Why Sonali Bendre gifted Rs. 25 lakhs to St. Catherine’s Home?

November 30, 2000

St. Catherine’s Home, Mumbai

In October 2000, film actress Sonali Bendre made news when she donated her Rs. 25 lakh cheque won at the Kaun Banega Crorepati television show to St. Catherine’s Home located in the northern Mumbai suburb of Andheri.

The simple signboard at the entrance of its premises is symbolic of the low profile institution housed within. This institution has been unobtrusively making significant contributions in the field of social welfare for the past 78 years. Their main focus has always been the two most vulnerable sections of our society — children and women.

St. Catherine’s Home’s humble beginnings can be traced back to the year 1922, when Ida Dickenson took the initiative to provide shelter to a group of homeless girls and to give them a chance to grow in an environment of love and care. Thereafter, the Bishop of Bombay requested the Daughters of the Cross to take over and continue the wonderful work of Ms. Dickenson.

In 1948, the institution moved to its current location. The original plot was a generous donation from Joseph Gomes of Amboli. Additional land was donated by one Mr. D’Mello, also of Amboli. Subsequently, adjoining plots of land were either donated or bought from various owners.

The institution has gradually specialised into social welfare with a special focus on the girl child. Today, the institution provides a home to over 320 children. It’s a place where they can grow up free from fear and want and learn to discover themselves and their potential as true human beings.
Firstly, there are the 19 children, aged two to 12 years, who have been born with AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), many of whom have watched their parents die. These little ones were found at railway stations, abandoned, in pathetic conditions.

Crayon drawings on the walls, games strewn all around and the bustling Sister Shanti, always keeping the little ones company. Across an entire wall is a well–stocked medicine cabinet stocked with every kind of medicine, next to which is a birthday chart with beaming photos of the 19 children who live there.

“Birthdays are a big deal here. We celebrate each one as if it will be the child’s last — because it just might be,” says Sister Shanti. This is the Snehanilaya project, started in September 1996.

Shanti Sadan, which houses little abandoned children and St. Catherine’s School, which is run on the premises of the Home, has been around long before the Snehanilaya project. The school aims to provide a friendly environment for the children of the Home as well as for poor children from the neighbourhood.

The co–education Marathi medium school has over 1,750 children in its primary and secondary sections. Of these, over 1,500 children are from nearby slums and chawls. In March this year, the school achieved yet another landmark — 73% of it’s students cleared the SSC examination successfully.

The Karunankur project of the St Catherine’s Home, begun just a year ago, is an attempt to rehabilitate abused minors and young girls forced into prostitution. At present 12 girls are housed here.

Besides, the Home also provides shelter to unwed mothers in a special section named Vishvasthan. The Home’s medical staff provides assistance to these young women during their pregnancy and delivery and also gives them tips on how to take care of themselves and their children.

(The above piece is based on information from an article by Namita Devidayal in The Times of India and in the Blaze’s Newsletter).

‘I am what I am thanks to my school’

November 30, 2000

Courtesy: bollyspice.com

Shabana Azmi
Film Actress, Rajya Sabha MP, Social Activist

Shabana Azmi is a former student of Queen Mary’s, Mumbai. This is also the school where the former darling of the silver screen, Nargis, did her schooling from. While Nargis was rose to the eminence of being Head Girl of the School, Shabana didn’t because “I was far from Head Girl material, being a very naughty girl”. But she has very warm memories of the school that nurtured her in her formative years.

We had Psalms and hymns being sung in our school every morning. So, in that sense you could say that there was a Christian influence in the general sense. But at no point did I ever feel, nor was I ever made to feel that Christian religion was more important than mine. Never did I experience any feeling of suffocation by the Christian influence.

All festivals were observed or celebrated with equal gusto, all traditions were honoured and respected.

The sheer dedication of Christian institutions, and the women and men who run them, to education is tremendous.

The Irish lady who was the principal of Queen Mary’s when I was at school is now 84–years–old. But do you know, after retiring from the school, she did not go back to Ireland. Today, she is in a remote village in Tamil Nadu dedicated to the education of tribals. Apart from the fact that neither you nor I are doing this, casting aspersions on this commendable dedication to basic education, when hundreds of thousands of our children have no access to basic literacy, is both cynical and spurious.

The other thing I liked about my school was its commitment to an all round education. There were the ex tremely serious lessons on morals and values, you know, like, jhoot nahin bolna chahiye, khana kis tarah khana chahiye. I feel all this helped in moulding all of us into the persons that we are. Which is why I say without hesitation that I am the person who I am thanks to my school!

Each one of us greatly benefited from the outlook that was integral to education in our school. Marathi was given as much dedication and importance as French.

One approach that the school followed that has left a lasting influence on me is that, on principle, children from all classes were, admitted into the school. It was not a school of only the very rich or only the very poor. There was a genuine attempt at a policy of integration so that it did not become a typical, snooty, elite South Bombay school!

