Camille Bulcke
The Jesuit Devotee of Tulsidas

Biography of the Belgian Jesuit, Father Bulcke, a renowned exponent of Ramkatha and the Hindi language in colonial India.

Ravi Dutt Bajpai (Author), Swati Parashar (Author)

9781108838122, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 February 2025

318 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.61 kg

'A portrait of a charming man and engaged scholar who was a bundle of contradictions-devoted to Tulsidas but also to the idea that Christianity is the only path to salvation.' Ruth Vanita, author of The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics (2021)

This is the first English biography of the Belgian Jesuit, Padma Bhushan recipient and renowned scholar of Hindi, Awadhi and Sanskrit: Father Camille Bulcke (1909–1982). Father Bulcke came to India when it was still a British colony, found spiritual inspiration in the life and compositions of the great Indian poet Goswami Tulsidas, and emerged as one of the renowned exponents of the Ramkatha (The Story of Rama) and the Hindi language. This book attempts to read and critically examine his life, while also analysing his writings on comparative religious studies. In doing so, it provides a brief overview of the world of Hindi literature and its development in postcolonial India through the contributions of Father Bulcke, and highlights the cultural and religious encounters between the West and the East, Europe and India, Christianity and Hinduism.

List of Figures
Foreword by Harish Trivedi
Acknowledgements
1. Camille Bulcke: A New Horizon of Indology
2. From Belgium to India: Inner and Outer Journeys
3. A Scholar-Priest in the Making
4. From Christ Bhakti to Tulsidas' Rama Bhakti
5. Contributions to Indology and Scholarly Legacy
6. The Man and His Mission: A Critical Appraisal
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Sociology [JHB]