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Converting
Mahatma Gandhi
Just
as converting Dr. Ambedkar to Buddhism was expected to bring in a group of
Dalits into the Buddhist fold, strenuous marketing efforts were made to convert
Gandhiji to Christianity so that a mass of Hindus would fall in line and embrace
Christianity. But Gandhi frowned upon proselytizing. He said: " I claim to
be a staunch Sanatani Hindu because, I find the Hindu scriptures to satisfy the
needs of the soul. I would dispute the claim that Christianity is the only true
religion." (source: The Mahatma and The Missionary
- By Clifford Manshardt p. 58-59). "
Religion is not a matter of barter." (ibid.p. 71). "Yes, I do maintain
that India's great faiths are all-sufficing for her.." (source: Collected
works of Mahatma Gandhi 1969)Vol. 46 p.28-29). Mahatma
Gandhi has stated -"God is not so helpless in winning souls all by himself
as to need anybody's help."
Quotes from Gandhi on
Conversion
I believe that there is no such
thing as conversion from one faith to another in the accepted sense
of the word. It is a highly personal matter for the individual and his
God. I may not have any design upon
my neighbor as to his faith which I must honor even as I honor my own.
Having reverently studied the scriptures of the world I could no more
think of asking a Christian or a Musalman, or a Parsi or a Jew to change his
faith than I would think of changing my own.
(source: Harijan: September 9, 1935).
I came to the conclusion long ago ... that all religions were
true and also that all had some error in them, and that whilst I hold by my own,
I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian
should become a Hindu ... But our innermost prayer should be that a Hindu should
be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian.
(source: Young India: January 19, 1928)
Why should a Christian want to
convert a Hindu to Christianity?
Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?
(source: Harijan: January 30, 1937)
.
I am not interested in weaning you from Christianity and
making you Hindu, and I do not relish your designs upon me, if you had any, to
convert me to Christianity. I
would also dispute your claim that Christianity is the only true religion.
(source: Harijan: June 3, 1937).
Conversion nowadays has become a matter of business like any
other ... India (Hindus) is in no need of conversion of the kind ... Conversion
in the sense of self-purification, self-realization, is the crying need of the
times. That however is never what is meant by proselytizing.
To those who would convert India (Hindus), might it not be said:
Physician heal thyself. (source: Young India: April 23,
1931)
I hold that proselytizing under the
cloak of humanitarian work is unhealthy to say the least.
It is most resented by people here.
Religion after all is a deeply personal thing. It touches the heart.
Why should I change my religion because a doctor who professes
Christianity as his religion has cured me of some disease, or why should the
doctor expect such a change whilst I am under his influence?
(source: Young India: April 23, 1931).
Christianity in India has been inextricably mixed up for the
last one hundred and fifty years with British rule. It appears to us as synonymous with materialistic
civilization and imperialistic exploitation by the stronger white races of the
weaker races of the world. Its
contribution to India has been therefore, largely negative.
(source: Young India: March 21, 1929).
A Parody
of Christian Schools
Excerpts from R.
K. Narayan's book Swami
and Friends.
" The scripture period was the last in the
morning...The only trouble was that the Scripture master, Mr. Ebenezar, was a
fanatic.
"Oh wretched idiots!" the teacher said, clenching his fists, "Why
do you worship dirty, lifeless, wooden idols, and stone images? Can they talk?
No. Can they see? No. Can they bless you? NO. Can they take you to Heaven? No.
Why?
Because they have no life. What did your Gods do when Muhammed of Gazni smashed
them to pieces, trod upon them, and constructed out of them steps to for his
lavatory? If these idols and images had life, they did they not parry Mohammed's
onslaught?"
He then turned to Christianity. "Now see our Lord Jesus. He could cure the
sick, relieve the poor, and take us to Heaven. He was real God. Trust him and he
will take you to Heaven; the Kingdom of Heaven is within us." Tears rolled
down Ebenezar's cheek when he pictured Jesus before him. Next moment his face
became purple with rage as he thought of Sri Krishna: "Did our Jesus go
gadding about with gopis? Did our Jesus go about stealing butter like that arch
scoundrel Krishna? ....
