FR. PREMANANDA SINGHA AND THE NEW MISSIONARY ERA

Before describing the new missionary era ushered in by Fr. Premananda Singha, here are a few words describing about the Anglo-Indian community who were the chief preoccupations of the Kharagpur Parish Priests and their Assistants. The Englishmen held the highest posts who were mostly Protestants, who behaved like gentlemen, somewhat distant and patronizing. Meanwhile, the Anglo-Indians who held the minor managerial posts such as Foremen, Express and Passenger Drivers were in majority. Catholics on the other hand were engaged in social get together inviting the clergy to their homes for birthday parties and house blessings. They were good church goers, generous in supporting their priests and of their loyalty there was no doubt.

Independence altered many things. Railway passes were abolished, and if Anglo-Indians became Mail Drivers and were still getting a priority on recruitment to apprenticeships, the European scale to pay-double of the ‘Indian’ was also abolished. Most Anglo-Indians who could afford it emigrated to U.K., Canada and Australia. Whereas the younger men stayed back and turned their backs on the Railways. The community had no strange behavior towards the church as long as they stuck to antiquated ‘privileges’ seats in the main nave, “English Mass” at the most convenient timings. In 1953, the parish Priest, Fr. Richir wrote for his personal notes that the Anglo-Indian community, after the departure of the British, held the highest positions in the Station, the Chief Mechanical Engineer, the Divisional Superintendent which triggered the presence of large families and their numbers of Anglo-Indians and Catholics and made up for those who have emigrated. Unfortunately for Fr. Richir these consoling features were temporary and the inevitable decline in prestige and numbers was not slow in showing the real state of affairs.

On the other hand the growth of the Santal Apostolate ushered in by Fr. A. Ernst SJ and especially Fr. Premananda Singha who became the central figure in the moment of conversions that spread from the zealous community that Olda had become. Soon there was a mass movement that shook the Southern Midnapore district in the mid seventies under Fr. Prem and his companions, Cyprian Monis, Owen D’Souza, Robert Richard D’Souza, Anthony Lobo and others with new stations at Kamarchowki, Kearchand, Baligheria and then Chamrusai with Frs. De Cocq and Ernst. Under the guardianship of Joachim Osta and Fr. Francis Gomes, Midnapore rose in importance. The affect of this rise was the birth of two Bengali-Medium High Schools, the friendly relationship with the district authorities, in such a way that the seat of deanery was transferred to Midnapore since 1975.

1947 A STRUGGLE FOR INDIA’S INDEPENDENCE

During the struggle for independence, church collections had been lavish, and Fr. Percy Sharpe a Parish Priest then had gathered enough funds to construct a comfortable bungalow that became the present presbytery of Kharagpur. In 1947 Fr. Sharpe was transferred to Dhanbad where he took over Fr. Dohet who was found dead of a heat stroke in his room, while Fr. J.B. Moyersoen replaced Fr. Percy Sharpe as the next Parish Priest of Kharagpur.

Fr. Moyersoen who was a former superior of the Calcutta Mission and visitor of India was a man with a vision. His soul was in Bengal where he brought in the Daughters of St. Ann to Midnapore where they stayed for over a month, instructing the people. Detail interest was taken in the village communities of Midnapore, Jhargram, Bhangamora, Balichak and the Indian Christians about 700 of them residing in Japatapur, Chota Tengra, Hijli and other localities south of the station. With all these efforts Fr. Moyersoen was made Tertian Master in Sitagarha and back came Fr. Theo Richir.

Fr. Richir with all his sincere dedication towards his parish brought back the golden era of the church. Sacred Heart Parish swelled with people coming from all around, which included people from Jhargram, Jualbhanga, Bhangamora, Midnapore and Balichak. The Church was also visited by Bishop Oscar Severin who came from Ranchi and was making his way to Andaman. Reaching early morning by Ranchi Express, Bishop Oscar Severin used to spend his morning in the parish and by late night he used to board the Madras Mail. Fr. Richir was a visionary who wanted to correct the flaws done by “pre-Lievens” missionaries who were on wrong tracks. In the 1860s and 70s the Capuchins of Northern India were the leading missionaries according to the priest. Their idea of bringing the Gospel to the adamant Hindus was to run orphanages and settle the orphans on large estates of Chuhari, Rampur, Latona in North Bihar and other similar zamindaris in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab etc.

