Missionaries, Missions and Education in Bangladesh: The Holy Cross Congregation, 1947-2016

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Thurseday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Exploring life pathways in education in South Asia

Proposal

The Congregation of Holy Cross, a Catholic religious order, has been working on evangelization and education in Bangladesh for more than one hundred sixty years. They have established well reputed schools, colleges, and a university. Their educational mission is apostolic in nature and one of the vital components of evangelization. However, over the years particularly the period from 1947 to 2016, there have been many changes – internal and external – to Holy Cross itself and the socio-political and educational context of Bangladesh. Thus, the research addressed how the educational missions of Holy Cross responded to the changes, within Holy Cross and Catholic theology of mission amidst the political, social, educational changes in Bangladesh over the last sixty years (1947-2016). It also examined how the changes have shaped their educational missions in Bangladesh.

This study took place in a historical context that is interpretive histories. Moreover, the study was conducted following the historical case (multiple cases) study method. This study was also conducted from the framework of post-colonial historical writings. The postcolonial historical writing gained its momentum because of the claim that history has been written by colonial and imperial intellectuals and of dominant nations for their own greater purposes. The history had been written in order to validate their ideas and to justify their colonialism and imperialism (Ashcroft et al., 1995; Southgate, 1996). Therefore, there is a need to re-write history from a postcolonial perspective. However, the same question can be raised, that is, from what perspective do we see the world? It can be said that re-writing history from post-colonial perspective that is from the ‘others’, does not necessarily represent the whole picture of the world (Southgate, 1996). However, it can at least present other possibilities and alternatives views which can be viewed as complementary and opening the other perspectives.

The proposed research was based primarily on examination of written documents – primary and secondary – and field work involving oral history interviews of Holy Cross personnel, both local and foreign, who are/were involved either in the teaching or administration of the educational institutions selected for case studies. Eighteen participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide during the period from November 2015 to March 2016. The interviews were then transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was employed to analysis the data.

The study found that Holy Cross education had gone through significant changes because of the political and educational shifts in Bangladesh over the period. To sustain and, at the same time, flourish in a dominant Bangladeshi Muslim society, the nature, form, structure, and policy of Holy Cross education had been reshaped from time to time. The study showed that with regards to education policies and strategies, Holy Cross education had a different approach from the government. This had resulted in a tension between the Congregation of Holy Cross and the government over the admission policy of its schools and colleges in recent years. The study illustrates that they are quite successful in missions of - “raising up native clergies”- and establishing a local church. The paper argues that they had distinctive educational aims as part of an elite education in both English and Bengali medium, and through primary and secondary education in the villages. While the former was primarily motivated by the idea of - “diffusion of Christian ideals”- and the latter aimed at empowering the converted Catholics.

The present research would make contributions towards the understanding of the educational mission of Holy Cross in Bangladesh. The research will elaborate an idea how the educational mission of the Congregation of Holy Cross evolved against the backdrop of the changes over the last sixty years. The present research seeks to fill the knowledge gap in the field of missionary education in Bangladesh. Moreover, this research was conducted from the perspective of post-colonial historical writings; therefore, it will give a local voice in it, which was missing in the earlier writings. Since Holy Cross is a Catholic religious congregation, thus the study also analyzed the Vatican’s documents on education to seeing how they also responded to the shift in the educational policy of the Vatican. Thus, the proposed research will contribute not only to the understanding of Holy Cross mission but also the education patterns of Bangladesh and the Vatican. Therefore, I believe the research project would contribute both in the field of comparative, international education, and history of education in Bangladesh.

Author

• Farid Md Shaikh, University of Hong Kong