Sophia University Junior College Division Faculty Journal
第 38 号, 2017, 15-30

Peaceful Co-existence in Multi-religious India
through Interreligious Dialogue: The Mode ofbeing the Church in India today with Special
Reference to ‘Dialogue of Life’
Thomas Varkey

Introduction
India is the birthplace of multiple mainstream religions such as Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, along with many tribal communities, some of which
follow pantheistic traditions. During the course of its history, India has become home
to many foreign-born religions as well, such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism (today known
as the religion of the Parsees in India), Christianity, and Islam. It is generally believedthat people of different faiths in ancient India co-existed peacefully under their local
1

rulers, although sporadic tensions between Buddhists and Brahmin Hindus, andamong different castes of Hindus, occasionally erupted into riots. More frequentreligious conﬂicts began with the arrival of Islam in the early middle ages in northIndia, although Islam had already spread into the south by the 7 century. Takingtha broad view of Indian history from ancient to modern times, one may admit that by
and large, dissimilar cultures and religions have co-existed peacefully in India. India
has produced sacred books that promote tolerance, such as the Vedas, Upanishads,
Dhammapada, and Bhagavad-Gita, and many eminent individuals have arisen in the
country, for instance, the Buddha, Emperor Ashoka, Guru Nanak, Emperor Akbar
the Great, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Narayana Guru and others.
However, its relatively peaceful history changed with the nation’s partition into India
and Pakistan in 1947, wherein around one to two million people were reportedly
killed (The New Yorker, June 29, 2015). Ever since that partition, India has witnessed
an increase in religious intolerance, and religious minorities, especially Muslims andChristians have experienced systematic persecution.
In the nation ’ s recent history, however, incidents targeting Muslims andChristians intensiﬁed after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power under1.

A member of the highest caste of traditional Hindu society.

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Thomas Varkey

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 2014. According to the National Catholic Reporter(May 29, 2015), within 300 days of Modi’s governance over 600 cases of violenceagainst religious minorities ― 149 targeting Christians and the rest targeting Muslims― had been reported, with 43 people killed. The BBC (22 April, 2011) reported thatover 1,000 people were killed in the 2002 Gujarat violence that arose when Modi was
the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and the majority of the victims were Muslims. The
BBC has also reported Modi as having stated, following the incident, that “Hindus
should be allowed to vent their anger” (22 April, 2011). This riot began after a trainarson incident, in which 60 Hindu pilgrims were killed. According to Fox News (March

14, 2016), 26 cases of religiously motivated violence against Christians have takenplace since January 1, 2016, and despite the spread of violence the Hindu radicals
enjoyed “ near complete impunity for their actions ” (Fox News March 14 , 2016 ).
Today, religious minorities, in particular Christians, who constitute merely 2.3% of
the total population, live in almost constant fear, with Christian institutions often
being attacked, nuns raped, and villages set on ﬁre by Hindu fundamentalists (TheHufﬁngton post, May 27, 2015).
Protecting the lives, properties, and rights of the religious minorities in India is
ﬁrst and foremost the responsibility of the government, as articles 25-28 of the IndianConstitution grant assurance of religious freedom and equal treatment to all citizens,
regardless of caste, creed, or religion, and yet minority communities, and in particular
Christians, have been discriminated against and systematically persecuted in India’s
recent past. Although leaders of the Church requested the state and the national
governments to intervene in the targeted attacks against them and assure themsecurity, the situation has not seen much improvement, and people continue to livein fear and insecurity (Pasricha, 2016). In this context, this paper assesses the role ofinterreligious dialogue as a means towards peace-building, and highlights ways the
Church could further its attempts towards peaceful co-existence with people of otherfaiths in India, through‘dialogue of life’ ― one of the forms of interreligious dialogue.

