- Rev. Hangpi Manlun
INTRODUCTION: Although we are in the 21st Century our present economic condition remained relatively the same. In this study we will focus how did religion influences economic change. We will also discuss our present Indian situation and the factors of unequal society. And the relationship between religions and economics in the context of social changes necessary and important as it enables us to understand the implication of Church’s participation in social life of Indian Society. And also we will see how we shall address the present crisis as a church we will be the main theme of this paper.
1. MEANING AND DEFINITION:
A. RELIGION
The English word religion has a Latin root ‘religare’ meaning to bind together, which shows the social dimension of religion. . The Hindi word ‘Dharma’ from the Sanskrit word ‘Dhree’, means ‘religion,’ ‘virtue,’ ‘quality,’ ‘function,’ ‘duty, and ‘opinion’. . According to Christopher Dawson, “Religion is the word generally is to described man’s relation to divine or super human powers and the various organized system of belief and worship in which relations have been expressed.”
According to Emile Durkheim, “Religion is a unified system of belief and practices related to sacred things, i.e. to says things set apart and forbidden... It strengthens the unity of the groups and promotes social solidarity”.
B. ECONOMICS:
Indeed, only during the last 200 yrs or so have we become accustomed to speak of the economy, even though the term was used as long as the fourth century BCE by Aristotle, to designate the relationship among members of the domestic households. The French were the first who used the term economist. David L. Sills define economics as, the social science that deals with the ways which man & societies seek to satisfy their material needs and desire”. C.S. Nagpal put economic clearly the economic as a social science helps us to understand how people tried to accommodate uncommon resources to their means. Thus we can understand that economics as concern with wealth and specifically dealing with the means of managing scarce resources.
2. SOCIALOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATION BETWEEN RELIGION AND ECONOMICS
The relationship between Religion & Economics can be clearly understood when we studied the social changes, which took places in western societies. According to Francois, when a society becomes un able to reproduces itself as it was before and when elements of a new mode of production begin to supplement the old ones,” the economics structure and dominions ethos of a society are shaped by region of that society, which remains as a major force.
Max Weber rightly say that Protestant ethics is the responsible for the rise of capitalism spirit The Protestant ethic emphasis that acquisition of wealth by one’s on labour is essentially the sign of prosperity here and here after. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every individual person to use reason, which is considered as the gift of God, and develop the fullest potential to acquire as much wealth as one can to glorify God.
But he further says that it acts as contributing factor, not the cause for the capitalism. Having discussed different view, we observe how religion affects economics behaviour.
3. HINDUISM & SOCIAL CHANGES
Although we see so may undesirable practices in Hinduism. Here, we shall deal with some of the reformer social contribution for social change. As India poverty is a direct product of untouchability and castes taboos, the response to the challenge of poverty has to begin with the response to the challenge of untouchability. Basaveswara and several other saints always were eager to prove the folly of caste prejudices. According to Jan Peter Schouten, “Casteism is not identical with Hinduism. The caste system is a social that is religiously legitimated, but religion is more than that.” Vivekananda rightly pointed out that religion itself cannot be blamed for anything...but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees of Hinduism who invent all kinds of methods of oppressions...kick out the priests, who are always against progress, because they would never mind, their hearts would never become big. “
The Rama Krishna Movement has played a great significant role for social change in India. Swami Vivekananda (1862-1902) was the most brilliant reformer in the nineteenth century. He had a vision concerning for the misery of the poor masses. When he writes about his travel through India, he bursts out: “A country where millions of people live on flowers of the Mohua plants, and a million or two sadhus and a hundred million or so of Brahmins suck the blood out of their amelioration - is that country or hell? Is that a religion or the devil’s dance.”
He further said that, “we do stand in need of social reform. The necessary reforms are amelioration of the position of women. For him the most important means to achieve social change is education only by education it is possible to raise the Sudras to the level of the Brahmins. “ He also again said that we cannot give such education to people who are hungry, so he stresses constantly that the people must get enough food.
