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Gandhi’s
concerns over Evangelization
Gandhi
viewed all conversions as acts of Spiritual Violence
"How
well we know what a profitable superstition this fable of Christ
had
been"
- Pope Leo X (1513 -
1521). The
Bible Fraud: An Untold Story of Jesus Christ - By Tony
Bushby
***
As we observe the anniversary
of Bapu’s martyrdom in the midst of fierce debate over the
activities of an obdurately evangelising church, it is
appropriate to recall the Mahatma’s vehement opposition to
Christian proselytisation. Gandhi’s observations on the
church in India, made more than half a century ago, have not only withstood the
test of time but encompass the entire spectrum of concerns that
missionary activities have recently aroused.
Young Gandhian, Niru Vora,
deserves credit for bringing out a timely collection of the
Mahatma’s writings on the subject in the wake of Pope John
Paul It’s call for a harvest of faith in Asia (Gandhiji’s
Dialogue with Christianity, Swaraj Peeth Trust,
1999). In his introduction, eminent Gandhian, Rajiv Vora
of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, has effectively summed up of the
issues at stake. As Vora points out, not only has the
Pontiff disregarded
India
’s civilisational sensibility, he has also charted out a plan
for her spiritual doom. In the face of this enormous
challenge, Vora states, it is imperative that we shed our moral,
spiritual and intellectual lethargy and make an all out bid to
strengthen our flanks. We have to
protect our religious space and cultural ethos, quench the
spiritual hunger of our downtrodden, and neutralise the money
and muscle power of the missionaries, white taking care not to
tread on their just rights as citizens of this country. Vora
attributes the dilemmas we face today to the inability of the
post-independence Indian state to positively define its secular
character. It is the absence of such a definition, he
says, that is responsible for the question that haunt us today. Conscience,
comes with the inherited faith; it represents the divine light
within us. To tamper with conscience is to tamper with the
work of the Almighty, no less.
Turning
Indian religious traditions into Vatican-franchised
museums
Christianity's
ambitious march around the World.
India is a
country where the minority
has more clout in the media and is politically more powerful
than the majority and where the Christian Church is the SECOND
LARGEST land owner in so called Hindu India.
Christian missions, Gandhi
repeatedly emphasized, were intent on uprooting our ancestral
faith and replacing it with an alien one.
Gandhi
viewed all conversions, not just forced or mass conversions, as
acts of spiritual violence.
We have to
protect our religious space and cultural ethos, quench the
spiritual hunger of our downtrodden, and neutralise the money
and muscle power of the missionaries, white taking care not to
tread on their just rights as citizens of this country.
***
Gandhi
viewed all conversions, not just forced or mass conversions, as
acts of Spiritual Violence.
He termed them as
‘blasphemy’, as ‘the deadliest poison that has ever sapped
the very foundation of truth’. Gandhi first experienced the
intolerance of Christian evangelists as a young boy in
Rajkot
. He would see them at a roadside corner near the High
School, pouring venom on Hindus and their gods. Around the
same time he heard stories of Hindu converts being forced to eat
beet and drink liquor at their baptism ceremony. For a
brief span Gandhi himself become a target of missionaries who
felt he was too good not to be a Christian. These early
encounters, together with later Knowledge of the ruthlessness of
missionary activity, turned him into a vociferous opponent of
proselytisation.
Christian missions, Gandhi
repeatedly emphasised, were intent on uprooting our ancestral
faith and replacing it with an alien one. He clarified
that he was not judging Christianity as a religion, just the
actions of Christian missionaries. On the personal front,
however, he added, he had tried to experience Christianity, but
found that it limited and restricted man’s quest for truth,
unlike Hinduism which was truly expansive and gave its followers
the widest scope for self-expression. Hinduism
alone, Gandhi said, entirely satisfied his soul and filled his
being. The solace he found in the Bhagavad Gita and the
Upanishads, he said, was missing in the Sermon on the Mount.