The Church in India
There are various views concerning the origin of the Church in India. According
to some scholars, St. Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus laid the foundationof the Church in India in the 2 century AD, while another group of scholars claimndthat it was the Christian merchants from Syria and Persia who brought the faith toIndia. However, there is a long history concerning the Christian faith in Kerala, one

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Peaceful Co-existence in Multi-religious India through Interreligious Dialogue: The Mode of being
the Church in India today with Special Reference to‘Dialogue of Life’of the south Indian states, that can be traced back to AD 345, with many legends
narrated even today concerning the works of St. Thomas the Apostle, among the St.
2

Thomas Christians. St. Thomas is believed to have been martyred in Tamil Nadu,a state adjacent to the state of Kerala and his tomb is still publicly acknowledged as
being in Chennai city. As these St. Thomas Christians in the beginning were not a
missionary community, they did not spread their faith outside their community. They
retained the Chaldean liturgy and Syriac language and maintained fraternal ties
with the Babylonian Patriarch (New Encyclopedia Britannica, 1997, p. 281). Thus,
the Christian faith remained only in the southern part of India until the arrival ofFrancis Xavier, a Spanish missionary who reached the city of Goa in 1542.
It is believed that in Kerala, the St. Thomas Christians lived in perfect unionwith the people of local faiths. Brown ( 1956, p. 16) states, “There is no evidence
at all that the Christians were considered a foreign community. They were arecognized part of Malabar society and that society had colored their understandingof Christianity.” Another fact that helped them to adapt to the cultural milieu ofMalabar, was that most of the early converts to Christianity were from the Brahmincaste of Hinduism (Brown, 1956, p. 167). This explains why local kings, too, accorded
the St. Thomas Christians a high rank in the caste system, a rank even superior tothat of the Waniers and Kammalers, and Vyisyas.
With the arrival of Francis Xavier, a new era in the history of the Church inIndia began. Francis Xavier started his missionary work mostly among the ﬁsher folkof the coastal areas, starting from Goa and extending to Tamil Nadu. After Xavier
followed many Christian missionaries belonging to different religious orders in the
Roman Catholic Church and Christianity began to spread across India. Mission works
of most of the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries were conﬁned only to areas underPortuguese jurisdiction in India, and therefore there was hardly any tension between
the Christians and members of the local communities. Later with the arrival of the
Dutch and people from Great Britain, protestant missionaries entered India andbegan spreading their faith. The ﬁrst two Protestant missionaries who landed in India
on July 9, 1706 were Germans, namely Ziegenbalg and Plutschau, who were sent by
the Dutch King (Julius, 1908, p. 30). The British rulers generally followed a policyof non-interference in the customs and traditions of the natives, owing to fear that it2.

A group of Christians in the South Indian state of Kerala, who are believed to possess roots that can betraced back to St. Thomas the apostle. They are also called Malabar Christians.

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Thomas Varkey

might offend the Hindus and create unrest (Immanuel, 1984, p. 19-29). As a resultof this policy, the new converts to Christianity did not face much opposition from thelocal Hindu community, except in cases where some Indian nationalists associatedChristians with their colonial oppressors. Although there were conflicts between
Christians and other religious communities during and after the colonial period, incomparison with other religions, Christianity enjoyed a relatively peaceful existencein India.

Interreligious dialogue
Cardinal Francis Arinze (1997, p. 16) defines interreligious dialogue as: “a3

meeting of people of differing religions, in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, inorder to listen to the other, to try to understand that person’s religion, and hopefully
to seek possibilities of collaboration.” While engaging in dialogue, Arinze insistson listening, because dialogue requires an appreciation of what the other person
is, believes, prays, or lives. For Arinze, willingness to listen, asking questions forclariﬁcation, and seeking to understand, are direct ways to the other person’s heart
and trust. He reminds us that comparative religion and religious debates are notinterreligious dialogue. Interreligious dialogue, “does not aim at bringing about theunity of all religions in a kind of super-religion” (Arinze, 1997).

Various forms of interreligious dialogue
The Catholic Church acknowledges four types of interreligious dialogue, which
are also approved among interreligious dialogue experts. These are dialogue of life,
dialogue of action, dialogue of discourse, and dialogue of religious experience.

Dialogue of Life
Dialogue of life is a form of interreligious dialogue that takes place between
believers of different religions, as they interact with each other in their daily lives
in families, schools, places of social or cultural contact, workplaces, in politics, tradeor commerce, and other areas. People of different religious background engage indialogue of life when they are open to one another, as they share their projects andhopes, common concerns and sorrows. Although they do not discuss religion in these3.

Cardinal Francis Arinze has been the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue inRome since 1985.

