Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
HVK Archives: In the name of the Lord

In the name of the Lord - The Sunday Observer

Varsha Bhosle ()
18-24 May 1997

Title : In the name of the Lord
Author : Varsha Bhosle
Publication : The Sunday Observer
Date : May 18-24, 1997

Parochial as one is, it wasn't long before I went looking for traces of apla
Maharashtra on the Internet. What I found has put the fear of Christ in me: At
the site of the Louisiana-based Bethany World Prayer Center, there's a detailed
analysis of Marathis - with a view to converting the same to Christianity. Don't
worry, we ghaatis aren't special: The same treatment's given to others: There are
"The Diaspora Gujarati", Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali, ete - with international
subgroups like Kenyan Gujarati, Spanish Sindhi, too. Scheduled Castes and Tribes?
Bethany knows 'em all. Its Joshua Project 2000 List acts as a base for missions
and organizations on their crusade, and helps "mobilize the cell churches
worldwide to pray for the Unreached Peoples".

And how detailed is it? An example: "The Marathi villages located in the coastal
regions of the Arabian Sea consist of long streets that run north and south, with
houses on either side.... The tribes that live in the hills, like the Thakus, are
practically cut off from those in the plains. " If that weren't panic-making
enough, there follow these "Prayer Points": Pray against the spirits of Hinduism
and Islam that have kept the Marathi bound for generations. Ask the Lord to raise
up people who will go to India and share Christ's love with the Marathi. Pray
that God will raise up prayer teams' to go and break up the soil through worship
and intercession. Ask God to grant favour to the missions and agencies that are
targeting the Marathi.... Ask the Lord to raise up strong local churches among the
Marathi for the glory of His name....

That's a helluva lot of praying and asking, and I doubt if it stays confined to
just that - consider the terms "raise up", "break up", "intercession", "strong" ,
and "targeting". For instance, have you heard of the forced conversions in
Dharavi? On May 1, Bombay Times reported (with photograph of the wounded) that
the Christian goondas of Jesuit missionaries assaulted one Meenakshi Nadar and
stabbed her nephew Muthu and his friend because they resisted conversion. An FIR
was lodged with the police - who did not take any action (probably in fear of
secularists screaming murder against "defenceless" minorities). There are 40
churches in Dharavi alone, and 500 Hindu families have been converted.

Which had me rethinking Mother Teresa, who had once told Malcolm Muggeridge,
"There is always the danger that we may become only social workers or just do the
work for the sake of the work. " Not for "the living saint" a secular labour to
relieve poverty: and how apart the idea from karmanyevaadhikaraste... (toil
without expecting the fruits of labour).

In his biography, Christopher Hitchens mentions secret baptisms of the dying who
are asked if they want a "ticket to heaven", and concludes that Teresa is "a
servant of earthly powers" and works for a "very politicised papacy". Her pals
include Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier, Washington's corrupt mayor Marion Barry, and
Charles Keating, the Californian banker who was jailed for swindling investors out
of $252 million and had given her $1.25 million. In fact, during Keating's trial
in LA, the Mother wrote to Judge Lance Ito seeking clemency for Keating. Since
she had Ito's name, exact designation and address much before the O J Simpson case
made him a household name, it's safe to assume that the saint has more temporal
powers guiding her.

I once believed that Ma Teresa's giving succour to Calcutta's unfortunate was
reason enough to turn a blind eye to the conversion undertaken by her mission.
After all, if we cannot look after our own, we have no right to whine when
somebody else reaps whatever benefit from doing so. Now, I refute it. Catholics
continue to take conversion as a crusade, and the problem has assumed dimensions
far beyond religion by entering the scope of politics and, more significantly,
demography. Conversion is not a holy, beneficial act of faith - it never was -
but the systematic handling of the Joshua Project indicates to me that if it
remains unchecked, religious conversion has the potential to destroy India.

It's no use citing what the European explorers, all armed with Papal Bulls, did to
heathens centuries ago: how they "civilised" the world by converting/exterminating
the others. For a whole millennium, the proselytizing Semitic found easy prey in
Hindus, Africans, native Americans, Aborigines, and Asian peoples. Europe enslaved
them politically, robbed them of national assets, burned them in trade, crushed
their spirits, drove two-thirds of humanity to poverty and starvation and - more
crucially - broke their cultural backbones by instilling, values contrary to their
ethos. That's all water under the bridge now. But, has the White man stopped
carrying his burden? For, mentalities don't change: only modalities do.

And yet, I don't take issue with what missionaries are furtively doing in India -
it they succeed, good luck to them. I don't want to stop evangelists from coming
here just as I wouldn't want others to bar swamis and lamas. The Constitution of
India allows freedom of religious practice - but it also prohibits forced
conversion, induced conversion and conversion motivated by non-voluntary actions -
all of which laws have been rendered impotent by the ignorance of the masses, the
treason of vote-bank politics, and the propaganda of self-serving communists and
secularist. It's the latter who make me see red. For the right way to combat
religious conversion is by abolishing caste divisions from and reviving pride in
Hinduism. Hindutva? O me gawd, but that's so antithetical to being modern and
enlightened!

The rebuttals go thus: Bethany is part of the "lunatic fringe" (but .we won't damn
it like we do the Bajrang Dal). No Western nation can ever support such a league
(and we aren't interested in where the funding comes from). There's no need to
panic since conversion can't make a dent in the Hindu population (why should they
be a majority, anyway?). The VHP keeps similar track of Indian groups (so why
shouldn't foreigners?). It's wrong to halt others from serving the destitute
(since we won't do it, and will slam the RSS for doing it, too). Or, "I'm not
religious: there are many more urgent issues at stake" (like, er... secular
riots). For, no matter what the proof presented, it's the Fascist propaganda
machine at fault. No matter what Christian history and Islamic Khilafat
indicates, there simply cannot exist a collusive agenda to overrun Hindus


Back                          Top

«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements