Caste dispute

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Caste dispute describes the discussion of the European Christian mission groups in India about the correct way to deal with the caste system they found in the 18th century.

History of the Christian mission in Tranquebar

While under the rule of the British East India Company mission was initially still prevented and a more mission-negative policy was pursued, this changed with the takeover of the areas of the East India Company by the British Crown in 1858. The Anglican Mission gained more and more strength Influence. However, not only the British were represented in India, but also other European powers tried to gain a foothold in India. For example the Portuguese, the Dutch with their own trade organization, the Dutch East India Company and also the Danes.

German missionaries also came to India via the Danish colony of Tranquebar . The Danish-Halle Mission in Tranquebar began in 1706 with the arrival of the first missionaries Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau . The Danish-Halle mission ended in 1837 with the death of its last missionary, August Friedrich Crämer.

The Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Leipzig, also known as the Leipziger Missionswerk , saw itself as the successor organization to the Danish-Halle Mission. In 1840 she sent her first missionary, Heinrich Cordes, to India. In 1845 the Danish goods were handed over to the English and the Anglican Mission Societies took over the management of the mission on site. During the First World War, the Swedish Church Mission took over the work of the Germans who were interned by the British. In 1919 the independent "Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church" was founded, with which the Leipzig Missionswerk still has a partnership today.

Caste system in India: 17th and 18th centuries

The term caste probably comes from the Portuguese word "Casta", which means something like "something not mingled". The Portuguese used it to describe the “diversity of social and religious groups” that they found in India.

This term began to gain acceptance in the course of the colonization of India and was used in Europe from the second half of the 18th century to describe the various groups within Indian society. In the early 18th century, for example, Ziegenbalg did not write about castes, but about “sexes”.

Important texts on the origin of the caste system include the Purusa myth and the Manavadharmasastra , a legal text from the 3rd century BC. BC, which was written by Brahmins . The Europeans often did not differentiate between Varna and Jati by using the term caste, but instead mixed the two terms.

Varna ("Stand") divides society into four classes. The Brahmins come first, followed by the Kshatriya , the Vaishya and the Shudra . The casteless and untouchable are not included in the caste system and are outside the caste system. In addition, there is the subdivision into the various Jati, family groups and professional groups. The jati are separated from one another, see themselves as a unit and assign themselves to a caste.

Hugald Grafe describes the concept of the caste as follows:

“A caste is not a class, a race, a guild, a clan or a class. It contains elements of everything. But it is more than the sum. It is the indissoluble and indissoluble identity of birth in a fixed socio-religious hierarchical entanglement in its own culture or subculture. It is a life force that connects like no other and divides like no other. It connects and divides through descent, marriage, family, language, gestures, cuisine and "cookbook", name, clothing, table community , occupation, social intercourse, worship of favorite deities, through rites and much more. "

Ziegenbalg also writes of four "main sexes", which are divided into further sexes. These differ in their “wedding ceremonies, in Esz ceremonies, in clothing, in dignity and in profession, and also in many other things”. His main focus is on the Shudras, which he divides into 71 families, i.e. jatis. Ziegenbalg sees in the description of the Shudra community a group that has grown together and is dependent on one another, and who distance themselves from one another in their professions.

Caste dispute: question of agreement between Christian mission and caste

The question of the compatibility of Christian mission and caste preoccupied the missionaries very much. The question of how to deal with the caste system was posed to the Protestant missionaries anew every day. The caste system faced the image of human equality before God.

How the Danish-Halle mission dealt with this problem cannot be clearly determined. However, it can be guessed that symbolically the equality of all members of the community was given, but certain separations were probably retained. Ziegenbalg writes of the possibility of marriage in the Christian community between the different jati, but for example the separate seating arrangements and separate sacrament goblets were retained.

The Anglican Mission, under its Bishop Wilson, called for the abolition of the caste institution in the parishes. He called for this "resolutely, immediately and once and for all". He also put forward several points that, in his opinion, needed to be enforced:

  • the abolition of separate seating arrangements in the church
  • taking communion together
  • the requirement for members of the higher castes in the community to include teachers, including those from lower castes

On the one hand, the congregations protested against these measures, because they feared the complete exclusion from the Hindu kinship and on the other hand felt branded as disobedient Christians if they were not observed. Because of this, there were splits. Some joined the German Lutherans, who pursued a more moderate caste policy.

In 1850 the Anglo-Saxon missionary societies went one step further and demanded that converts to Christianity should break with the caste system. This breaking was symbolized by the communal meal, in which food had to be consumed with everyone. The communities now had to enforce this and also give an account of it.

Among other things, this policy led to the fact that often almost exclusively members of the same Jati in a community converted. For the upper classes, especially the Brahmins, Christianity remained an unattractive option. The lower castes preferred the education system installed by the missionaries with the hope of gaining social advancement. This concentration of certain Jati in certain communities did not lead to the abolition of the caste system, on the contrary, it was even strengthened. Many congregations had to admit that in reality the abolition was simply not enforceable. The caste system occupied such a large place in Indian culture.