The Capuchins imported “Daughters of the Cross” from Belgium and opened two orphanages, at Balasore and Chanibasa. Orphans were settled on two zamindaris, Krishna Chandrapur in Orissa and Jualbhanga cloe to Jhargram. The next year Fr. Richir was transferred to Asansol while Fr. Albert Ernst became the first Kharagpur Jesuit to leave the comforts of the Railway Chaplain’s life and settled in Midnapore. Here Fr. Ernst accepted to run for a group of local leaders a ‘not-doing-too well’ school. He made friends with the civil authorities and called in the “Daughters of St. Ann” to help him running a Bengali-medium Junior High School which eventually developed into the two present Bengali-medium Catholic High Schools of Midnapore.

RENNAISANCE OF THE MISSIONARY IN THE MID THIRTIES AND FORTIES

The year was 1933, when the Christians of this small village Kharagpur were waiting for Fr. Charles Vrithoff for an immediate interest in their problems. Shortly after his appointment as Assistant Parish Priest., he wrote in the Mission periodical ‘Our Field’;

“On Christmas 1933, I baptized three Santal children who were brought to me from Olda, a village some 24 miles south of Kharagpur. Last Christmas only men came from Olda excusing themselves for the absence of women as they had no bullock carts. After a long chat they disclosed how many years ago they had migrated from Jualbhanga to Olda. Alas! One day the whole Catholic community had made up their minds to cross over to the Baptists. But our friends, the two brothers Peter and Michael objected, ‘Let them become Baptists, we will not. We belong to the church of the beginning (the Adi mondoli, an expression so often heard in the 24 Parganas)

However Fr. Charles Vrithoff was a Railway Chaplain. Nowadays the church collections were handsome and Railway Chaplains hardly ever walked: they moved in their own car and travelled 1^st class on the Railway. He goes on, “Having heard that their padre was visiting them by car, I did the same. The road was bad, we got stuck. We walked and reached Olda to the great joy of our Catholics. After staying one hour we returned to Kharagpur”.

This was the golden era of Kharagpur in those days when the railway chaplains were enjoying from their ministry. On the other hand one man however realized that more time should be given to Olda. Fr. Alfred D’Hondt was appointed as assistant in 1938 and was put in charge of St. Anthony’s while he paid regular visits to Olda where he would spend the night and next morning.

The interest and regular visit of Alfred D’Hondt paid the effort and one family after another returned to the ‘Adi Mandali’ and by 1945 Olda became a fully Catholic Village. But in 1952, he was transferred to Sacred Heart Church, Dharamtolla Calcutta and Fr. Bonaventure D’Souza became the first Parish Priest of St. Anthony’s.

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.

EARLY YEARS OF SACRED HEART KHARAGPUR

A project of 1887 was undertaken by the enterprising Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) for transcontinental connection by laying the Nagpur Asansol line. The work ended on 1891 taking Chakradharpur a remote village to become a high ranking railway station, giving its first Chaplin, a Parish Priest from a nearby Bongaon name Fr. Mullender.

This was just a small taste of its success while major obstacles were on its way, one such was BNR, and it depended on East India Railway (EIR) which was its rival to reach Calcutta. BNR needed a personal gateway into Calcutta, to do so a new line was planned which had its beginning from Sini, passing south of Midnapore to reach Howrah. By now the BNR started to grow expanding its operations towards Orissa, finally joining with the state line that was built from Madras towards the North, along the coast. With this a small unknown village Kharagpur seeming a healthy place for residence comes into picture making it a runway towards the south.

This newly discovered village became center of attraction; in 1897 the Archbishop Mgr. Goethals made Kharagpur his closest mission station. On the other hand the village got its first Parish Priest Fr. Van Severen who visited 15 families of European and Anglo-Indians residing in Kharagpur. From 1901 Fr. Hipp who was teaching in St. Xavier’s became the Sunday Parish Priest of Kharagpur. SACRED HEART KHARAGPUR