This observer must be among the most devoted of non-devout readers
interested in issues related on religion. So Charlie Pye-Smith's "Rebels
and Outcasts: A Journey Through Christian India" (Viking,
1997) immediately caught one's attention.
But then, as you know, foreign books are by now often pretty much a waste
of money in India. Devaluation of the Indian rupee (done with such
anti-national fervour, all in the name of boosting exports) has pushed
many foreign products out of the reach of many in India. Particularly
books. One recalls exchanging seven locally-published books of varying
quality to pay back for one from the UK.
Besides, even if you could afford it, should you go in for it? India is
currently seeing a blooming of its domestic publishing industry. (Some big
firms in Delhi publish a book, on average, every three days.) Not only are
these affordable, but they're often relevant and interesting, simply on
grounds of proximity: they deal with issues closer home.
There's also a question of whether one should go on with the
environmentally-destructive habit of buying books, to add to one's growing
unread-books collection, in these information-overload days.
It's a dilemma to live in a Goa starved of sufficient libraries.
Anyway, coming back to Pye-Smith. One couldn't resist thumbing through the
chapter on Goa, titled 'The Roman Conquest'.
In that, we encountered friend WRdaS, described thus:
At this point (page 94) Father Willie d'Silva, a tall,
pale-skinned, wavy haired man of exceptional good looks,
came into the room. He was in a hurry as he had a
night bus to catch, but he sat down to chat with us for
twenty minutes or so. A few days later the principal
of the Jesuit college in Mangalore asked me if I had
met him. When I told hm that I had, he simply said,
'He's a genius, of course.'
Father Willie was a lecturer at Panjim University.
He had recently completed the translation of the
Bible into Kanarese and he had carried out
sociological research on a broad range of issues,
including the practise of dowry, expatriate Christian
cultures in the Middle East, the status of untouchables
in India and religious conflict. He was a great
iconoclast, and his views on the institution of the
Church must make the Catholic hierarchy shudder. He
estimated that between 10,000 to 15,000 Catholics out
of the half million in Goa had deserted the Church
to join charismatic groups like the Assembly of God and
the New Life Fellowship. I asked him whether he was
concerned about this.
"No," he said cheerfully. "It doesn't worry me in the
least. I see it as a blessing, and not a blessing in
disguise. The institutionalization of the Church has
led to an accumulation of authority and power. By
joining the charismatics, people are reacting against
the hierarchical system and all the nonsense that
entails."
Before he rushed off, Father Willie mentioned that
there was also a charismatic movement within the
Catholic Church and that a group met here, at
Jesuit House, on Friday evenings. He suggested I
attend one of their meetings. I said I would, but
added that I was wary of being drawn into emotional
forms of worship.
"I undersand that," he said, nodding. "I like my own
personal space too."
I asked whether he attended these charismatic meetings.
"No," he replied, grimacing. "I don't need to. My
room's next door and I hear everything that's going on."
Father Willie departed and I got up to leave....
There were fewer doubts now. The only question was the price of the book.
I looked. The printed price said twenty pounds
sterling. Frightful. Written at the corner of the back cover was a
more-reasonable Rs 595. One other more desperate-looking hand had scrawled
elsewhere on the cover, Rs 150.
"What is *the* price?" I asked exasperated.
Fortunately, this was a book exhibition being put up by my friend Khalil
Ahmed of Broadways at the Institute Menezes Braganza. (Rival booksellers
hate his guts, swear that he's monopolising book-sales in Goa, and
brining in cut-throat competition. Readers like me love his sales; they
offer tomes not at the ludicrous printed prices. But, by bring in 2, 3, 4
or more year old books... who cares... Khalil's Broadway offers them at
the prices someone earning in Indian Rupees could afford.)
Khalil's son said the price *was* Rs 595, but it was being offered for
"only Rs 150". There was no hesitation left....
Last night, one finished half the book in a sitting (amazing for a slow
reader!). Pye-Smith -- who's earlier books were on the Nile, Nepal and
Barcelona -- describes Christianity in India in a travel-writer's
style. He takes you from Shimla (the old British colonial summer capital),
to work done in Delhi slums, battles over Church of North India properties
in Pune... the rest one is still to read.
Of course, Pye-Smith gets away with saying some pretty atrocious things,
and often treats the people he meets with that wry British sense of
humour. I don't know what they would think if they read the book, but it
makes for easy and interesting reading....
There were times one found oneself laughing uncontrolably at the way in
which he put across things (leaving aside, of course, the unintentional
errors like the 'Panjim University' and 'half-million Catholics' as emerge
from the writeup above). FN
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