Author: V Sundaram
Publication: News Today
Date: April 27, 2006
URL: http://www.newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06apr/2704ss1.htm
Sita Ram Goel is an indomitable intellectual
Kshatriya in the line of great warriors like Parasurama, Bhishma, Drona, Arjuna
and Karna in the history of India that is not Bharath today. I am compelled
to say that 'it is not Bharath' only for the reason that India today has been
taken over by the mafia of pseudo-secularists whose only aim is to destroy
Hinduism and Hindu culture or more precisely 'Sanathana Dharma' at any cost.
Sita Ram Goel brings this out succinctly in this manner:
'Hindus from early 17th century Pundits of
Tamilnadu to Arun Shourie in the closing years of the 20th century have spent
no end of ink and breath to demolish the dogma of Christianity and denounce
missionary methods. But it has hardly made any difference to the arrogance
of Christian theologians and aggressiveness of Christian missionaries. This
is because the dogma was never meant for discussion. It is an axiom of logic
that which has not been proved cannot and need not be proved.'
'High-sounding theological blah blah notwithstanding,
the fact remains that the dogma is no more than a subterfuge for forging and
wielding an organizational weapon for mounting unprovoked aggression against
other people. It is high time for Hindus to dismiss the dogma of Christianity
with the contempt it deserves and pay attention to the Christian missionary
apparatus planted in their midst. The sole aim of this apparatus is to ruin
Hindu society and culture and take over the Hindu homeland. It goes on devising
strategies for every situation, favourable and unfavourable. It trains and
employs a large number of intellectual criminals ready to prostitute their
talents in the service of their pay masters, and adept at dressing up dark
designs in high-sounding language. The fact that every design is advertised
as a theology in the Indian context and every criminal euphemized as an Indian
theologian, should not hoodwink Hindus about the real intention of this gangster
game. Hindus are committing a grave mistake in regarding the encounter between
Hinduism and Christianity as a dialogue between two religions. Christianity
has never been a religion; its long history tells us that it has always been
a predatory imperialism 'par excellence'. The encounter, therefore, should
be viewed as a battle between totally opposed and mutually exclusive ways
of thought and behaviour'.
History of Hindu-Christian encounters in our
country falls into five distinct phases. In all of them, Christian missionaries
stuck to their basic dogma of One True God and the Only Saviour which Hindus
should accept or be made to accept. But they kept on changing their methods
and strategy and theological verbiage based on changing circumstances from
time to time.
In the first phase it opened with the coming
of the Portuguese pirates in the 16th century, more particularly the Patron
Saint of those pirates, Francis Xavier. The methods of Portuguese Christianity
in Goa and other parts of India were cruel. Hindus were helpless against the
barrage of atrocities let loose against them by the Portuguese. Fortunately
for the Hindus of India, this phase did not last long. The Portuguese lost
their power everywhere in India excepting in Goa and some other small pockets.
The second phase began with the consolidation
of the British conquest after the final defeat of the Marathas in 1818. In
this phase, the British Government in India did not allow Christian missions
to use physical methods. But missionary language continued to be as crude
as ever. This phase ended with the rise of Reform Movements, particularly
the clarion call given by Maharishi Dayananda of the Arya Samaj in the Punjab
and Swami Vivekananda in Bengal in the latter half of the 19th century. Christianity
suffered a serious set back in this phase.
The third phase started with the entry of
Mahatma Gandhi into the Indian national scene in 1917 and his slogan of 'Sarva-Dharma-Sambhava'.
Christian missions were thrown on the defensive by Mahatma Gandhi and they
were forced to change their language. Sita Ram Goel notes this change with
biting sarcasm: 'The foulmouthed miscreants became sweet-tongued vipers. Now
they were out to share their spiritual riches with the Hindus, reminding us
of a beggar in dirty rags promising to donate his wardrobe to wealthy persons'.
This phase ended with the Tambaram Conference of the International Missionary
Council (IMC) in 1938 which decided to reformulate Christian Theology in the
Indian context.
