THE GREAT HIJACK !
Let me caution you from the start
that the point of view I am making may seem to be a bit exaggerated. How we
view depends on where we stand. History can easily be coloured to strengthen
one’s argument. You may see me guilty of the same. You too have the freedom to quote
and defend your beliefs. The portion of history I like to dwell on and
interpret is the beginning stages of the
Salesian Province of Calcutta. If my interpretation of history is far-fetched
and has no elements of truth in it, I hope you can offer a different and
hopefully ‘true’ interpretation. Truth has nothing to fear, truth needs no
defense.
The first Salesian Community in
Calcutta was the COP ( Catholic Orphan Press) established in 1925. After
settling down in COP, Salesians expressed the desire to have a technical school
in Calcutta. Archbishop Perier not only encouraged the idea but also lent the fund
to buy the land. A Technical school in Calcutta for the Anglo Indian boys was a
desire close to his heart. In 1937 Fr Scruderi, the Provincial, wrote to the
Rector Major, stating that the industrial school at Lilluah is giving training
to the Anglo-Indian boys just as the technical school in Krishnagar is giving
training to the Bengali-speaking boys of Krishnagar. Both the schools at
Krishnagar and at Lilluah had its beginnings back in 1928 and were technical
schools meant for Catholic students.
Don Bosco Park Circus had it’s beginning, as Fr Lo Groi in his ‘History of Kolkata Province’ puts it,
through “mysterious working of Providence…” In 1952 Fr Doro Pampilio won first
prize of 50,000 pounds in the Irish Sweep Stake held in Dublin and the first
thought that came to the Salesians was to invest the amount for a “grand technical
school in Calcutta” and Fr Ziggiotti, the Rector Major, was fully in agreement with
them to have a “ great Salesian institution ( a technical school)” in Calcutta.
These premire institutions of the
Calcutta Province, Lilluah, Krishnagar, Park Circus, which began as technical
schools mainly for Catholic
students, over the years have been
gradually superceded by academic schools largely for non-Christian students.
It is true that some relics of the technical schools are still preserved but no
one can deny the focus, the involvement, and the activities of these communities are mainly focused on academic education.
Bandel aspirantate has a long
history. Aspirants have moved back and forth several times starting from 1942 from
Bandel to Sonada, Sonada to Siliguri, Siliguri to Sonada, and Sonada to Bandel.
To accommodate the great number of
aspirants a bigger aspirantate was built at Bandel in 1967. There were over 120
aspirants at one time in Bandel. I wonder if Don Bosco would be happy to see Our Lady’s House being converted
to Don Bosco School in 1979. The care
and energy that was given to the
nurturing of aspirants was shifted to the school. The beginnings of Don Bosco Siliguri too is
something similar. For better care of the aspirants who were in Sonada, a house
was built in 1962 in Siliguri. This house was taken over by the military and the
aspirants were shifted back to Sonada. In place of the house occupied by the
military the present place was bought for the training of apostolic boys. It was used
as an agricultural farm for some years. Again the pull of the academic schools was too strong to
resist and a school came up in 1973.
Both at Bandel and Siliguri, the original goal of formation was sacrificed for the academic goals.
Salesian College Sonada from 1938
was a citadel of Salesians formation. Many
pioneering missionaries, bishops, and provincials were formed at SCS. The dream of
the Province to have a separate novitiate, to give a serious Salesian
experience to the increasing number of novices,
was realized when Nazareth Bhavan
was started in 1981 in Siliguri. By then not only the school's academic lobby,
but also the higher education department too, had strong influence and
controlled the decision-making bodies of the province. The novitiate, before it
could really bloom and flourish, was occupied for the interests of higher
education. At Salesian College Sonada too, the formation goals were sacrificed
for higher educational goals. To cut the
long story short, Dhajea, the place where novices were shifted lies vacant, and the few novices
that survive, are sent to other provinces. The few students of Philosophy at SCS who had earlier seen their name, their
account, and their ground, being hijacked for the interests of higher education, are
made to depend more and more on educational institutions for their sustenance. How long this sort of arrangement will work
is to be seen. If we are to learn a lesson from history, it is this : the income generating institutions seem to
have their way and always win at the
expense of the Technical Schools, the Catholic
Boardings, the Aspirantates, and the Formation Houses.
