HVK Archives: Dangerous portents in N.E. region
Dangerous portents in N.E. region - Organiser
H V Seshadri
()
9 March 1997
Title : Dangerous portents in N.E. region
Author : H V Seshadri
Publication : Organiser
Date : March 9, 1997
Pope has denied the charge of immoral inducements like money and
coercion by Christian missionaries for proselytisation. He has
asked for bringing to his notice any single case of a convert
confirming such an allegation. Pope's query is indeed very strange.
He knows only too well that no one already converted will come
forward to admit such a charge.
Forced conversions
Well, here are a few blatant cases of threats, violence and
coercion involving not merely stray individuals, but in scores and
hundreds.
In Chandeal district of Manipur, National Socialist Council (NSC),
a missionary outfit, tried to force, at the Point of gun, scores of
Maning janjati members to convert themselves to Christianity. They
also pressurised them to throw away their headgear and other
traditional styles of dress and ornaments. They also insinuated
that Satan resided in them. When several indigenous groups stoutly
resisted such attempts, the missionaries started changing their
tactics. At such places, they now encourage the indigenous groups
to come in their traditional dresses for Christian functions-as a
first step to bring them into the fold of the church.
Kabuis who refused to knuckle under missionary threats are being
subjected to various kinds of pressure tactics. These tactics
prompted Prof Maijetang Kamsen, the MP from outer Kohima
constituency, who was invited to the World Tribal Leaders
Conference at Geneva, emphasised at the conference that there
should be no coercion in matters of religion.
Here is a shocking instance. Just last year, about twenty Hindu
janajati men from Kohima were kidnapped by the People's Liberation
Front. When they refused to get converted, they were severely
beaten, tortured.
Unleashing insurrections
Yet another facet of Christian missionary strategy to bring the
entire north eastern region under the Church hegemony is to
engineer terrorism and armed insurrections.
A little less than two years ago, Pashupatinath Mandir in the
Senapatis district of Manipur became the target of terrorist act by
NSC. The pujari was abducted and it was claimed that the place
belonged to the Nagas. They demanded Rs 25,000 as rent. And then,
the temple itself was burnt down. Only last Year the temple was
rebuilt by its devotees.
Here is an instance to what ridiculous extent the missionaries go
to act as 'fishers' of men. In Manipur, the St Xavier's school
teachers 'teach' the Hindi speaking students through drama how on
praying to Jesus, Christ pours, toffees before them and on speaking
Hindi, blows rain on them!
The three-fold strategy of the missionaries is (1) to directly
convert those who are amenable; (2), subject the opposing sections
to threats and coercion and (3), physically attack and liquidate
the leaders and workers of nationalist political and social groups.
Even the CPM government which was till now keeping mum about the
guiding hand of Christian missionaries in unleashing terrorism in
Tripura has come out openly accusing them of their dangerous
tactics.
Reducing Hindu population
The fact that every such subversive terrorist outfit is a part of
Church strategy to Convert the entire north-east region into a
Christian empire is well known. In States like Meghalaya, Nagaland,
Tripura and Mizoram murderous attacks are periodically launched on
certain sections of local Hindus under the guise of ethnic
cleansing. The purpose is to reduce the overall Hindu population.
An other strategy is to attack the Government-run and private
schools and teachers in distant hilly regions. Perforce, the
schools close down.
After a couple of years, a missionary school appears on the scene
forcing the local Hindus to send their yards to it where they are
systematically indoctrinated into Christianity. In Mizoram, the
Congress came to power openly declaring in its manifesto that it
would run the Government according to the dictates of Christianity.
Since the Riyang janajati Hindus have refused to become
Christians, the schools in that region are denied grants. The
Riyang children are forced to go to schools in Mizo-dominated areas
where they are admitted only after they change over to Mizo-names.
it is common to see the Riyang boys and girls having double names
Higher education, of course, is out of bounds for them unless they
surrender to the church.
In Manipur, the United Nations Liberation Front claiming to include
all the N. E. States has started introducing 'identity cards' in
the hilly regions. The onus of proving one's local inhabitance for
a specified number of years is laid on all the residents. The
obvious motive is to throw out the non-hilly Hindus so as to make
the region totally Christian-dominated.
Akin to a military, campaign
Here is an authentic admission by Shri Hawengam Haokip, General
Secretary of Kuki Baptist Convention a leading Baptist missionary
in Manipur.
In his book 'Good News for Manipur', he says, "While ninety eight
per cent of hill Population have become Christian, just 2 per cent
of the population in the plains are Christian". He says that "this
special KBC project is planned to reach these 98 per cent unreached
lost souls in 10 years." He deals extensively with a strategy
towards that end. The word 'strategy', he says, "is derived from
Greek word 'stratogus' which means a military general" and he
candidly spells out that strategy exactly on the pattern of the
military campaign. He also freely employs the word 'tactics' as
part of that strategy. In short, the "spiritual mission" is, in
his own words, a military campaign, complete with its strategy,
tactics, the target groups to be won over, vulnerable places, the
number of workers to be deployed, the number of persons to be
reached, the preparation of the workers to win over the
'lost-souls', etc., etc.-all these figures worked out per week, per
month and per yew, and the targets already achieved, precisely on
the lines of a war strategy. And all this, mind you, as part of a
'spiritual mission'!
Running parallel governments
In States like Nagaland and Manipur, the insurrectionist outfits of
various missions practically run parallel Government. They fix up
'taxes' for various departments, for merchants, industrialists and
other moneyed classes. Failure to obey the orders involves
kidnapping, tortures and ultimately murder in case of
non-compliance. The ransom amount runs to lakhs and at times to
crore. Since the departmental heads of the government cannot be
expected to pay such heavy amounts, the government itself comes
forward to clear off the ransom to get their kidnapped officers
released. The secular parties are of course, ever ready to oblige
them in matters of funds and getting them out of jail if they are
by chance arrested. Formal letters on their respective
letter-heads are delivered by the terrorist outfits to the
concerned persons, praising their 'progressive outlook' and seeking
their 'co-operation' in terms of payment of ' the amount fixed for
them to help their 'revolutionary freedom struggle' devoted to the
liberation of their 'nation' from 'the Indian occupation forces'.
The letter itself is couched in the politest of language, but no
government order is ever-obeyed with such promptness. When
occasionally, the army is called and the terrorists are on the run,
they find their shelter in the ever friendly Bangladesh. The other
legal shelter is also offered by the government itself which offers
land and government jobs to the so-called 'surrendered' terrorists.
The patriotic long waiting applicants to such jobs are, of course,
sidelined to make way for the home-coming of such Prodigal sons.
Coupled with these threats are the continued Bangladeshi Muslim
infiltration into all the seven states and the newer and newer
terrorist agitations in areas like Bodo region, have indeed placed
our entire N.E. Region literally on the mouth of volcano, gravely
threatening our national security and territorial integrity. The
suicidal policy of the centre vis-a-vis that region since the very
advent of independence is no doubt the main culprit. However, it
is tragic to see that the riding politicians of these states are
digging the graves of their own states-they being border-areas of
belligerent states like Bangladesh and China.
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