rebellions14. The
Ming princes and nobles were also attracted to the Catholic religious
teachings by the missionaries. Here too however, the proscription against
polygamy represented Catholicism’s biggest obstacle to conversion for late
Ming elites15 like the mughals discussed earlier. However, Christianity with
its vision of a disciplined and virtuous society, appealed strongly to the late
Ming elite concerns for reforming society and saving the country16.

Several conclusions can be drawn from the study of Jesuits involvement

with the local culture and religion in India and China. It is hard to judge them
on the basis of success or failure in their mission, since they encountered in
both the countries a complex socio-political situations. There were in certain
areas where they were successful in spreading their ideologies while in some
areas they faced many problems. The success and failure also depended on
the popularity and charismatic appeal of some Jesuits. The strategies and
methods adopted by the missionaries had an impact on their appeal among
the foreign societies. Also the political condition of a particular land affected
the activities of the Jesuits. Hence there were multiple factors working
simultaneously in the overall development of a Christian Community formed
by the Jesuits. There were constant dialogues and interactions happening
between them and the local cultures. In order to have a better
understanding of the society for the expansion of their faith, Jesuits like
Roberto de Nobili studied the native language and incorporated the ‘high
culture’ of the Brahmans. Nolibi even tried to prove that local Hindu rites
and customs he had incorporated could be justified within the tenets of
European theology17. However he was criticized for his unorthodox methods
yet such accommodations were by and large adopted by Jesuits in one way
or the other. Due to their engagement with the upper castes in
understanding the religion of the society, Jesuits in India were able to
prepare standardized version of Sanskrit grammar18 for the benefit of the
other Europeans who wished to study it. However their study was always
restricted to their missionary activities.

.
End Notes

1. Brockey, M.Liam, Journey to the East, p.2.

2. Ibid. p.8
3. Ibid. pp. 8-9.
4. Pearson, M.N. , The Portuguese in India, in The New Cambridge History
of India, Orient Longman, CUP, 1987, p.116.
5. Ibid. p.121.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid. p.125.
8. Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ‘Frank Disputations;
Catholics and Muslims in the court of Jahangir (1608- 11)’ , The Indian
Economic And Social History Review, 46, 4 (2009), p.468.
9. Ibid. p.507.
10. Liam Mathew Brockey, Journey to the East, p.8.
11. Ibid.p.7.
12. Ibid.
13. Ronnie Po-Cho Hsia, ‘Christian conversion in the Late Ming China:
Niccolo Longobardo and Shandong’, The Medieval History Journal,
12,2,(2009), p.276.
14.Ibid.
15. Ibid. p.293
16.Ibid p.299.
17. Ines G. Zupanov, ‘Aristocratic Analogies and Demotic Descriptions in
the seventeenth century Madurai Mission’, Representations, winter
1993, p. 127.
18. Iwona Milewska, ‘ First European Missionaries on Sanskrit Grammar’
from in R.E. Frykenberg (ed) Christians and Missionaries in India,
Cross-cultural communications since 1500, Cambridge
Bibliography
1. R. Po-cho Hsia, Christian Conversion in Late Ming
China, Medieval History Journal, 2009
2. Muzaffar Alam and S Subrahmanyam, Frank Disuputations,
Catholics and Muslims in the court of Jahangir, IESHR, 2009;
46; 457
3. R.E. Frykenberg (ed) Christians and Missionaries in India,
Cross-cultural communications since 1500, Cambridge
4. Ines Zupanov, Aristocratic Analogies and Demotic
Descriptions in the Seventeenth Century Madurai Mission,
in Representation 41, Winter 1993
5. Liam Matthew Brockey, Journey To The East: The Jesuit
Mission To China, 1579-1724.