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Peaceful Co-existence in Multi-religious India through Interreligious Dialogue: The Mode of being
the Church in India today with Special Reference to‘Dialogue of Life’interactions, they draw on the values of their beliefs and traditions (Arinze, 1997).
According to Samwini (2011), “dialogue of life, by virtue of primarily basing relations
on blood or social ties, can lead to the dispelling of prejudice and engendering of
mutual understanding.” Samwini continues, stating that dialogue of life challenges
adherents of religions to offer witness to their faith in their day-to-day lives, andthereby attain dignity and respect without oppressing the other. This mutualenrichment is essential for community development and peaceful co-existence. While
formal interreligious dialogues attempt to answer the question‘How do we live ourlives together?’ dialogue of life is‘the already negotiated answer’ (Sturm, 1993, p.

2). Samwini, then, believes that while formal interreligious dialogue seeks to build
understanding on the basis of similarities between different faiths, dialogue oflife does not necessarily look for similarities, but seeks to bring peace even amidst
acknowledged differences. The result is better relationships among people of different
religions, and peaceful co-existence.

Dialogue of Action
Arinze (1997, p. 18), posits that dialogue of action refers to followers of different
religions cooperating for the promotion of human development and liberation in
all its forms. A joint project between a Muslim group and a Catholic group whoform a committee to run a leprosy-control clinic is an example of dialogue of action.
Arinze points out that dialogue of action brings people together, even at global
level, irrespective of their religious affiliations, to common causes of humanitarianconcern such as the 1991 Malta project to establish practical cooperation on the
global humanitarian problem of refugees and migrants. This project was organized by
Christian and Islamic organizations, which together made the following declaration,“We afﬁrm that we must work together to ensure that the rights and dignity of all

peoples on the move, and their families if separated, are respected and upheld nomatter who these people are or wherever they may be found” (Arinze, 1997, p.18-19).

Dialogue of discourse
Dialogue of discourse, in principle, takes place between religious specialists.
In dialogue of discourse, scholars and leaders of various religions come together tolisten to one another in an effort to understand the religion of the other at a deeper
level. They exchange information on their respective religious beliefs and heritage,
through which they come to understand what beliefs and practices they share, and─ 19 ─

Thomas Varkey

where they differ (Arinze, 1997, p. 19). Having learned about each other at this deeplevel, they attempt to seek solutions together to the problems they face in the world.
Groupe de Recherches Islamo-Christien (GRIC), a group of Muslims and Christians
who are committed to do theological studies together of both religions, is an example
of dialogue of discourse in action.

Dialogue of religious experience
Dialogue of religious experience consists in sharing one’s religious experience
with a follower of another religion. In such exchanges, both parties should be
open and even willing to share in the religious experience of the other. Dialogue of
religious experience is generally conducted by people who are deeply rooted in one’s
own religious tradition, such as religious monks who are committed to a more thanordinary pursuit of spiritual progress (Arinze, 1997, p. 20). This type of dialogue
generally involves several weeks of residence in a monastery of one of the religions
monks, and the following of their daily routines of prayer and work. One sees fromthe very nature of this type of dialogue, that it is not something easily accessible to allfollowers of any religion.

Interreligious dialogue and peaceful co-existenceInterreligious dialogue takes place in a multi-religious society as a day to day,mundane activity, even without the notice and awareness of the persons involved. In
other words, interreligious dialogue, in one form or other, is an unavoidable part ofeveryday life for most people around the world. Whether intentional or unintentional,organized or unorganized, all forms of interreligious dialogues contribute to increased
mutual understanding, social harmony, and peaceful co-existence between people ofdifferent faiths and cultures. The following are some of the speciﬁc positive outcomesof interreligious dialogue.

Solidarity with the whole of humanity
All religions promote peace and encourage their followers to be ambassadors ofpeace. Peace being one of the common goals of all religions, its pursuit brings them
together to work for the wellbeing of the whole of humanity. The ﬁrst‘Parliamentof World Religions,’ held in Chicago in 1893, was probably the ﬁrst time in modern
history that religious leaders and theologians from around the world came together todiscuss issues that inﬂuence the whole of humanity with an eye towards contributing

