The ‘Gharwapasi’ of Padma Bhushan Father Camille Bulcke

Bulcke was invited as the main speaker on many Tulsi Jayanti events all over the country as he expounded the virtues of the Manas and Tulsi’s portrayal of human values in the characters of Ram and Sita. He did so, in his full Christian monk attire, invoking awe and adoration, not the sloganeering and hatred he would have possibly received in these times. In his book, Ramkatha: Utpatti aur Vikas, he highlighted the different traditions of the Ramayana story in parts of South and South-East Asia, much before A. K. Ramanujan wrote his influential essay on many versions of the epic. Scholars argue that this might be one of the finest works not only on Ramayana but also on the process of ‘doing’ research in the field of literature.

A different kind of ‘gharwapasi’ (homecoming) was witnessed in Jharkhand this week, which had support from all sections and was opposed by none. The remains of renowned Hindi and Sanskrit scholar, Father Camille Bulcke were finally brought from Delhi’s Nicholson cemetery and reburied on the premises of Ranchi’s St. Xavier’s College located on Camille Bulcke Path, named after him. He came to India from Belgium in 1935 to spread the teachings of Christ and not only found a spiritual inspiration in Goswami Tulsidas but became one of the best exponents of Ramkatha (the story of Ram).

After receiving a doctorate in Hindi at Allahabad University, where he lived and learnt in the company of Hindi luminaries such as Sumitranandan Pant, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Mahadevi Verma and Dharmavir Bharti, Father Bulcke went back to Jharkhand where he first arrived as a missionary. He started the Hindi and Sanskrit Department at St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi and transformed the adjacent residential complex of the Jesuits, the Manresa House, into a hub of intellectual activities. It is while teaching in Ranchi, that he wrote treatises on Ramkatha and Tulsidas and also translated many important Christian theological works including the Bible. For his services to Hindi literature and education, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1974.

In a state where religious conversion has always been a highly sensitive and contentious issue and anti-conversion laws have been introduced by the government; where conflict simmers between Christian and Sarna Adivasis, between Hindus and Muslims, between Christians and Hindus and between Christians and Muslims, people of all religions attended the ceremonial reburial of Father Bulcke’s remains to mark his final resting place in his karmbhoomi, Jharkhand, 35 years after his death. The reburial of his skeletal remains was announced as part of the Adivasi tradition of hadgadi, where the remains of the ancestors are carried as a blessing and reburied, as tribes move from one village to another. The exhumation of dead bodies and remains is also a known practice among Catholics, especially for beatification and canonization purposes. In several contexts and for various reasons, the family members of the dead can also make personal requests to the Church and local administration to allow them to rebury their loved ones elsewhere. It is also not uncommon to witness the exhumation of remains of a family grave at various times, when a new member is to be buried at the same site.

In the past, another Belgian priest, Father Constant Lievens (1856-1893), known to have officially ‘converted’ a large number of Chhotanagpur tribals to Catholicism, had his ashes transferred from Belgium and interred at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ranchi in 1993. The Jesuit Society of Jharkhand worked closely with their Delhi counterparts and had to cross several bureaucratic hurdles to bring back the remains of Father Camille Bulcke.. read more:

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