Indian Christmas Edited by Jerry Pinto and Madhulika Liddle. Speaking Tiger. Pages 243. Rs 699
Book Title: Indian Christmas
Author: Jerry Pinto and Madhulika Liddle
Renu Sud Sinha
India is fond of its festivals, no matter the faith or the land of their origin. And the people in this multicultural land have been discerning enough to indigenise the accompanying traditions. As Madhulika Liddle, one of the editors of the anthology ‘Indian Christmas: Essays, Memories, Hymns’, writes: “Christianity may have come to India by the way of missionaries from Europe or America; we adopted the faith but reserved for ourselves the right to decide how’d we celebrate its festivals.”
The anthology, edited by Liddle along with Jerry Pinto, traverses rural and urban India and gleans from its nooks and crannies how natives have adapted all aspects of the festivities with appropriate desi twists. From the first Christmas cake baked in 1883 at a Kerala bakery — that used a local brew for fermentation — to the Allahabadi version that makes use of petha and ghee, to the Christmas trees that could be of sal or mango or the decorations of rangoli and kolams and carols sung in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil or even Munda, Khariya and Mizo to the beats of dhol — Bada Din is as much an Indian festival as Diwali, Holi, Eid, Durga Puja or Ganesh Chaturthi.
Accounts are as varied as the sensibilities of the contributors that include award-winning writers such as Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Damodar Mauzo, Vivek Menezes, Elizabeth Kuruvilla and Jane Borges. There is also a domestic worker from Jharkhand, Mary Sushma Kindo.
From the Northeast to Kerala via Kolkata, Jharkhand, Bengaluru, through Kodai, Kottyam on to Goa, Mumbai and Delhi, Meerut and Chandigarh, sizeable Christian communities celebrate Christmas with their non-Christian friends and neighbours.
Of the 27 essays and two introductions by Pinto and Liddle, food dominates most. As Pinto writes, “Christmas was about Jesus, yes, and about the Nativity, yes, but it was also about the food.” Liddle writes about her family’s traditional snacks that included gujhiyas and cake ki roti, an after-product of Christmas cake. She also dispels myths about Indian Christians eating roast turkey or pudding with brandy sauce, as the feast comprises regional dishes from Kerala’s duck curry and appam to Goa’s sorpotel and vindaloo to North India’s biryanis and shami kebabs.
Shekhar and Veio Pou, a Naga writer, write about the festivities in their villages. Shekhar’s account strikes a sombre note, describing social differences of being mistaken for a Christian because of his community.
Pou writes about the celebrations that were held at his Manipur village. Every family chipped in for the community feast and no one felt the economic burden or divide.
Naga writer Easterine Kire writes about the ingenuity of her village women who used ammunition boxes to bake their Christmas cakes.
Manimugdha Sharma traces the history of Christianity in India, recalling the pluralistic traditions of Christmas celebrations in the Mughal court in Lahore in 1597. His essay cautions about today’s ‘virulent politics of hate’ and the need to reclaim our pluralism.
The anthology also includes translated poems by Rabindranath Tagore on Jesus’ birth in Bengali and English. There are Punjabi carols or tappe-boliyan translated by Nirupama Dutt, “Ik chamkeya tara ae…” Jim Reeves’ songs appear in almost every account but only as a passing reference. Readers could have done with more details.
There are Mughal miniatures as well as paintings by contemporary Indian artists depicting Mary in sarees, wearing anklets or nose pin.
From Kolkata celebrations in Bow Barracks to the East Indian community’s celebrations in Mumbai’s Bandra; from hawkers selling Santa caps at traffic signals in Chandigarh to a Christmas wedding in Kottayam, the book brings together the many ways India celebrates Christmas.