The Leipzig successor Mission, under its director Karl Graul , saw education as a key element in the abolition of caste thinking. But even within the mission there were disputes over the question of ordination . At least then there should be a communal dinner. This met with great protest: The first Tamil ordinand, Nallatambi, who was invited by Carl Ochs to eat together in February 1854 , rejected this measure so that a compromise had to be found.

In 1857 a decree came into force which now demanded that the ordinates had to vow not to allow themselves to be hindered in their tasks by caste thinking. This suggestion met with approval from the congregations and the ordinand appointed above (he was later ordained). For many missionaries, however, this compromise was too weak, and some (5 of 13, including Carl Ochs) withdrew from the service.

The discussions about the correct way to deal with the caste system continued. There was a dispute between the various German mission societies over the right attitude. There were also divisions within the mission societies.

The central problem remained the question of the extent to which one had to take the existing caste system into account, since it was still a large part of the culture of India and has remained to this day.

Converting to Christianity risked recognition by relatives and expulsion from society. For the missionaries there was therefore another problem: How should someone have the opportunity to be active in missionary activities in his circle of members or his caste comrades if he isolates himself by converting to Christianity and the resulting rejection of the caste system?

All these questions remained the central theme of the further caste debate.

literature

  • Dharampal-Frick (2006) "... sent out to exterminate paganism in India, but not to spread pagan nonsense in Europe" Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Halle's Tranquebar Mission between pietistic sense of mission and ethnological enlightenment, in: Mann, Michael (ed.) European Enlightenment and Protestant Mission in India, Heidelberg: Draupadi, pp. 143–165.
  • Frenz, Matthias & Deschner, Hans Jürgen (2006) The work of conversion; Reflections on the relationship between Pietism, Enlightenment and mission in the early 18th century, in: Mann, Michael (ed.) European Enlightenment and Protestant Mission in India, Heidelberg: Draupadi, pp. 33–57.
  • Grafe, Hugald (2008) Caste dispute and the caste dilemma in the Leipzig and Hermannsburg work on India in the 19th century - an extreme example of a fundamental missiological problem, in: Wrogemann, Henning (ed.) India - melting pot of religions or competition between missions? Berlin: LIT, pp. 67-82.
  • Liebau, Heike (2006) The Halle Orphanage and the Tranquebarmission: An Unusual Constellation, in: Mann, Michael (ed.) European Enlightenment and Protestant Mission in India, Heidelberg: Draupadi, pp. 125–143.
  • Schmidt, Yvonne (2006) Tranquebar under the Danebrog. The role of the Danes in the multicultural trade network on the Coromandel coast, in: Mann, Michael (ed.) European Enlightenment and Protestant Mission in India, Heidelberg: Draupadi, pp. 81-101.
  • Schröder, Ulrike (2009) Religion, Caste and Ritual. Christian Mission and Tamil Hinduism in South India in the 19th Century, Halle: Frankesche Foundation 2009.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schröder, Ulrike (2009) Religion, Caste and Ritual. Christian Mission and Tamil Hinduism in South India in the 19th Century, Halle: Frankesche Stiftung 2009, p. 120.
  2. ↑ Schröder, Ulrike (2009) Religion, Caste and Ritual. Christian Mission and Tamil Hinduism in South India in the 19th Century, Halle: Frankesche Stiftung 2009, pp. 120–124.
  3. ↑ Grafe, Hugald (2008) caste dispute and caste dilemma in the Leipzig and Hermannsburg work on India in the 19th century - an extreme example of a fundamental missiological problem, in: Wrogemann, Henning (ed.) India - melting pot of religions or competition between missions? Berlin: LIT, p. 67.
  4. ↑ Dharampal-Frick (2006) “… sent out to exterminate paganism in India, but not to spread pagan nonsense in Europe” Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Halle's Tranquebar Mission between pietistic sense of mission and ethnological enlightenment, in: Mann, Michael (ed. ) European Enlightenment and Protestant Mission in India, Heidelberg: Draupadi, p. 149/150.
  5. ↑ Grafe, Hugald (2008): Box dispute and box dilemma in the Leipzig and Hermannsburg work on India in the 19th century - an extreme example of a fundamental missiological problem , in: Wrogemann, Henning (ed.) India - melting pot of religions or competition between missions? Berlin: LIT, p. 69.
  6. ↑ Grafe, Hugald (2008) caste dispute and caste dilemma in the Leipzig and Hermannsburg work on India in the 19th century - an extreme example of a fundamental missiological problem, in: Wrogemann, Henning (ed.) India - melting pot of religions or competition between missions? Berlin: LIT, pp. 69-70.