Swaminathan
got up and asked: "If he did not, why was he crucified?" The
teacher told him that he might come to him at the end of the period and learn it
in private. Swaminathan put in another question: "If he was God, why did he
eat flesh and fish and drink wine?" In answer to this, Ebenezar left
his seat, advanced slowly towards Swaminathan, and tried to wretch his left ear
off.
(source: Through
the Indian Eyes: The Living Tradition - By
Donald J. Johnson and Leon E.
Clark. p; 182).
****
The Famous British African Explorer
Sir Henry Morton
Stanley (1841-1904)
remarked, when inspecting the original
maxim gun:
"What a splendid instrument for
spreading Christianity and civilization among the savage races of Africa.!"
(source: Eastern
Religions & Western Thought - By Sir Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan
p.341).
The famous anthropologist Lt. Gen. Pitt-Rivers, (1827-1900)
writes: " The public at home probably does not appreciate how strongly the
majority of field ethnographers, sympathetically anxious to learn all about the
customs and religion of people and working in all parts of the world, have been
driven, often against their inclinations, to the conclusion that Christian
proselytism, has done irretrievable harm to native races by disintegrating their
culture
and to us also by the unrest and antagonism the process evokes."
(source: The
Clash of Culture and Conflict of Races, p. 240 http://units.ox.ac.uk/departments/prm).
Bible
Burning Row Ignites Israeli Jews - Orthodox
Jews have burned hundreds of New Testaments in the latest act of violence
against Christian missionaries in
Israel
. Proselytizing is frowned upon in
Israel
.
New Testament seeks to convert all non-Christians, not just Jews. Proselytizing
is illegal, trying to change Jews into being Christians is illegal, to hand out
bibles is illegal.
Hate
Literature - by Christian Missionaries in India
Christian fundamentalists are aimed
at destabilising the Hindu society and also the state. Christian
fundamentalists’ literature is making rounds in the whole country, heaping
abuse on Hindu deities and mocking at the religious symbols and practices of the
Hindus. Apart from “aggressive harvesting” efforts this literary
insinuation against Hindu religion is one of the major causes of communal
disturbance in the country.
Take for instance, a book in
Malayalam with a title Haindava Suvishesheekaranam. It interprets the meaning of
the sacred Pancakshara mantra Om Namah Shivaya as “Let Evil Befall” (p.
113).
The magazine Indian
Messenger (September 1998) calls the great Kumbha Mela, which
attracts millions of Hindu devotees, a superstitious deception. “The belief
that the mud of sins in human souls can be purified for ultimate liberation
through Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati is superstitious. The
Kumbha Mela represents this superstitious deception,” it says. But
strangely in a superstitious tone and words it claims: “Liberation from sins
can be attained only by the unpolluted blood of Christ the virtuous.” Note not
only the superstitions but also the audacity of the suggestion. Shri Sai Baba, to these Christian
fundamentalists, is a satanic spirit and Mata Amritanandamayi a mentally
retarded woman. To quote: “The miracles said to have been performed by Sai
Baba is mere magic. Satanic spirit dwells in him. Mata Amritanandamayi is a
mentally retarded woman. She is half mad and what she does is stupidity”.
Again, the Haindava
Suvishesheekaranam says: “No Hindu gods and goddesses exists who have not
surrendered to Christ. If Krishna, Rama and Indra surrendered before Christ,
what other evidence is necessary to prove that he is the only true God” (p.
181-182).
This Christian fundamentalist propaganda
literature often describes Bharat as a “State of Devil”. Dr K.P. Yohannan in
his book Anant Prakash mein Jeevan Vyatheeth Karain writes: “Every time a
Hindu is baptized and converted to Christianity, there is a great disturbance in
the State of Devil” (p. 114).
