ADIVASI CHRISTOLOGY
1. Who are the Adivasi?
According to SongramBasumatary, Adivasi
culture is neither the object of exhibition, adventurous demonstration and
entertainment nor the symbol of weak, inferior, uncultured, uncivilized and
demonic as it is often considered and treated. He further continues that
Adivasi had no homes but nature was their home, they lived in jungle but never
wild, they were naked but never lustful, they lived by hunting and fishing but
never killed more than their needs, they were never fools but never fooled
others, they were ignorant but never arrogant, they had no written morals but
never immoral.[2]
2. Adivasi Christology
Adivasi Christology is doing Christology
from the Adivasi perspectives. It seeks to re-read and re-interpret the gospel from
Adivasi Christian perspectives, to make the gospel relevant to the problem or
struggles faced by the Adivasi people.[3]
Adivasi theology is a synthesization of the gospel and the culture in a
particular context to preserve cultural identity; and to confess Christ in the
way people understand Him, and from there to transform the society towards the
realisation of the kingdom of God by emphasising liberation, social justice and
wholeness.[4]
3. Adivasi world – a Biblical world
SongramBasumatary says that in the Bible
from genesis to revelationall talks about the stories of tribals, adivasis,
their worldviews and life-worlds. He said the very God of the Bible is the
Adivasi/tribal God. He further says that the great and small biblical figures
were agriculturalists, keeper of flocks, shepherds, fishermen, etc., were
exactly same like the Adivasi and tribal people. He says that the prophetic
vision of peaceful living between human and animals and the apocalyptic vision
of the New Jerusalem are all expressions of Adivasis life-worlds.[5]
In Adivasi worldview, God is never
transcendent, remote and wholly other, but permanently immanent. They
therefore, do not understand incarnation of God in Jesus Christ as God becoming
human, but realize the revelation of God in lived experiences of people in
Jesus. Basumatary mention in his article about the creative imagination of a
village story teller who says- “don’t displace, don’t replace…. locate Jesus in
proper location…, Jesus is Tribal…look at his village, his birth, his life, his
plight, his mind, his thought, his heart, his teaching and the way of life. In
everything he is like us. Jesus is comfortable with us.”[6]
4. Liberation Theology
Many identify Adivasi theology as the
Liberation theology. Adivasi Theology assumes the fact that the God of Israel
is the ‘liberating God’. The same God in Christ comes down to the earth to
carry forward His liberating task and this liberating vision of God in Christ
is well testified in the light of the Nazareth Manifesto of Jesus Christ, who announced
that his mission observed that ‘God has anointed him to preach the good news to
the poor, to give sights to the blind, to set free the captives and to set at
Liberty those who are oppressed’ (Lk 4:18-19).
Jesus’ Nazareth manifesto of liberation has
a direct theological implication for Adivasi, because the people addressed in
the Nazareth manifesto is primarily considered as the poor the marginalised
people who consisted of the marginalised section of people struggling hard to
keep out their livelihood. The Markan literature identifies them to be the crowd
of people with nobody to care for them, on the other hand Matthew identifies
them to be the people who are without shepherd to care for those people.[7]
Jesus being a member of a Semitic tribe in
the Galilean context, represented a marginalised community of shepherds, fisher
folk, carpenters, labourers and slaves-constituting the exploited mass of
people. And it was to this community that Jesus addressed the Gospel. And
Adivasi represents the same scenario.Jesus being born in a displaced place,
represents a displaced community and thus shares the co-fate of hundreds and
thousands of displaced Adivasis.[8]
This presupposition suggests that because
of the similarities in the context, gospel preached by Jesus can very well find
the relevance in Adivasi context. The life situation of the Adivasis is
characterised by various forms of suffering, crisis and challenges. Adivasi Christology
seeks to address these issues and it derives its inspiration and task from
Jesus’ attitude and stand towards the poor and the oppressed in the matter of
justice and finds its biblical theological foundation in this divine economy.[9]
Bibliography
Basumatary, Songram. “Doing Theology with
Adivasi/Tribal Resources; Challenges and prospects: A research for a model”, Religion and Society 62/3 & 4
(September-December, 2017): 54-74.
Frykenberg, Robert Eric. “Avarna and
Adivasi Christians and missions: A Paradigm for Understanding Christian
Movement in India”, International
Bulletin of Missionary Research, 32/1 (January 2008): 14-20
Hemrom, A. S. “Towards a programme of
contextual and Adivasi Theology”, Religion
and Society 50/3 (September 2005):87-96.
[1]Robert, EricFrykenberg.“Avarna and Adivasi Christians and missions: A Paradigm for Understanding Christian Movement in India”, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 32/1 (January 2008): 17
[2]Songram, Basumatary, “Doing Theology with Adivasi/Tribal Resources; Challenges and prospects: A research for a models”, Religion and Society62/3 & 4 (September-December, 2017): 58
[3]A. S. Hemrom, “Towards a programme of contextual and Adivasi Theology”, Religion and Society 50/3 (September 2005):80
[4]Songram, Basumatary, “Doing Theology with Adivasi/Tribal Resources….. 69
[5]ibid
[6]ibid
[7]A. S. Hemrom, “Towards a programme of contextual and Adivasi Theology”…89
[8]A. S. Hemrom, “Towards a programme of contextual and Adivasi Theology….92
[9]A. S. Hemrom, …..93
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