The other efforts of several great men of India and of movement like Arya Samaj, Brahma Samaj and Prarohana Samaj have been in this direction.
4. ISLAMIC AND SOCIAL CHANGE :
The Quranic prophets were part of the masses. The Quran describes the rulers and chieftains as arrogant oppression and the ruled masses as weakened oppressed masses had to fight against the mighty Pharaoh to liberate Israel. The Quran stands unambiguously with the weak in their struggle against oppressors.
Mecca was experiencing acute social tension when the prophet started preaching there. A powerful class of mercantile bourgeoisie accumulated wealth in their hands broke down the tribal structure and neglected the poor and needy. The prophet felt deeply stressed at this state of affairs and strongly condemned the arrogance of the Meccan rich. He also felt that poverty on a par with unbelief. Hence, war against poverty is an integral part of Islamic faith. The Islamic countries should also share their wealth with poorer sister nations like Bangladesh, if they are to practice Islamic justice fully. Divine unity should reflect social unity and economic equality among the people of a nation as well as among nations. The Holy book ordained absolute equality of the rich and poor in the eyes of law and justice.
5. INDIAN ECONOMIC PLANNING:
The Indian economic planning was commenced in 1951. In terms of objectives and targets it was very modest. Although this very plan was not based on any specific model, it was a remarkable success. The model for the second plan is called Nehru-Mahalanabis model, as it was jointly built by them. But unluckily this second five year plan did not perform according to designs of the model. This was basically due to the new colonial subordination by Indian political economy by the western capitalist forces. By 1957 Indian political economy confronted a severe foreign exchange crisis.
In the history of Indian political economy 1970 was a memorable year .It was in this year the Government of India enacted the Indian Patent Act .This act was a severe blow to foreign capital and multinational corporations. It enabled Indian capital to broaden its business horizon in India antagonistic to the interest of transnational corporations.
The country is now in the Ninth Five Year Plan. The Indian political economy failed to bring about any noticeable changes in property relations. The caste-cum-class character of Indian society is being perpetuated during the fifty years of freedom. Between the two eras, the situation of the poor has still worsened in the post-Nehruian period.
The former Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram says that, “The new economic policy did not give any benefit to the poorest 350 million people of India” is evidence to this. The New Economic Policy and new marketisation policy opened the door for multinationals and foreign products simultaneously rising consumerism. Well, who buys them and who benefit? What have Revlon or Lewis jeans or Pepsi done to a common man? All these are luxurious to the poor, who live on minimum income. It is a direct contrast and paradoxical that while mega cities are planned, many beauty pageants are conducted. The population of slum or homeless number only keeps increasing. Who benefits?
6. GLOBALISATION:
The “Globalization” agenda brought officially into India during the Congress (I) rule at the centre in 1991 through the New Economic and Industrial Policy. The Policy of Indian government adopting globalization and liberalization was for the development of Indian economy. According to S.P Gupta, “India was compelled to enter into global economy due to heavy internal and external depts.” A recent survey indicates that one fifth of the world people living in the highest income countries dominate 82% of the world export market, the share of the bottom fifth is just one percent. Similarly they have 86% of the world GDP whereas the bottom fifth has only one percent. Globalization has also generated jobs and income insecurity, health insecurity, cultural insecurity, personal environment and community insecurity. These are true especially in Indian society.
The opening of the economy to foreign investment and participation led to some clear but undisclosed and unadmitted realities, namely that market economy, that too globalized economy, could embrace only the top 20% of the population i.e., about 200 million, a staggering size for a newly emerging market. But what would happen to the remaining 800 million? of these are the lowest 200 million (20%) were social and economical outcastes of society. The annual Indian budget provided some crumbs to this section.
