6 - The Man and His Mission: A Critical Appraisal

Summary

A Different Kind of ‘Ghar Wapasi’

In March 2018, a significant event occurred in Ranchi that provided the much-needed inspiration to work on this biography. Father Camille Bulcke's remains were brought from Delhi's Nicholson Cemetery and reburied on the premises of Ranchi's St Xavier's College, located on Camille Bulcke Path, named after him. The reburial of his skeletal remains was announced as part of the tribal tradition of hadgadi, where the remains of ancestors are carried as a blessing and reburied as the tribes move from one village to another. The exhumation of dead bodies and remains is also a known practice among Catholics, especially for beatification and canonisation purposes. In several contexts and for various reasons, the family members of the dead can also make personal requests to the Church and local administration to allow them to rebury their loved ones elsewhere. It is not uncommon to witness the exhumation of remains of a family grave at various times when a new member is to be buried at the same site (Parashar 2018).

The Jesuit Society of Jharkhand worked closely with their Delhi counterparts and had to cross several bureaucratic hurdles to bring back the remains of Father Bulcke. They received help from Father Ranjit Tigga, the head of the Department of Tribal Studies at the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, who oversaw the digging of the grave in Delhi, the exhumation of the remains and the logistical arrangements to transport them to Ranchi, where the casket was received in a traditional tribal ceremonial welcome. In the past, another Belgian priest, Father Constant Lievens (1856–1893), known to have officially ‘converted’ a large number of Chhota Nagpur tribals to Catholicism, had his ashes transferred from Belgium and interred at St Mary's Cathedral in Ranchi in 1993. Efforts towards the canonisation of Father Lievens were ongoing, even as we were working on this manuscript.

Speakers at the reburial and commemoration event included Father Bulcke's close associates, noted littérateurs, former students and members of the Jesuit Society who reflected on his life and contributions – ranging from original commentaries on religious texts and high-quality translations to arguably the best English-to-Hindi shabdkosh (dictionary) still found in most Indian homes and offices.