What he found particularly
unpalatable in Christianity, Gandhi confessed, was its refusal
to accept the spiritual equality of men. By insisting that
Christianity was superior to other faiths, the church sought to
destroy multiplicity of religions and engage in a form of
imperial conquest. Why should Christians, he asked, want
to convert Hindus to Christianity, why couldn’t they be
satisfied if the Hindus were good or godly men?
Mahatma
Gandhi and The Bhagavad Gita.
"Hinduism
alone, Gandhi said, entirely satisfied his soul and filled his
being. The solace he found in the Bhagavad Gita and the
Upanishads, he said, was missing in the Sermon on the Mount.
"
"If
I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all
proselytizing". "I resent the overtures made to
Harijans." "Stop all conversion, it is the deadliest
poison that ever sapped the fountain of truth."
Poverty doesn't justify conversion. Gandhi
was unequivocal In his condemnation of Christian evangelism.
Modem India
has no reason to deviate from his stand.
***
Gandhi found
missionary presence in India
as disruptive of inner peace and social harmony. He agreed
that Hinduism was no longer in its pristine state and a number
of wholly unacceptable abuses had crept into it. But he
insisted that every religion had the right to rejuvenate itself.
Hindus were entitled to offer repentance and reparation for the
reprehensible practice of Untouchability. Indeed, he felt
that it was vital they did so, for if Untouchability lived,
Hinduism, and
India
itself, would perish. Christians were welcome to assist in
this endeavour, but for them to work independently and seize
this as a chance for propaganda was unethical, Gandhi felt.
Gandhi
dismissed as ‘absurd’ the Christian claim of an upsurge of
spiritual hunger among Untouchables, and described most cases of
conversion as ‘false coin’.
He found the
British categorisation of tribals as ‘animists’ and
‘aborigines’ unacceptable, and said such thinking was alien
to the Hindu ethos. We may, in fact, view it as another
instance of the imperial divide and rule strategy which
present-day evangelists, backed by massive foreign funds and
foreign government claiming concern with human rights, are
seeking to revive.
Gandhi
was unequivocal In his condemnation of Christian evangelism.
Modem
India
has no reason to deviate from his stand.
(source: Gandhi’s
concerns over Evangelization
- By Meenakshi
Jain The Weekend Observer January 29, 2000).
Refer to Dismantle
the evangelical establishment - By Ram Madhav
***
Gandhi
was unequivocal In his condemnation of Christian Evangelism.
Mahatma
Gandhi writing in Young
India, he observed:
"If
I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all
proselytizing".
"I resent the overtures made to
Harijans." "Stop all conversion, it is the deadliest
poison that ever sapped the fountain of truth."
“Every
nation considers its own faith to be as good as that of any
other. Certainly the great faiths held by the people of
India
are adequate for her people.
India
stands in no need of conversion from one faith to another”.
Pope
Benedict Piously invokes Gandhi while
calling for Christianization of India
The
Vatican
invoked the memory of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi
in an appeal on Tuesday for an end to religious violence in
India
after anti-minority riots killed at least 35 people.
(source:
Vatican
invokes Gandhi in plea to end Orissa violence
- ibnlive.com).
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of Page
The
Future of African Gods - By
Professor Molefi Kete
Asante
Lessons
for Hindus - To deny
the validity of one's religion is to deny the validity of one's
civilization.
 David
Livingstone (1813-1873) was
a British Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the
London Missionary Society and explorer in central
Africa
.
He spoke of "the
white man's burden" to evangelize and civilize the peoples
of Africa." (Nobody bothered the ask the
Africans what they thought of this!).
Jaques
Maquet the anthropologist had called missionary
activities in Africa a "religious
commando attack, aimed at extirpating 'superstitious and
idolatrous' practices and converting whole groups."