7. THE SITUATION OF OUR COUNTRY:
Sri. C. Subramaniam, (Minister of Planning) said in 1970 in the parliament “over 34% of our people are out an existence of a sub human level with a per capita expenditure of less than Rs.15/- a month (less than 50 paisa a day) .Of these, a significant member live below the poverty line in conditions of chill penury and severe destitution with per capita expenditure of hardly Rs. 10/- per month. “P.D Ojha in his report on Indian poverty estimated the rural to be 70%.
Sri. Mohan Dharea (Minister) one declared that two-thirds of our populations are under the poverty level. These are not just numbers. They are people. Million of them. How can one live with just a rupee or as do most people, just 50 paisa per day? Imagine a family of six getting Rs. 100/- (or 50) per person per day) trying to live as human beings on that income in these hard days. Half of our population belongs to this category. Dalits, tribals are the worst affected people in this list. Between March and June 1995, nineteen children belonging to poor tribal families in Dhule, Maharashtra died of starvation. Not far from godowns stocked to the roof with food grains. The families of the victims just could not access or afford that grain. Six million tonness (60,00,000) of rice and wheat are almost rotting at the government owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns all over India. The rainy months of October and November are going to spoil the food grains and so it means more grain in the godowns. But at the same time people in some
Part of Orissa who could not get food, have eaten rotten decayed mango kernel and died. Some ate the decayed flesh of the exhumed body of the bull that was buried seven days earlier and 19 people were killed. The irony of the situation is, there is a FCI godown with surplus food grains just 80 Km away from the place where the tragedy had occurred. The what for is the surplus stocks of food grains? Who blocks the food grain when 280,000,000 people go to bed without one square meal a day?
The problem of all these are due to unequal distribution of income and resources. What Mahatma Gandhi’s observation was right, “there is enough in this world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed - is so true as it is today.” The gap between the rich and the poor has always been there since the beginning of history, but today the gap is widening instead of closing. In India 85 percent of the total cultivable area has been redistributed. That is of 455 million acres, only 4.5 million have been distributed among the poor. The top 10% of our population own 56% of all cultivable land. They also get one third of the one percent own more than half the total wealth in the form of shares. A few affluent families control large sectors of the economy, be it land, industry, commerce or the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor are at the root of an unjust society in India.
8. THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE AND EVALUATION:
The above given situation demands transformation of the existing socio-economic structure of the Indian society. Therefore, the basic question is how Christian would respond to this kind of exploitative situation? What should be the guiding principles to transform the unjust socio-economic structure? How does Jesus respond to the economic crisis of his days? Does he provide any model for transformation of economic structure to bring equality and liberation to the poor? If so can such model would be applicable to the present Indian context? Keeping all these questions in mind we shall discuss as follow.
9. THE RESPONSE AND PRAXIS OF JESUS FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF UNJUST SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
(a) Kingdom Value:
Leonardo Boff argues that Palestine was independent state suffering from the external (Roman) control; Jesus confronted this external force by preaching the kingdom of God that would usher in a new epoch of human liberation. Jesus chooses to identify himself with the poor, defending their rights and promising them a better day when God’s purpose would be consumed on this earth. That means Jesus as he lives with the society, he does not keep himself aloof from problems of the people.
The kingdom of God is the central message of Jesus Christ (Mk.1:15). Jesus and the kingdom of God are inseparable, as Jesus himself is the bearer of the kingdom. The kingdom od God is now and future. On this account, Jurgen Moltmann has stated as follows:
It is experience in the companionship with Jesus where the sick are healed and the lost are found.... And poor discover their dignity, where people who have become rigid are fossilized come alive again, and old, tired life becomes young and fruitful...
