Can Christian missionaries succeed in defeating Hindu India ?

Dr. Vijaya Rajiva

The answer to this question is a clear resounding NEIN ! Why is this so ?

The two proselytizing faiths, Islam and Christianity have not succeeded in their stated goals : the conversion (and subjugation) of the infidels(according to Islam) and of the
pagans/heathen (according to Christianity). Indian history testifies to this failure. The onset of Islam in India was accompanied by murder and mayhem, the conversion at the point of the sword, the destruction of sacred books and temples in the thousands. Christianity (the Bible and the gun in Africa) followed the British colonists in India and in the few hundred years of British rule has little to show in the subcontinent, although the north eastern state of Mizoram is predominantly Christian. The attempt to establish a Christian state in Tamil Nadu fizzled out with the defeat of Pirubhakaran and his brutal hijacking of the genuine Tamil movement. In Tamilnadu the wily Karunanidhi knows too well that his popularity cannot be sustained only on the rhetoric of the Dravida movement. Readers should be reminded that Pirubhakaran (and his closest aide in London) were converts.

Now, Sonia Gandhi is behind the move to lift the PAP( preventing foreign missionaries from visiting trouble spots) which the Nehru government had installed to prevent the subversion activities of Christian missionaries in Nagaland. Here it must be pointed out that the Reverend Michael Scott who did yeoman service in the cause of Namibia against the white apartheid state of South Africa, was misled in his attempts to instigate the Nagas (A recent biography by admirers does not quite bring out this fact). Muivah, the present leader of an insurgent movement is a Christian convert. It must be pointed out that he also trained in China and Mynamar. The Maoist-Christian nexus is present in Nepal.

Sonia Gandhi ,it is reported, acts under the dictates of the Vatican, which is presently embattled by the scandals of the Church’s involvement in pedophilia and the money laundering activities of its banks. The white Christian populations of the West are increasingly disenchanted with the Church and is leaving in large numbers. The ‘debaptism’ movement is gaining ground. The church leaders of all denominations have sent out the call to their loyal followers to bring back the erring ones to the Christian fold and further to bring in new recruits. While white Christians are debaptising, every attempt is being made to baptize new converts, especially those in the developing world.

Ofcourse there are the disingenuous attempts to build interfaith dialogue and here we see the bizarre spectacle of Hindus themselves involved in the movement. Hinduism has always respected the faith of other peoples and so it is not clear why this movement should draw their attention. Likewise, the new move in the name of interfaith dialogue to build mosques in Kerala (the funding comes from Saudi Arabia !). There is also the Hindu businessman based in Doha (Quatar) who uses his philanthropy as he calls it, to build a large mosque in northern Kerala (specifically Kozhikode). He is one Cheril Krishna Menon.

He disingenuously states that he has received the generous permission of the Muslim clergy both in Doha and in India for this project ! It would be relevant to ask whether the philanthropist plans to build a Hindu temple in Doha and whether the said clergy would give generous permission for that.

There is no doubt that since the advent to power of Sonia Gandhi in 1998 there has been an accelerated harassment of Hindus within Bharat, not to mention the indifference to their plight as minorities in Pakistan, and in Bangladesh. Hindus are fighting back in their own way. For instance, when the Sheila Dikshit municipal government in Delhi bulldozed a Hindu temple without warning and in the process shattering the murtis there, the nationalist forces protested. Kudos to those Hindus !

The liberal press and its  liberal/left followers have looked the other way, partly indifferent, partly collaborating, and many being closet converts. There are reports that the Sonia entourage is dominated by a personal secretary, one Mr. Ahmed , and also others who wear a large Hindu tilak on their foreheads  but are actually  Christian converts etc.

The redoubtable Digvijay Singh recently remarked that it was futile to ban the Sangh Parivar whose leader is the RSS. Instead, he suggested a carefully crafted ideological defeat. Needless to say, he and his protégé Rahul Gandhi have hardly followed their own agenda of craftiness. Their recent bull in the china remarks have not helped !

Will the Sonia coterie defeat Hindu India? The present writer does not believe that this will happen. Nor will Hinduism be defeated by the wiles of the Christian missionaries. This is not only because of the historical record but because the nature and structure of Hinduism will not allow it.

The proselytizing faiths have only their one God (in whose name they have visited violence and conquest on the peoples of the earth). Hinduism on the other hand has a multiplicity of Devas who are ever present not only in Bharat but also throughout the planet.

The belief in these Devas (benign beings) is durable and does not have the false teflon quality of the proselytizing faiths. The Vedic vision can never be defeated because of its all pervasive vision, its universalism. The Rig Vedic celebration of the three worlds of celestial, atmospheric and terrestrial forces is a joyous one and undergirds the entire Hindu tradition.

Proabably no other religion has so much festivity associated with its religious worship.
Music, dancing, flowers, water, fruit are lavishly present in every ritual. The worship of Fire as in the worship of Agni (Rig Veda) is a constant reminder of the presence of the five elements, the Pancha Bhutas.  The Viswa Devas are repeatedly invoked both in the Vedas and in contemporary Hinduism.

Bharat then is sacred earth (Punya Bhumi) and as the world’s populations comes to the
realization that their own land is also Punya Bhumi the struggle against the colonizing asuric forces will be strengthened.

Vande Mataram !

(The writer is a Political Philosopher who taught at a Canadian university)

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