NEWS-AP: India-Christmas

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NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Bittoo Kapoor, an accountant and devout
Hindu, never starts her day without lighting an incense stick and
offering prayers to her favorite Hindu deity.

But come December, Kapoor begins planning for Christmas -- buying
presents, baking cakes and planning parties.

"It doesn't matter if I'm a Hindu. Christmas stands for love,
affection, sharing, renewing family bonds. It's a festival for
everyone," Kapoor said as she shopped for tree decorations at New
Delhi's upscale Ansal Plaza mall.

In predominantly Hindu India, a rise in militant Hindu nationalism has
been matched by a growing enthusiasm for celebrating Christmas with
all the trimmings.

Equally surprising, perhaps, is that Hindu militants, who in recent
years have taken to opposing Christian missionaries and the church,
don't seem to bothered by the growing popularity of Christmas.

Not surprisingly, however, are the many echoes of complaints heard in
the West about Christmas becoming commercialized.

"The world over, the profound message of social justice symbolized by
the birth of Jesus Christ is being overtaken by consumerism. And that
is what you're getting to see here as well," Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu
theologian and social activist, said Friday.

As satellite television and free markets have opened India to outside
influences, the Christmas culture has rushed in.

With the approach of Bada Din, or "big day" as Christmas is called in
the Hindu language, shops fill with Christmas decorations, shiny
silver bells, stars and twinkling lights.

Shopworkers dress up in Santa costumes and beards, ringing bells to
draw in shoppers. Flower shops do brisk business with Christmas trees,
both real and fake, while perpetual Christmas favorites such as
"Jingle Bells" ring out in elevators and telephones.

"Every year the demand for trees goes up. Earlier, I'd get real pine
trees from the Himalayan foothills. Now we get these real-looking
trees from China," said Suresh Gupta, pointing to the neat row of
collapsible plastic trees outside his shop.

"Christmas, for me, is a festival like any Hindu festival. I do want
my son to get to know other traditions," said Kitty Tawakley, a New
Delhi resident, balancing armloads of Christmas gifts at the end of a
daylong shopping spree.

The popularity of Christmas does not extend to the religious themes
associated with the festival. It's only Christians who attend midnight
church services on Christmas Eve and nativity scenes can be seen only
in Christian institutions and churches.

Agnivesh, the theologian, doesn't think the rise of Christmas suggests
greater openness or tolerance. He ascribes it to the rise of the
Indian middle class.

"These very people will be out on the street tomorrow, forcing the
slogan of Hindutva (Hindu-ness) on us," he said.

Christians account for only 2.4 percent of India's 1 billion
population. Christians are the majority only in Nagaland and Mizoram,
two small states in India's remote northeast. Christians are a third
of the population in the southern states of Kerala and Goa.

Most Hindus dismiss apprehensions about nationalism by pointing to
India's centuries-old diversity of religions and sects, and the fact
that India has been officially and constitutionally secular since
gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

"Celebrating Christmas doesn't reduce my faith in Hinduism. If
anything, it makes us more generous, more loving to each other. That's
what I want my children to learn," Kapoor said.

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Frederick Noronha Journalist
Ph 832.2409490 or 2409783
Saligao 403511 Goa India
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