I just found out about a fascinating, if rather creepy, character in the history of Catholic missionaries: Roberto de Nobili. Born in 1577, he eventually joined the Jesuits and set off to India. In India, he observed that the only Indians who had come over to Christianity were members of the lowest caste. The reason being that the Portughese and the missionaries violated the strictures of the caste system, and were thus lumped in as belonging to the pariah class. As a result, those higher up in the Hindu caste system remained steadfast in their “heathenism.” Roberto de Nobili figured out a way to change all that: by lying!

De Nobili set out to become a member of the Hindu priest caste, the Brahmins. He studied Sanskrit and Tamil, and adopted all the customs and observances of the priestly caste. Armed with his knowledge of Hindu scriptures and the newfound respect of their holy men, he began to debate with them the virtues of Christianity. He’s actually said to be the first European who studied the Hindu scriptures in their native Sanskrit.

He also made up an elaborate background story about the lost group of Roman Brahmins whose legacy predated their own, and who had originally derived their authority directly from the God Brahma. He also invented a spurious “Fifth Veda” with knowledge lost to the Hindu community in India. He even disguised and performed Christian sacraments such as baptism within normal Hindu religious rites. Supposedly by the end of his work, he had surreptitiously converted something like 4000 higher-caste Hindus, where there had been none before.

Don’t worry though: this doesn’t just seem fishy to you and I. There was also great debate about it during his lifetime, and Pope Gregory XV undertook a special tribunal to examine the validity of his work. Of course, they weren’t worried about co-opting the cultural identity and practices of the natives. They were worried that de Nobili was rather profaning the Gospel and the Church. But after something like 14 years, the Pope decreed on behalf of de Nobili.

The funniest part about all this - besides all the lying and cultural imperialism - is that Hinduism is actually a completely pluralistic religion to begin with. There are so many flavors and types of Hindu belief and worship practices that Christianity essentially offered nothing new to them. Even de Nobili was smart enough to realize this. He went to great lengths to connect the Christian message to pre-existing tradition of bhakti-marga: the path of devotion. Bhakti emphasizes love and reverence over action (karma-marga) and knowledge (jnana-marga).

The question ultimately arises as well: if Christianity fit so cleanly into pre-existing Hindu traditions, did de Nobili really convert them - or did they convert him? Seems very much like the latter.

[Links for further research:]

1. The Roman Brahmin
2. Roman Catholic Brahmin!
3. Contextualization: a New-Old Idea: Illustrations from the life of an Italian Jesuit in 17th Century India
4. Catholic Encyclopedia: Malabar Rites
5. Jesus Taught Bhakti Yoga