It happens only in India

The Indian media, especially English TV channels and newspapers celebrated The Pope’s visit to India. The Indian Government accorded hospitality reserved for heads of states to The Pope, who is the religious head of Roman Catholics. The President, The Prime Minister and the cabinet queued up to pay obeisance to him. A few pro-Hindu organisations argued that he is a religious head and his sole mission to India was to encourage conversions and therefore he should neither be allowed to enter India nor be accorded official welcome. These opinions were dismissed as Hindu-fundamentalist diatribes by the self-proclaimed modernists and the English media. And what did the Pope do? He proclaimed with exaltation: “Just as we planted the cross in Europe in the first millennium and in the Americas and Africa in the second millennium, we shall harvest the crop of our faith in this powerful continent (Asia) in the third millennium”. He did not bother to hide his true intentions. However, the media and the self-proclaimed Secularists who branded Hindu groups as fundamentalists chose to maintain clever silence over this proclamation.

The following list details the present population (percentage) of Christians (in countries that had previously been untouched by Christianity) due to the wide-spread activity of Christian missionaries: Angola (90%), Burundi (78%), Cameroon (35%), Central African Republic (82%), Chad (33%), Congo (62%), East Timor (98%), Ethiopia (52%), Equatorial Guinea (94%), Gabon (79%), Kenya (25%), Liberia (68%), Mozambique (31%), Nigeria (52%), Papua New Guinea (97%), Philippines (84%), Rwanda (69%), South Africa (78%), South Korea (49%), Sudan (30%), Tanzania (20%), Togo (23%), Uganda (70%) and Zaire (90%).

The USA contributes USD 145 Billion every year to fund Christian Missionaries across the world. Churches across the world spend USD 1.1 Billion towards research aimed at achieving religious conversions. This is for propaganda material in 300 languages about 180 topics. Books and articles are printed in 500 languages. They total 175000. Every conversion costs USD 3300. It does not mean that this amount reaches the Convert. It is the expense incurred in activities related to administration, planning and implementation of the conversion programme. In 1500 A.D, there were 30 Lac active Christian Missionaries. Their number stands at 64.8 Crore today. 54% of these people are non-Whites. The strategy is to train non-Whites, provide them with funds and involve them in religious conversions. This is similar to the time when the British employed Indians as Soldiers to rule India!

What brand of spiritual enlightenment is this? This is an issue that Indians do not understand. That is perhaps because Indians relate spiritual enlightenment to things like living in a hermitage in a forest or in caves in mountains or perhaps in the freezing heights of Snowy Himalayas where people manage to look inward. One cannot preach others until one is enlightened. And what would one preach about? To look inward! To understand oneself! Religion is a form of this enlightenment. Preaching it is called jigyasa. However, this isn’t the essence or method of Christianity.

To understand Christianity, we need to learn the features of Semitic religions. They are also called Prophetic religions. It means that these religions were established by a prophet each. The roots lie in the Jewish religion established by Prophet Abraham. Christianity, established by Jesus Christ, is a modified form of Judaism. Later, Prophet Mohammed established Islam borrowing various tenets of Abraham’s Judaism. The message common to these religions is that ‘God is not directly accessible to Man. You are, fundamentally, Sinners. God is exceptionally terrible and cruel and punishes without qualms. You will have to believe me, your Messiah, and follow my preaching to obtain an opportunity to avoid burning in hell. If you do not pay heed, you are sure to end up in hell. You will have to place faith in this religion. You will have to convert others to this faith. You will have to spread this message and convert people wherever you go, even if it necessitates the use of force. That is Religion; that is the code.’ Prophet Mohammed taught methods of torturing, killing and enslaving those who did not believe in Islam. These teachings are an integral part of Quran and have been highlighted in several places in the text. Prophets are intolerant towards Gods of other religions. I have described this is my novel AvaraNa.

