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Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat* Although comparatively modest in its size, Philip Hughes’ work, Charting the Faith of Australians: Thirty Years in the Christian Research Association, is thought provoking, challenging and full of ideas and suggestions for the future. Good research often provide some answers but raises many more questions. Philip’s work is no exception to this dictum. He asks many questions, answers some and leaves the reader and researcher to look further into the complex topics of culture and religion in the present society. Being a rare combination of a devout Christian, an accomplished statistician and a gifted researcher, Philip seeks answers to important questions and offers many lucid explanations. His research output is testimony to his wide ranging scholarship. Although I have known Philip for many years, it is only in the last 6-7 years that we worked together (along with Purushottama Bilimoria) to produce a substantial volume on Indian Diaspora in Australia. It is in this process that I discovered Philip’s ability to seek answers to perplexing questions and statistically analyse the results. I am ever so grateful to him for his insights into comparative religion.

Having come to this land 51 years ago and having lived in Australia as a migrant ever since, I have seen many of the changes that Philip describes in his work. In 1965 when I arrived here, White Australia Policy still reigned supreme. I was one of a dozen or so Indians in Melbourne. There were no Indian films, no Indian foods and no spices. There were hardly any Chinese or South Asians. Shops closed at 5 pm on week days, were open only till 1 pm on Saturdays and were closed on Sundays. Pubs closed at 6 pm. Most people religiously attended the church services on Sundays. Australia was very much an Anglo-Saxon ‘roast beef and Yorkshire pudding’ country. There were no Hindu temples, no Sikh Gurdwaras and certainly no ‘interfaith dialogues’. Like most young people, I knew little about Hinduism, my religion, and what it stood for. It was a High School teacher in Bendigo (a Christian) who asked me to speak on Hinduism to her students, and this led me to study what my faith was in some depth.

It was the Catholic Archdiocese in Melbourne who were the pioneers of ‘interfaith

dialogue’ in Victoria. It was through them that I was introduced to Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. Back in India, in the traditional Hindu society where I was raised, these faiths were the ‘others’. I often wondered why it was the Catholic Church that took this first step towards interfaith dialogue in Victoria. I remember asking a devout Catholic friend as to why the Church bothered with this. Tongue in cheek, I said to him, ‘shouldn’t a good and devout Christian and most certainly the Church get on with their duty of converting heathens to the way of Christ? Are they not doing the wrong thing by seeking interfaith dialogue?’ Seriously though, I think this step that the Catholic Church took in approaching other faiths to a dialogue was bold, ahead of its time and courageous. Since my arrival in Australia in 1965, the country has certainly changed dramatically and

* Dr Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat is a Hindu community elder and priest. He holds docorates in organic chemistry and sociology. He is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University Asia Institute and has published widely in Hinduism studies.

certainly in terms of its religious profile. I remember a Catholic colleague in 1966 who sought to marry an Australian Christian woman of another denomination and was refused permission to do so. As against this, as a marriage celebrant, I have been performing mixed weddings between Hindus and Christians for quite some time. The Hindu wedding is followed by a Church wedding or vice versa. I have also conducted combined weddings where both the Hindu and Christian priests are present at the same place and the rituals follow each other. Parents from both sides are very willing to give their blessings to such couples. Even the normally orthodox Greek and eastern European Churches are no exception to this.

In spite of being basically a Christian country (61% Christians, 2011 Census), Australia has embraced other religions with open arms. Indians now represent the fastest growing community in Australia and as a result, Hinduism the fastest growing religion. Melbourne now boasts 16 Hindu temples and more are under construction. In addition, Hindu presence is felt through hundreds of Yoga centres, week-end meditation retreats and the ever increasing number of Yogis, preachers and Swamis who visit here on a regular basis and are eager to disseminate their own kind of spirituality. I started acting as a community priest nearly 40 years ago due mainly to the fact that there were no Hindu priests in Australia. Today, a priest can perform a Hindu ritual every day if he wanted to. We have now trained women priests as well who meet the ever increasing demands of life-cycle rituals for the Hindus in Melbourne. I believe that this is an area where some Christian denominations are still lagging behind.