According to Mohan Razu, the signs of the kingdom of God are life in all its fullness, the concern for community based on equality and mutual acceptance and freedom from seeking security..., Shalom means healing, wholeness and inclusive community. Jesus has translated these signs of the kingdom to the actual life situation of poverty, exploitation,injustice and oppression. The kingdom is thus characterized by equality, justice, freedom, human dignity, sharing and peace. According to Gustavo Gutierrez Jesus death is the consequences of His struggle for justice, his proclamation of the kingdoms and his identification with the poor. And for S.J Aloysius Pieris, in Jesus, God and the poor have made a covenant to fight their common enemy, mammon.
Wealth by itself is not evil, but it becomes evil when it is accumulated and misused. If wealth is distributed accordingly to the needs, then can be no needy person (Acts. 4:34-35), it ceases to be mammon. Jesus told the rich young men who was in search of eternal life to give up mammon in such a way that the poor would benefit by his renunciation (Mk.10:21). Lazarus remained hungry till his death, while the rich man refused to share even the excess foods and wasted it (Lk. 16:19-31). Poverty forced upon a brother or sister is an evil. Therefore, Jesus called the affluent to be poor so that there would be no poor.
(b) Koinonia as Jesus New Economic Model:
M. Douglas Meeks expressed that God is a community, the three person (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) share in common. There is no single notion of self expression, but is a relationship of self giving and sharing. Luke recorded similar perspective in (Acts 2:44-470. The early Christian put this new economic order into practice, as they had become one body in Christ. The whole emphasizes within the community seemed to have been prompted by a sense of responsibility those who are socially deprived especially the widows (Acts 6:1). The aim is oneness, sharing of resources, people participation, justice, equality, sustainable socio-economic development.
The World Council of Churches Melbourne Conference affirm that, thus the gospel which has been given to Christian must express this continuing concern of God, for the poor to whom Jesus has granted the blessing of the kingdom. So the conference states clearly regarding the responsibility of the church as:
Poor and the hungry cry to God our prayer kingdom come must be prayed in solidarity with the cry millions who are living in poverty, injustice... The church cannot live distant from these faces because she sees the faces of Jesus ill them (Mt.25)... The goods news of the kingdom must be presented to the world by the church, the body of Christ, the sacrament of the kingdom in every place and time...
Lastly, one of the most important things is that the church should work with the people of other faiths, so that her mission can be fulfilled. As Dr. Godwin Shiri rightly pointed out that, “India is a multi-religious country... the task of development cannot be carried out in isolation from those who do not belong to our faith. Therefore, a sincere attempt for dialogue, both in concept and in action with people of other faith is vital.” So that, we can promote humanization to liberate people from all constraints, bondage, dehumanization and bring a just society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Dawson, Christopher. “Religion, “Chamber Encyclopedia. New Ed., Vol.XI London: George Newness Limited, 1995.
2. Eleade, Micea (Eds.). The Encyclopedia of Religion. (Vol. 5), New York :Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987.
3. Gomer. R. (ed). Towards a Theology of Human Development. Chennai: ISPCK, 1998.
4. Gupta, S.P. Liberalisation : Its Impacts on the India Economy. New Delhi :Macmillan India Ltd, 1993.
5. Haralambos, Michael. Sociology Themes and Perspective. New Delhi : Lahooti Fine Art Press, 1983.
6. Johnstone L., Ronald. Religion and Society in Interaction. New Jersey: Prentice- Hall, Inc.
7. Matthew, Philip and Muricken Alit (eds). Religion, Theology and Counter-Culture. Bangalore: Horizon Books, 1987.
8. Moltmann, Jurgen. Jesus Christ for Today’s World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994.
9. Nimkoff. Mayer and Ogburn, William F. A Hand Book of Sociology. New Delhi: Eurasia Publishing House, (Pvt) Ltd., 1966.
10. Rajaratham K. “Towards Just Society” in NCCI Review. Vol. CXVII, No.7, August 1997.
11. Sainath, P. Everybody Loves A Good Drought Stores From India’s Poorest Districts.New Delhi : Penguins Book India Ltd., 1996.