Jesus Christ was one such Prophet. However, it is believed that he taught love and tolerance of a different variety as compared to the one preached by Prophet Abraham. Some Researchers wonder if Christ ever existed; and if he did exist, was he the kind of person depicted in the New Testament of the Bible? This view has found support after the discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls. Saint Paul, the founder of the Christian Church was the one who gave Christianity its present form. In one aspect, the Bible does not differ from the Quran: both propagate the view that if you do not abide by the Holy Scripture, you are destined to be consigned to the flames of hell. Christians (erroneously) believed that Jews had crucified Jesus and subsequently went on to torture and convert them, and those who refused to convert were tortured to the extreme. That is perhaps why Jews have refrained from converting others. Further, Jews have always been victims of torture and still do endure harassment in several parts of the world. Pope Pius XII knew that Hitler was executing Jews in Gas chambers. Hitler executed 60 Lac Jews in all. Pope Pius XII was notoriously known as Hitler’s Pope since he maintained studied silence over Hitler’s activities. He could have advised Hitler and perhaps reduced the number of people murdered during Hitler’s rule. It is widely believed that the Pope saw this as a sort of vengeance towards the people who crucified Jesus Christ. Christians have not been able to provide a suitable explanation to Pope’s behaviour during Holocaust.

The notorious Goa Inquisition (257 years between 1560 and 1817; 230 pages) conducted by the Portuguese Clergymen documents the persecution of those who refused to convert. The inquisitions presided by Joseph Stalin were modelled on Christ’s Inquisition. The Goa Inquisition was conducted behind closed doors in a big house in Goa. The priests subjected such men, women and children to torture with the belief that those who do not believe in Jesus must be under the influence of the Devil and therefore must be brought to faith by punishment. The screams of the victims used to echo in the vicinity deep into the night when they were whipped, their limbs ripped, and their eyelids were torn and their bodies were violated in the presence of members of their family.

Diego de Bordeaux, a priest and Miguel Vaz, the ruler of the territory had drafted a 41 point plan to torture Hindus into conversion. Under this plan, the then Viceroy of Goa, Antonio de Noronha released a directive to the province of Goa in 1566 that ordered: “ I hereby order that under the rule of my Monarch, no new Hindu temple shall be allowed to be constructed or repaired, in this province. Permission has to be sought to repair existing temples and the violation of this order will result in the destruction of the temple in case and the material inside such temples shall be confiscated”.

Other examples of his ordinances: Hindus shall not play musical instruments in their wedding ceremonies. Relatives shall not be invited for engagement. People shall not receive auspicious returns in weddings. There was a blanket ban on following rituals related to weddings, funerals, wearing traditional attire, growing revered herbs like Tulsi and following rituals related to penance and fasting. On September 22, 1570, an ordinance was issued that gave Hindus who converted to Christianity relief from paying taxes for a period of 15 years. They were required to stop using their Hindu names and family names. The Goa Inquisition would fill up several pages. Readers may refer to A K Priolkar’s THE GOA INQUISITION (Voice of India. New Delhi). Pages 79-84 of his book provide a full account of the Hindu temples destroyed by Missionaries with details of the places these temples belonged to. The book also contains a reference section with accounts by Portuguese authors of those times who have recorded these details. There is no difference between the Christian Missionaries and Muslim Kings who tortured Hindus and destroyed Hindu temples in response to those who refused to convert. Millions of Hindus in Goa fled to neighbouring states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala due to the lack of religious freedom. They call themselves Konkani Hindus. Chief among them were the GSBs (Gaud Saraswat Brahmins) and Saraswats.

Renowned Historian K M Panicker states thus in the twelfth chapter (PORTUGUESE RELIGIOUS POLICY IN MALABAR) of his book MALABAR AND THE PORTUGUESE (Voice of India, New Delhi, 1997- Reprint): The Rulers of Malabar never interfered in the ways of life of the Syrian Christians. This has been recorded by the Portuguese themselves. However, at the first available opportunity the Indian Syrian Christians proclaimed their loyalty to the King of Portugal. They submitted their ancient manuscripts and religious artefacts to Vasco de Gama. They also committed themselves to his mission of annexing Indian states. They invited him to build a fortress in Granganoor to accomplish his mission. The Hindu Kings of Kerala ended up paying heavily for the patronage they afforded to Syrian Christians. The Portuguese Viceroy was eventually ordered to convert the Prince of Cochin.