I remember so well that on our birthdays we were permitted to wear our birthday frocks instead of the uniform. But the only sweets that we were permitted to distribute among our classmates had to be the kind that all children could afford! None of us were allowed to distribute chocolate pastries, for example, simply because our parents could afford them.

A keen sense of justice and fairness dictated the approach and commitment to education. By the way, Nargis, the darling of the silver-screen in the past was Head Girl of the Queen Mary’s in the 1950s! I was far from being Head Girl material. In fact, I was not even a monitor but I loved every minute of my school days…

There was a lot of singing, dancing, encouragement of theatre and drama, the all round development of the child. It was not a school that concentrated on academics and academics alone. Which is why I loved my school!

Victory over Poverty

November 30, 2000

St Vincent de Paul Society

While the name given to it by the young Catholic students who founded it in Paris in 1833 is the St Vincent de Paul Society (patron saint of charities), modern day members would like to remind newcomers of the true meaning of SVP — service for victory over poverty.

To renew the church’s commitment to work for the marginalised, Indian branches of the SVP have been active since 1863. In Mumbai, there is a unit of the SVP active in many of the parishes, adopting families, encouraging them to become self–reliant and on a larger scale, setting up leprosy hospitals and homes, and an Aids hospice to provide treatment and a home for families affected by HIV/Aids.

Encouraging traditional talents has also been part of the focus of the SVP. An early scheme begun in the late 19th century was a project to encourage the traditionally highly reputed pottery on the island of Moolampally. The SVP unit called the Verapoly Central Council began this.
Presently, the society runs tailoring and embroidery classes, education schemes, handicraft centres, small scale agricultural projects, the distribution of goats and cows for dairy produce, schemes for knitting of fishing nets, providing fishing boats and nets, homes for the homeless, medical clinics, homes for the aged, and holding eye camps. All activities concerned with self–empowerment and livelihood, in a nutshell.

As far back as 1885, one of the first leprosy homes set up in the country was the one founded by the St Vincent de Paul Society, in Trombay, a Mumbai suburb. The home was erected on a palatial property donated by the well–known Albless family of Bombay and subsequently conveyed to the Society as a gift in trust to be used for a lepers’ asylum.

This was the beginning of the Eduljee Framjee Albless Leprosy Home a major medical relief centre. Since 1992, both men and women are being admitted as indoor patients here.

Apart from the dispersed activities within the 80–odd parishes of the Mumbai Archdiocese — adopting families, providing material and other aid with an aim to encourage self–reliance — the Shanty Bhuwan, Home for the Aged, located at Kalyan and the newly–conceived, 15–bed Aids Hospice (constructed in 1996) at Trombay, today constitute it’s major presence in the region.

Ninety per cent of the ‘beneficiaries’ of all the society’s schemes are non–Christians even though funds for the construction of the Aids Hospice or for any of the other social service projects or schemes are collected largely from the Christian community.

The last fund–raiser by the SVP was a unique method to involve partnership and involvement from the community, justifying the new-found motto of the SVP — Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM).

A total of Rs. 63 lakh was raised from the Archdiocese of Mumbai by enlisting the help of Christian parishioners in seeking “partners in the common cause”. Over 30,000 flyers were distributed through the church to solicit monetary support. A few thousand enthusiastic participants contributed amounts ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 5,000, to become “partners” in this unique scheme that reaped rich dividends.

Now, the society aims even higher to build a 100–bed full–fledged Aids Hospice for men, women and children, suffering from the dreaded disease. The Rs. 4 crore project is ambitious but when completed it will fill a crucial and gaping void.

Yet another instance of a Christian institution, stepping in critical areas where neither government institutions nor private enterprise show any desire to tread.

‘I am proud to be from a school with workers so committed to education’

November 30, 2000

Three ex-students of Don Bosco school, Matunga, Mumbai, who are even today actively involved itself in the past pupils’ association spoke to Communalism Combat about an institution that shaped their life and vision, firmly yet unobtrusively, through their formative years. Carrying the genuinely Christian belief that within every child there is that something just waiting to come out and flower, the staff and management of Bosco have conveyed to their alumni that caring for others, looking outside narrow concerns of our own lives, engaging in burning social issues are all part of a learning process that never ends. It means a life long engagement with the world around you.

Dr Ram Chaddha
Spine surgeon, Mumbai

I do believe that Bosco is probably one of the premier educational institutions with a history of strong commitment to education. What I appreciate the most about this school is that despite having a prominent shrine next to us through all our schooling days, a shrine that dominates the campus, I never ever felt that Christianity was in anyway being imposed on me.

I am happy to tell you that I come from basically an Arya Samaji Hindu culture where there is no idol worship.