12. Sills, L., David., (ed.). International Encyclopedia of the Social Societies. (Vol.5), New York: The Macmillan Company and the Free Press, 1992.
13. Schouten, Jan Peter. “Hinduism and Development - Three Caste Studies” in Religion and Society, Vol.XXVIII, No.2, June 1981.
14. Munickam, J. Poverty in India challenges and Responses. Trivandrum: A Xavier Board Publication, 1998.
15. Thaseon, T. “Development Challenges of 21st Century” in Social Action.Vol.51, No.1, Jan-March 2001.
16. Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcon Parsons, New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1930.
17. ______________ Church and Social Justice - Towards Understanding The Problem. Bangalore:CSI & CISRS, 1997.
18. ______________ Supplement to the Rally. Vol.78, No.5, Chennai.
19. ______________ Your Kingdom Come: Mission Perspective Report on the World Conference on Mission and Evangelism. Melboure, Australia, 12-25, May 1980, Geneva:WCC 2nd Printing September 1951.
20. Unpublished Materials :
21. Loli, Kope. “A Christian Ethical Analysis and Response to Contemporary Economic Trends in Dimapur.” Unpublished M.Th Thesis, UTC Bangalore, 1999.
22. Oomen., Joseph. “Religion and Family: “Their Significance for Social Change.” A paper presented at U.T.C., 2001.
23. David, Israel. “Religion and Economics: Their significance in Social Change.” A paper presented at U.T.C 2000.
24. Magazines :
25. National Council of Churches Review, Nagpur - India.
INTRODUCTION: Although we are in the 21st Century our present economic condition remained relatively the same. In this study we will focus how did religion influences economic change. We will also discuss our present Indian situation and the factors of unequal society. And the relationship between religions and economics in the context of social changes necessary and important as it enables us to understand the implication of Church’s participation in social life of Indian Society. And also we will see how we shall address the present crisis as a church we will be the main theme of this paper.
1. MEANING AND DEFINITION:
A. RELIGION
The English word religion has a Latin root ‘religare’ meaning to bind together, which shows the social dimension of religion. . The Hindi word ‘Dharma’ from the Sanskrit word ‘Dhree’, means ‘religion,’ ‘virtue,’ ‘quality,’ ‘function,’ ‘duty, and ‘opinion’. . According to Christopher Dawson, “Religion is the word generally is to described man’s relation to divine or super human powers and the various organized system of belief and worship in which relations have been expressed.”
According to Emile Durkheim, “Religion is a unified system of belief and practices related to sacred things, i.e. to says things set apart and forbidden... It strengthens the unity of the groups and promotes social solidarity”.
B. ECONOMICS:
Indeed, only during the last 200 yrs or so have we become accustomed to speak of the economy, even though the term was used as long as the fourth century BCE by Aristotle, to designate the relationship among members of the domestic households. The French were the first who used the term economist. David L. Sills define economics as, the social science that deals with the ways which man & societies seek to satisfy their material needs and desire”. C.S. Nagpal put economic clearly the economic as a social science helps us to understand how people tried to accommodate uncommon resources to their means. Thus we can understand that economics as concern with wealth and specifically dealing with the means of managing scarce resources.
2. SOCIALOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATION BETWEEN RELIGION AND ECONOMICS
The relationship between Religion & Economics can be clearly understood when we studied the social changes, which took places in western societies. According to Francois, when a society becomes un able to reproduces itself as it was before and when elements of a new mode of production begin to supplement the old ones,” the economics structure and dominions ethos of a society are shaped by region of that society, which remains as a major force.
Max Weber rightly say that Protestant ethics is the responsible for the rise of capitalism spirit The Protestant ethic emphasis that acquisition of wealth by one’s on labour is essentially the sign of prosperity here and here after. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every individual person to use reason, which is considered as the gift of God, and develop the fullest potential to acquire as much wealth as one can to glorify God.