To an outsider such as myself, Christianity was and still is a cohesive whole in spite of having many different denominations and sects. To me, compared to Hinduism, these differences appear to be minor. One the other hand, Hinduism presents a very confusing, baffling and perplexing scenario even to a Hindu. In building the very first temple in Melbourne, our idea was to bring in a sense of cohesion and unity. That is why the temple was deliberately designed to include major gods and goddesses under one roof so that most of the major branches and sects could be catered for. Although the experiment has been successful, the rapid growth in Hindus from various parts of India and from overseas has resulted in the construction of temples belonging to particular sects. India has always been a highly complex mixture of many different languages (25 main ones), dialects (over 600), ethnicities, beliefs and cultures. This is reflected in the Hinduisms that are practiced within India. Unfortunately many such differences have also been brought to this adopted land and this has been baffling for the Indian migrants and especially their children. Part of the reason for this is that Hinduism is not taught in the schools in India. Also, because of the different ethnicities and language backgrounds, the practice of Hinduism can vary substantially from state to state. Unlike the churches, there is no overarching Hindu body that can dictate and harmonize the behaviour of the populace.

One has to bear in mind that Hindus represent no more than 2-3% of Australians. Unity and cohesion are therefore values that must be placed on high priority and need to be inculcated amongst our young.

What are the things that Hinduism can share with the other faiths in Australia? It is a well-established fact that Hinduism has two main strengths that can benefit any faith or culture. These are: bhakti or devotional worship shared by a group of people, and secondly, a strong spiritual leaning without seeking an intervention by God. The Bhakti

movement brought religion and god to the masses. It believes in selfless devotion to the god irrespective of one’s caste or creed. Because of its universal appeal, it became the only source for the common man to seek god. Great Indian saints spread the word amongst

the masses that god was approachable through total devotion, free of greed, malice and self-interest. The movement is very popular in India even today. In Australia, Indian families get together every so often, pray and share one another’s experiences. They also eat together. This is a function not unlike that of the Christian Churches in the olden days. The church was a place of gathering where people looked for each other, cared for each other and cooperated with each other. Suitable matches were also made at the church after the prayers. Sadly, it is less and less relevant today. As Philip points out, the practice of prayer has faded in Christianity.

Spirituality is another area where Hinduism has always been at the forefront. Knowing that 23% of Australians call themselves spiritual but not religious, it would be worth their while for the Churches and the community as a whole to take on board the spiritual dimension of human behaviour in a major way. I believe that such training needs to be offered to students at the school and at university level. It may stop young people venturing in the direction of drugs, wanton sex and alcohol. Modern Australian cultural norms demand that the young are responsible for putting their own life together. The focus on individual development at the expense of the society has led to an emphasis on experience over cognition. This can often result in pandering to self-centred and selfish desires. The young these days are not often interested in questions about god, religion, family values and social responsibility.

In Hindu thought, children are still needed to be obedient to the elders and adhere to family and society values. They are part of the family, a clan and a culture and they need to abide by a range of rules and expectations. This is not necessarily bad. Piaget has shown us that even up to the age of 20, many men and women still lack maturity. Total freedom in such inexperienced hands does often result in disaster.

Like any other migrant groups, Indians and especially their children face a number of challenges. They need to discover their identity, their heritage and most importantly, their commonality. While they quickly adopt the peer group norms, there are often clashes with the elders whose expectations can be very different. I agree with Philip when he says that schools may need to move to spiritual literacy rather than religious education. To this I would add the need to address heritage and cultural values of both the local and the migrant groups. This will hopefully enable students to adjust well to the environment they live in.

Indian migrants are not immune to problems such as family violence, alcoholism and drugs. Added to this are problems such as the perceived superiority of the Indian male, the entrenched dowry system and the like. I believe that organisations such as the Hindu Council of Australia, the Christian Church and Islamic and Jewish Councils need to get together to develop blanket policies that would address such problems in the society we live in. Such an expert body could organize accredited training courses and continuing professional development for community leaders and volunteers.

I conclude by asking the same questions that Philip has posed. How should any faith respond to cultural, moral and generational change? How should one formulate such a response? How should any faith address the problem of adopting to modern ways of communication in order to reach the young?

These are very real and difficult questions. While one hopes that God will provide us with the answers, one must strive hard to read his message in whichever way we can.

Appendix 1.