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Peaceful Co-existence in Multi-religious India through Interreligious Dialogue: The Mode of being
the Church in India today with Special Reference to‘Dialogue of Life’

to world peace. This event was likely the birth of interreligious dialogue at a global
level. The Assisi World Day of Prayer for Peace in 1986 was another such historicalevent in which leaders of world religions assembled to think together, work together,and pray together for world peace. Pope John Paul II, in his concluding address on
October 27, 1986, delivered the following message, “We hope that this pilgrimage toAssisi has taught us anew to be aware of the common origin and common destinyof humanity. Let us see in it an anticipation of what God would like the developing
history of humanity to be: a fraternal journey in which we accompany one anothertowards the transcendent goal which He sets for us” (John Paul II, 1986). Thoughvaried in their demands, all religions seek answers to the fundamental questions that
torment the human mind, such as the question of human existence and destiny, theessence of true happiness, the problem of evil and sin, and the reasons for sufferingand human salvation. In Arinze’s words, “If for no other reason, the followers of
the religions of the world should meet, listen to one another, try to understand one
another, and see what they can do together” (Arinze, 1997, p.33).

Enrichment of personal experience
Leonard Swidler (1985, p. 187) declares, “the primary purpose of dialogue is tolearn, to change and grow in the perception and understanding of reality, and thento act accordingly.” Anyone who participates in an interreligious dialogue with areceptive and open mind will grow in one’s own faith and appreciation of each other.
For example, when a Christian notices some Muslim brethren praying ﬁve times aday, regardless of place, the sight would naturally challenge and inspire his or her
own commitment to prayer and faith. Similarly, when monks of different religions
assemble for dialogue, each tradition’s asceticism, methods of prayer, and humaninteraction mutually enrich spiritual life and change one’s perception of the other.

Mutual enrichment of religions
As every religion is an embodiment of ideologies and cultures, interreligious
dialogue is also an inter-ideological and inter-cultural encounter. Encounter between
religions have always inspired changes on both sides. For example, Christianity has
helped some religions to do away with practices such as “human sacriﬁce, killing of
twins, the denial of some human rights to unborn children or to women” (Arinze, 1997,
p. 25). Similarly, Christians in India have enriched themselves from the Sadhana
way of praying and meditation (Amaladoss, 1995, p. 2). Contact with Buddhism has

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Thomas Varkey

inspired Christianity to deepen its eco-spirituality and increase its environmental
awareness and commitment (Hastings, 2009, p. 60). It is a well-known fact that yoga,
though a Hindus tradition, refreshes physically and enriches spiritually everyone whopractices it. Today, yoga techniques are adopted by many Christians and especiallyreligious men and women, in their daily prayer and meditation across the world.
Similarly, Zen meditation is being used by Hindus as well as Christians in theirformal prayers.

Countering religious extremism
Interfaith and interreligious dialogue is increasingly used today to combat
terrorism across the globe. Today, more than ever, as a result of globalization, aconstant movement of people from place to place has led to the interaction of different
cultures, ideologies, and religions, a reality that sometimes leads to friction. Providing
a mood of mutual understanding and acceptance to people of diverse identities
is not only the need and responsibility of religious leaders, but of governmental
authorities as well. In 2008, the monarch of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, held athree-day interfaith meeting of Shiite and Sunni Muslims of Saudi Arabia and Iranas a way to promote reconciliation among these groups (BBC News, July 19, 2008).
In the same year, King Abdullah hosted an interfaith dialogue meeting at Madrid,in which three hundred delegates, representing Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism,
Islam, and Judaism participated. The highlight of this event was the diplomatic
breakthrough between two enemy nations – Israel and Saudi Arabia. This conference
called for international cooperation on combating terrorism and unity of humanbeings, regardless of dissimilar identities (Christian Science Monitor, July 18, 2008).
Interfaith and interreligious dialogue at local and international levels, fulfill an
important role today in countering terrorism and in promoting shared values.

Foster fraternity among people
Every nation in the world has people belonging to different religions, eventhough all religions may not be endowed with the freedom of public worship. In suchnations, religious or communal conflict of any sort first affects ordinary citizens
who may not be well-informed in theological matters concerning their religion, but
yet are committed in their faith. Conflicts between communities are often causedby misunderstandings or due to trivial interpersonal issues, which later acquire a
religious or communal ﬂavor. Interreligious dialogue in its various forms promotes an─ 22 ─

Peaceful Co-existence in Multi-religious India through Interreligious Dialogue: The Mode of being
the Church in India today with Special Reference to‘Dialogue of Life’understanding of each other’s shared values as well as differences, in an atmosphereof mutual acceptance. Arab-Jew encounters in Israel and Christian-Muslim dialogues
in Nigeria are illustrative examples of such endeavors. These honest and face-to-facedialogues convince both parties that to engage in violence and to kill each other in
the name of God or religion contradicts their own faith. The Oasis of Peace (Wahat
al Salam), an international community jointly established by Jewish and Palestinian
Arab citizens of Israel, is a concrete example of building fraternity and peaceful coexistence between centuries-old enemies.