Renaissance was a period in Europe that opened the minds of the elite to the existence of other faiths across the world. The advancement in art, science and technology brought in a modern outlook in people in various nations of Europe and they began to question the methods and practices adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. This awareness resulted in gradual decline in the approach the Roman Catholic Church took in the matter of religious conversions. This also reduced Church sponsored torture for conversion across the world. The Protestants questioned the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church. The awareness created by modern Physics, Biology and Sociology resulted in an eventual rejection of the rule of Roman Catholic Church. The Church turned the tables on them by portraying that these new ideas had foundations in the theories originally propounded by the Church. It began referring to them as ‘Christian Science’. It then propounded a theory that Science and Faith are separate and faith cannot and should not be measured by the yardstick of Science.

The British who ruled India established their own Church of England. They did not want to destabilise their rule by directly confronting the faiths followed by people in India. They, therefore, began dissociating with the Missionaries outwardly. However, the British Government and the missionaries shared the same goal at one level: to destroy the sense of nationalism in Indians and thereby kill the spirit of resistance against the British rule. Systematically, through Macaulay’s education policy and dogmas such as Aryan Invasion, biased interpretation of Indian history, misinterpretation of caste system, commentary on Indian socio-political structures, census policy, the segregation of Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists from Hindu mainstream, supporting Muslim separatist movements etc., they injected their own divisive thought systems into University education to evolve a new breed of Indian citizens modelled on the British thought. The Missionaries deployed all these along with a sustained smear campaign on Hindu deities to ease the process of conversions. The Government allowed the missionaries a free growth path by granting their requests to open schools, colleges and hospitals across India and also allowed the allopathic system of medicine to gain wide acceptability. People who converted to Christianity received special favours and gained reservations in jobs and promotions. Converted Christians were indoctrinated into the ways of life of the British to ensure their continued loyalty to the Church and the British rule. The Indians were amazed at the kind of Institutions the British developed and I have seen this in Indians I know (however, we are now building much bigger institutions) However, we must not forget that they used the colleges to provide medical skills to Christians and to ensure their progress. Let us look at the support the British Government extended to Christians in building such institutions: A young man I know was praising the British for their enterprising nature that led to the conversion of forests to coffee plantations. A retired Revenue Official explained to me: A recommendation used to go out to the King’s Government from the resident British Official at Bangalore that some specified people had to be granted land for coffee estates. The recommendation was nothing but an Order. This order would then be passed down to a Taluk Amaldar through the District Administrator. The Amaldar would then appoint a revenue inspector to accompany a horse-ridden White King (all Whites were referred to as ‘King’ then) who would then go to a mountain top and point out an area of land with the tip of his index finger and demand that that land was needed. The revenue inspector would then obediently measure the land and report to higher officials. Within a week, the British Citizen would get thousands of acres of forests. The man would then employ locals to cut trees which he would sell to raise money for his coffee plantation. The Imperial Bank would lend money to such people (interest free) until the coffee trees bore fruit and once the crop yielded the interest rate would be one percent. Wasn’t it then brave of British citizens to build hill-top bungalows overlooking their vast coffee plantations? Well, how could Indians summon such courage? It is said that the Planters Association at Sakaleshpur bore a sign that read: “Locals and Dogs not allowed”.

These three Prophetic Religions born out of the desert and the religions born in India have one fundamental difference. All these Prophets claimed that their word was the ultimate truth and that God’s word has been sent through them. They demanded absolute submission and the alternative they offered was hell. They also propounded that God’s word, as pronounced by them, ought to be spread across the world as a message using violence if needed. Prophetic religions are basically blind-faiths. Indian faiths that derive their roots from the Vedas state: ekam sat viprAh bahudha vadanti (There is only one truth- the learned men explain it in different ways). This free thought has found echo in several Indian religious channels. In Jain philosophy syadvAda (syat = possibility; existence) holds prime position. It delineates that there is nothing that can claim to be absolute truth – including what I say. There is every possibility that the exact opposite may be true or both could coexist. Jains identify the possibility of existence of up to seven truths at one time. This is an expression of the previously stated Vedic philosophy of One Truth. All Indian religious testaments agree on this basic philosophy. They encourage debate. This is perhaps what differentiates Indian religions that encourage exploration of truth from Prophetic Religions that command unflinching obedience to the Gospel. The Sages (Rishis) behind Vedas (texts outlining the basic tenets of what evolved to become the Hindu way of life) and Upanishads (texts containing the essence of Vedas) were not Prophets. Koenraad Elst, a Belgian Scholar on Religious Evaluation, states in his book Psychology of Prophetism: “Prophets talk a great deal about themselves. They ascribe special powers to themselves and state that they have a special connection with the Creator of the World. Sages, on the other hand, talk about Universal Truths and that these truths can
be divined in a state of awareness which can be achieved through practice”. Koenraad Elst’s book is a must read for anyone who has a serious interest in the study of religions. The Buddha was not a Prophet but a Sage who indulged in the study of treatise belonging to the age of Upanishads. His insights are not contrary to the ones presented in the Upanishads. One might want to consult R D Ranade’s A Constructive Survey of the Upanishadic Philosophy (see the second section of the fourth volume. This has been translated to Kannada by R R Divakar, D R Bendre, and S B Joshi within two years of the printing of the original. I have a 2004 edition of the Kannada version printed by Gurudev Ranade Samadhi Trust, Nimbal, Bijapur). Vedic Religions, Jainism and Buddhism use the term Dharma (Way of Life) and not the term Religion, employed by Prophetic Religions.