Dr. Yohannan’s is not the
solitary instance. In fact, he is one of the many who project such views.
Another statement in a book named Samvaad: Kyon and Kaisai (Masibi Drishtikon
Se) by Dr Benzami Khan are equally inciting: “Moral values play a negligible
role in Hindu religion” (p. 98).
Common Hindu
traditions are always ridiculed. For example application of bindi, tilak sindoor
are jeered at as devil eye and related to satanic spirits. “Even though tilak
is considered a symbol of Shiva by the Hindus, the use of these symbols is
dangerous and gives them an opportunity to come under the influence of satanic
spirit.
The missionary propaganda
literature has throughout indulged in spreading canards against the Hindu
society. It also twists and misrepresents the facts. For instance: “The old
Hindu political, economic and philosophical writings like Kautilya’s Artha
Sastra and Manu Samiti did not count the dalits and the tribes as human being.
The vedas treated them as Chandals, Gita and Mahabharata showed them as wild
animals like monkeys and Rawanas.” This is what you read in Bishop
Nirmal Minz’s book Rise
Up, My People, And Claim the Promise. He goes on to write: “In
the past they (tribes) have been treated as something less than human, according
to Hindu attitudes and understanding.”
Finally, if these propagandists are
to be believed, the majority of the Hindus are slaves, untouchables, Poor,
looters, thieves and nonbelievers. A book Confusion
called Conversion by Sunder Raj
is entirely devoted to malign the Hindu people. Now tell us who are the haters
of the other religionists?
(source:
Hate
Literature - By Rajendra
Chadha).
Top
of Page
Tolerance in Hinduism
According to Paul William Roberts,
"Conversion has largely failed in India because Christianity offers nothing
that is not already available somewhere in the many forms of Hinduism. Hinduism
never rejected the teachings of Jesus. Those who have converted either agreed
with a gun pressed at their skulls as in Goa, or because it provided an escape
from caste tyranny, as well as a guaranteed professional advancement. Through
its Vedic legacy, Hinduism respects all faiths. It clearly states that God is
one, but has many forms. The Christian message must sound preposterous: that God
is indeed one, but has only one recognized form, his son. The
"savages" of India were sophisticated - so sophisticated that the
imperialist mixture of church and state in Europe could not grasp such
sophistication. The
sheer power of Hinduism terrified the Christian soldiers. The British were more cunning at
the game than the Portuguese, careful to show respect for Indian religions. Yet
they sneered at the pagans behind their back, educated the Indian elite in
British-run schools, or at Eton and Cambridge - which, if it did not guarantee
conversion to Christianity, resulted in lapsed Hinduism, agnosticism, or an
intellectual humanism.
In
India, Anglo indoctrination produced a generation of "brown sahibs"
who looked down on the religion of the masses, the opium of the people. Such is
the power of colonization that a whole generation must pass before the
paralyzing spell wears off. "
(source: Empire
of the Soul: some journeys in India - By Paul William Roberts p.
323-325)
To quote Sir
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, " The
intolerance of narrow monotheism is written in letters of blood across the
history of man from the time when first the tribes of Israel burst into the land
of Canaan. The worshippers of the one jealous
God are egged on to aggressive wars against people of alien cults.
They invoke divine sanction for the cruelties inflicted on the conquered. The
spirit of old Israel is inherited by Christianity and Islam, and it might not be
unreasonable to suggest that it would have been better for Western civilization
if Greece had molded it on this question rather than Palestine. Wars of religion
which are the outcome of fanaticism that prompts and justifies the extermination
of aliens of different creeds were practically unknown in Hindu India."
(source: The
Hindu View of Life - By Sir. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
p. 39-41) Material in this book was originally delivered in the form of
lectures, the Upton Lectures, in 1926, at Manchester College, Oxford.)
From the earliest date the Christian church had taught that all the pagan
religions were invented by the devil. The whole early medieval psychology
of sin was bounded with this. St. Augustine
had sanctioned the idea that the demons persuaded the ancients to false belief.