Critical perspective
The Catholic Church, in its journey through centuries and on different
continents, has encountered many civilizations, religions, and local cultures,inﬂuencing and being inﬂuenced by each other. Various liturgical traditions present
in the Church today provide witness to this influence. Similarly, even within a
Christian community that follows the same liturgical tradition, different types ofcustoms and practices, regarding childbirth, marriage, the conducting of funerals andso on, can be observed across the globe. India, as a multi-religious, multi-cultural,and multi-ethnic sub-continent, exhibits social practices and customs which differ
from community to community across the country. A Christian in India has multiple
identities, in addition to being a Christian, he or she belongs to a speciﬁc linguistic
group, a political state, possibly to a tribe or caste, and is a member of an ethnic
group as well. These multiple identities exert a deep inﬂuence on the way of living of
the person, regardless of his or her religious affiliation. Therefore, co-existing withpeople of different identities within the Church, and with members of the society atlarge, can prove a challenge and sometimes a dilemma, for Christians in India. When
thinking of‘the mode of being a Christian in India’ without losing his or her religious
identity as well as not causing conﬂict and division in society, the Catholic Church
could consider or even encourage the following recommendations.

Future considerations for Dialogue of life in the Indian context
Living with mixed-faith families is an increasing form of dialogue of life in today’s
world. Living with mixed-faith families is possible in two ways: (1) conversion of oneof the family members to another religion (2) interreligious (interfaith) marriage.
Although these two forms of dialogue of life are not very common phenomena
in India, they are increasing, especially in the urban areas and among the well-─ 23 ─

Thomas Varkey

educated members of the younger generation. However, most denominations of theCatholic Church in India do not in practice encourage these changes. Rather, they
actively discourage these two forms of dialogue of life. Certain Roman Catholic
4

denominations such as the Knanaya community strongly oppose both interreligious
5

and interdenominational marriages . Interreligious or interdenominational marriages
are not theologically problematic. People follow these practices even today only tomaintain tradition and to preserve the identity of the community through blood
relations, which are not actually related to true Gospel values of equal human worth.
Although the Church leadership in India does not seem to oppose these forms of
dialogue of life in public, they are silent about them. In contrast to this situation inIndia, interreligious marriages and interdenominational marriages among Christians
are very common in many other parts of the world, and they are as successful as
6

intra-denominational marriages .
Research conducted in Malaysia proves that dialogue of life through living
together with mixed-faith families has a signiﬁcant impact on encouraging positive
interaction among people of different religions. This type of social interaction canbe considered interreligious dialogue at the grass roots level. It is an informal
dialogue in daily life but it is very intense and effective in terms of promoting mutual
understanding and acceptance among members of different religions. Interviews
with Muslim converts living together with non-Muslim family members in Malaysia
have revealed that (Sintang & Khambali, 2012, pp. 69-74): (1) Acceptance of a family
member converting to Islam. One of the family members accepting another religion

is a rare incident and socially unacceptable in Malaysian society, where every
family traditionally adheres to a particular religion. Blood relationship with the
Muslim convert, in this case, helped the non-Muslim family members to accept her
new religious identity. (2) Non-Muslim family members’ interest in Islam gradually
increased. The Muslim convert testiﬁes, “When I watch a movie or drama conveying

the message of Islam, I will tell them what it is about and they are ready to listen to
my explanation. Until now, they know a little bit about Mecca and the reasons why

4.
5.

6.

Knanaya community refers to the descendants of Thomas of Cana, a Jewish-Christian merchant fromSouthern Mesopotamia who migrated to Kerala in 345 AD.
Interdenominational marriage refers to marriage between people who belong to different Christianhistorical and liturgical traditions. For example, a marriage between a person who belongs to Latin
Catholic community and Knanaya Catholic community.
Intra-denominational marriage refers to a marriage between two people belonging to the same religious
denomination.