The Vedic philosophy made our spiritual leaders silent bystanders when the prophetic religions annexed India. When the invading Rulers forced millions of men, women and children into submission, torture and conversion, our spiritual leaders saw it as an aberration in their behaviour and not as a flaw with the religion that advised conversion by force. There is a story concerning the then Seer of Shringeri Mutt Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati which is seen to depict the broad-mindedness of Hindus. When a European approached him and requested to be converted to a Hindu, the Swamiji is said to have replied, “You become a good Christian. You will then be seen as a Hindu, as well”. Did the Swamiji know that a ‘good’ Christian is expected to convert as many people as possible to Christianity? Or was he ensnared by the magnanimity of the Vedic Philosophy of One Truth? Or was he not able to tide over the mental block of accepting a person of another religion into the Hindu fold? These questions remain unanswered. When Muslims were forcing Hindus to convert, or when the Portuguese were conducting their inquisition in Goa and Malabar, or even when Christian priests were going around converting people in the guise of social service Hindu Leaders remained complacent instead of proactively analysing the underlying philosophy of these predatory religions. Sri Vidyaranya who was the source of inspiration and Guiding force behind the establishment of the Vijayanagara Empire was well-aware of the cultural and political milieu of his times. However, I have not come across any work of his that analyses the issues of his period. To my knowledge, Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Swami Vivekananda were the only Spiritual Leaders who directly approached the task of analysis of predatory religions from the perspective of philosophical and spiritual assessment. The lack of awareness of predatory religions among the Hindu spiritual Leaders of the past and present times is prevalent among most educated Hindus. This predatory philosophy is the driving force behind suicidal Jehadis and missionaries who travel far and wide into the Indian hinterland to convert people.

It is natural to evaluate the utility of religion in rendering service to the community in context of economic progress of the state. In the west the concept of Welfare State brought in a social security net that included education, healthcare services, employment guarantee, unemployment support, care for the elderly etc. This brought in the awareness that the Government can protect the interests of citizens and religion, therefore, is not necessary to ensure service. A few decades ago, Indians used to look at the Christian Church and admire the services it extended to the community. Today, many Hindu Institutions have started serving people in the same manner. However, at the philosophical level, is community service the primary duty of religious institutions? It is gratifying to see Hindu Institutions doing community service in the context of failure of corrupt Governments and Politicians to do so. However, to what extent are these religious institutions fountains of spiritual knowledge? Are our religious institutions today equipped to meet the spiritual needs of people, beyond Social needs such as food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare? If we are to believe that spirituality is the source of our moral enlightenment, then spirituality must not be measured on the scale of community service.

In 1975, I had represented India in a one-month conference on Moral Education organised by UNESCO in Tokyo. We visited a few schools in Japan to understand how Moral Education is imparted. One of them was a Christian Missionary School. After a discussion, I asked the Principal, “How is your School different compared to other schools in this country?”
“A very good question,” he said, “about thirty of our students have converted to Christianity after coming of age”.

To him, morals meant conversion to Christianity. A non-Christian, therefore, is immoral. A Muslim Leader has said this about Mahatma Gandhi: “He may be a Mahatma, but he is worse than a sinful Muslim because he is not a Muslim”. Such bigots are not sensitive to the fact that morals are not affiliated to religion and that religious conversions must not take place through violence, coercion, torture, temptation or misinformation.

