It was the practice of “The Natal Mercury”, a newspaper published from Durban, South Africa, to publish in the place of editorial articles contributions from eminent statesmen and ministers of religion. In 1927, the honour was given to Mr VS Srinivasa Sastri, the educationist and a member of the Servants of India Society.
Indian party ready to give a “kirtan” on Christmas – The Round World, September 1, 1903. (HT)
In his article, Sastri wrote, “To a Hindu, brought up in the philosophy of the Vedanta, toleration of other faiths and their modes of worship comes easy. Toleration deepens into sympathy and understanding when one has a working faith in the brotherhood of man and allows idealism to shape one’s course in life instead of regarding it as a sign of a softening brain or an old-world morality.”
In the colonial era, Christmas was primarily a significant religious and cultural event for the native Christian communities in the Bombay Presidency. For the broader Maharashtrian populace, it was more of an observed cultural phenomenon associated with the colonial presence, blending with local traditions over time.
The church at Panch Howd, dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus, opened at Christmas 1885. It had a striking neo-Classical interior, with its magnificent marble altarpiece, and rows of mats for the worshippers to sit cross-legged on the floor in the local custom.
A letter from Richard Meux Benson, a priest in the Church of England and founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist (SSJE), written at Christmastide 1890, demonstrates amply the extent to which SSJE was willing to meet the Indian members of its flock on their own terms, both in church and in the day-to-day life of the Missions – “We had the first Evensong of Christmas in the Church of the Holy Name. Several strangers and heathens were at the end of the Church. At midnight, Fr Nehemiah Gore celebrated chorally in Marathi, and I preached. We had dinner at 2, after native fashion, by invitation of the young men in the Students’ Home. The tablecloth spread upon the floor, with napkins in front of the places where we were to squat on our heels, a party of about twenty. Then we began with some very sweet pastry and milk and ghee, then rice and real curry, to be taken up by three fingers and the thumb. It was not dipping with one another in the Jewish custom, for we each had our own plate, and alongside each was a plate with various minor articles, intended to contrast with the sweet cakes, and certainly not failing of that result. They made one very much inclined to take refuge in the coconut pastry lying upon the other side of one’s plate, which was very nice indeed.”
The “Cowley Evangelist” reported in February 1891 that “a very interesting social gathering was held at Christmas at the Sisters’ School of the Epiphany”. Some Brahmin gentlemen of the advanced school expressed a wish to be invited so that they might partake of food prepared and served by Christians, and so make a public profession of breaking their caste.
The Hindus were very fond of the “kirtans” and had them in praise of their gods, so the Christian missionaries had “Christian” ones, based on stories from the Bible, such as the “Life of Ruth” and “Life of Daniel”.
At Poona, such “kirtans” formed part of the Christmas celebrations. According to the article “Pictures from Poona” written by Rev RS Heywood (The Round World, September 1, 1903), the leader, usually one of the church’s catechists, with a garland of flowers round his neck, sang the outline of the story in a sort of monotone, and then at frequent intervals the rest broke in with choruses. These choruses were “very hard” for the English people to understand, as the poetical words were more difficult than the ordinary ones, but they enjoyed the whole thing, and very often some of the “heathen came in and listened”. The “kirtan” was followed by dinner.
All schools run by the various Missions and churches organised a Christmas dinner for their students. Children were served rice, “varan”, vegetable curry, and sweets and the school boys and girls were presented with gifts like dolls, slates, and books later on. These gifts arrived in neatly packed boxes from Europe and the USA. In the end, Lord Jesus was thanked for giving them such a happy Christmas. Fruits like oranges and nuts were then distributed as they left and said goodbye.
Giving gifts at Christmas stemmed from the story of the “Three Wise Men” bringing gifts to baby Jesus, symbolizing worship and God’s gift of Jesus, but it also blended with older pagan traditions like the Roman festival of Saturnalia and figures like St Nicholas evolving into a secular tradition of sharing generosity, love, and appreciation for loved ones, further popularized by commercialism.
The East India Company had historically used gifting as a means to secure favours from the Maratha rulers. The first practical evidence of this friendship was given by the Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao Narayan, who, through his vakil, sent some valuable gifts to General Sir John Clavering and Mr Richard Barwell on August 6, 1777.
The course of this commercial and social amity between the Company and the Maratha Court, which had hitherto run smoothly, was somewhat disturbed by the outbreak of the First Maratha War in 1779. The relationship thawed in 1788, when, according to the letter written by the Board of the Company to Charles W Malet, British resident at Poona, on December 30, 1788, the British Government sent about this time to the Maratha Court a bale consisting of the finest fabrics of Bengal as a gift. On the occasion of Christmas that year, a gift consisting of choicest fruits and sweetmeats was sent to the Maratha Court. The Peshwa reciprocated with a gift of “a diamond ring and a string of pearls”.
Edward Fenton Elwin mentioned in his book “India and the Indians” that native merchants who dealt with Englishmen had the idea so ingrained that bribes were a necessary part of business, which they imagined that the way to secure custom, or at any rate more favourable terms, was to make large offerings of fruit and sweetmeats at Christmas. One of the results of this was that most things in the Indian markets, and even in some of the shops, grew rather dearer just before Christmas, and the notion spread amongst Hindus and others that it was a season of presents and feasting.
Fruits, especially oranges, were the most favoured items for gifting at Christmas. Oranges of the “santra” type came to Poona from the Central Provinces. Malta oranges came from the Etawah Jail garden and Lucknow. They, and fruits like Papanas, were left for a long time on the trees because they fetched a good price during the festival and were gathered by Christmas.
Oranges were also sent to the hospitals by individuals and churches where soldiers recuperated. Volunteers who distributed them gave out cards and sang Christmas hymns in the wards to the great delight of the soldiers.
The food system of a country is a repository of traditions and collective identity, and as such, a crucial vehicle for representation and cultural exchange. Food rituals in Poona during Christmas demonstrate how food is also a powerful pathway for acculturation, the assimilation into a different culture, in personal and social domains.