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Peaceful Co-existence in Multi-religious India through Interreligious Dialogue: The Mode of being
the Church in India today with Special Reference to‘Dialogue of Life’

Muslims perform Hajj there” (Sintang & Khambali, 2012, p. 73). (3) Non-Muslim
family members’ misunderstandings about Islam reduced. The non-Muslim members of

the family got over their misconceptions on Islam by living with a Muslim member of
their family who witnessed to the teachings of Islam in her daily life. (4) Non-Muslim
family members began encouraging the Muslim convert to follow her religion faithfully.

The female convert’s father said the following words to her, “You have to make somechanges after you convert to Islam. Don’t stick to your old dress code. It’s better you
wear a headscarf...He used to tell me that he is proud of me being his daughter, eventhough we are no longer in the same religion” (Sintang & Khambali, 2012, p. 74).
The above findings state that living together with mixed-faith families contributes
significantly towards promoting understanding between followers of different
religions, and contribute to peaceful co-existence.
A second means of an intimate form of the dialogue of life is the open-housecelebration of religious festivals. Sintang & Khambali (2012, p. 74) observe that
open-house celebration of religious festivals such as Eid Fitri and the Chinese New
Year, are becoming a modern trend in Malaysia. During such celebrations, neighbors
belonging to different religions cooperate with each other and share meals together,strengthening friendship and growing in mutual appreciation of each other’s faithand religious practices. This type of intimate association with people of other religions
provides a near insider view of the other’s religion and values, and thus enables theridding oneself of prejudice and discrimination. India is a land of religions, and peopleof various religious faiths live side by side in the same street, village, or city. Except
for Independence Day, Republic Day, and Gandhi Jayanthi (the birthday of Mahatma
Gandhi) all festivals in India are religious festivals. Compared to other religions,
Christians celebrate only a few major religious festivals in India, such as Christmas
and Easter. Although as part of its commercialization Christmas is being celebrated
in some cities by owners of shopping malls and business centers, yet that is not being
done in the houses of people of other faiths. Even though a few Christian families
might invite their intimate friends and neighbors who belong to other religions, mostreligious festivals for Christians in India remain family affairs.
Finally, the Church needs to make a conscious effort not to alienate its followers
from the local culture ― making them appear as foreigners in their own land ―by accelerating its efforts at indigenization and inculturation without sacrificing
fundamental Gospel values. The Church could consider restarting some of theindigenous practices that the early St. Thomas Christians followed, but which were─ 25 ─

Thomas Varkey

banned by the Synod of Diamper (Zacharia, 1994, p. 120). Until the Synod of Diamper,
St. Thomas Christians used to follow the rituals of the Brahmins at the birth of achild, namely feeding the newborn child with a paste of honey and powdered gold,
and wishing the child prosperity. Another practice was related to the child’s naming.
Besides the baptismal name, every child was given a pet name which was quite
indigenous, and very often a Hindu name (Zacharia, 1994, p. 120). A third amongsuch practices was related to the initiation of children into the writing of the alphabet.
The initiation ceremony was led by a Hindu teacher who would write the alphabetson the tongues of the children with an instrument of gold, and then make the children
write the letters with their index ﬁngers either on a palm leaf (Thaliyola) or in rice.
These and many other local customs that are not in contradiction with Gospel values
and Church teachings could be permitted to continue today among the Christians in
Kerala. Following the customs and practices of the land would give the Church a local
color and identity, and smoothen the dialogue of life with the members of other local
communities.
In general, Indian society, probably because of the inﬂuence of the Hindu caste
system, has an exclusivist nature to it. In most families, all members belong to thesame caste (though not in certain religious communities), and follow the same religion
as well. In this sort of social situation, more intimate forms of dialogue of life as
mentioned above are difficult to carry out. The Catholic Church which in principle
is open to all religions and is also a champion of interreligious dialogue, could play
an exemplary role in encouraging its followers to cordially embrace and support
members of their family who have converted to other religious faiths or who havemarried persons of other religions, and open their doors to people of other faiths whencelebrating religious festivals. The Church in Indian today could consider these issues
as they search for new ways of witnessing their faith and serving Indian society,amidst increasing hostility and persecution of religious minorities.