We as non-Christians had the moral science class, and the boarders, who were mostly Christians, the books on religion. My closest friends were boarders and I have gone through their books on religion. The moral science and religion books were almost the same. The only difference between the boarders and us was that my Catholic colleagues visited the church more often than we did and got the chance to taste the Holy Communion which we missed! It was only later in life that I realized that the Holy Communion was something very interesting that we should have shared!
I did not feel in any way different from them. In fact, I was very happy with the fact that I belonged to a school that had, and still has, a committed set of workers so utterly dedicated to education. I’ve noticed that there are only a few communities which have a committed set of workers — Christians, Parsis, or some Jains — who have a tradition of grooming a set of people who have given up a lot of their domestic daily chores for a commitment.

It may be education, it may be health, rehabilitation or whatever. Christians have invested so much on education while Parsis have invested in helping students with educational scholarships, for the alleviation of poverty etc. Many of us who have needed help at various points of time, for medical expenses or other higher education courses, have got it from Parsi trusts, the Tata trusts or the Godrej trusts. They also encourage sports a lot.

For me, being a good human being is more important than being a Hindu or a Christian or a Muslim. I strongly feel that the way they developed my personality from an ordinary child, who probably may have had an inferiority complex elsewhere into an outgoing and confident person, was amazing. Hell, at 10 or 11 years, I was put up before an audience of 3,000 at the Shanmukhananda Hall, the largest auditorium in Bombay! I had to perform in front of the entire auditorium for almost three hours. If I could do that I can face anybody in the world!

‘Why should you point fingers at the Christian institutions instead of learning from their outstanding example?’

Dr Ameet S Patki
Gynaecologist

I came to Don Bosco because my family had a long association with the Don Bosco Salesians. My grandfather was instrumental in building this school so it was the obvious choice of school for me. We never saw this as a Christian school. As Ram says, we were never even asked to go to the shrine even once. I repeat not once and I am talking about 20-25 years ago. Never even once were we told to visit the shrine.

The school never once discriminated between us, we were all encouraged to bring out the best from within us. At the time, the staff was 70 per cent Christian and the long hours of dedication that these persons spent with us, training us after school hours, in gymnastics, elocution, in preparation for these huge mega shows. Their dedication was amazing.

We are all proud to say aloud that we are from Bosco. They make you into a complete person. We were each one of us made to feel special. As Father Adolf used to say, there is something in each student just waiting to come out. In Bosco, each child grows up believing this.
Those who are casting these unwarranted aspersions on Christian institutions should recognize this tremendous dedication and contribution, value it and learn from it. Persons of other faiths should pick this up, emulate from it. Why should you point fingers at the Christian institutions instead of learning from their outstanding example?

‘For my Brahmin marriage by Vedic rites, a Christian priest came all the way from Spain to bless us’

Dilip S Bhatt
Chartered Accountant

What could be a better illustration of what Bosco stands for than to imagine that even though I am a Hindu, I am the past pupils’ president of the school; I am on the provincial committee. I formed the national federation of Don Bosco Past Pupils and I am its national treasurer. Does this not show that this is not a Christian institution, it is an institution for everyone?

It brought us all together irrespective of caste, colour and creed.

Some of our lifelong mottos we learnt from here — how to help others and help in the Bosco style, to empower the needy, to comfort the sick. This message is so important to remember in the India of today. When we carry such a message out of Bosco into the wider world, and we follow what we have learnt, we not only repay the alma mater for their devotion but also contribute to society as a whole.

The education stressed upon here is one of relevance to the world, problems and issues around you. I really feel that I am proud to call myself a Boscoite and I will continue to feel so until I die.

I got married as per Vedic rights years ago. My marriage took place in Dakor, a Brahmin stronghold in Gujarat, with 95 per cent Brahmins. You will be surprised to hear how the marriage took place. Father Mariotta flew down from Switzerland to attend my marriage in Dakor; he came over there and after our marriage ceremony he blessed both of us. In front of the large village crowd. Not one person gave it a thought. Even though mine was a traditional Brahmin marriage by Vedic rites, a Christian priest came all the way to bless the couple! The whole town was thrilled.
My father happens to be the president of the Brahmin Parishad there. And yet, on that day all of us went through a beautiful experience; it was as if a communion marriage between Hindus and Christians was taking place.

I learnt here that there is no difference between human beings. Even today I go to the temple, mosque, a church.

‘A pride laced with humility is what every Boscoite has’

Jatin V Paranjape
Cricketer, played for Mumbai and India

I come from a family that is a blend of academics and sports. My father is a cricket coach, my mother heads the English department at Ruia College. My parents put me into Bosco because of the emphasis on sport. There was always a very good balance between education and sport there.
When I started playing for the school I was in the fifth standard; it was actually my vice-principal who spotted me one day playing rubber ball cricket. He used to take care of the hockey and football teams but without my even knowing it, he recommended me to the cricket coach. The very next day I found myself playing from the school team! Everything seemed to just follow from there.

At the same time, the teachers took so much pain in the classes to help me keep track of my studies. Unknowingly, this is what this institution has taught me, that you can do a couple of things at the same time. You can both pursue your dream and also academics. I did well in Std X and XII, completed my Company Secretary course while I was already playing for Bombay. I played for India thereafter. At present, I have taken a few months’ sabbatical since I am appearing for the IIM Management entrance examinations.

What was instilled in me at Bosco has stayed within me: yes, Jatin you can play cricket and you can study as well. That is what the class teacher used to tell me. Nothing was actually done to tell me this, but the message has been lasting and has stayed. So apart from being in the team, I was also the class monitor, helping with other kinds of organizing and so on.

Some of my best friends have been the boarders and I am happy to say that I am still in touch with them. There is one unmistakable thing that every Boscoite has, a pride in his institution. It is an unshakable pride. It is not a pride bordering on the egoistic. It is a pride laced with humility. That is what Fr Lionel taught us. It was all done unobtrusively; the message getting across without the other person even knowing or understanding it.

Was Christianity imposed? This is laughable, farthest from the truth. We have a beautiful church here that is the landmark of the area, the city. It does not just belong to the school, but to all of us. It is part of our collective history.

‘Spirituality lies in working against injustices, for truth. Without this emphasis what use is ritualistic faith alone?’

November 30, 2000

Father Hugh Fonseca

One of six children from Mumbai, I have been a priest for 33 years now. For all the years that I have been a priest, I have believed in getting involved with the problems of the people, in the real life issues that matter.

From 1975 until 1983, I was at the St Pius seminary, Goregaon (Mumbai), with Fr Raymond, his brother, Fr Alvyn and Fr. Alex Carvalho. It was while we worked there that ideas began to take shape and move in a particular direction. In 1980, when we had the consultation for priests, we started the social justice cells.

This work continued as we went into the parishes. I was in the Kurla parish for six years but I lived and worked in Saki Naka. Saki Naka was a very important experience for me as the parish was being controlled by a group of people, Catholics, who were under the sway of slumlords. Over a five-year period, we managed to get it out of the hands of the vested interests. Ultimately people began to take charge of their own lives.

We were, the four of us, idealistic, with strong notions of what faith should be and the role it should play in people’s lives. This churning and reflection within us was against the solely ritualistic faith that was prevalent at the time. The result of this reflection was a paper that we came out with to nudge the Church in the direction that we were going. It was titled, ‘The Faith that has Justice’.

We then took up two parishes, the Jeri Meri and Saki Naka parishes, as experiments; the result was the Jagruti Kendra established in 1989. All four of us worked as a team. There was the handa morcha that we took out to the ward office to protest on the question of water; we protested the shabby collection and depositing of garbage. Each protest sent out a deep inner message to people to take charge of their lives, not to feel helpless and insecure and empower themselves to get what is their due.

In the beginning there was resistance, too, to such a novel approach. At one meeting in Saki Naka where parish counsellors were present, vested interests who had controlled affairs for too long tried to show their strength. They threatened to attack me. That was a real test for the local population. When all of them stood up refused to be cowed down, stood around to protect me, that was the first public show of our victory.

Until then, no one had publicly challenged the authority of the vested interests. This was during 1992 and 1993. Thereafter, I was in Orlem, Malad, another suburb where I spent six years. There, too, a powerful local group, VOTE (Voice of the People Exploited), emerged.

The incident that initially motivated people was the demolition of a chapel at Srilankapada. This became an incident to rally against the local corporation officials, the Shiv Sena corporators and to establish healthy links with the police. The local people took up the initial mobilisation and what we see now is the existence of a strong voice of the laity in Malad. There is the VOTE group, there is also the Lourdes Community Centre that contributes to community service and health works in the area.

Now at Borivli, we are, laity and church together, involved in firming up yet another group, HELP. Here also the aim is to work together on issues that concern all of us, be it attacks on minorities or broader human rights issues.

As a priest, I have always believed that we must guide persons to take control of their lives and to fight for justice. When we began as priests, there was more emphasis on the spiritual and the ritualistic. Today, I see that spirituality lies in working against injustices, for truth. Without this emphasis what use is ritualistic faith alone?

The Church has played a historic role in this country providing education, health and other services. But it is a huge institution that gets tired and lumbers along. It, too needs to be nudged with new ideas, new pushes. We need to look beyond formal education, look at the question of values, civic values, values concerning justice, becoming good and responsive citizens.

In the broadest possible sense, following as we are the work of Christ, we must be prepared to think beyond ourselves, look at the misery and poverty around and do something about it. Like other institutions, the Church here and elsewhere has had aberrations, reflecting the concerns of only the powerful and the rich, the influential, echoing the caste biases that prevail. Yes, we have had our share of aberrations.

There were parts of India where only upper caste priests were accepted, in another case we have had a history of different castes being buried separately. This is something that violates the basic tenets of Christianity. We had one instance, in Goa, of the body of a person callously removed after burial, simply because he belonged to the ‘lower’ caste.