But he further says that it acts as contributing factor, not the cause for the capitalism. Having discussed different view, we observe how religion affects economics behaviour.
3. HINDUISM & SOCIAL CHANGES
Although we see so may undesirable practices in Hinduism. Here, we shall deal with some of the reformer social contribution for social change. As India poverty is a direct product of untouchability and castes taboos, the response to the challenge of poverty has to begin with the response to the challenge of untouchability. Basaveswara and several other saints always were eager to prove the folly of caste prejudices. According to Jan Peter Schouten, “Casteism is not identical with Hinduism. The caste system is a social that is religiously legitimated, but religion is more than that.” Vivekananda rightly pointed out that religion itself cannot be blamed for anything...but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees of Hinduism who invent all kinds of methods of oppressions...kick out the priests, who are always against progress, because they would never mind, their hearts would never become big. “
The Rama Krishna Movement has played a great significant role for social change in India. Swami Vivekananda (1862-1902) was the most brilliant reformer in the nineteenth century. He had a vision concerning for the misery of the poor masses. When he writes about his travel through India, he bursts out: “A country where millions of people live on flowers of the Mohua plants, and a million or two sadhus and a hundred million or so of Brahmins suck the blood out of their amelioration - is that country or hell? Is that a religion or the devil’s dance.”
He further said that, “we do stand in need of social reform. The necessary reforms are amelioration of the position of women. For him the most important means to achieve social change is education only by education it is possible to raise the Sudras to the level of the Brahmins. “ He also again said that we cannot give such education to people who are hungry, so he stresses constantly that the people must get enough food.
The other efforts of several great men of India and of movement like Arya Samaj, Brahma Samaj and Prarohana Samaj have been in this direction.
4. ISLAMIC AND SOCIAL CHANGE :
The Quranic prophets were part of the masses. The Quran describes the rulers and chieftains as arrogant oppression and the ruled masses as weakened oppressed masses had to fight against the mighty Pharaoh to liberate Israel. The Quran stands unambiguously with the weak in their struggle against oppressors.
Mecca was experiencing acute social tension when the prophet started preaching there. A powerful class of mercantile bourgeoisie accumulated wealth in their hands broke down the tribal structure and neglected the poor and needy. The prophet felt deeply stressed at this state of affairs and strongly condemned the arrogance of the Meccan rich. He also felt that poverty on a par with unbelief. Hence, war against poverty is an integral part of Islamic faith. The Islamic countries should also share their wealth with poorer sister nations like Bangladesh, if they are to practice Islamic justice fully. Divine unity should reflect social unity and economic equality among the people of a nation as well as among nations. The Holy book ordained absolute equality of the rich and poor in the eyes of law and justice.
5. INDIAN ECONOMIC PLANNING:
The Indian economic planning was commenced in 1951. In terms of objectives and targets it was very modest. Although this very plan was not based on any specific model, it was a remarkable success. The model for the second plan is called Nehru-Mahalanabis model, as it was jointly built by them. But unluckily this second five year plan did not perform according to designs of the model. This was basically due to the new colonial subordination by Indian political economy by the western capitalist forces. By 1957 Indian political economy confronted a severe foreign exchange crisis.
In the history of Indian political economy 1970 was a memorable year .It was in this year the Government of India enacted the Indian Patent Act .This act was a severe blow to foreign capital and multinational corporations. It enabled Indian capital to broaden its business horizon in India antagonistic to the interest of transnational corporations.
The country is now in the Ninth Five Year Plan. The Indian political economy failed to bring about any noticeable changes in property relations. The caste-cum-class character of Indian society is being perpetuated during the fifty years of freedom. Between the two eras, the situation of the poor has still worsened in the post-Nehruian period.