Some of the most virulent attacks on pagan gods are to be found in St.
Augustine's De Civitata Dei. This
goes a long way in explaining the deliberate Christian attempts to portray the
Hindu gods as demonic and the intolerance of the Christian missionaries.
The
Vedas say that "
the wise call the One by many names", and exhort us to "let good
thoughts come to us from everywhere"; in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna assures the adherents of all
religions that "those who pray with devotion to another god, it is to Me
that they pray."
Many
foreign groups of people persecuted for their religion came to seek refuge in
India. The Parsis (Zoroastrianism)
have thrived. The heterodox Syrian Christians have lived in
peace until the Portuguese came to enlist them in their effort to christianize
India. The Jews have expressed their gratitude when they left for Israel because
India was the only country where their memories were not of persecution but of
friendly co-existence. All these groups were not merely tolerated, but received
land and material support for building places of worship. Yuan Chwang,
Chinese traveler, reports that at the great festival of Prayaga, King Harsha dedicated on the
first day a statue to the Buddha, another to the sun, the favorite deity of his
father, on the second, and to Shiva on the third. The famous Kottayam plates of
Sthanuravi (ninth century AD) and the Cochin plates of Vijayaragadeva bear
eloquent testimony to the fact that the Hindu kings not only tolerated
Christianity but granted special concessions to the professors of that faith.
Today, The Tibetan Buddhist and their spiritual head, the Dalai Lama have taken
refuge in India, from the persecution of Communist China.
Hinduism is fabulously famous for its
tolerance for all religions. What it cannot tolerate is any religion that
declares it has a unique monopoly over God.
Hinduism classic contention as stated at the outset in the Rig Veda:
"Truth is one; sages call it by different names." or
"Ekam sath, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti"
"How artistic, that there should be room for such variety - how rich the
texture is, and how much more interesting than if the Almighty had decreed one
antiseptically safe, exclusive, orthodox way. Although he is Unity, God finds,
it seems, his recreation in variety!" But beyond these differences, the
same goal beckons."
(Source: Prema Chaitanya, praises Hinduism's classic
contention The World's Religions - By Huston
Smith
p 73 & 81).
***
Aggressive
Evangelism
A new mood of aggressive
evangelism has been emanating from America. Well-funded, superbly networked,
backed by the highest of the land, seized of its moral supremacy, it has India
as one of its key targets
"That
missionary activity was a tool and an adjunct of colonial expansion is no
secret. And colonialism is not dead; it has only taken a new, more sophisticated
form.”
-- by Sultan Shahin
"These Christian
missionaries have perfected their con game over centuries. They came to India
and setup hospitals, schools and universities in order to try to fool the people
into believing that they are there for social welfare. After setting up their
traps and firmly entrenching themselves these followers of the 'true faith' act
upon their real motives. They attempt to convert the uncivilized pagans in many
ways: promise of jobs and money in return for conversion to the 'true faith',
financing of the separatist movements in the country which will further divide
the Hindus and make them more vulnerable, threatening and harming school
children to force them to believe in Christ, calling public gatherings where
Hindu Gods are demeaned and Christ is praised, promoting myths and superstitions
in order to scare people into believing in Christ, and so on.” -
The Sinister Designs of the Christian Missionaries in India – by Vikram
Chobe.
"The Christian Church has
left a legacy, a world view, that permeates every aspect of Western Society,
both secular and religious. It is a legacy which fosters sexism, racism, the
intolerance of difference and the destruction of the natural environment. The
church, throughout much of its history, has demonstrated a disregard for human
freedom, dignity, and self-determination. It has attempted to control, contain
and confine spirituality, the relationship between an individual and God. As a
result, Christianity has helped to create a society in which people are
alienated not only from each other but also from the divine.” - by
V Sunaram.
"In
essence, evangelism is nothing less than an act of violence, hate and
intolerance against non-Christians. Put in simpler terms: evangelism is a hate
crime."