I have a question about Mother Teresa, who has great standing in international media and is today on the verge of Sainthood: Did she allow desolate Children who were sheltered by Missionaries of Charity to follow their religions? I had been to her institutions after her death. All children there have been converted to Christianity. Is this not a ploy for religious conversion? The Vatican Church funded such institutions and ensured that their work was glorified in Western media which was promptly echoed by Indian media without question. It is a pre-requisite for a person to have performed miracles during her/his lifetime to be considered for Sainthood. Nuns at Missionaries of Charity at Calcutta gave statements that they have witnessed Mother Teresa performing miracles. Intellectuals in India observed studied silence to such pronouncements when in the past they had vociferously questioned Sai Baba’s claims of miracles.

Now, I wish to narrate what I have witnessed in a few small villages about six decades ago. Village folk used to come out to see Siddaganga Swamiji (who used to go out in a bullock cart for alms) when they heard drums being beaten. Shivakumar Swamiji who is a centenarian now was about forty years old then. Village folk used to collect grains and vegetables from all houses and send them to Siddaganga which was about forty miles away, in their own bullock cart. Swamiji never used to ask for rations. He used to tell people: “Please send poor children from your villages to our institutions. We will provide for them and educate them. Education is very important”. The number of children then was limited. Over a period of time, it has grown to about eight thousand. Swamiji followed the path of renunciation and through the process of seeking alms, increased the number of people benefitting from Dasoha by visiting three to four villages every day. He offered shelter to children of all faiths. I have seen even Muslim children there who were not wearing lingas (a sign of conversion to Lingayat caste of Hinduism). Their belief is that religion is a matter of personal preference; our job is to provide them value-based education. He got his dues only recently by the Kannada media when he turned a centenarian. He never got the publicity that Mother Teresa got. It is certainly not a matter of dissonance too that he did not get wide-spread press. It is one of the five principles of renunciation to offer the credit of all good deeds to God. Stating that one has achieved something fuels egotism. Such people cannot reach higher levels of Yogic attainment. Malladihalli Raghavendra Swamiji, Baba Amte, Dr. Sudarshan of BiligiriRanga Hills and several others have dedicated their lives to selfless service. However, none of them have received the press received by Mother Teresa despite rendering greater service since they were not serving Jesus!

A lot of people live by the philosophy that they will be true Christians only when they convert at least a few people to their faith. This motivates thousands of people to spend their time in converting people to Christianity in remote corners of India. They receive training, support, funds, guidance and of course political backup (in case of adversity) from foreign missionaries. Hindus know only losing people to conversion and not gaining people. The Judiciary has interpreted a law related to religious conversion. However, who will implement it? When Hindus hand over people attempting to convert others to Police Custody, they are branded as fundamentalists by the media. Police does not take action. People who violate the law do not get punished. People who attempt to stem conversions are targeted by Christian institutions, political parties, self-proclaimed intellectuals and sundry entities of all hues. The Government arrests them on the pretext that they were spreading communal disharmony. Congress is used to sacrificing the interests of Hindus and defending such acts from the time of Nehru. Mahatma Gandhi had lost control over Congress before independence. Nehru’s viewpoints were always contrary to the Mahatma’s. Today, Congress is being controlled by a lady from the country that hosts Vatican City. It is essential for money-minded Congressmen to toe her line if they wish to stay in Congress. They then do not summon courage to criticise her policy of sponsoring conversions. Non-Congress Politicians like Devegowda, Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav and others have an eye on the lower-caste vote bank and choose to dissociate themselves from the BJP which has been branded as a pro-Hindu party. Communists swear by anti-Hindu principle. Today’s intellectuals are products of Macaulay’s education system. Most of our politicians are hypocrites who spend their mornings performing rituals in Hindu temples and publicly proclaim that they visit Masjids to pray to be born as a Muslim in their next life! Such politicians sit before statues of Gandhi fasting till noon to oppose people who resist conversions. Dalit Intellectuals oppose the suggestion to ban conversions. They fear that they will lose the trump card of threatening to convert to Christianity or Islam. The Church is attempting to provide reservations to Dalits who convert to Christianity thus eradicating the barrier for Dalits to convert; this is again opposed by Dalit intellectuals. They do not want to share the Dalit quota with Dalits who convert to Christianity. Y Samu