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The Pope in India
By Francois Gautier
The Hindustan Times

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November 1, 1999

Numerous religious leaders have pointed out that it will be counter-productive for Hindus to protest against the Pope's coming to India -- and that rather he should be welcomed in the traditional manner. "We welcome him in the fullness and the confidence of a civilisation which is thousands of years old", says Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the Bangalore-based Art of Living.

At the same time, the Pope should help remove in the minds of Christians the idea that Hinduism is polytheism, as Hindus have always acknowledged the One from which all creation happened. Indeed, Hindus accept everything: many of them are even ready to put an altar for Jesus in every temple -- but will the Church accommodate their Upanishads and Vedas? It is doubtful! May be then should the Pope publicly state that Hinduism is not satanic -- as it is described in the latest pamphlet released by the US-based Southern Baptist Church -- and acknowledge the fact that it has influenced many religions over the millenniums.

It is also hoped that the Pope will ask Catholic missionaries to put a brake on conversions because if you honour and respect all other religions -- as the Hindus do -- the culture of conversion is not needed. But unfortunately there is not yet any sanction in Christianity to similarly respect other religions. If only the Pope could tell his missionaries just to do service in the remote areas and leave the tribals to their indigenous practises, there would not be any more problems!

It is also clear that the Christian community of India has overreacted in the past 16 months, because Christianity has often alienated Indian Christians from the mainstream -- it even sometimes gave Christians an unfortunate feeling of superiority over Hindus. They are afraid, or loath, for instance, to participate in anything that has a Hindu connotation; or they are made to change their names. And since they get alienated, a certain fear psychosis sets in.

The Pope might remind Indians that Christianity brought education to them. But did you know for instance that there were 125,000 medical institutes in Madras before the Europeans came? In fact, Indians never lacked education -- the latest archaeological and linguistic discoveries point out that the Western world owes much of its sciences and philosophy to ancient India – the Christians only brought British education to India, which often caused more damage by Westernising many of India's upper classes.

As for the Pope's probable announcement that he is speeding up the process of beatifying Mother Teresa, it's all a drama! What is the point of conferring sainthood on someone who is dead! History books should in fact be rewritten to include harsher consequences of Christianity in India.

And of all the European colonisers, the Portuguese seem to symbolise best the total disregard, ill-will and destructive spirit of Christianity towards Hindu India. Whatever all the folklore today about the "relaxed atmosphere" of Goa (the good life, the wine, the sensuous women), the Portuguese were indeed a ruthless lot.

In 1498, Vasco da Gama was generously received by Zamorin, the Hindu king of Calicut, who granted him the right to establish warehouses for commerce. But once again, Hindu tolerance was exploited and the Portuguese wanted more and more: in 1510, Alfonso de Albuquerque seized Goa, where he started a reign of terror, burning heretics, crucifying Brahmins, using false theories to forcibly convert the lower castes, razing temples to build churches and encouraging his soldiers to take Indian mistresses.

As for the Anglican missionaries, who arrived in India on the heels of the British, they were not much better. heir first prey were the the tribal people, whom they promptly proceeded to name as the "original" inhabitants of India, who were colonised by the "bad" Brahmins, during the mythical Aryan invasion. "Was it not right, they said, to free them from the grip of their masters, who had enslaved them both socially and religiously"?

Thus, they set the low castes against the mainstream of Hindu society and sowed the seeds of a conflict, which was later exploited by Indian politicians. And remember the words of Swami Vivekananda, who nearly a century ago had cried in anguish at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago: "If we Hindus dig out all the dirt from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and throw it in you faces, it will be but a speck compared to what the missionaries have done to our religion and culture".

Should the Hindus then demand an apology from the Pope, or should they tolerate his visit as they have tolerated the presence of Muslim and European invaders so many times before? "There is no question of tolerating the Pope, smiles mischievously Shri Shri Ravi Shankar : tolerance has a negative connotation, as it implies that we tolerate something we don't like... In fact, we like everybody".

 

 

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