"The
problem for new democracies of the post-colonial era like India is that foreign
missionaries use the very freedom of a secular state to promote their
anti-secular agendas." -- Missionary
Activity & Secularism : Pope's Visit by David Frawley
***
Soul
terrorists? Destruction of other faiths and cultures?
"Intolerance
towards other Faiths – In the eyes of a Christian, all who do not belief in
Christ are damned eternally. Therefore, anyone who is not a Christian is not a
good person in the eyes of a Christian and it is his/her duty to
"save" or convert them.
With this view, it is impossible for a Christian to peacefully coexist with
them. In a true Christian’s ideal world, all humans will be "saved".
This means that the whole world would have to be
Christian and all other faiths must be destroyed. Just this statement
alone proves what is wrong with this Christian ideology."
- By
Yoginder
Sikand.
"In Tripura the Christian
missionaries were behind extremist activities in the Northeast states and that
there were 19 outfits conducting activities in the region, mainly targeting
Hindus. Those who refuse to convert are tortured or killed, in the past few
years, more than 18 Vaishnav ashrams run by Hindus in Tripura have been
demolished by the Christians, while those who dominate the upper classes, force
people to adopt Christianity." -- The
peculiar position of swamis from the N-E by Swami Kripalanandji of Giri
Parampara
(source: conversionagenda.com
- http://conversionagenda.blogspot.com).Watch
Sewa
or Service work by RSS.
Preparing for Harvest - By V K Shashi Kumar of Tehelka.com
The
article "Preparing for the harvest…." Runs into full 11 pages
followed by an editorial A
Private faith made dangerously public - By
Tarun j. Tejpal
"A
new mood of aggressive evangelism has been emanating from America. Well funded,
superbly neworked, backed by the highest of the land, seized of its moral
supremacy, it has India as one of its key targets, reveals V
K
Shashikumar in a disturbing expose". "Missionary-run operations have
put in places a system which enables The US Government to access any
ethnographic information on any location virtually at the click of the
mouse".
Like most stories, this one started with an innocuous tip. Correspondent V K
Shashikumar stumbled upon the database that been painstakingly prepared over a
decade by AD 2000 & beyond movement.
A careful read triggered numerous questions. The numbers and the spread of the
new converts were mind-boggling.
Conversions in India are not illegal, provided they are not forced or
induced by financial lure or economic gain…Who were the many strategists, the
financial backers? How were they circumventing clearly laid out procedures
according to which converts have to go through the district magistrate and the
police?
The only way of finding definite answers was by assuming Christian identities,
which V K Shashikumar and Maya
Bhushan Nagvenkar both did, they worked on investigation and piecing
together the story for more than three months. In this time they sent out more
than 500 emails and read through more than 10000 pages of propaganda and
information. Armed with news names, fresh email id, and visiting cards, they
scoured various parts of India to did out what they discovered was a huge
network A
net work that had been spurned by born-again president Bush and his team of
evangelist advisors.
The conversion drive was more than just a numbers game; it was an unabashed
exercise about exploiting the legal loopholes. And the aim was sinister, for it
was all being done in the name of God and his messengers who have scientifically
mapped Christian population areas down to every district level and block.
Frightening and equally
sinister was the revelation that US transnational organisation had personal data
down to the last man, important because he was the vehicle who could get the
next convert. And so our investigation unfolded. Till we ready with our
comprehensive report."
The Tehelka reporters have
done a pioneering Job in the history of Indian Journalism, by exposing the
missionary and political nexus that emerges from the citadels of Washington DC,
Ottowa, Sydney, London, Berlin and Stockholm, and Auckland. Backed by the
religious right in America, Associations in India see the HIV/AIDS pandemic as
an opportunity to evangelize"
(source: A
Private faith made dangerously public - By
Tarun j. Tejpal and IndianCivilization
- yahoogroup.com).
