FROM RURAL MISSION FIELD TO RAILWAY CHAPLAINCY

The genesis of Sacred Heart Church, Kharagpur dates back to 1901, when Fr. Hipp, a professor of St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta, was appointed to take in charge of the growing Railway centre of Kharagpur, a junction of the two main lines running between Calcutta and Madras and Calcutta and Bombay. On 21^ST December of the same year Fr. Hipp build a presbytery which was made on mortar and brick that consisted of a large room which served as a chapel to a swelling congregation. A small leap resulted in a rapid growth of parishioners that counted Europeans, Anglo-Indian, Tamilians and Telegus, this resulted the transfer of Bengal Nagpur Railway workshops from Nagpur, and the year was 1903. On 15^th December 1904, Fr. Louis Haghenbeek, the newly Parish Priest requested Fr. Van Severen who at that time resided at Jualbhanga took care of the growing village communities of Jhargram, Bhangamora and Midnapore to join him as an assistant.

This well-nigh desertion of a village mission field saw Fr. Leopold Knockaert taking the initiative in a mass movement comprising of Santal, Mahilis, Haris and other half of Hindu Adivasis which reached the 2000 mark. This resulted in the negligence of the Bengali communities of the 24 Parganas while a large number of Christians in Chotanagpur benefited by absorbing the major part of the resources of the Bengal mission, in men and money.

In 1893, the deteriorating health prevented Fr. Knockaert to continue his mission of Jhargram and left to Purnea where he gradually recovered. Here he started another mission among Santals in North Bengal which concentrated around Majlispur and became the basis from which Fr. De Bono; a Maltese Jesuit started the presently flourishing Santal Mission. But it was not long when the successors of Fr. Knockaert, Frs. Lhermite and Van Severen, for some reasons had to discontinue the movement which he initiated. On 1897 in Jualbhanga due to prolong sickness Fr. Leopold Knockaert breathed his last, it was like the beginning faced its last.

Back in this small village Kharagpur, Fr.Van Severen along with Fr. Haghenbeek pioneered in the Ranchi mission field under Fr. Lievens at the time of the great “conquests”. The trio worked for several years before leaving to Midnapore. Fr. Haghenbeek was well versed in administrative abilities which he made a good use of it when he was made Rector of Manresa House, Ranchi and from here he carried his ability to Kharagpur where he spent rest of his life. In this small sleepy village of Kharagpur Fr. Haghenbeek focused his interest on the Anglo-Indian community and building of the present Church. For the construction of the worship place B.N.R arranged an architect-engineer and the work made its way on 29^th April 1916, and by 24^th March 1918, Mgr. Brice Meuleman, Archbishop of Calcutta, blessed the new church, dedicated to the Sacred Heart. This effort however told on the health of Fr. Haghenbeek and by the end of 1919 he had to leave his beloved Kharagpur for Calcutta where he died on 21^st November 1920.

By now this small sleepy village known as Kharagpur made itself the center of attraction and was divided into two corners. To the South, the higher ranking, Managers and other functionaries of Officer’s rank, lived in the planned garden city, its six avenues and ten streets. The chief Mechanical Engineer held the highest post, while the other higher ranks were Englishmen, among them the Mail Drivers till the independence had to be Englishmen. Others were Anglo-Indians, who were Catholics in number.

The other half was living in the North side of the town that consisted workers, firemen and jacks on the line, employees of the Workshops, divided in 9 Types according to rank. Anglo-Indians and Goans were met with in Types 7, 8 and 9 while the rest were Indians mainly Tamilians and Telegus. This division saw a gradual rise of the Catholics and by the 20s they crossed the thousand mark barricade. Kharagpur was no more a village, by now it became a known destination, the Parish Priest and his assistants were enjoying privileges under the B.N.R administration such as a 1^st Class Railway pass from Calcutta to Khurda Rd and Chakradharpur, with a 3^rd Class Pass for the catechist and a permit for a cycle. The typical “Railway Chaplain” mentality grown on them memorizing the train timings and used to call the Mails, Express and passenger trains by their numbers, ‘one up’, ‘two down’, ‘three up’, ‘four down’. The arrival of the Mail was commented upon at the breakfast table, especially the Puri Express (driven by an Anglo-Indian. Catholic) who made himself known by the way he blew his whistle.

Not all Parish Priest had the same approach one such was Fr. Camille Limbourg, the founder of St. Anthony’s Calcutta who was an outstanding exception. He was the professor of History at St. Xavier’s; an aging man who was made the Parish Priest of Kharagpur in the mid twenties. He entrusted the European and Anglo-Indians congregation of the 6 Avenues and 10 streets to his assistant and made himself available among the Madrassis of the Types. He acquired from the Railway a plot of land where he constructed a large church, dedicated to St. Antony.

Fr. Limbourg who was slowing down by age made a unique mechanism, a tricycle which he used it to travel a distant of 2 miles every morning. But with his age growing, his health slowed him and he found the tricycle as a mountain to push with his aging legs. He then made a quick adjustment by arranging a bullock cart pulled by two bullocks has his mode of transportation.

It was not a strange experience on the bullock cart as it was people’s first choice of transportation in those days. Fr. Limbourg used to enjoy his transport by lying on it with the requisite topee covering his head while his long beard danced with the tune of the breeze. His boots were long enough almost touching the bullock’s tails. The animals were not always obedient, but soon became part of ‘Limbo’s ‘legend. One morning the bullocks stopped stubbornly in the middle of the line and the whistle of the Puri Express was announcing its arrival. The animals were beaten profusely to move out of the tracks but the bullocks were too adamant to move an inch this resulted for the Pune Expres to stop.

A predecessor of Fr. Limbourg, Fr. George Verloove, in the early twenties had re-discovered the Christians of Jhargram, Bhangamora, Midnapore and Balichak which survived unmitigated negligence at the hands of the railway chaplains, much of it due to the care of an outstanding Catechist, Gregory Gour, who died in 1930. Unfortunately for the Christians, Fr. Verloove shifted to Jamshedpur where he built St. Mary’s Church, in the north road which is a replica of the Sacred Heart Church of Kharagpur.