The fourth phase commenced with the coming
of independence on August 15, 1947. It proved a boon for Christianity. The
Christian right to convert Hindus was incorporated in the Constitution. Pundit
Jawaharlal Nehru who dominated the Indian political scene for 17 long years,
promoted every anti-Hindu ideology and movement behind the smokescreen of
counterfeit secularism. The congress regimes that followed continued to raise
the bogey of 'Hindu Communalism' as the most frightening phenomenon. Christian
missionaries could now openly denounce as a Hindu communalist, and chauvinist,
even as a Hindu Nazi, any one who raised the slightest objection to their
means and methods. All sons of pseudo secularists leaped forward to join the
chorus. The missionaries came forward with their new and revolutionary theologies
and programmes of Fulfilment, Indigenisation, Liberation and Dialogue in the
Indian context backed up by massive flow of funds from all parts of the globe
for the glorious work of proselytism in post-independent India. The missionary
apparatus in India multiplied fast and became pervasive in the years between
1947 and 1967. The only jarring note from the point of view of Christian missionaries
during this period was K.M. Panikkar's book 'Asia and Western Dominance' published
from London in 1953, the NIYOGI COMMITTEE REPORT published by the Congress
Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1956, and Om Prakash Tyagi's Bill on 'Freedom
Of Religion' introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 1978.
The fifth phase, which is continuing now,
started with the Hindu awakening brought about by the mass conversion of Harijans
to Islam at Meenakshipuram in Tirunelveli District in Tamilnadu in 1981. It
resulted in renewed Muslim aggression in many ways and reached its head in
Pakistan-backed terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir in the late 1980s. The Ramajanmaboomi
Movement was the immediate result. It was aimed at arresting Islamic aggression.
Christianity or its missions were hardly mentioned by the supporters of the
Ramajanmaboomi Movement. Nevertheless, it was Christian missions which showed
the greatest concern at this new and legitimate Hindu stir, and started crying
'wolf'. Christian media power in the West raised a storm, shamelessly claiming
ad nauseum that Hindus were out to destroy the minorities in India and impose
a Nazi regime. This storm is still raging and no one knows when it will subside,
if at all.
With the birth of the new Indian Constitution
in January 1950, things were made quite smooth for the Christian missions
in India. They surged forward with renewed vigour and enthusiasm. National
resistance to the phenomenon of Christian missions which had been viewed as
an imperialist incubus during the days of struggle for freedom from British
rule, broke down after Indian independence when the very leaders who had frowned
upon it started speaking in their favour. Voices which still remained vocally
recalcitrant were sought to be silenced by being branded as obscurantist voices
of 'Hindu communalism'. Nehru gave a command performance in this sphere by
becoming a vocal champion of pseudo secularism. Nehruvian Secularism had stolen
a march under the smokescreen of Mahatma Gandhi's 'Sarva-Dharma-Sambava'.
What became more favourable to Christian missionaries was the complete collapse
of Hindu resistance after 1947 which had been pretty strong during the time
of our struggle for freedom. Gandhiji's totally visionary if not imaginary
slogan of 'Sarva-Dharma-Sambava' also provided an effective smokescreen for
Christian missions in India to steal a march against Hindu religion, society
and culture.
In a letter to C.D. Deshmukh on June 22, 1952
Prime Minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru said: 'Nothing amazes me so much as
the perversion of well-known words and phrases in political and other controversies
today. I suppose every demagogue does it'. Nehru was blissfully unaware of
the fact that he himself had become the most despicable demagogue in India's
hoary history by borrowing the word 'secularism' from Western political parlance
by making it to mean the opposite of what it had meant in Europe in the 18th
and 19th centuries. For him it became a glorious Fixed Deposit Account for
minority- vote-bank politics. 'Secularism' in Europe symbolised a humanist
and rationalist revolt against the closed creed of Christianity and stood
for pluralism such as had characterized Hinduism down the ages. But Pundit
Nehru had perverted the word and turned it into a shield for protecting every
closed monotheistic creed prevailing in India at the dawn of independence
in 1947 Islam, Christianity and Communism.'
In 1955, a Bill came before India's Parliament
which 'if passed would have seriously handicapped the work of Christian missionaries,
because it 'provided for a strict system of regulating conversions'. The issue
related to 'conversions' brought about by force, fraud or material inducement.
But no less a person than the Prime Minister of India, Pundit Nehru, came
to the rescue of Christian missions and persuaded the Parliament to throw
out the Bill. Another Bill was introduced in Parliament in 1960 for protecting
Scheduled Castes and Tribes 'from change of religion forced on them on grounds
other than religious convictions'. It was also thrown out because of resistance
from the ruling Congress Party.
(To be continued)
(The writer is a retired IAS officer - e-mail
the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com)
