It is 6:09, Friday night. I am waiting at Platform 1 here in Jalpaiguri. I am told the train will be three hours late. The early evening is humid and sticky, and the mosquitoes have already launched out on their mission to annoy and suck. It is so crowded. Train stations are part of the underside of India, where the density of the throng makes flying economy on United feel like a deserted beach.
Across the tracks is an open field where alpha dogs are establishing their territory, homeless kids are scavenging, and the privileged cows are hanging out. Getting out of the taxi earlier, a little girl in the most wretched of conditions reached toward me and begged for help. Suddenly she fell part way into a roadway grate. She could not seem to get out so she screamed, but I soon lost her in this sea of humanity. Crossing the terminal bridge, I am told her parents likely abandoned her and then headed south to look for work. Up here near Nepal and Tibet, the economy suffers. Chances are she will eventually be offered food and some shelter in exchange for selling her body on the streets. Human trafficking flourishes and authorities don’t seem to much care. Every night young girls line the streets of the red light district. I can’t tell you how heart wrenching this is!
It is my sixth time here to India, and whether I am in the south or the north, there is a sameness to what I see each time. The smells are similar. The same shacks, made of tin and covered by tarp cloths, dot the landscape. The same piles of litter vandalize the roads and fields, and the constant brownish gray smog dulls any hope of beauty. Busses and trucks, cars and autorickshaws, bikes and motorcycles all jockey for space. There are no rules; just the blaring of horns. Alpha drivers also rule amidst this chaos. And yet, everyone seems to coexist. Goats and dogs and pigs and cows are everywhere, but there is hardly any evidence of roadkill or accidents. It’s like everyone can see 360 degree.
Strangely missing are cats. I’m told they are more domesticated, living in homes. It must be a sort of feline fortune. I am headed fourteen hours east to Nagaland to train pastors for HBI, where dogs will be much harder to find (except in the markets, where butchers satisfy the Nagas’ desire for canine cuisine). But many other things will be the same.
How does one explain this crazy place where most are poor and beaten down by the elements? A failure of governmental policy? Corruption? Overpopulation? A disparity of wealth thanks to a cruel and oppressive caste system? All of these for sure. (The NY Times might include Donald Trump. He seems to get blamed for everything these days).
The reality is that it is something much deeper. In his newest book (a must read), The Day the Revolution Began, N.T. Wright talks about the vocation God has called all of us to from the beginning of creation. The living God has made us to reflect the Creator’s wise stewardship and reflect the praises of all creation back to its Maker. This is the key to flourishing. But humans have turned their vocation upside down, giving worship and allegiance to forces and powers within creation itself.
The name for this is idolatry. And there is no place where idolatry is more omnipresent than India. Hindu temples seem to be on every corner, where the goddess Kali demands worship and under her are innumerable gods and goddesses (last count, 33 million). Each work to instill fear. Together they seek to blind people to the true God, who loves us and invites us to live life abundantly. They love to trash His creation, turning what were once lush valleys and pristine streams into waste dumps.
Wright puts to words what I am feeling as I sit here in this God awful place: “We humans have thus, by abrogating our own vocation, handed over our power and authority to nondivine and nonhuman forces, which have then run rampant, spoiling human lives, ravaging the beautiful creation, and doing their best to turn God’s world into a hell.” They run wild here, and if this is not hell, it surely is a foretaste.
But I dare not be too judgmental. These same forces are at work in my culture. We are just more sophisticated. Many of us give our worship and allegiance to forces and powers. Their names are money, sex, and power. They too have sent us into exile. They also lead to the same slavery and death (only of a more refined kind). But the effects of man’s rebellion are particularly raw here in India. Looking into the faces of most of these people waiting on the platform, it causes the spirit to groan. Stuffed into train cars like cattle, they show few smiles. One hardly hears any laughter. Their gods relish in beating them down.
Ironically, my morning devotions took me to Romans 8. Paul must have witnessed the same hell in the Roman/Hellenistic culture of his day. He speaks of a creation that groans under the weight of its bondage to corruption. The great news is that God has transferred those of us in Christ from the kingdom of darkness in to the kingdom of light (Col, 1:13). In the process, He has reestablished the original human vocation. We have been saved to again be stewards of creation, and redeemed to reflect praises back to Him. The Spirit indwells those who believe and empowers us to renounce the idols that run rampant. We do this while we wait for Jesus, who will one day bring this present age to an end and create a new heaven and earth. In the midst of hopelessness, there is great hope.
In the meantime, and in light of this, I can think of no better place to be tonight. By God’s grace I am headed east to prepare the hope of the church—its leaders—to lead the hope of the world—the church.
Marcia Murray
What a heartbreaking experience. I sponsor a child via World Vision, but know that it’s not even a drop in the bucket, Praying for you and those who will be listening to God through your message.
Christopher McKillop
Thank you for this vivid description of the human condition in India.
John Johnson
you are welcome. thanks for reading
simon ponniah
Thanks again for this trip and the honest way of expressing it…I thought you were upset with these realities and the way of life in such a crowd. But you had done the routine and went around in walk to sense where are we heading to….please continue to pray for our nation.Simon Ponniah,India