The former Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram says that, “The new economic policy did not give any benefit to the poorest 350 million people of India” is evidence to this. The New Economic Policy and new marketisation policy opened the door for multinationals and foreign products simultaneously rising consumerism. Well, who buys them and who benefit? What have Revlon or Lewis jeans or Pepsi done to a common man? All these are luxurious to the poor, who live on minimum income. It is a direct contrast and paradoxical that while mega cities are planned, many beauty pageants are conducted. The population of slum or homeless number only keeps increasing. Who benefits?
6. GLOBALISATION:
The “Globalization” agenda brought officially into India during the Congress (I) rule at the centre in 1991 through the New Economic and Industrial Policy. The Policy of Indian government adopting globalization and liberalization was for the development of Indian economy. According to S.P Gupta, “India was compelled to enter into global economy due to heavy internal and external depts.” A recent survey indicates that one fifth of the world people living in the highest income countries dominate 82% of the world export market, the share of the bottom fifth is just one percent. Similarly they have 86% of the world GDP whereas the bottom fifth has only one percent. Globalization has also generated jobs and income insecurity, health insecurity, cultural insecurity, personal environment and community insecurity. These are true especially in Indian society.
The opening of the economy to foreign investment and participation led to some clear but undisclosed and unadmitted realities, namely that market economy, that too globalized economy, could embrace only the top 20% of the population i.e., about 200 million, a staggering size for a newly emerging market. But what would happen to the remaining 800 million? of these are the lowest 200 million (20%) were social and economical outcastes of society. The annual Indian budget provided some crumbs to this section.
7. THE SITUATION OF OUR COUNTRY:
Sri. C. Subramaniam, (Minister of Planning) said in 1970 in the parliament “over 34% of our people are out an existence of a sub human level with a per capita expenditure of less than Rs.15/- a month (less than 50 paisa a day) .Of these, a significant member live below the poverty line in conditions of chill penury and severe destitution with per capita expenditure of hardly Rs. 10/- per month. “P.D Ojha in his report on Indian poverty estimated the rural to be 70%.
Sri. Mohan Dharea (Minister) one declared that two-thirds of our populations are under the poverty level. These are not just numbers. They are people. Million of them. How can one live with just a rupee or as do most people, just 50 paisa per day? Imagine a family of six getting Rs. 100/- (or 50) per person per day) trying to live as human beings on that income in these hard days. Half of our population belongs to this category. Dalits, tribals are the worst affected people in this list. Between March and June 1995, nineteen children belonging to poor tribal families in Dhule, Maharashtra died of starvation. Not far from godowns stocked to the roof with food grains. The families of the victims just could not access or afford that grain. Six million tonness (60,00,000) of rice and wheat are almost rotting at the government owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns all over India. The rainy months of October and November are going to spoil the food grains and so it means more grain in the godowns. But at the same time people in some
Part of Orissa who could not get food, have eaten rotten decayed mango kernel and died. Some ate the decayed flesh of the exhumed body of the bull that was buried seven days earlier and 19 people were killed. The irony of the situation is, there is a FCI godown with surplus food grains just 80 Km away from the place where the tragedy had occurred. The what for is the surplus stocks of food grains? Who blocks the food grain when 280,000,000 people go to bed without one square meal a day?
The problem of all these are due to unequal distribution of income and resources. What Mahatma Gandhi’s observation was right, “there is enough in this world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed - is so true as it is today.” The gap between the rich and the poor has always been there since the beginning of history, but today the gap is widening instead of closing. In India 85 percent of the total cultivable area has been redistributed. That is of 455 million acres, only 4.5 million have been distributed among the poor. The top 10% of our population own 56% of all cultivable land. They also get one third of the one percent own more than half the total wealth in the form of shares. A few affluent families control large sectors of the economy, be it land, industry, commerce or the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor are at the root of an unjust society in India.
8. THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE AND EVALUATION:
The above given situation demands transformation of the existing socio-economic structure of the Indian society. Therefore, the basic question is how Christian would respond to this kind of exploitative situation? What should be the guiding principles to transform the unjust socio-economic structure? How does Jesus respond to the economic crisis of his days? Does he provide any model for transformation of economic structure to bring equality and liberation to the poor? If so can such model would be applicable to the present Indian context? Keeping all these questions in mind we shall discuss as follow.
