When Prime
Minister Vajpayee was in the US in September, the National Association
of Asian Christians in the US (whom nobody had heard about before), paid
$ 50,000 to the New York Times to publish 'an Open Letter to the Hon'ble
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, prime minister of India.'
While 'warmly welcoming the PM,' the NAAIC expressed deep concern about
the 'persecution' of Christians in India by 'extremist' (meaning Hindu)
groups, mentioning as examples 'the priest, missionaries and church workers
who have been murdered,' the nuns 'raped,' and the potential enacting
of conversion laws, which would make 'genuine' conversions illegal. The
letter concluded by saying 'that Christians in India today live in fear.'
The whole affair was an embarrassment (as it was intended to be) to Mr
Vajpayee and the Indian delegation, which had come to prod American businessmen
to invest in India, a peaceful, pro-Western and democratic country.
I am born a Christian and I have had a strong Catholic education. I do
believe that Christ was an incarnation of Pure Love and that His Presence
still radiates in the world. I also believe there are human beings who
sincerely try to incarnate the ideals of Jesus and that you can find today
in India a few missionaries (such as Father Ceyrac, a French Jesuit, who
works mostly with lepers in Tamil Nadu), who are incarnations of that
Love, tending tirelessly to people, without trying to convert them.
But I have also lived for more than 30 years in India, I am married to
an Indian, I have traveled the length and breath of this country and I
have evolved a love and an understanding of India, which few other foreign
correspondents have, because they are never posted long enough to start
getting a real feeling of this vast and often baffling country (nobody
can claim to fully understand India). And this is what I have to say about
the 'persecution' of Christians in India.
Firstly, it is necessary to bring about a little bit of a historical flashback,
which very few foreign correspondents (and unfortunately also Indian journalists)
care to do, which would make for a more balanced view of the problem.
If ever there was persecution, it was of the Hindus at the hands of Christians,
who were actually welcomed in this country, as they have been welcomed
in no other place on this planet. Indeed, the first Christian community
of the world, that of the Syrian Christians, was established in Kerala
in the first century; they were able to live in peace and practice their
religion freely, even imbibing some of the local Hindu customs, until
the Jesuits came in the 16th century and told them it was 'heathen' to
have anything to do with the Hindus, thereby breaking the Syrian Church
in two.
When Vasco de Gama landed in Kerala in 1498, he was generously received
by the Zamorin, the Hindu king of Calicut, who granted him the right to
establish warehouses for commerce. But once again, Hindu tolerance was
exploited and the Portuguese wanted more and more. In 1510, Alfonso de
Albuquerque seized Goa, where he started a reign of terror, burning 'heretics,'
crucifying Brahmins, using false theories to forcibly convert the lower
castes, razing temples to build churches upon them and encouraging his
soldiers to take Indian mistresses.
Indeed, the Portuguese perpetrated here some of the worst atrocities ever
committed in Asia by Christianity upon another religion. Ultimately, the
Portuguese had to be kicked out of India, when all other colonisers had
already left.
British missionaries in India were always supporters of colonialism; they
encouraged it and their whole structure was based on 'the good Western
civilised world being brought to the Pagans.' Because, in the words of
Claudius Bucchanan, a chaplain attached to the East India Company, 'Neither
truth, nor honesty, honour, gratitude, nor charity, is to be found in
the breast of a Hindoo!' What a comment about a nation that gave the world
the Vedas at a time when Europeans were still grappling in their caves!
And it is in this way that the British allowed entire chunks of territories
in the East, where lived tribals, whose poverty and simplicity, made them
easy prey to be converted to Christianity. By doing so, the Christian
missionaries cut a people from their roots and tradition, made them look
westwards towards a culture and a way of life which was not theirs.
And the result is there today for everyone to see: it is in these eastern
states, some of which are 90 per cent Christian, that one finds the biggest
drug problems (and crime) in India. It should also be said that many of
the eastern separatist movements have been covertly encouraged by Christian
missionaries on the ground that 'tribals were there before the "Aryan
Hindus" invaded India and imposed Hinduism upon on them.'
The trouble is that the latest archaeological and linguistic discoveries
point out to the fact that there NEVER was an Aryan invasion of India
-- it just was an invention of the British and the missionaries to serve
their purpose.
Secondly, Christianity has always striven on the myth of persecution,
which in turn bred "martyrs" and saints, indispensable to the propagation
of Christianity. But it is little known, for instance, that the first
"saints" of Christianity, "martyred" in Rome, a highly refined civilisation,
which had evolved a remarkable system of gods and goddesses, some of whom
were derived from Hindu mythology via the Greeks, were actually killed
(a normal practice in those days), while bullying peaceful Romans to embrace
the "true" religion, in the same way that later Christian missionaries
will browbeat "heathen" Hindus, adoring many gods, into believing that
Jesus was the only "true" god.
