Sister was a quiet, soft-spoken, gentle soul, with nerves of finely tempered steel. She was not like a principal at all: Slightly built and almost ethereal. She would glide down our school corridors in her spotless white habit to stand silently outside a noisy classroom until the chattering died down. No admonitions were necessary. We were simply given the space to examine our own behaviour, and correct it.
Ours was a secular, democratic school. We elected our head girl and house captains by secret ballot.Both students and teachers could take their complaints to the principal’s office and be heard with equal fairness. She would rebuke us for our impertinence, then discreetly call in the teacher and encourage her to review her approach. Back then, the morning prayer was followed by the national anthem.On Fridays, while the Catholic girls went for choir, the rest of us were taught bhajans and regaled with stories of Lord Krishna. In our class of 40 girls, barely a fifth were Catholic; the rest mostly Hindu, with some Muslims, and a couple of Parsis. By serving you, we are serving him, the nuns used to say.
For Sister, that unswerving faith was put to the test last Sabbath.
Who would rape a 71-year-old nun? And why? The answers are as disturbing as the questions. Rape in this country has become so frighteningly banal that girls in short skirts and an elderly nun wearing a cross are equal targets: Both, it seems, violate our neo-Vedantic sensibilities. Perhaps this also explains the official catato nia. Following the rape, not a single union minister condemned the incident, until growing public ire required a response. Worse, this cowardly crime is the latest in a series of attacks on Christian institutions in our country. This is ironic because while Catholics constitute barely two per cent of our population, we have over 14,539 Catholic schools and colleges, second only to government-run institutions. And in towns and villages across India, a convent education is still the most coveted. Maybe it’s time for our Sisters to stop being taken for granted.
Maybe it’s time for every Catholic school, college and hospital in the country to protest against this senseless bigotry by closing down indefinitely; or at least until the powers that be wake up and find they have nowhere better to educate their children. Maybe it’s time to let India acknowledge her debt to the countless nuns and priests who work selflessly to offer education, healthcare and social services where the Government has failed for over 70 years.
But Sister, of course, won’t hear of it. Forgive them, she pleads for her assaulters; they know not what they do. Christianity in India is alive and well.
Written by Farah Baria
Image courtesy: BCCL
More On >> Work & Life