Importance of dialogue of life
Dialogue of life, as an effective tool for peaceful co-existence in our pluralistic
Indian society, needs much attention. In the above-mentioned forms of dialogueof life, people relate to each other first and foremost as blood relatives and family
members, and not as members of a religion. Religion plays a less important role insuch interactions. Family ties between people of different religious faiths enable
them to focus more on the shared elements that bind them together, and to accept the─ 26 ─

Peaceful Co-existence in Multi-religious India through Interreligious Dialogue: The Mode of being
the Church in India today with Special Reference to‘Dialogue of Life’differences more easily. Thus, peaceful co-existence in a pluralistic society could moreeasily be achieved through fraternal relationships built among ordinary followersof different religions through dialogue of life, than through the mutual consensus
reached by religious leaders in formal interreligious dialogue. Similarly, whilereligious leaders struggle at interreligious meetings to discover elements of universal
relevance in the other’s religion, ordinary followers of different religions learn toappreciate each other’s religions rather easily through the dialogue of life, which takes
place in their daily lives. There is much to be learned for all people from Christiancharity and service to the poor, Buddhist eco-spirituality, and the paciﬁsm of certain
indigenous communities. Moreover, when the question of unequivocal salvation of thefollowers of other religions leads religious leaders into a deadlock in their discussion,
ordinary followers of religions are more likely to believe that their neighbors would
also be saved due to the exemplary life they lead, even though they may belong to adifferent religion.
There are additional reasons why the Church in India must recognize theimportance and incorporate the dialogue of life. First, the documents of Second
Vatican Council acknowledge respecting the dignity of other religious beliefs and theyurge the universal Church to encourage the faithful to appreciate and collaborate
with people of other faiths. His Holiness Pope Paul VI, too, exhorted the Church
to engage in dialogue with other faiths, when he said, “wherever men are trying tounderstand themselves, and the world, we can communicate with them” (Trouve,

1999, p. 390). Acknowledging the other would enrich the Church’s self-understanding
as well as mutual understanding between itself and other faiths (Samwini, 2011, p.

3) Nostra Aetate7 states, “A renewal of the Church’s consciousness of itself and of its
mission could not help but lead to a reevaluation of its relationship with those who do
not profess faith in Jesus” (Trouve, 1999, p. 389). Hence, both the Church’s documents
and its leaders have made it clear that dialogue with other faiths is not merely an
option, but the mission of the Church today.
Another challenge that confronts India and reinforces the need for dialogue oflife, is the fact of the multitude of religious, ethnic, and tribal communities, as wellas the problems and challenges they cause. As shown in the 2011 census, there are104.28 million tribal people in India, belonging to hundreds of tribes, each with its

7.

Nostra Aetate is a document of the Catholic Church on its relation to non-Christian religions proclaimed byPope Paul VI on October 28, 1965.

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Thomas Varkey

own unique language and culture. So far, neither any single religion nor politicalparty has been able to bring all these diverse groups under a single umbrella. Failure
to settle longstanding rivalry between communities leads to repeated communal
violence and religious riots in certain parts of the country. Exclusivist tendencies areunacceptable and contradictory to every community’s desire for physical and economic
cooperation and development, in modern pluralistic India. Moreover, it would beunbecoming of religious communities to be indifferent to local and global movements
towards unity and peaceful co-existence, through not engaging in common projects
that concern the whole of humanity.

Conclusion
Dialogue of life is one of the most effective forms of interreligious dialogue, and its
practice results in an increased mutual understanding and tolerance towards others,
which makes a peaceful co-existence not only possible, but likely. A community thatpractices dialogue of life will ﬁnd itself in a better position to deal with the challenges
of communal and religious riots, than a community that is dialogically isolated fromothers. We have seen, in India, communities protecting members of rival communities
during times of communal violence. As Samwini (2011, p. 4) observes, a communitythat practices dialogue of life is better equipped to detect signals of violence andrespond more quickly and settle the issues through mediation, before they escalate
into uncontrollable proportions. Because there are inherent elements in each religion,such as theology, ethical values, symbols, dress codes and so on that naturally divide
people, conscious efforts must be taken to learn to accept differences. Engaging ininterreligious dialogue with people of other faiths is not only a need of the Church
in India, but a mission the universal Church has entrusted it with. For Christians
to be worthy of their vocation as children of God they should work to establish peaceon earth, as is echoed in Mathew 5: 9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will becalled children of God.”

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