A Very Indian Christmas - Edited by Jerry Pinto & Madhulika Liddle - ★★★.¾

EDITORS: Jerry Pinto & Madhulika Liddle

GENRE: Essay Anthology

PUBLICATION DATE: September 10, 2024

RATING: 3.65 stars.

In a Nutshell: An essay collection containing various memories and accounts of Christmas celebrations in India. Writers from diverse backgrounds, stories from across the country, celebrations from varied financial and cultural strata. The essays themselves are a mixed bag, but on the whole it offers a good glimpse of that strange medley of humans known as “Indian Christians” and how they celebrate this special day.

As an Indian Christian, I have often been at the receiving end of befuddling reactions from friends, acquaintances, and colleagues throughout my life. Astonishment on learning that I watch Bollywood movies and know plenty of Hindi songs, shock that I am a teetotaller (“I thought all Christians drink!”), suspicion that I have “converted” to Christianity after marriage ('Coz my name ain’t a “Catholic” name!), confusion that I wear sarees and salwar-kurtas more often than I wear dresses (“Why do you go to church in Indian wear?”) From “You don't sound/look Christian” to “You don't behave like a Christian”, I have heard it all. But the one that hurt the most was one colleague announcing, “You seem more Indian than Christian!” All of this makes me wonder if anyone really knows this group of people who are called "Indian Christians." I can understand outsiders not knowing about Christians in India, but when even fellow citizens question us, it makes me feel like a misfit. An outsider. An anomaly.

That's why I HAD to get this book! Non-Indians think we aren't Christian enough, and non-Christian Indians think we aren't Indian enough. If this book could throw some light on at least a part of what Christianity in India entails, and educate people on how we are as Indian as we are Christian, it would serve its purpose.

Christians are just about 2.3% of India's population, but in a country with upwards of 1.4 billion people, the actual number turns out to be quite large: 28 million citizens. Like every other religion in India, Indian Christianity has no standardised version. There are many subsets in this category, with distinctness not just in denomination but also in the approach to faith and festivals. But one thing that is common to most of us is that we have incorporated many traditional Indian (usually but not necessarily Hindu) rituals and practices into our celebrations. As writer-editor Madhulika Liddle puts it: "This is India... a land where, instead of wholesale and mindless importing of Christmas ideas, we've been discerning. Where we bring in all our favourite (and familiar) ideas of what a celebration should be and fit them together into a fiesta all our own."

This essay collection was first published in India in 2022 under the title "Indian Christmas: Essays, Memories, Hymns". This latest edition, published in the USA in September 2024, has been slightly modified and expanded to include additional pieces by Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Khushwant Singh, and Aravind Adiga. (Don’t get too excited about this: two of these four new entries are just excerpts from already-published novels.)

This collection contains twenty essays, three excerpts, two poems, and one prayer song. (The caption for the song mentions that it has been arranged for choir, but there's no clue of where to find the sheet music. I'd have loved to try that bilingual carol with my choir.) The contributors, not all of whom are authors, come from various parts of the country and from various class backgrounds (elites as well as tribals well-represented) and Christian denominations. Some of the writers are non-Catholic, with their essays demonstrating the erstwhile pluralistic attitude of the country.

Christmas in India, in general, has “considerably less glitter and a lot more joie de vivre” as compared to Christmas in the Western countries. Many of the essays contain the writers’ personal memories of Christmas. Whether celebrated in their family or not, each of them has at least a few nostalgic anecdotes about family get-togethers, community celebrations in the neighbourhood, and Christmas food, especially the scrumptious lunches and the Indo-western festive sweets. As you might guess, many of the essays made me hungry! Anupama Raju’s essay contains a yummy-sounding recipe for Pork Vindalee, which I am definitely going to try. I wish some more recipes had been included.

Did the book put me in the right mood for Christmas? Not really! Because I was already in a Christmassy mood. What this book did is to make me appreciate the beauty and diversity of my country, and of the way in which my fellow Indian Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus differently across the nation.

How effective will this book be for Westerners? In all honesty, I doubt they will perceive it the same way I did. It was easier for me to picture the components of the ‘kuswar’ such as dodol, nevrio, rose cookies, perad, and many more. I could also visualise the locations and the people without difficulty. Without this clear imagery in your mind, all you would be doing is reading some “strange”-sounding words about some “funny-sounding” locations. Most of the essays would work better for Indians, regardless of religion.