This happened because when the Portuguese came, there were actually mass conversions without any real change in attitude on questions of caste. In other words, your conversion did not change your attitudes.

But having said that, there are people within the church hierarchy and the laity who are trying to make a difference.

Under the theme, “He came to set us free” (the first sermon of Christ in the synagogue) we have recently begun a movement for civic and political cells in each parish within the Mumbai diocese. Through this the conscientisation of people will happen.

(As told to Teesta Setalvad).

‘Lay persons increasingly feel that the Church should get involved in politics, in civic issues’

November 30, 2000

Father Alwyn D’Silva

I am an MA in politics. My first appointment when I became a priest in 1975 I was in Vakola, Santacruz (E). Initially I was caught up in traditional priestly work. But slowly, faced with the realities of the world outside, I began to realise that faith has to be linked with justice. Especially, because there was little relation between what happened within the Church to was happening in society.

I remember, for example, that while I was vice-principal of a school at Vakola, I noticed that during the first period itself, students would be trooping out of class and roaming about in the school. Two years later, when I began some community work in the slums where the youngsters lived, I realised that there were no toilets there and so, naturally, they spent the first period releasing themselves.

A cloistered approach from the priest and parish need not get you involved in issues like these but if people are suffering outside, how can we not get involved?

This was also about the time that some four-six priests like us began reflecting on the role of the Church in the community. We used to call it a think tank. Slowly we evolved into an inspirational group concerned with making faith more relevant. This then slowly evolved into the social justice cell of Archdiocese of Bombay in 1981. Finally, a decade later, the official body of the Church accepted it and it now exists as the justice and peace commission.

The guiding principle of this mini-movement inside the Church was that people’s lives, rather than merely ritualistic faith, needs to be stressed. We got inspiration and guidance from Dominque and Nafisa, professors in social work from Andhra Pradesh –- from whom we evolved the idea of working within a community – the idea being to link faith with justice. There were four of us in this movement. My brother, Hugh Fonseca, Alex Carvalho and myself.

Initially there was scepticism from the Church, there was also resistance to work with other communities. But we were clear. That, when we are dealing with social and justice issues we have to get involved with all communities. Jeri Meri, one of our experimental parishes, was where we had a children’s group, a women’s group, a youth group. The main thrust was on the organisation of people, encouraging them to solve their own problems.

There were also difficulties with the hierarchy; but it was a new understanding of faith and action so there were bound to be questions and some friction. I recall an incident when a bishop, Bishop Bosco Pena, was quite supportive. He actually challenged me to begin work with other communities.

So we took up this challenge, managed to work out the dynamics and succeeded. Within Mumbai we had some type of community organisations like Seva Niketan and Bandra East Community Centre. But they were not linked to the parish, they were individual centres. Here the idea was to link each parish with such a cell.

Today this sort of idea has become part of the official mandate; it took us 10-15 years to convince the hierarchy that we need to move with the times. Now we have 35 centres all over Mumbai. (Mumbai has about 80-odd parishes).

In the recent past, with increasing attacks on democratic freedoms of different communities, it becomes even more pertinent that the Church and its units are alert to questions of justice. During the 1992-1993 communal violence in Mumbai, many men and women of the Church opened their church doors for relief and rehabilitation. Now that nuns and priests are also under consistent attack, we need to mobilise on the issue as a threat to democratic freedoms.

The fact that Christian institutions are working in education, health and other areas, with the most marginalised sections and in the context of our country this means oppressed castes, it is inevitable that our work itself comes under attack. However, these women and men of faith are not dithered; at the Seminary I meet them from all parts of the country and they are unshakeable in resolve, determined to complete their life’s mission.

A true Christian believes that it is only under threat, martyrdom and pressure that the church grows –- not necessarily quantitatively but qualitatively. So we have to carry on.

The Church, both as a link with faith and as a physical presence in the parish, has tremendous potential to be a genuine link with the people who live there. To show compassion and caring for their problems. While acceptance to this approach is not 100 per cent, it is slowly growing as the centres become successful, identify with people’s problems and attract young and fresh talent.

Basically it boils down to this. What should faith stand for? Justice issues, real life issues or should we only concentrate on the ritualistic dimension of faith.

While this is a positive development, as in other faiths, the conservative and inward-looking traditions within Christianity are also visible. These persons with a narrow definition of faith and worship don’t see their involvement or the involvement of the Church in politics and civic life. It is growing everywhere; it is a type of spirituality, which is only concerned with personal salvation.

However all said and done, I feel that partly because of the community centres started by some of us, partly because of other pulls and pressures, lay persons increasingly feel that the Church should get involved in politics, in civic issues. These lay persons are taking the initiative. The first step is get people involved.

(As told to Teesta Setalvad).

