The Jesuit Mission in Ranchi Introduction Idesbald Goddeeris 30 May 2018
History of the Ranchi mission 2 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
History and relevance of the Ranchi mission 3 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Relevance and vibrance of the Ranchi mission 4 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Researching the Ranchi mission • Research questions • Missionaries in a postcolonial context • Local agency • Sources • Oral history and participant observation • Published materials • Archives 5 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Research team Prof. Parimala V. Rao (JNU, New Delhi) Benjamin Steegen (KU Leuven) Rinald D’Souza (KU Leuven) Lourens Van Haaften (KU Leuven) 6 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Jesuit Business Education in East- India: 1970 to present Lourens van Haaften 30 May 2018
Context • Important role of the Society of Jesus in providing education in colonial and post-colonial India. • Post-war rise of global business education (US as main driver) • Belgian missionary activity in East India, since second half 19 th century: Ranchi mission • Fr. Michel van den Bogaert, institution builder in management institutes. 8 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Cases • XLRI, Jamshedpur (1949) • XIM, Bhubaneshwar (1987) • XISS, Ranchi (1955) • XIDAS, Jabalpur (1995) 9 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
10 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Controversies • Management debates from the 1970s to present. Is it the task of the Society of Jesus to provide business management education? • Business management versus social service/rural management • ‘Making the rich more rich’ vs ‘helping the unprivileged’ • Missions as post-colonialism? 11 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Relevance • Questions on Jesuit identity and future in India from the 1970s to present. Is it the task of the Jesuits to support business education? • Empirical understanding of the indianisation of the Society of Jesus • Development discourses in India and post-colonial critique 12 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Research methods and using heritage • Semi-structured interviews/Oral history • Archival research, o KADOC o Institute’s administrations o Personal collections of friends and family • Discourse analysis of institute’s publications 13 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Indigenising Mission Indigenising Mission The Jesuit Mission in Ranchi 1920-2000
India | Chota Nagpur | Jharkhand | Ranchi
Research period and context
The case for indigenisation • Native agency • Transition from a Belgian Jesuit Mission to a Jesuit Adivasi Province • The case against indigenisation? • To what extent did native Adivasi Jesuits (1) borrow European ideas and models to their mission, (2) use these as points of departure to evolve their own, or (3) reimagine the mission through their own cultural norms and practices
Archives and sources • Ranchi Jesuit Province province/institutional archives and community libraries • ARSI, Rome until 1939 • KADOC, Leuven • Jesuit libraries/archives in India • State archives?
Sources
Sources • Nishkalanka • Monthly Christian news and spiritual magazine in Hindi (since 1920) • Books by Ranchi Jesuit authors (selection) • related to Adivasi culture and identity making • Jesuit news bulletins, catalogues, etc. • Jesuit correspondence • Policy documents • Newspapers/magazines
Methodology • Discourse Analysis • Nishkalanka: themes, debates • Newsbulletins: practices • Quantify data: persons, institutions • agency, power relations • Oral history interviews
In sum • Identity making Adivasi / Jesuit / Christian • Christian mission histories their relevance in the context of (post)colonialism and nationalism Christian public sphere • Native agency and indigenization in the Jesuit mission
The Belgian ‘Gandhi’ and village development in postcolonial India A Jesuit missionary’s legacy (1969 to present) Benjamin Steegen 30 May 2018
Context (1960s-70s) • missionary identity of Jesuits: social apostolate • historically: global and local (Ranchi mission) • post WW II: focus on justice and human dignity • (personal) need to redefine ‘missionary calling’ • disenchantment with Modernization / ‘Development Decade’ (1960s) • ‘alternative development’ discourse • indigenous development, conscientization, participation,… • Indian context • failure of India’s Community Development Programme (°1952) • the spirit of Gandhian villagism • anti-conversion sentiment and restrictions for missionaries 24 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
Michael Windey sj VRO (°1969) (1921-2009) ‘missionary development spin-off’ individual (versus institutional) some distance from mission society agenda of social change (versus charity) faith as inspiration and motivation (versus goal)
Principles and activities • “a secular voluntary organization” • “a new rural lifestyle” as alternative for urbanization/industrialization • housing construction, education, health services, skill training, village councils, agroforestry, old age homes, child labour rehabilitation,…
Jesuits India / Europe Indian Indian actors ‘volunteers’ Windey VRO villagers leadership European Western donors volunteers
Relevance Empirical research gaps • mission history: postcolonial Catholic missionaries • history of development: a ‘parallel history’ of development work Social apostolate and international solidarity in a changing context • in search of a new (Jesuit) missionary identity? • in search of new forms of international solidarity? • ideas, discourse, and practice: sources? congruity?
Research methods and sources • archival research and discourse analysis (1969-…) • VRO India • VRO Belgium (KADOC) • personal archives of donors and family • to do: selected European donors • oral history (open and semi-structured interviews) • participant observation 30 Faculty of Arts, History departement, Modernity and Society 1800 - 2000
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