There is another serious process unfolding
today. We are too close to it to realize its impact. The Santhal missions were
a bright spot in the history of Calcutta province after we wrapped up our mission to the English-speaking Catholics at COP and at Lilluah. In the Santhal missions, the Parish Priests
had started large boardings in simple settings to accommodate the scattered
Catholic students and to give them an education by sending them to nearby schools. The Parish priests were in
control of these Catholic boardings and it served the needs of the parish. Today
big English medium schools are being built by the side of these boardings, if
not replacing the boardings, and as the number of students grow in these
schools, the number of Catholic children in the boardings are becoming fewer, and
the authority and control of the mission
is passing to the hands of the school
Principal and no more with the Parish Priests. Gradually the pastoral work, the Catholic
boarding, and the education of the
Catholics, will become an appendix if not a burden on the school. The Parish
Priest who decided in earlier days, will have to depend more and more on the ‘crumbs’
that fall from the master’s table. The space, the programmes, the finance will
be controlled and at the service of the school.
The parishes and mission centers
have not grown and flourished on par with schools especially when a mission
center and school are at close proximity and in the same campus. Instead, the
opposite seems to be true, as the schools increase, the number of Catholic
boardings decrease. As the numbers in
the school increase, the Catholic students
in the school decrease.
Again if history has a lesson to
teach us, it is this : these new institutions which are set up with
‘self-sufficiency’ as their goal will necessarily move towards the upper class.
The pull of money will be too much to
resist and the Santhal missions may well end up the next victims to the great
hijack drama that has been unfolding in our province over the last few decades.
Technical schools, Catholic Boardings, the Aspirantates, Mission Stations , and Formation Houses will be the captives and the
‘self-sufficient’ money-earning institutions, the hijackers.
My perspective may be limited and
narrow. But some of those who are in a position to know and have a larger perspective,
seem to agree with my views. In the last
report of the Extraordinary Visitor to our Province, signed and approved by the
Rector Major, the Visitor after observing how we have planned in the coming years to invest more than a
hundred crores for building new schools in the province and at same time more and more parish boardings are being closed down,
the Visitor concludes that
section with a question, “ What will Kolkata Province be known for after ten
years?” It is not in a positive sense he
has put that question to the province. In an honest answer to that question, we
may perhaps find our way for the future.
The concept of ‘self sufficiency’
which we are embracing more and more seem to be quite the opposite of what our
pioneers professed and practiced. They had
full trust in divine providence and providence did not fail them. History again
can teach us a lesson or two.
When the pioneers of our Province
came to COP, the first Salesian presence in Calcutta, they did not have the money to buy the
machineries in the press. The fund left by the Salvatorian Fathers for the
development of Assam mission which was with the Archbishop was used to buy the
machinery of the press. The pioneers
of Don Bosco Lilluah did not have the money to buy land and machines for
the technical school at Lilluah. The parish priest of Howrah Parish, a
Jesuit, lent them an interest-free loan.
The pioneers of Salesian College Sonada did not have the money to buy the
brewery at Gorabari, the Loreto sisters lent them the money. Don Bosco School
Park Circus was possible because of a Lottery won by Fr Doro Pompilio who invested the money to
buy the land. This is the story of the
pioneers of our province. It is a story of Divine Providence who never failed them.
Jesus told a parable about a man
who wanted to provide himself with self-sufficiency. A rich man worked hard, sowed good seeds, took care and
had a bumper crop. In his moment of good fortune, he said to himself, “What should I do? I have no place to store my crops… I will do
this, I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones, and there I will store
my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul: Soul you have ample goods laid up for many
years, relax, eat, drink, be merry. ” Lk. 12.17
Jesus concludes the parable by calling
this man a “fool”. Why? He worked hard,
he took steps from future uncertainties, one should call him a prudent, wise man. Why was he
called a fool? Look at the number of times the ‘I’ and ‘my’ are used in just two
verses. This is the danger with riches. The ‘I’ sickness increases with an increase in wealth. In his time of prosperity, he forgot that there was another
stakeholder, who had provided the soil, the rain, the sunshine, and the growth.
This is the real danger with those
who profess the ‘self-sufficiency’ mantra. Instead of looking up and thanking
the giver, they will tend to look at themselves
and see only ‘my barn’, ’my crop’ , ‘my
grain’, and ‘my goods’. Self-sufficiency
will find it increasingly difficult to
live with providence, faith, and God.
-
Fr T.V. George sdb