Now to come to the recent cases of persecution of Christians in India
at the hands of Hindu groups. I have personally investigated quite a few,
amongst them the rape of the four nuns in Jhabua, MP, nearly two years
ago. This rape is still quoted as an example of the 'atrocities' committed
by Hindus on Christians.
Yet, when I interviewed the four innocent nuns, they themselves admitted,
along with George Anatil, the bishop of Indore, that it had nothing to
do with religion: it was the doing of a gang of Bhil tribals, known to
perpetrate this kind of hateful acts on their own women. Today, the Indian
press, the Christian hierarchy and the politicians, continue to include
the Jhabua rape in the list of atrocities against the Christians.
Or take the burning of churches in Andhra Pradesh a few months ago, which
was supposed to have been committed by the "fanatic" RSS. It was proved
later that it was actually the handiwork of Indian Muslims, at the behest
of the ISI to foment hatred between Christians and Hindus. Yet the Indian
press which went berserk at the time of the burnings, mostly kept quiet
when the true nature of the perpetrators was revealed.
Finally, even if Dara Singh does belong to the Bajrang Dal, it is doubtful
if the hundred other accused do. What is more probable, is that like in
many other 'backward' places, it is a case of converted tribals versus
non-converted tribals, of pent-up jealousies, of old village feuds and
land disputes. It is also an outcome of what -- it should be said -- are
the aggressive methods of the Pentecost and Seventh Adventists missionaries,
known for their muscular ways of conversion.
Thirdly, conversions in India by Christian missionaries of low caste Hindus
and tribals are sometimes nothing short of fraudulent and shameful. American
missionaries are investing huge amounts of money in India, which come
from donation drives in the United States where gullible Americans think
the dollars they are giving go towards uplifting "poor and uneducated
Indians."
It is common in Kerala, for instance, particularly in the poor coastal
districts, to have "miracle boxes" put in local churches: the gullible
villager writes out a paper mentioning his wish: a fishing boat, a loan
for a pucca house, fees for the son's schooling… And lo, a few weeks later,
the miracle happens! And of course the whole family converts, making others
in the village follow suit.
American missionaries (and their government) would like us to believe
that democracy includes the freedom to convert by any means. But France
for example, a traditionally Christian country, has a minister who is
in charge of hunting down "sects." And by sects, it is meant anything
that does not fall within the recognised family of Christianity -- even
the Church of Scientology, favoured by some Hollywood stars such as Tom
Cruise or John Travolta, is ruthlessly hounded. And look at what the Americans
did to the Osho movement in Arizona, or how innocent children and women
were burnt down by the FBI (with the assistance of the US army) at Waco,
Texas, because they belonged to a dangerous sect…
Did you know that Christianity is dying in the West? Not only is church
attendance falling dramatically because spirituality has deserted it,
but less and less youth find the vocation to become priests or nuns. And
as a result, say in the rural parts of France, you will find only one
priest for six or seven villages, whereas till the late seventies, the
smallest hamlet had its own parish priest.
And where is Christianity finding new priests today? In the Third World,
of course! And India, because of the innate impulsion of its people towards
god, is a very fertile recruiting ground for the Church, particularly
in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Hence the huge attention that India is getting
from the United States, Australia, or England and the massive conversion
drive going on today.
It is sad that Indians, once converted, specially the priests and nuns,
tend to turn against their own country and help in the conversion drive.
There are very few "White" missionaries left in India and most of the
conversions are done today by Indian priests.
Last month, during the bishops's conference in Bangalore, it was restated
by bishops and priests from all over India that conversion is the FIRST
priority of the Church here. But are the priests and bishops aware that
they would never find in any Western country the same freedom to convert
that they take for granted in India? Do they know that in China they would
be expelled, if not put into jail? Do they realise that they have been
honoured guests in this country for nearly two thousand years and that
they are betraying those that gave them peace and freedom?
Hinduism, the religion of tolerance, the coming spirituality of this new
millennium, has survived the unspeakable barbarism of wave after wave
of Muslim invasions, the insidious onslaught of Western colonialism which
has killed the spirit of so may Third World countries and the soul-stifling
assault of Nehruvianism. But will it survive the present Christian offensive?
Many Hindu religious leaders feel Christianity is a real threat today,
as in numerous ways it is similar to Hinduism, from which Christ borrowed
so many concepts (see Sri Siri Ravi Shankar's book: Hinduism and Christianity).
It is thus necessary that Indians themselves become more aware of the
danger their culture and unique civilisation is facing at the hands of
missionaries sponsored by foreign money. It is also necessary that they
stop listening to the Marxist-influenced English newspapers's defence
of the right of Christian missionaries to convert innocent Hindus.
Conversion belongs to the times of colonialism. We have entered in the
era of Unity, of coming together, of tolerance and accepting each other
as we are -- not of converting in the name of one elusive "true" god.
When Christianity accepts the right of other people to follow their own
beliefs and creeds, then only will Jesus Christ's spirit truly radiate
in the world.
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