Why The Pope
Should Apologize To India
By Vishwas Varghese
http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/news/betweenthelines/betweenthelines.html
The VHP's protest march against the Pope's visit in India this
week, has drawn quite a lot of attention and flak as a misguided attempt to "create
disorder by fascist". The Indian media has been having a field day with mongering
rumors that seek to undermine and defame the Hindutva oriented organizations. One has to
look beyond all the politically motivated hype and hoopla and look analytically at what is
the logic behind the demand for the Pope's apology. The rationale behind this demand is
cited to be the Christian Inquisition which took place in Goa, for the purpose of
forcefully converting the Hindus to Christianity. Let us take a look at some historical
facts to see if the Hindutva minded organizations are truly justified in asking the pope
as the representative of the Catholic church to apologize and atone for such crimes
against Hindus in the past.
Alan Machado-Prabhu has
recently written a book about the history of Goa starting from ancient times, titled
"Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians". The book describes in detail the origins of Goa's inhabitants. According
to Machado's account and that of several established historians, some time around 1000
B.C. an immense number of Vedic people who originally lived on the banks of the river
Sarasvati migrated to this coast. Their emigration was forced by the drying up of the
Sarasvati River which was the basis for much of the so called Indus Valley civilization.
This civilization has now been termed the Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization in view of its
indelible dependence on the Sarasvati and Sindhu rivers. Moreover the work of such
accomplished scholars as N.S. Rajaram, David Frawley, N. Jha, S.R. Rao, etc. has proven
that the Sarasvati Sindhu civilization was a Vedic one. As a consequence the people who
were forced to seek fresh fields and pastures in view of the drying up of
Sarasvati, were
none other than Hindus. Large numbers of them followed the ancient Dakshinapatha, the
southern route and came all the way to Gomantak and to what is now called Goa. Gomantak
had no indigenous population and therefore made an ideal place to settle down for these
scholars.
The new location was a highly successful one because of the
fertile quality of the land. The majority of the emigrants were highly educated and well
versed in the advanced scientific, artistic and literary traditions of Vedic civilization
and therefore began to be called the Brahmins of the north (Gaud). Eventually they began
to be referred to as the Gaud Sarasvat Brahmins. They were famous all over India and
abroad for their immense scholarship and learning. Over the centuries Goa was
comparatively undisturbed under the rule of the Mauryas, the Kadambas and the Chalukya
dynasty. But around 1327 AD Goa was conquered by Mohammed Bin Tughlak and thousands of
Hindus were massacred in cold blood. A number of murderous Muslim rulers such as Bahamani
king Mohammed Shah, Yusuf Adil Shah, etc. held the state in the grip of terror until the
Portugese Christians who came to foreign lands led by Vasco De Gama in the hope of
converting millions of "Heathens" managed to overcome them. By the mid 1500s,
the Portugese had established a strong hold on Indian ports and the terror of the
Inquisition sanctioned by the Catholic Church was established and institutionalized in
Goa. The main objective of the Inquisitors was to ensure that all natives be converted to
Christianity whether by the sword, bribery or blackmail.
Around 1540 the Inquisition was at its peak, thousands
of Hindus were dispossessed, massacred and mutilated if they refused to convert. Half the
property of a person found in possession of idols went to the Church. According to
Machado, "The Church acquired urban and rural properties on an impressive
scale". An incredible amount of loot and plunder of the immense riches possessed by
the Hindus was shipped off to the Church. Hindus were forbidden from performing any of
their festivals openly. Hindu were amassed and deliberately forced to participate in
grotesque public performances for the Christian feast days during the very same days that
they used to celebrate Hindu festivals. To this day these macabre enactments still survive
in Goa today as the Milagres feast dance, the Carnavalo and the Festa de Leques.
In 1542 the most barbaric of these oppressors in the form of Jesuit priest
"Saint" Francis Xavier arrived on the scene. The incredible hatred and venom
that this man nursed against the Hindus is obvious from his own writings and records. In
1543 , Xavier sent a Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome which outlined his
perspective of the Indian people. The extremely racist and intolerant views of Christian
proselytizers like Xavier pour out of every word in this letter:
"We have in these parts a class of men among the
pagans who are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the superstitious
rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking care of the idols. They are as
perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words
of holy David, "from an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver me, O
Lord." They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. These are the ignorant people
whose blind superstitions have made the others their slaves, their imposture and tricks,
and this has induced many to leave the worship of the false gods, and eagerly become
Christians. If it were not for the opposition of the Brahmins, we should have them all
embracing the religion of Jesus Christ.
As there is so great a variety of color among men, and
the Indians being black themselves, consider their own color the best, they believe that
their gods are black. On this account the great majority of their idols are as black as
black can be, and moreover are generally so rubbed over with oil as to smell detestably,
and seem to be as dirty as they are ugly and horrible to look at."
