Jyoti Art Ashram

Jyoti Ashram – http://www.jyotiartashram.blogspot.com

The Jyoti Ashram is located in a village called Silvepura. Silvepura is a christian village that was founded in 1872. How might there come to be such a thing as a "Christian Village", I asked Jyoti. Apparently, after a famine struck the region, the British offered to resettle some of the displaced and downtrodden people (mostly dalits, the sub-caste, I believe).They asked if the MEP, Missionaire Etrangere de Paris, the priests who were at the time were running the mission in Pondicherry, if they wanted to settle the people. The priests said yes, and people were able to move there and with support from the mission, for houses, land, etc. on the condition that they convert to Christianity. Being in a state of desperation, they agreed.

Many more Dalits have converted to Christianity and other religions since independence, hoping to change their social situation. While this has been possible for some of the lower castes, due to education provided by the church, it is neither immediate, nor universal, nor even broad reaching, as most Dalits are still in the same socio-economic positions, and for some it has become even worse, as they have lost the Government reservations (affirmative action positions) that would have been available to them otherwise.

Mr. Jyoti is an artist who settled in Silvepura in 1972. He was a close friend of Bede Griffiths (who married him to his wife Jane) and is, I would consider, one of the early post-Vatican II vanguards of inculturation work here in India. He has worked largely on an artistic front, designing churches and adorning them with art work, employing a Jungian methodology of symbols in order to draw from the many Indian traditions. He has extensively studied the tribals and their myths and symbols, many of which still inform his art work. Much of his art work, including his earlier mandala work, has been picked up by the German organization Missio who uses it in their fund-raising ventures in Germany. While claiming the right to be called Hindu, due to his own father's Hindu status, Jesus is his sadyuguru(sp?), and art is his "sanyasa"(sp?) or spiritual discipline. He has also recently used art as a vehicle for interreligious dialogue with other artists.

The art ashram was initially created by Jyoti as a place where people could explore the religious imagination. While it is Christ who animates his own spirituality, he does not see this as an exclusively christian space, and offers it up as an interreligious space itself. The Ashram space can house up to 12 visitors, and more often accommodates retreatants and people participating in art workshops that he or his children run. His wife, Jane, first came to India from England to study Mahatma Gandhi's ashram movement, and now runs an alternative school on site, which seeks the help Dalit children overcome their own internalized sense of inability, and to flourish as students and human beings.

While Jyoti's work has had a broad appeal abroad, here in India, there has been a diminishing interest since an initial flourish after Vatican II in Christian art work that strays from the norms set by European missionaries from the 1500's on. Christ at the door, by that famous English painter (I've never been good with names), would still be preferred to local art. Paintings and prints are often of a noticeably Caucasian Jesus. Jyoti themes cover the broad range of biblical themes, centralizing them into the various different Indian contexts. His work was rather impressive, though I was sad to learn that kitsch religious art has greater traction among the christian population at large.