The
missionaries in general have little respect for African cultures
and regard their peoples as ignorant savages. One early
twentieth century methodist missionary in Umtali, Zimbabwe,
wrote of the people he had set out to evangelize: "Heathen
and naked as new born babies, and as ignorant as beetles."
The missionaries were, of course, part of the oppressive
colonial forces in
Africa
.
Britain
’s
imperialistic activities in
Africa
from 1869 to 1912 had different motives.
Britain
wanted to colonize, find new markets and materials, attain
revenge and world prestige, convert
natives to Christianity, and spread the English style
of orderly government.
***
"When
the missionaries came to Africa we had the land; they had the
Bible. They asked us to pray with our eyes closed. When we
opened them they had our land, we had the Bible."
- Jomo Kenyatta (1897-1978),
first prime minister of Kenya.
 Molefi
Kete
Asante
(born as Arthur Lee Smith Jr. in 1942, in
Valdosta
,
Georgia
,
USA
) is a contemporary African American scholar in the field of
African studies and African American Studies. He is currently
Professor in the Department of African American Studies at
Temple
University
, where he founded the
first PhD program in African American Studies. He has astutely
observed that to
deny the validity of one's religion is to deny the validity of
one's civilization.
So
powerful is the concept of religion when we discuss it in
connection with civilization that to
deny the validity of one's religion is to deny the validity of
one's civilization. Indeed to deny one's religion as
valid is to suggest that the person is
a pagan, a heathen, uncivilized, and beyond the sphere of
humanity. So to talk about religion is to talk about
our views of ourselves, our understanding of our ancestors, and
our love of our culture.
There
are no people without traditions and traditions are the
lifeblood of a people. A people who refuse to express
its love and appreciation for its ancestors will die because in
traditions, if you are not expressing your own, you are
participating in and expressing faith in someone else's
ancestors. No person is devoid of an
attachment to some cultural fountain. Whose water are we
drinking?
Our
African history has been a recent orgy of forgetfulness. We
have often lost our memories and accepted the gods of those who
enslaved and colonized us. This is something the Chinese
and the Indians
have fought hard to keep at bay. While
we have often embraced our enemies gods they have found those
gods to be anathema to their interests. Show me the
gods we Africans worship and I will show the extent of our moral
and ethical decay. Those
who speak to us of Christian or Islamic morals have often been
the very ones who had defiled our ancestors' memories and called
out sacred rites paganism. Malcolm X once said that the world
pushes the African around because we give the impression that we
are chumps, not champs, but chumps, weaklings, falling over
ourselves to follow other people rather than our own traditions.
What
would be anything more pagan than the wanton willful destruction of
millions of Africans, Jews, Native Americans, Indians and
Chinese by Christians Europeans? How could white men
pray to a god on the second floor of a slave dungeon while on
the first floor they held our ancestors, yours and mine, in
horrible bondage? What kind of religion denied our humanity at
the same time they were raping our women, brutalizing our
children, and demanding our wealth and our souls? It
is true that the idea of Christian names or Muslim names
promotes and advances those cultures. Why must you change your
name even if you chose to buy into a foreign religion? What is
wrong with your name? Any religion that asks you to do what
others do not have to do is asking you to abandon your mother.
The question is, why would you abandon your mother?
Religion
in General
What is religion but the deification of ancestors, the making
sacred of traditions within the context and history. How can we
honor any god who was used against us? The only people who
accept alien gods are defeated people; all others honor and
accept their own name for the Almighty. We must learn to
appreciate ourselves and our traditions. What is wrong with the
African God?
What would we think of a Yoruba
who accepted Chinese ancestors as his own? We would find it
quite interesting and wonder how it came to be. But what of
Africans' acceptance of others' gods? Is there no tradition with
these alien gods? Of course there is tradition with these gods!
To accept the Jews' god or the Arabs' god is to valorize those histories above your own. Indeed,
it is to honor the names in those myths and stories higher than
your own stories, it is to love the language, the places in
their stories above your own. Why is
Mecca
,
Rome
, or Jerusalem
more sacred that Bosumtwi? Quite simply, it is imperialism, not
by force of arms, but by force of religion which sometimes comes
armed.