A people’s priest

November 30, 2000

A Christian priest who has won three journalism awards, received public recognition for tireless social work and been lauded for his contribution to Marathi literature? A man who inspired a citizen’s movement against the goonda–cum–builder lobby at the green tip of Mumbai? Meet Father Francis D’Britto

Vasai village is located about 75 kilometers north of Mumbai city stretching from Bhayander creek at the south to river Vaitarna confluence at the north. This coastal green belt covering 25,000 acres of land is called Vasai–Virar sub–region. This fertile, wooded and green region, north of Mumbai, has been tradition-ally protected by the designed development plans during colonial and post–Independence governments.

However, in August 1988 the government of Maharashtra, with the stroke of a pen, converted this green belt into a residential zone, without any provision for supportive infrastructure. Citizens of Vasai, activists dedicated to sustainable development, genuinely feared that in the wake of the execution of these short-sighted changes made in the plan the environment, structure, topography and demography of this region would be adversely affected. But, predictably there was no voice of discontent whatsoever raised from established political parties, or any other public interest institution.

Around this time, a former municipal commissioner of Mumbai, also voiced public concern about the so–called altered development plan for the Vasai–Virar sub–region, through an article in the Marathi daily, Loksatta. The Marathi monthly Suvarta then took up the issue, breaking local silence with an article, voicing concern about the consequences of this hasty, re-prioritising of the project which was primarily motivated by vested interests, with the powerful builders’ lobby in mind. It was not easy speaking out on the issue, there was an all–prevalent fear of the politician–builder nexus that had terrorized local persons at the time. With little local support at the time, on April 1, 1989 Fr. D’Britto who edits Suvarta, called a meeting of eminent people including politicians and social workers from various walks of life; the response was mixed.

Those opposing the changes to the development plan came together and the Harit Vasai Saurakshan Samiti was born. Thereafter began a systematic concientising programme, with Fr. D’Britto moving all over Vasai, spreading information and knowledge about the issue. A mammoth gathering of 35,000 people on October 1, 1989, was the culmination.

The meeting was addressed by Vijay Tendulkar, noted Marathi playwright, Kisan Mahta, renowned environmentalist, RV Bhuskute, a former tahsildar of Vasai and Fr. F. D’Britto, the convenor of Harit Vasai Saurakshan Samiti. Keeping in mind the protection of the greenery and provision of proper infrastructure, a complete revision of the plan was demanded by the Samiti.

Predictably, the supporters of the builders’ lobby initiated a counter-agitation, which created confusion and uneasiness among the people. Also, the official stand of the Church on this issue was quite obscure. Initially, there were differences among lay Christians, residents of Vasai and the Church on the issue. Eventually, after the continued persistence and commitment of the samiti, that had begun appealing to people on principles of greater common good, proper infrastructure, agriculture, preservation of flora and fauna and water–logging problem, the Church hierarchy also lent support to the movement.

There were more challenges before the movement. In the 1990s, new housing colonies were mushrooming on both sides of Naigaon, Vasai, Nala–Sopara and Virar railway stations. In the absence of government provided tap water, people had to depend on ground water. But due to the close proximity of this area to the creek, the ground water was very saline and non–potable. The builders had started extracting potable ground water from the Vasai–Virar green belt to meet this purpose.

Increasing salinity in the ground water in this area as a result of this, had begun damaging agricultural produce. It was the HVSS that studied the situation and invited a scientific body of experts to determine the water table and degree of salinity.

Among them were: 1) AFPRO – Action For Food Production, Ahmed-nager, 2) Coopers & Lybrand, London, 3) Bombay University, department of geography, government of Maharashtra, 4) Thane Zilla Parishad Land Survey.

The results of the survey proved the fears of the HVSS right, after which an agitation against the tanker and builders lobby was initiated. However, the local politicians supporting the builders, started harassing the peasants of the area. In its report dated May 20, 1991, The Times of India stated: “The Christian population of the Vasai–Virar region is being terrorised by groups of toughs, allegedly let loose by local politicians and builders… The unprecedented and unprovoked violence against innocent people has its roots in the agitation against the overuse of wells in the Vasai–Virar green belt. The villages in the green belt, which are showing the first signs of a water scarce area, have a largely Christian population. Over the last few weeks, women in the area had begun a movement to prevent the ‘irrational’ use of their well water which is transported to the newly developed urban area mostly for construction work.”

Finally government officials intervened. Ministerial level discussions were held where HVSS was represented. As a result the tankers were banned from withdrawing water from the Vasai–Virar green belt. It was a clear victory for the Harit Vasai Saurakshan Samiti.

Another attempt to impose another draft of the development plan for Vasai, this time by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), newly appointed as the Planning Authority for Vasai–Virar sub–region in 1990, was resisted by the HVSS. In September the same year, CIDCO presented an interim draft development plan for the area. HVSS studied the plan in detail and realised that, again, it was detrimental to the environment of Vasai–Virar area. In their plan CIDCO had proposed huge holding ponds and dumping grounds within existing residential areas in the green zone. This could cause untold harm to the health of the residents.

