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Delhi's age-old Xmas connection
`BARADIN AIYA lal patti Laya' - that's what Xmas is like in Delhi with its blooming chrysanthemums and marigolds. The first is named after Christ and the second after Mary - or at least this is what the belief is here and elsewhere.
White Christmas in India is confined to the hills and Kashmir - otherwise it's a brown Xmas throughout the country, with people in Kerala and Chennai sweating it out. So the traditional Christmas acquires an Indian touch because of climatic and social factors. Do you know there is even a ghazal by Sir Florence "Matlab" Filose on Jesus Christ?
Alfred J. Edwin observed 35 years ago that the popular image of Christmas "which built up over the past 200 to 300 years overshadowed the true significance of the occasion. This was primarily in the overall context: the image of Burra Din of the Burra Sahib from abroad described Christmas Day... it was the bacchanalian image which stood out... Evidently it was overlooked that Christianity came to India much before the representatives of the West set foot on Indian soil... going back to the time of the Apostle St. Thomas" in the first century A.D.
Along with `T.S.', Dr. Charles Fabri, Gertrude Little and the still-active Raj Chatterjee, Edwin was among the principal contributors to the Delhi paper in 1950s, `60s and `70s. He goes on to say: "In the last quarter of the century the Western influence has receded. Christmas in India has fallen in line with many other festivals (of the country)... Indian carols are characterised by their brisk tempo, like the Punjabi hymns, and some of them are ideal for group singing. This is not to say that the grandeur and majesty of Handel's Messiah have been forgotten". But along with it "Naman Naman Balak Yesu" also has its charm when sung in rustic baritone by the Bhajan Mandali of the late Fr. Adeodatus. There were also the minstrels of Brother Noel singing the alto Yesu a-a-a) - and walking bare foot in the grain market to the delight of the shopkeepers.
He then speaks of the Christian influence on Indian art right from the time of Akbar "mainly under the influence of the Jesuits", the paintings of Miriam as Madonna done in 1600-1610 showing "Mary in a graceful posture with the peacock in the foreground". In our own century, Edwin quotes two painters, Alfred David Thomas of Delhi and Angelo de Fonseca of Goa (he forgot Benjam in Montrose "Muztar") as imparting the Indian touch to Christian paintings (along with Francis Souza). Alfred Thomas spent some years in Delhi where he opened a studio in Connaught Place in the 1930s. His nativity moral can be seen on Raj Niwas Marg.
"In the Annunciation scene, when the Archangel Gabriel greets Mary - he is shown carrying a lotus flower as a symbol of peace and purity... In the Adoration scene Mary is shown seated with the Babe under a peepul tree... draped in yellow and brown instead of the traditional blue". There is even a statue of the Virgin (always depicted barefoot) wearing a sari and shoes. Thomas died years ago in Chelsea (England), where he had set up his studio. His brother, the noted shikari, Cyril Thomas, died in 1992. Alfred's famous picture of the Adoration decorated St. James's Church, Kashmere Gate for many years.
Another person who did his bit in imparting the Indian touch was the late John Missal. His story "The Crib" about a girl called Sunila, who abandons her lovechild in a church near the baby Jesus, is a deviation from the usual Xmas tale. But this one also has happy ending. Missal used to write one such story for The Statesman every year at Christmas time.
The Delhi tradition has it that Santa Claus comes over the mountains from Tibet, and not Iceland. So for local Catholic families his address is not Santa Claus, Main Post Office 96930, Arctic Circle, Finland, but the outskirts of Lhasa. The animal he travelled on therefore, was the yak and not the reindeer. There is historical evidence to suggest that Christmas was observed (not celebrated) secretly in Tibet in the 16th Century.
In 1581, when the first Jesuit missionaries were at Agra and Lahore, it was decided to send a mission across the Himalayas to establish contact with the Christians there. Father Monserrate, when he was with Akbar in Punjab, obtained some interesting particulars regarding the Tibetans (presumably of that group which in the early years after Christ had accepted Christianity).
The accounts furnished by the mission thrilled Delhi and Agra and a year later the Armenians celebrated Christmas in Rewari and at Sarai Rohilla, where they built a church. The Jesuits also built a church in Delhi and so Xmas in Delhi dates back to 1626 - during Jahangir's last years.
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