Tribes,
Religion
and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy -
By Joel
Kotkin, a book about people ready for the
21st Century claims that only Jews, Chinese, Indian, Japanese,
and British are ready. These groups have some commonalities
which include (1) strong sense of identity, (2) international
network, and (3) a passion for technology. Samuel
P
Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations claims that
there are six major civilizations: Chinese, Japanese, Orthodox,
Hindu, Western, Islamic. He says each one has a nation that is
vanguard, deeply committed to its religion and history. Africa
has no such vanguard nation and furthermore
Africa
has yet to emerge from under the cloaks of its interventionists.
Of 53 nations only one nation is more African in religion than
either Christian or Muslim. That nation is small
Benin
.
 Benin
is 87% popular traditional African Religion. But it
is a small nation with limited influence in a propaganda
fashion. As such we do not expect African traditional religion
to play a major part in the civilization of
Africa
for a long time to come, but we can begin to examine the
questions, to raise the issues, and to interrogate our
practices. T
he
British called Harry Lee the best Englishman east of the British
Isles when he finished
Oxford
. He changed his name, converted to Confucianism and they
wondered what happened to him. He learned Mandarin Chinese and
became Lee Kuan Yew, a leader who
rejected Western values. Asians are calling for Confucianism
as they emphasize tradition. The Japanese are calling for Nihonjinron,
Japanese values (Cultural nationalism).
Why
must we be stuck with the attitudes and values of the European,
so-called Christian values, particularly since they have shown
themselves to be bankrupt on many fronts.
(source: The
Future of African Gods - by
Professor Molefi Kete
Asante). Refer
to Christian
Missionaries
Note:
Why these double
standards?
Why is Asian Nationalism (Nihonjinron,
Confucianism and Hindutva) not desirable and worrisome to the
West but American nationalism (wrapping
oneself in the flag specially after Sept 11, 2001) considered
noble?
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Christian
Ummah
Have a
look at this report.
“India
’s Vengeful Christians turn to Murder as Hindus Step up
Their Killing Campaign”
The story
is a toxic blend of deception and half-truths. If this is the
“editorial excellence” of the mainstream
media of Anglo Saxons, one can imagine the bile
their fringe publications must be pouring over the rest of
humanity. The story has exactly the same quality and commitment
to “truth” as you see in any Urdu magazine published from a
Muslim ghetto in
Pakistan
. That is why I say that don’t mistake Anglo-Saxons for
harmless creatures just because they drink Coke and use
expensive
Cologne
. They are no different in toxicity than a Afghan Mullah in a
cave.
It is
fascinating to see the Christian Ummah
in action. Both Muslims and Christians want to screw
the unbelievers and take over their land and rule ove them, and
both have the modus operandi of “keep blaming the victim as
you cut his throat.”
The
strategy is simple: first convert the unbelievers, and then arm
the converts. The Whites are masters of this game.
Currently, they are pumping in money quietly in Orissa, Andhra
Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Tamil Nadu to create a critical
mass of converts out of us heathens. They will then weaponize
the newly brainwashed converts and start a terrorist movement
against the rest of the unbelievers in their own country. This
is the strategy that we are now seeing unfolding before us in
India
.
The Whites
have tasted blood and have been screwing
other races for 500 years and capturing their land and resources
to fatten themselves. Their genes have got corrupted
and become a liability to this world. They will not rest or stop
easily just because we politely ask them to. Only force and firm
action will work against them.
China
has understood this. The Whites and their church will make
short work of all “secular” and “non-violent” races,
especially those who are still sitting on a huge expanse of land
even after Partition.
(source: Christian
Ummah - indiarealist.com).
Refer to The
Cuckoo
Land
of Creationists and “Why
do people laugh at creationists?”
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