The
sound of silence
The lions of Indian activism
climbed on rooftops with their megaphones when Tehelka previously exposed
allegations of corruption against George Fernandes: They demanded that everyone
remotely linked to his work should resign and go to jail. However,
given their hush silence over this latest Tehelka report, one wonders whether
these Indian lions have turned into Western lapdogs and become the bearers of
global evangelism.
Indian
activists have orchestrated a massive hue and cry over NRI funding of suspicious
Hindutva activities -- such open inquiries are indeed important in bringing
transparency. However, the dual-purpose funds being channeled from Western
institutions dwarf the alleged size of suspicious Hindutva funds. Foreign
organisations pressuring for a politically weak, unstable and fragmented India
seem to have bought the complicity of enough five-star activists and
intellectuals.
However, some other
countries have spoken up against similar schemes -- see Thailand, for example.
(source:
The
Conversion Agenda - By Rajiv Malhotra - rediff.com). Refer
to VINDICATED BY TIME: The Niyogi Committee Report On
Christian Missionary Activities -
Christianity
Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee 1956
and
The
Sunshine of Secularism. Refer to Jesus
Christ: Artifice for Aggression - By Sita Ram Goel. For
more refer to chapter on European
Imperialism and Christian
Aggression. Watch
Sewa
or Service work by RSS.
***
Saving lives, Harvesting
Souls - HIV/AIDS - Tehelka.com
Backed by the religious right in America,
associations in India see the HIV/AIDS pandemic as an opportunity to evangelise.
VK Shashikumar and Mayabhushan Nagvenkar explore how faith based organisations
bring the infected into their fold
Our experience shows that HIV/AIDS has definitely opened up windows to reach out
to the “unreached” (non-Christians). . Many evangelical organisations in
India, like the Friends Missionary Prayer Band and the Emmanuel Hospital Assoc-iation
run care and support institutions. In India, these FBOs look at HIV/AIDS as
leprosy of the twenty-first century. “It’s an opportunity for us to be able
to share God’s love to accept, to make them part of us, to avoid stigma and
discrimination against them,” Mathai told Tehelka.
(source: Saving
lives, Harvesting Souls - http://www.saag.org/BB/view.asp?msgID=4135).
Christians
organizations get lion’s share of foreign funds - By
Inder Sawhney
Christian
missionaries and allied groups continue to be largest recipients of foreign
funds. They received Rs 15.88 crore (75.69 per cent of the total foreign funds)
in April-June this year compared with Rs 11.41 crore during the corresponding
period last year and Rs 12.67 crore in the first quarter. A study of the receipt
of foreign funds by religious/ non-political organisations and other groups in
April-June, based on Intelligence reports gathered by the Home ministry,
indicates a sharp increase to Rs 20.98 crore compared with Rs 14.02 crore during
the corresponding period in 1998. The US with donations of Rs 4.10 crore (as
against Rs 2.26 crore during the same period in 1998) displaced Germany as the
leading donor. In the first quarter of 1999 also, the US was the highest donor
with Rs 3.31 crore. In the second quarter of this year, Kerala received the
largest amount (Rs 3.09 crore) followed by Himachal Pradesh (Rs 2.87 crore) ,
West Bengal (Rs 2.73 crore) Maharashtra (Rs 1.69 crore), Andhra Pradesh Rs 1.3
crore and Karnataka Rs 1.2 crore. Rajasthan was the lowest, accounting for a
mere Rs 4,000. Non-political organisations were the other major recipients of
foreign funds (Rs 1.38 crore) followed by Muslim organisations which got Rs
64.13 lakh compared with Rs 23.06 lakh received by them in the second quarter of
1998. According to the study, there was a fall in the receipt of funds by
non-denominational organisations, including ``pseudo-religious'' bodies. They
received Rs 22.99 lakh in the second quarter of this year against Rs 70.99 lakh
in the corresponding period last year.
(source:
Publication: Times of India - Date:
August 16, 1999).
***
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