9. THE RESPONSE AND PRAXIS OF JESUS FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF UNJUST SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
(a) Kingdom Value:
Leonardo Boff argues that Palestine was independent state suffering from the external (Roman) control; Jesus confronted this external force by preaching the kingdom of God that would usher in a new epoch of human liberation. Jesus chooses to identify himself with the poor, defending their rights and promising them a better day when God’s purpose would be consumed on this earth. That means Jesus as he lives with the society, he does not keep himself aloof from problems of the people.
The kingdom of God is the central message of Jesus Christ (Mk.1:15). Jesus and the kingdom of God are inseparable, as Jesus himself is the bearer of the kingdom. The kingdom od God is now and future. On this account, Jurgen Moltmann has stated as follows:
It is experience in the companionship with Jesus where the sick are healed and the lost are found.... And poor discover their dignity, where people who have become rigid are fossilized come alive again, and old, tired life becomes young and fruitful...
According to Mohan Razu, the signs of the kingdom of God are life in all its fullness, the concern for community based on equality and mutual acceptance and freedom from seeking security..., Shalom means healing, wholeness and inclusive community. Jesus has translated these signs of the kingdom to the actual life situation of poverty, exploitation,injustice and oppression. The kingdom is thus characterized by equality, justice, freedom, human dignity, sharing and peace. According to Gustavo Gutierrez Jesus death is the consequences of His struggle for justice, his proclamation of the kingdoms and his identification with the poor. And for S.J Aloysius Pieris, in Jesus, God and the poor have made a covenant to fight their common enemy, mammon.
Wealth by itself is not evil, but it becomes evil when it is accumulated and misused. If wealth is distributed accordingly to the needs, then can be no needy person (Acts. 4:34-35), it ceases to be mammon. Jesus told the rich young men who was in search of eternal life to give up mammon in such a way that the poor would benefit by his renunciation (Mk.10:21). Lazarus remained hungry till his death, while the rich man refused to share even the excess foods and wasted it (Lk. 16:19-31). Poverty forced upon a brother or sister is an evil. Therefore, Jesus called the affluent to be poor so that there would be no poor.
(b) Koinonia as Jesus New Economic Model:
M. Douglas Meeks expressed that God is a community, the three person (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) share in common. There is no single notion of self expression, but is a relationship of self giving and sharing. Luke recorded similar perspective in (Acts 2:44-470. The early Christian put this new economic order into practice, as they had become one body in Christ. The whole emphasizes within the community seemed to have been prompted by a sense of responsibility those who are socially deprived especially the widows (Acts 6:1). The aim is oneness, sharing of resources, people participation, justice, equality, sustainable socio-economic development.
The World Council of Churches Melbourne Conference affirm that, thus the gospel which has been given to Christian must express this continuing concern of God, for the poor to whom Jesus has granted the blessing of the kingdom. So the conference states clearly regarding the responsibility of the church as:
Poor and the hungry cry to God our prayer kingdom come must be prayed in solidarity with the cry millions who are living in poverty, injustice... The church cannot live distant from these faces because she sees the faces of Jesus ill them (Mt.25)... The goods news of the kingdom must be presented to the world by the church, the body of Christ, the sacrament of the kingdom in every place and time...
Lastly, one of the most important things is that the church should work with the people of other faiths, so that her mission can be fulfilled. As Dr. Godwin Shiri rightly pointed out that, “India is a multi-religious country... the task of development cannot be carried out in isolation from those who do not belong to our faith. Therefore, a sincere attempt for dialogue, both in concept and in action with people of other faith is vital.” So that, we can promote humanization to liberate people from all constraints, bondage, dehumanization and bring a just society.
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