- Gladson Jathanna
Twenty-five years ago, on 3rd December 1996, M.M. Thomas departed from us. But, as Ninan Koshy rightly said, MM still lives with us as a voice that helps us “in facing the challenges of authoritarianism and fascism today.”[1] While living under the control of one of the most overtly fascist regimes in Indian history, we must ask ourselves, what could be the most fitting way to remember the legacy of MM today? Writing a tribute, organizing a webinar, or bringing out yet another publication ‘in honor of MM’ may have some impact on reminding us of the important legacy that MM has left behind. However, what is more essential and the need of the hour is to relive the life that MM lived for. Twenty-five years after MM’s departure from us, I strongly believe, the best way to pay homage to him is to rededicate ourselves to be in the struggles of the victims of fascism by raising disturbing and unpleasant questions to the power and by daring to be heretics to the orthodoxy of fascism, casteism, patriarchy, clericalism and all kinds of authoritarianism both in the Church and in the wider society. The focus of this tribute is to remember and respond to MM’s consistent quarrel against all manifestations of fascism, identifying particularly two of them: state fascism and ecclesial fascism.
I have often wondered, given the plethora of literature that tries to appropriate MM in various life-situations beyond his own, what was the core-thrust of MM’s life and teachings? I remember, when I was interviewed for the position of Programme Secretary of the Student Christian Movement of India, the review panel asked me to name a theologian who inspired me most. Obviously, and without a second thought, I named MM. The panel, being impressed by my answer, asked me further to describe MM in few sentences. I don’t remember the exact words of my response which I did struggle to express as that was my first ever interview in English. All that I said was this: “MM was a revolutionary, a nonconformist, and an anarchist who was against any form of autocracy, including fascism within the Church and in the society. He chose to serve the Church beyond ordained ministry because he was critical about clerical dominance in the Church.” The panel seemed not to be very impressed by the way I looked at MM. One of the panelists could not resist telling me that it was a mistake to think of MM without referring to his theology of ‘salvation as humanization’! More than fifteen years out from that experience, I still strongly believe that MM’s theology of salvation as humanization cannot be (and should not be) differentiated from his critique of fascism and authoritarianism both in the Church and society.
MM, perhaps, is one of the rarest names at least in the Indian ecclesial and theological circle that has been quoted extensively by leaders and academicians to beautify their public talks and academic writings. Paradoxically, however, some of these leaders and academicians are the most overt and covert conformists whose loyalty to the fascist empire is beyond reproach. For MM, conformism was a sin. His faith-inspired responses to the Emergency in Indira Gandhi’s empire were the most powerful nonconformist reaction to the tyranny of his time.[2]
His nonconformist spirituality resisted and challenged the authoritarianism and fascism of his time. Seeing fascism at work in the Emergency, he vehemently challenged the ruling Congress party and urged them to uphold democracy. At the same time, he was equally critical about the then emerging Hindutva agenda of the RSS and its allies and named it fascist ideology, “because it seeks to build a Hindu rashtra for undivided Bharat, a state based on Hindu nationalism which would deny the fundamental rights of citizenship to non-Hindus and would reject not only secularism but also democracy and socialism.”[3] Remembering MM today in the context of a fascist plot of the BJP, visibly manifested in its tireless efforts to deny fundamental rights of citizenship to non-Hindus and demonstrated in state-sponsored violence against the ‘minority’ in the name of ghar-vapasi, CAA, anti-conversion bill and so on, should invite us to show the audacity to express our nonconformism to the fascist empire even to the point of death. Unfortunately, rather than showing nonconformist resistance to it, the Churches in India have been coopted by the fascist state. MM opposed such loyalty to the fascist empire shown by Christians in the face of Emergency. Even though he was much concerned about minority rights, he insisted that Christian minority rights should always be demanded as part of “civil liberties and democratic rights of all citizens.”
Remembering MM should also remind us to redeem the history and the present of the Church from its dominant clergy-centered narratives. As a student of people’s history, particularly of Christianity, I am always reminded of MM’s profound interrogation to the field of my study. He said: “What is real church history? It is not the history of its popes and archbishops--no, not at all. It is the history of people who filled with the vision of a redeemed Church, created strife and division within the church--it is the history of Luthers and Abraham Malpans--of its heretics excommunicated, of its infidels martyred, for causing revolution in the church. If we are to be worthy of that heritage let us make quarrels and more quarrels for the sake of its redemption.”[4] The audacity to quarrel, create strife and to cause revolution in the church not only by resisting the evil but also by recreating alternatives for a redeemed church is the long-lived legacy of MM. Our faith in a redeemed church should call us to embrace and celebrate such a legacy of audacity to quarrel for the wellbeing of the Church. Unfortunately, our clergy-centered administration of the Church is trained to maintain the status quo, decorum, conformity, loyalty and thus “peace” even at the cost of death, dehumanization, injustice and violence against the vulnerable. Strife, quarrel, divisions are always labelled as evil and heretical. It is in such a grave context that MM invites us to dare to be heretics, who have the audacity to cause revolution in the church through radical imaginations. This is why, perhaps, MM so consciously chose to serve the church outside the ordained ministry. As he once said, “Do you know why I have decided to serve the Church outside of ordained ministry? Every ordained minister is expected to maintain and in reality is maintaining order and peace in the parishes in the face of any amount of injustice, that may prevail there. And I want to quarrel, because that is the only effective way of serving the Church, the Church being what it is today.”[5] Celebrating the life of MM should invite and challenge us to dare to quarrel and show the audacity to be heretics for the redemption of the Church.
Let me conclude with a positive appraisal of the continued lived-legacy of MM that has been embodied at least by a remnant in such a time as this. Recently, a faithful remnant of the Mar Thoma Church in India, who were inspired by MM, showed the audacity to resist an illegitimate alliance between the ecclesial authority and the fascist regime of the Hindutva Parivar. They made a public statement naming such an alliance “unholy” and a “betrayal of Christian call and public witness.” I believe that it is very fitting to end this tribute with reciting from that profound statement, which lives the legacy of MM by showing the audacity to be heretics for the redemption of the Church:
"We reiterate our commitment to participate actively in the life of the…Church to flourish its redemption, renewal and reformation, exposing the sinful and unjust systems and practices that legitimise fascism, authoritarianism, casteism, patriarchy, Islamophobia and clericalism. We realise that we are at a Kairos moment in the history of the…Church, and it is our faith imperative to occupy the church to reclaim it from the worship of the ungods, and to dismantle the pyramids of systemic sin and evil."
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[1] Ninan Koshy, “Introduction (to the Second Edition),” in M.M. Thomas, Response to Tyranny, 2nd Edition (Tiruvalla: CSS, 2000), 7.
[2] MM’s responses to the Emergency, that he wrote between 1975 and 1977, were published in 1979 as a book with the title Response to Tyranny which saw a second edition in 2000 with a detailed and profound introduction by Ninan Koshy.
[3] M.M. Thomas, Response to Tyranny, 67.
[4] M.M. Thomas, Ideological Quest within Christian Commitment 1939-1954 (Bangalore/Madras: CISRS/CLS, 1983), 29.
[5] M.M. Thomas, Ideological Quest…, 30.
