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Abstract
The Jesuit project of education in India that began with St Francis Xavier and flourished due to the support of colonial masters at its establishment was distinctive in its aims and objectives. The Jesuits taught the lowly and the mighty with the sole aim of ‘evangelisation’, a term that has changed its meaning depending on contexts and times. With a zeal for God they established institutions for the families of rulers and kings to win goodwill for the work of evangelisation, to form the clergy and to educate catechists. Jesuits opened several institutions at the level of the parish to educate the illiterate, to bring ordinary people to Christ and to empower the powerless. Several Jesuits of foreign origin mastered local languages and were acknowledged as scholars in the field, winning respect and goodwill. The Indian region with the largest contingent of Jesuits today has the biggest number of Jesuit institutions in the Society of Jesus, some of whom are rated as India's top institutions at different levels. Although established by foreign Jesuits, these institutions are today managed by the Jesuits of India, more than a thousand of them hailing from India's discriminated communities, a tribute to the legacy left behind.
Notes on contributor
Dr Ambrose Pinto SJ is a Jesuit Social Scientist working in Bangalore. He was a former Principal of St Joseph's Evening College (1994–1998, 2001–2003), former Principal of St Joseph's College (2003–2011), former Director of Indian Social Institute, New Delhi (1998–2001) and Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla (2012). He functioned as a member of the international commission for Jesuit Higher Education from 1994 to 1998. At present, he is the Principal of St Aloysius Degree College, Cox Town, Bangalore.
Notes
1. Babur was a refugee from the fierce dynastic struggles in Central Asia; his uncles and other warlords had repeatedly denied him rule over the Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Fergana, his birth-right. Babur was able to establish a base in Kabul, though, from which he turned south and conquered much of the Indian subcontinent. Babur called his dynasty ‘Timurid’, but it is better known as the Mughal Dynasty – a Persian rendering of the word ‘Mongol’.
2. The Battle of Panipat was fought between the invading forces of Babur and the Lodi Empire, which took place on 21 April 1526 in North India. It marked the beginning of the Mughal Empire.
3. The State of India or Estado da Índia was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India. The Portuguese State of India was established in 1505 as a viceroyalty of the Kingdom of Portugal, six years after the discovery of a sea route between Portugal and India, to serve as the plenipotentiary governing body of a string of Portuguese fortresses and colonies overseas. The first viceroy established his headquarters in Cochin. After 1510, the capital of the Portuguese viceroyalty was transferred to Goa. Until the eighteenth century, the Portuguese governor in Goa had authority over all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean.
4. Correia Afonso, SJ: The Jesuits in India (1542–1773), Gujarat Sahitya Prakash (Citation1997).
5. The Dutch presence on the Indian subcontinent lasted from 1605 to 1825. Merchants of the Dutch East India Company first established themselves in Dutch Coromandel, notably Pulicat, as they were looking for textiles to exchange with the spices they traded in the East Indies. After the Dutch conquered Ceylon from the Portuguese in 1656, they took the Portuguese forts on the Malabar Coast five years later as well, to secure Ceylon from Portuguese invasion.
6. Kshatriya occupies the second highest position in Indian Hindu society. Under the Hindu caste system, kshatrias are rulers and warriors. They were the ruling class and often by collaborating with the Brahmins they reigned over their kingdom. In ancient India the rulers were bound by Holy Scriptures to govern their kingdoms with justice. A Hindu ruler was the protector of his subjects.
7. Based on the account in Naik (Citation1984).
8. A lakh is a unit in the South Asian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; Scientific notation: 105), written as 1,00,000.
9. Handbook of Catholic Education, Part 2 (2007), edited by G. Grace and J. O'Keefe, SJ, Springer publications, chapter 33. There are communities of people in India that are excluded from the mainstream because of descent. The Jesuit option of faith and justice means to include them so that they enter the mainstream.
10. The first Jesuits who came to India were enlightened outsiders and decided to be a part of the culture of India. The Jesuits of today in India despite being from the soil may not have the required attitudes and expertise required to be a part of the universal mission of the Order.
11. There are two forms of globalisation – neoliberal and counter-hegemonic globalisation, which has been challenging the former. Counter-hegemonic globalisation is the vast set of networks, initiatives, organisations and movements that fight against the economic, social and political outcomes of hegemonic globalisation and propose alternative conceptions. It is focused on the struggles against social exclusion and is animated by a redistributive ethos in its broadest sense, involving redistribution of material, social, political, cultural and symbolic resources.
12. In the annual ratings of ‘India Today’ 2012, a national weekly that announces the ranking for university colleges of India year after year there have been at least 5 colleges in Arts, 6 in Commerce and 6 in Sciences in the top 10 managed by the Jesuits. In the national assessment and accreditation conducted by the government of India, practically all the Jesuit colleges have received the highest grade of A.