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Why Rev.Valson Thampu’s theory of ‘persecution’ doesn’t hold water

Author: Sunanda Vashisht
Publication: Myind.net
Date: March 30, 2015
URL:   https://www.myind.net/why-revvalson-thampu%E2%80%99s-theory-%E2%80%98persecution%E2%80%99-doesn%E2%80%99t-hold-water

I learnt many life skills that have stood me in good stead in my college, St. Stephen’s College. One such life skill was never blindly trust what is being said to me by anyone including my professors or even what I read in the books. I was told that I must test the validity of everything myself in order to believe it. This lesson was drilled in me repeatedly from the first day itself. On the very first day of College, in the first class with Dr. Ashish Roy, I was furiously writing notes’ trying to catch every syllable of what he was saying, focusing too much on reproducing his speech in my notebook rather than understanding what he was saying. Dr. Roy stopped by my desk after the class and asked me gently what I was writing. Nervously, I said ‘Your lecture, Sir’. ‘Don’t bother, Go discover the answers and the truth yourself, I may not always be right’. Reverend Valson Thampu, current principal of St. Stephen’s College, I am sure would agree with Dr. Roy. They were colleagues in English Department those days. It is a lesson I never forgot. Think, observe, analyze and then react. That is why I found Rev Thampu’s latest piece in the Times of India titled ‘Psychology’s distorting mirror drives Hindutva’s hatred of Christians’ published on March 21, 2015 shocking. Devoid of observations, lacking in any real analysis and painfully reactionary, this piece disappointed me.  In my student days, a piece like that would be immediately dismissed over Nimbu Paani in college cafeteria as unbecoming of a Stephanian.

Clearly Rev Thampu wrote more as a Christian than as an academician or Prinicipal of India’s best known College. There is no problem in doing so but even when writing as a member of a religious group, facts remain sacrosanct and cannot be replaced by pop psychology. We are all entitled to our biases and indeed we all have our biases, but even our biases must have some basis in the realm of facts rather than fictitious pop psychology. To his credit, Rev Thampu knows that facts are not in his favor therefore right in the beginning he sets the ground by saying ‘If a phenomenon is not explicable by facts, its explanation needs to be sought in psychology’.

The phenomenon here as explained in this piece is Hindutva’s hatred towards Christian community who are inherently apolitical and innately pacifist. According to the author many are puzzled by the spate of attacks on Christians since the BJP dominated NDA II came into power. This statement then is the crux of the argument that is being made. Now let’s examine the facts. Newspapers indeed have reported some ‘attacks’ on Churches, in Delhi and elsewhere in India. I have counted about seven ‘attacks’ on Churches primarily reported on the front pages of newspapers with headlines like Christians attacked, Christians under siege and Christians living in fear. To understand how the reporting patterns have been let’s examine the most gruesome of all attacks that Rev Thampu singles out in his piece as well – gang rape of septuagenarian  nun in Ranaghat in Nadia district of West Bengal. I use the word ‘pattern’ consciously when I say pattern in reporting because patterns have been strikingly similar. If you decipher one pattern you really decipher all.

This is what was known about Ranaghat case immediately. A 71 year old nun of Jesus and Mary Convent School was gangraped in Ranghat district on March 14. CCTV video footage showed four individuals possibly members of a single gang broke into the school and raped the nun after gagging her. 12 lakh rupees that were kept in the closet in the school were also stolen. This is all that was known about the incident. Next day the newspapers screamed entire Christian community under siege and under threat. An investigation was constituted by state investigation agency immediately. Instead of waiting for the results of the investigation, or even primary reports of the investigation, Liberal commentators hit the oped circuit. Narendra Modi’s government was made responsible for the incident. Clearly it is RSS involved, who else it could be they asked innocently. Modi government has emboldened the Hindu right wing organizations and they are attacking Christians. One conjecture led to other and soon it was free for all. Facts have to bear the burden of proof, fantasy has no such restriction. Flights of fantasy can soar as high as the writer chooses it to fly. It is all in the imagination after all. A week of kite flying which is also known as journalism followed. Everybody from Mohan Bhagwat to Amit Shah to Narendra Modi was held responsible for the rape of the nun. The burglary was of course not mentioned.

Now the West Bengal investigation agency has solved the case and entire gang has been identified. Majority of gang members ( all Bangladeshi Muslims)  had come from Bangladesh and had taken shelter in the house of a mason and a painter called Gopal Sarkar who had done some repair work in the school. According to West Bengal CID, Gopal Sarkar tipped off the gang that school has some funds for renovation work and the gang decided to rob the school. According to The Indian Express, CID officials claimed that the investigation so far revealed that the rape could have been ‘on the spot act’ and not pre planned. Robbery was the motive of the criminals. Does this revelation make the rape of 71 year old nun any less gruesome? Of course not, but it does reflect on the biases of commentators, oped writers, headline generators and television show hosts. No retractions were made on the basis of the CID reports. No apologies were given and no follow up opeds were written. They are clearly on to the next target.

This has been the case with every ‘attack’ on churches and Christians. Every attempt of burglary, robbery and law and order issue has been translated as attacks on Christians. The fact is that churches were not the only religious institutions attacked. A report by Home Ministry has said that 265 temples too have seen thefts in last one year. Rev Thampu in his piece says that ‘anemic explanations that these are episodes of burglary will not help’. Truth apparently is anemic explanation. So if the truth is not acceptable then what do we do? Change the truth? How does that work in real world? If we change the truth then does it still remain truth or is it then known by another word called propaganda? So by calling truth ‘anemic explanation’ is Rev Thampu then indulging in propaganda as well?

Reading further into the piece, it becomes clear why Rev Thampu  falls back on pop psychology to make his point and other prominent Christians like ex-cop Julio Riberio have hit the newspaper opinion columns  with headlines like ‘I am on the hit list’. The real reason is discomfort with ‘ghar wapsi’ or re-conversion program that some Hindu groups have been indulging in (the success of these programs is highly questionable though). According to Reverend Thampu, ‘ghar wapsi’ is an ‘imitation of missionary aspect of Semitic faiths’. “It is Hinduism imitating Christianity and Islam’. He is right. Hinduism indeed is a non-proselytizing faith and if some groups are indulging in proselytizing, it is a brand new phenomenon. Also because there is no concept of central authority in Hinduism, ‘ghar wapsi’ is essentially local mission of bunch of people. Hindus don’t listen to any single religious authority nor do scriptures authorize conversions. Ghar wapsi is at best a poor imitator of a very well-oiled and organized practice in Christianity. If that is true then why Christians or anybody else should make an issue of it? If Conversion is allowed in India then conversion into Hinduism should be as acceptable as conversion out of Christianity. No Ghar wapsi groups which are functioning as small localized organizations can ever pose threat to the might of Church where proselytizing is acceptable and huge funds are allocated for it.

There is clearly propaganda machinery being fueled to embarrass Narendra Modi government. He was positioned as pariah for Muslims but that does not seem to take off any more and does not get as much sympathy by western governments. Christians are now being made the target group that State is out to destroy. According to Rev Thampu’s own admission, Christians are 2.18% of the population. Why would any State be out to get the tiny minority then? In absence of truth only thing that remains is propaganda. Christian intellectuals and celebrities are being co-opted to give this propaganda legitimacy. It breaks my heart to see people I revere and respect fall into this trap as well.
 
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