I read the US edition, with the below cover art.

This looks so lacklustre and boring that I have posted my review against the cover of the Indian edition. It is so much more desi and Christmassy! I am also unhappy with the tagline of the US edition: “The Greatest Indian Holiday Stories of All Time.” This makes the book sound like a fictional story collection, which it absolutely isn’t. And a final complaint regarding another edition-related variation: The Indian edition includes actual photographs. Why are photos missing from the US version? I hope this is only because I had the ARC, though I see no provision for the insertion of photographs.

As always, I rated every essay individually. I didn’t rate the excerpts and the poems/hymns as the former would be inaccurate and the latter, beyond my interest. Of the twenty essays, a majority rated around the midway mark, but a few really moved me. Here are my favourites with 4+ stars.

🎄 Unto All of Us a Child is Born - Jerry Pinto: Fellow Mumbaikar Jerry Pinto's essay resonated with me every step of the way. It is written in his trademark tongue-in-cheek humour covering the whole story of the birth of Jesus The only point on which I firmly disagree with him is that rose cookies (‘kokisan’ as we call them in Konkani) aren't plate fillers; I love them! - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎄 Christmas in Many Flavours - Madhulika Liddle: Isn’t it a good sign when both the editors of this book made it to my favourites? Liddle’s essay touched my heart (and stomach) so much! It brought out the beauty and the variety of an "Indian" Christmas. I would have rated it higher had it not seemed so much like a Wiki entry at times with multiple lengthy lists. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎄 Cake ki Roti at Dua Ka Ghar - Madhulika Liddle: Another winner by the co-editor. I loved the content, but disliked the randomness of the narrative. A bit of structure would have made this an easy five star for me, given how much its points connected with me, especially the one about the distorted idea that non-Christian Indians have about us Christian Indians. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎄 I'm Dreaming of a Goan Christmas - Vivek Menezes: A beautiful essay touching upon how truly multicultural the Indian community is, and how the communal elements are threatening this harmony across religions. Poignant and supported by historical data. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🎄 In Search of an East Indian Christmas in Mumbai - Deborah Rosario: The perfect mixture of customs, information, nostalgia, and insight. If even half of the essays had been this good, this book would have crossed over a 4.5 stars average. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎄 Did Your First Christmas Cake Come Out of an Ammunition Box Too? - Easterine Kire: Loved this because it made me aware of a practice I had never heard about. A perfect representation of the innovative Indian “jugaad”. I cut half a star only because it didn't tell me WHERE this happened! - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🎄 A Village Christmas - Damodar Mauzo: Konkani is my ‘mother tongue’, the language of my parents and the language in which I speak to my kids. But as it is one of the less-spoken languages in India, there are very few Konkani writers who hit the big league in regional fiction. As such, this Jnanpith Award-winning Konkani writer (The Jnanpith Award is India's highest literary honour) has been on my reading radar since a long time. My first experience of Damodar Mauzo’s writing showed me why he is so acclaimed. There’s such a down-to-earth beauty and passion in his words! This essay, translated to English by Jerry Pinto, is a nostalgic account of a harmonious celebration of all festivals in a Goan village, and contains an important message for all those who seek to divide us based on religion. This line gave me goosebumps: “When people call Majorda a Christian village, it angers me. Does a village have a religion? Can a village have a religion?” A easy five-star, even if it weren’t for my Konkani bias. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎄 How India's Pluralistic Past Shows the Way Forward - Manimugdha S. Sharma: This will be an eye-opening write-up to many who believe the Bollywood and political version of Indian Christianity. (Contrary to common misconception, Christianity came here not with the colonial powers but through Apostle Thomas – aka “Doubting Thomas” – in 52 CE.) Loved the history and the focus on our historical unity across religions. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

All in all, while I do wish that this had averaged higher for me, I still appreciate the richness and diversity of this one-of-a-kind collection. It was a treat to find an Indian book that made me feel seen and heard.

Recommended to Indian Christians that they might see a reflection of themselves in some of the essays here, and to Non-Christian Indians that they might learn more about their fellow citizens. I don’t know whether to recommend this to the average US reader, but if you are open-minded about learning more about Christianity in India, why not?

3.65 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the essay entries of this book.

My thanks to New Vessel Press for providing the DRC of “A Very Indian Christmas” via Edelweiss+. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A Merry Christmas to one and all of my friends! Here’s to love, peace, and unity in India and throughout the world! 💖