Once again the Harit Vasai Saurakshan Samiti protested against this plan. On January 26, 1992, a huge gathering of 1,00,000 people was held at Vasai grounds after which 1,00,000 protest signatures were collected and presented to the governor of Maharashtra, P.C. Alexander and to the then Prime Minister, VP Singh in New Delhi, who promised to look into the matter personally. CIDCO had to make alterations in its subsequent plans whereby the green belt would be preserved.

Agnel Baba, ‘Servant of God’

November 30, 2000

Like Saibaba of Shirdi, Moin–ud–din Chisti of Ajmer and Ayappa of Sabarimalai, the devotion to Fr. Agnel unites all faiths and communities

Overlooking the bay at Bandstand in Bandra stands a landmark commonly known as Fr. Agnel Ashram. To the thousands of devotees that throng the shrine week after week, it is an isle of solace and succour from the grind of city life and its attendant problems. If one were to visit the place on a Sunday, one would be surprised to find a motley crowd comprising of almost every religious denomination in the country fervently praying as one family.

Agnel Baba, as his devotees fondly call him, has carved a niche for himself in the secular pantheon of modern India. Like Saibaba of Shirdi, Moin–ud–din Chisti of Ajmer and Ayappa of Sabarimalai, the devotion to Fr. Agnel unites all faiths and communities. The weekly services are held in Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Konkani, Hindi and English to cater to the spiritual needs of his diverse following.

Who is this charismatic Agnel Baba? Born in 1869 at Anjuna, Goa, Agnelo D’Souza was an archetypal Goan Catholic born and brought up in the faith under the colonial Portuguese rule. His piety and intense spirituality made him an ideal candidate for priesthood. After being ordained a priest, he set about his vocation with ardent fervour and lived a saintly life serving the least of his brethren.

He died at the age of 58 having collapsed immediately after preaching his last sermon. But myth followed the man. His saintly bearing and selfless service caused him to be remembered long after his death. Soon reports of miraculous happenings trickled in. People began to turn to him in distress. Cures and other favours were attributed to his intercession.

Then public acclaim pushed the Church to begin the process for his canonisation as a saint. As an interim step, he has been declared Venerable and his cause is under process by the Holy See.

Though Fr. Agnel was a non-controversial ‘Servant of God’ as he was called, the religious society to which he belonged has been in the eye of a storm since the last few decades. It is a quirk of fate that brought together his almost defunct Society of Pilar with one solitary active member and the founders of the New Society in 1939.

Conceicao Rodrigues and Francisco Siquiera were two young seminarians being trained for priesthood at the Rachol Seminary in Goa. These young men had a dream to establish a missionary order that was dedicated to India. It must be remembered that at that time, the Portuguese missionaries had established their presence in India. The prophetic words of Pope Leo XIII served as inspiration to them. The Pope had said, “Your own sons, O India, will be the heralds of your salvation.”

This was the birth of their endeavour to start an Indian Missionary Society for the evangelisation of their motherland. The term “evangelisation” has been a subject of controversial interpretation for some time. The four disciples of Christ — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — were called the “Evangelists”. They followed Christ during the course of his ministry and recorded his words and acts for posterity. The New Testament is a compilation of the written works of these four called the gospels.

The term evangelise has been defined in numerous ways. While the most acceptable would be “spreading the message of the gospels”, the methodology adopted for doing so is varied. To some, it means distributing Bibles to those who have never heard of Christ before. To others it means preaching the message of Christ. To the radicals it might mean converting the “non–believers” to the Christian faith. To the liberation theologians, it would mean identifying with the struggling masses to bring about salvation from material want. The definition keeps evolving depending on the needs of the times and the predisposition of the Church leaders of that epoch.

To the founder of the New Society, Frs. C. Rodrigues, the term evangelisation of the motherland held a different significance. According to Fr. C Rodrigues, “conversion” or proselytisation was not the object of evangelisation.

To quote him: “This missionary concept, besides being genuine and apostolic, opens new perspectives to the missionary apostolate. The missionary, free from the preoccupation of “conversion”, gives himself with redoubled ardour to the evangelisation of all his parishioners, Catholics or non–Catholics. He sees to their education, opening schools wherein the knowledge of the Law of God is imparted to them. He interests himself in their social uplift establishing co-operatives and institutions of social assistance and strives against injustice and oppression.

‘It is our endeavour to foster respect for all faiths and encourage people to work together unitedly to remove social injustice’ – Agnel Ashram

He does not exclude them from his creches, orphanages, asylums, hospitals and other works of beneficence. He teaches them the Word of God, the ten Commandments, the virtues, illustrating them with the examples of saints and heroes from Hagiology, also from history and tradition, in organised conferences, taking opportunity for promoting meetings of common interest, as theatres, cinemas, cultural conferences, through good press; in private conversation; he visits them and does not miss the occasion to get acquainted with them.

