By Fr. (Dr.) Subhash Anand –
As I was approaching my retiring age as professor at Jnanadeep Vidyapeeth (Pontifical Athenaeum), Pune, I was wondering how best to use God’s gifts in the service of the Church in the Hindi belt. Slowly the idea dawned on me that to empower the people we need to make the Bible more intelligible to them. For this merely a translation of the text would not be enough. They need a commentary. Hence towards the end of 2005 I started to create a personal Biblical library.
Using my own savings and the help given to me by my friends I managed to acquire books costing about Rs. 10 lakhs. All these books are of foreign publishers. I did this partly to help myself, partly to make books available to team members who would not have an easy access to scholarly books.
Early in 2009 I began approaching scholars who could help in the project. Most of those whom I approached readily agreed. Some even remarked: “This work ought to have been done long ago.” I succeeded creating a team of about 75 scholars, women and men, from all the three Churches of India, hailing from different regions of the country. With a few exceptions, they have at least a post-graduate degree in Biblical studies. Many of them have also done their doctorate.
The team-members were requested to remain with the text and to read it without allowing their Church concerns to bias them. Hence it is our hope that the commentary will be helpful to all pastors in their catechetical and homiletic ministry, leaders of basic Christian communities, animators of basic Kingdom communities, Christian families and individuals who wish to deepen their prayer and evangelical commitment.
All the contributors prepared their texts in English. None of them were comfortable in Hindi. I was lucky to get the help of some theology students from Varanasi, Allahabad and Ranchi. We spent three vacations together doing the translation. The Hindi text was then computerized by professionals in Udaipur. This text was corrected by four readers.
In the Wald-Bulcke Bible Bhashya we have for the first time in Hindi a complete original Bible Commentary. It contains a commentary on every book of the Bible and also some essays on topics related to the Bible. A few essays address some of our pastoral concerns.
As the name indicates, the Wald-Bulcke Bible Bhashya is a tribute to two Roman Catholic pioneers: Stanislaus Wald, S.V.D., and Camil Bulcke, S.J. The former translated the Old Testament into Hindi, and the latter the New Testament.
The commentary is meant for the people of North India, not only Christians, but also others, who wish to know the Bible better. The Christians of North India are comparatively recent converts, and they come mostly from the tribal and dalit backgrounds. Slowly more and more of them are getting formal education. In preparing the commentary, they were considered the primary would-be-readers, whatever their denomination. In composing the commentary, we tried to focus on the message the text was trying to communicate. Hence in editing the text, we tried to make it reader-friendly. For this reason the discussion of technicalities was kept to the minimum, that too when it was needed to make the message more clear.
I spent almost Rs. 6 lakh till now (remuneration for writers and typists; travel, board, lodging, and remuneration for translators; stationery and phone calls, etc.)—to be exact, Rs 592,120/-. Some writers refused to accept any remuneration. That amount was given to a home for the destitute. The project is not funded by any bishop as such. The Wald-Bulcke Bible Bhashya is totally a private venture, but in the service of the people of God, whatever their religion.
I was a bit anxious about the publication as this will be a non-commercial undertaking, and publishers hesitate to produce books that will not sell, but only occupy space. I am very happy that MEDIA HOUSE (375 A, Pocket 2, Mayur Vihar-I, Delhi, 110091) has agreed to publish the Wald-Bulcke Bible Bhashya. They have already done the page formatting for the press.
I told the Media House director that this publication is meant to be a service to our people. Hence we shall sell the copies with no profit in mind. Not only that, we will make a pre-publication offer at almost half of the post-publication selling price. For this we will be trying to generate some subsidy. The director gave me to understand that only if we get pre-publication orders for around five thousand (5000) copies, then we will be able to keep the cost low without incurring a substantial loss. To date we have pre-publication orders for about two thousand and five hundred copies (2500). The commentary will have 1192 pages plus the binding. We are charging Rs. 400/- per copy pre-publication and Rs. 750/- per copy post-publication.
I promised to help MEDIA HOUSE by procuring for them a subsidy of at least Rs. 2 lakhs. A Hindu friend of mine has placed an order for 350 copies (Rs. 180.000). With my own savings and help of friends, I was able to provide a subsidy of five lakhs rupees (Rs. 501,600, to be exact). The MEDIA HOUSE is reluctant to print too many extra copies—more than what have already been ordered. This for two reasons: lack of space, and lack of customers. I understand their fears. But I do believe once people see a copy in their hands, they may want to have one for themselves and even their friends. Hence if they have more funds they may print more copies.
Fr. (Dr.) Subhash Anand is Professor emeritus of Indian Philosophy and Religion of the Pontifical Athenaeum Jnanadeep Vidyapeeth in Pune India. He obtained LicPh and LicTh at Jnanadeep Vidyapeeth; MA in Sanskrit from Karnatak Univesity, Dharwar; and PhD from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
His publications include The Local Church and Inculturation (1985); The Way of Love: The Bhagavata Doctrine of Bhakti (1996); Story as Theology: An Intrepretative Study of Five Episodes from the Mahabharata (1996); Siva’s Thousand Names: An Interpretative Study of Sivasahasranama (1998); Hindutva: A Christian Response (2001); Hindu Inspiration for Christian Reflection: Towards a Hindu-Christian Theology (2004); Major Hindu Celebrations: A Christian Appreciation (2008); The Eternal Stranger: An Interpretative Study of Five Siva Episodes in the Mahabharata (2009); A Preface for an Indian Christology (2010) and May They All Be One: Towards an Ecumenical Theology of the Church (2012).
His articles and book-reviews have appeared in the following journals: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Asian Christian Review, Asian Horizons, Brahmavidya: Adyar Library Bulletin, Concilium: International Journal of Theology, Indian Journal of Spirituality, Indian Missiological Review, Indian Theological Studies, Ishvani Kendra Documentation and Mission Digest, Jeevadhara: A Journal of Christian Interpretation, Jnanadeep: Pune Journal of Religious Studies, Journal of Dharma, Journal of Gandhian Studies, Journal of Religious Studies, Journal of Indian Theology, Mission Today, Selecciones de Theologia, Third Millennium, Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection and Word and Worship.