Sr Philomina Pichappilly

You are a Chambery sister and an advocate concerned especially with the life of ordinary people. Why did you opt to be a Nagpur based advocate working in the whole of Maharashtra?
There were so many poor people out there whom I wanted to help legally. I was already working as a teacher when I saw the scale of misery in our country. I was working with the Catholic youth for four years. Visiting places in India, especially the slums, as an animator working with them, I came face to face with a lot of poverty. One slogan that really touched me was ‘We are born into an unjust world and hunger for justice.’ I thought we should not leave that unjust world unchanged. I felt I must contribute something with my life to it and so I began to take up social work. I visited slums and educated illiterate women. Kerala has a high literacy rate, but in the North almost all were illiterate at that particular point of time in the place where I went to work. I conducted adult education classes and also introduced an educational program that emphasised skill training. Our religious constitution also says we have to be answering to the needs of the time and we should not be engaged in creating islands of affluence. We have to opt for the poorest of the poor. I also felt that I have to serve the poor and the most needy, economically and spiritually. We stayed in the slums and organized slum dwellers to fight for their rights. That led me into doing law. My intention was to educate the people about their fundamental rights like the right to collaboration, the right to life, the right to liberty. Jesus came into this world to give fullness of life. Jesus’ teachings were about basic human rights and liberties. I used to work with all types of people, including Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. They gave me full cooperation and I maintained a lovely relationship with them.

In every state in North India there is some sort of feudal system reigning, especially in the villages. Doesn’t your mission of creating awareness in people about their legal rights bring you in conflict with feudal lords and create problems for you?
Before starting a ministry, you need to know your constituency. I took a lot of precautions. Jesus says watch and pray, which means know your constituency and check the ground reality. Usually, I study the ground reality and use the knowledge I get by that to strike relationship with the people. I did face some opposition from people belonging to the RSS and the BJP in the beginning because I am a Christian. They said I must clear the place because I was the only Christian in that area. But all the time people stood by me, because I belonged to the legal community. I could have recourse to the police administration. Everybody cooperated with me in my capacity as a lawyer. Whenever I asked the police to do something, they readily obliged. And people would say, ‘Your God is so great. You are a single lady and yet you do so much for the people.’…

….Whenever they need some help, they approach me. When the feudal landlords needed something, they also came to me. Since I was single and the people were with me, they did not feel threatened. We did have some short fights, but not long-lasting ones. I look upon such obstacles as opportunities.

Do you feel frightened thinking of what happened to Sr Rani Maria and Sr Valsa John?
Not at all. I am never afraid.

What makes you so bold?
Life is there to live it fully. What is there to be afraid when you take life that way? There is a proverb in Hindi which says, ‘If you are afraid, you die continuously.’ I don’t have that kind of a fear. I believe that fear can be conquered.

You are lucky not to be confronted or opposed, aren’t you?
I don’t feel frightened of people who oppose me either.

Don’t you have to be watchful about the RSS, the BJP and the other Hindutva forces who are temperamentally, ideologically and factually opposed to all that the Christians do to uplift the people of lower castes?
All my areas of work were predominantly focussed on the lower castes. The higher castes were all considered as outsiders. People had more faith in me. When outsiders came to the villagers with offer of help, the people would tell them that they have a madam who stays with them to help them. They used to claim me always as theirs. That helped me surmount all difficulties.

How do you coordinate your work with that of the Church?
I used to have a lot of Fathers and Brothers coming into my field of work. They come and stay with the families here. I feel the Church has always supported me. I have worked as a resource person for seminaries. Bishops from different dioceses would also attend the classes I gave to theologians, deacons, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters. I was provided a platform in the Church. They came to my help whenever I needed it. I did not go and meet the Church hierarchies. If Christian faith has spread so much today in this area, it was because I have been working here.

You are basically a Christian missionary who is speaking about justice, peace and rights and duties of people. How does your apostolate of social work relate itself with Christ and His mission?
I felt I am fully living the mission of Christ. Christ was an itinerant teacher. Like him, I also did not have any big institution to back me. I always moved from place to place. I am always a missionary on the move. Everybody knows me, but I am not a known person. When I enter a place, I make people happy, I animate, I facilitate and then I leave. Of course, in the beginning I was so much of an itinerant that I felt I must live in one place and develop. That was why I went to live in one of the slums and worked among two to three lakhs of people.

Now that you are made a provincial, won’t you get displaced from the slums and your work?
I still carry on my work. I also get some sisters to get involved in my work, but, of course, everybody is not called for it. Not all want or can manage that sort of work. But I still keep working. When I am in Nagpur, I get to meet many other stakeholders. Colleges come to me for exposure program, because they need orientation. The police invite me for all their meetings. I keep myself available for these things. Other Sisters won’t be able to suddenly address a group of police officers. They invite me as chief guest for programs hosted by the police, by the state and by the judges. Since I was in social mediation in the judges’ program I used to be presiding over many things, which was difficult precisely because I did not have anybody for legal assistance. But my Sisters work in the slums and they help out in the study centres and in various other activities.

How do the advocates in general look at you and support you?
Advocates know I am a sister and so when they see me in the courts they say the court is with the sister.

Which means the judges are favourably inclined to you?
The judges keep on getting transferred. When you appear before them, they don’t know you are a Sister, but somehow they judge your quality and recognize that you are someone different.

Are you based in Nagpur?
I practise mainly in Nagpur. I work mainly for people’s needs like road, water facilities etc. I meet the government authorities like MLAs, MPs and the local municipal corporations and tell them to provide the people those facilities. Usually they don’t disappoint us. When we ask something, they usually give. For the elections also I am a vote bank because of my influence with the people. When elections come, they need us all the more.

Hope you won’t end up as a god-woman?
My way of work won’t allow that to happen. I make sure that the leadership goes into people’s hands. They only need my presence and advice. Usually, when I am invited for a function, I go there and say a few words. I don’t get stuck there. After I depart, people carry on with the program. They have elections to fight and so need to remain on the stage. I spare the stage for them.

What you are doing is a new way of being the Church and a new way of being a nun. While in Kerala convents are shrinking, you are experimenting a new way of being a Christian and a religious of the Church. Is this new way of yours a new pointer for the Church in modern times?
We are spiritual leaders and our spiritual leadership will always be appreciated by everyone. That is what my experience shows. Any religion will accept a spiritual leader who has something to give. There is nothing to be afraid of either the high and mighty or the lowly and the poor. Wherever you go, you should have a leadership to provide, and that has to be spiritual leadership.