On this basis the missionary will not be held as a minister of an alien religion but a minister of God, an exemplary custodian of morality, a benefactor of humanity, a social worker and an intimate friend of every home”. (Cfr. V. Ixtt. July 17, 1954).

With this vision of service to country and people, Fr. C Rodrigues set about his mission. The going was tough. It was most difficult to convince the authorities of the need for a new Indian religious order, the first of its kind. Persistence paid.

On July 2, 1939, the founders founded the new Society of Pilar and established a new constitution with a new charisma and mission. During the first 10 years, they set up 12 elementary schools, 1 middle school, 5 orphanages, 6 health centres and 6 rice banks at Nagar Haveli. The society had its own press and published 50 different publications, two of which were its own periodicals. The editor of these two publications was Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues — Vaurad-deancho Ixtt, a bilingual weekly in Konkani and Portuguese and India, a monthly magazine in English.

Through these periodicals, Fr. Rodrigues took up the defence of various causes of social justice such as fair wages, casteless confraternities, housing etc. However, there was one issue on which the periodicals maintained a stony silence — liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule.
While all the others in Goa toed the official line, these two refused to publish even the official press communiqués issued by the Portuguese government. This earned the ire of the censors and Fr. C Rodrigues was a “marked man”. This policy continued till 1954 when the authorities in Goa got tough. To quote Fr. Rodrigues, “The real motive of my leaving Goa is public knowledge. When the India Legation in Portugal was closed, there were protest meetings in Goa, public speeches, telegrams and a press campaign denouncing the “imperialistic aims” of Nehru and other Indian leaders.

Our paper did not give prominence to these events. Two successive deputations were sent to us with a diatribe against Nehru and other Indian leaders to be published. I did not yield and politely refused to publish.”

With no support from the Church hierarchy, that was heavily biased in favour of the Portuguese rulers, Fr. Rodrigues had no option but to flee to Bombay. His confreres in the Society however stood by him. In fact, the editorial policy of Vauraddeancho Ixtt held firm, until the government in 1961 suspended its publication.

In 1957, the Fr. Agnel Ashram at Bandra was established. In a manuscript he expressed these feelings, “Once out of Goa, freed from the shackles of slavery and oppression of the foreign dominators, in Bombay, I started breathing the pure and dignifying breeze of independent India.”
The liberation of Goa in 1961 did not bring a change of heart in ecclesiastical circles in Goa. With their allegiance to Portugal, many shared the belief that Indian civilisation and culture were inferior. This was anathema to Fr. Rodrigues. He strongly believed in the unity of the nation. India had remained united for centuries despite its diversity of languages, castes, religions and kingdoms. He believed there was a common ethos that united India. The sages and bards of yore had walked through its villages inculcating these values, inspiring and giving birth to its great epics enshrining these values. Fr. Rodrigues believed that the Society had a mission of cultivating and nourishing these values.

However, this was not the happy ending. In order to break the resolute will of the “nationalist priests”, the government in league with certain sections of the Goan hierarchy tacitly began promoting and funding dissension within the Society. This led to a split in the Society in 1977. Despite laborious efforts towards reconciliation, the schism remains till date. The Pilar Society and the Agnel Ashram Fathers are the two factions caused by colonial manipulation with the active support of a partisan hierarchy.

However, the Agnel Ashram Fathers have grown by leaps and bounds. What began as a Technical Trade School at Bandra has matured into the famous Agnel Technical School. The Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering is one of the most prestigious in the city. The Bal Bhavan, housing 70 orphans and the Community Polytechnic, imparting technical training to the rural youth have made their mark.

The Agnel Ashram is the only Christian society in the country to run three engineering degree colleges, 4 polytechnics, 4 orphanages and various other services. The Bal Gram at Goa is a children’s village that helps children grow in tune with nature.

The latest addition is a multi–storeyed Bal Bhavan at Noida, Delhi that can accommodate over 150 orphans. Interestingly, while being shown around the campus, this writer noticed a little recess in the wall in every room of the Bal Bhavan. On inquiring about its utility, he was informed that this was the children’s “mandir” that accommodated the different deities that the inmates wished to worship according to their own religions! A lesson in secularism for the little ones. This year the Agnel Seva Ashram was inaugurated at a function addressed by Swami Agnivesh, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and Fr. Francis D’Sa. The object of this movement is to bring together people of all faiths to work for the common good and appreciate and understand the different religious faiths.

The road ahead is tough, but the Agnel Ashram Fathers are resolute in their mission.

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Agnel Baba, ‘Servant of God’

Like Saibaba of Shirdi, Moin–ud–din Chisti of Ajmer and Ayappa of Sabarimalai, the devotion to Fr. Agnel unites all faiths and communities

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