Xavier would become an increasingly frustrated and embittered man
as he discovered the obstinate stubbornness with which the Hindus refused to be forced to
convert to Christianity. His frustration is evident in a Letter on the Missions
sent in 1949 to St. Ignatius de Loyola, of the Catholic Church. In it as usual
he displays his ample hatred for the "idolaters" as he calls the
Hindus, but his most vitriolic animosity is reserved for the Brahmins who were
the primary defenders of Hinduism. By this time Xavier has apparently become
aware of the fact that it is the Brahmins who are the final line of defense in
keeping the Hindu followers together. His inability to suppress them leads to
his sweeping generalization that the entire race of Indians is
"barbaric" in this letter:
"May the grace and charity of our Lord Christ always be with us! Amen.
My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the many letters
from this place which have lately been sent to Rome will inform you how
prosperously the affairs of religion go on in these parts, through your prayers
and the good bounty of God. But there seem to be certain things which I ought
myself to speak about to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to
these parts of the world which are so distant from Rome. In the first place, the
whole race of the Indians, as far as I have been able to see, is very barbarous;
and it does not like to listen to anything that is not agreeable to its own
manners and customs, which, as I say, are barbarous. It troubles itself very
little to learn anything about divine things and things which concern salvation.
Most of the Indians are of vicious disposition, and are adverse to virtue. Their
instability, levity, and inconstancy of mind are incredible; they have hardly
any honesty, so inveterate are their habits of sin and cheating. We have hard
work here, both in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the
heathen. And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this account you
should take great care of us and help us continually by your prayers to God.
You know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who neither have
any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it a strange and intolerable
thing to be told to give up their habits of sin, which have now gained all the
force of nature by long possession. The experience which I have of these
countries makes me think that I can affirm with truth, that there is no prospect
of perpetuating our Society out here by means of the natives themselves, and
that the Christian religion will hardly survive us who are now in the country;
so that it is quite necessary that continual supplies of ours should be sent out
from Europe."
One is amazed at Xavier's Christian definition of barbarism. Apparently anyone
who does not recognize Jesus Christ as his savior qualifies for this title. It
would have been fascinating to know what the victims of this undisguised
genocidal aggression thought of their tormentors. Indeed "barbarism"
is too mild a word to aptly describes the horrific aggression that was
perpetrated on the Goans for the sake of Christ!
In Machado's book the chapter on the Inquisition is aptly headed: Horrendum Ac
Tremendum Spectaculem. Machado relates how the historian Fryer describes one of
the instances of the Christian aggression - "In the principal market was
raised an Engine of great height, at top like a Gibbet, with a Pulley for the
Strapado which unhinges a Man's joints, a cruel Torture." Even Fryrer's
(1675) brief reference to the Inquisition barely does justice to the fearful
dread it brought to the people living in Portuguese territories. Of all the
organizations the Portuguese took to her overseas territories it was the
Inquisition that stalked the land, menacing and seeking all it might
devour".
Portugese records themselves show that the Inquisition burned at the stake 57
alive and 64 in effigy, 105 of them being men and 16 women. Others sentenced to
various cruel punishments totaled 4,046 of whom 3,034 were men. The people who
were converted but still continued occasionally and secretly to perform Hindu
rituals were treated even more harshly. Even this low number represented by the
perpetrators themselves is enough to provide us a clue to how many were truly
subjected to the horrors. There can be no doubt that thousands if not millions
perished at the hands of the Christian Sword which would not tolerate non
believers in the path of the Church.
Many of the orders dictated by the Portugese administration demonstrate the
depth of oppression against their victims. Mr. Kanchan Gupta, the editor of BJP
Today had researched and presented these records in his brilliant article on
Rediff magazine, earlier this year. Some of the historical records that Mr.
Gupta unearthed, clearly demonstrated the unabashedly oppressive nature of the
Christian regime which had ruthlessly usurped Goa.
On April 2, 1560, Viceroy D Constantine de Braganca issued orders instructing
that Brahmins should be thrown out of Goa and other areas under Portuguese
control. They were given al of one month to dispose of all possessions. Anyone
found violating the order would have their properties seized.
On February 7, 1575, Governor Antonio Morez Barreto declared that the estates of
Brahmins whose "presence was prejudicial to Christianity" would be
confiscated and used for "providing clothes to the New Christians".
In 1585, The Third Concilio Provincial which was a gathering of bishops and
other Christian leaders adopted a resolution declaring, 'His Majesty the king
has on occasion ordered the viceroys and governors of India that there should be
no Brahmins in his lands, and that they should be banished therefrom together
with the physicians and other infidels who are prejudicial to Christianity. As
the orders of His Majesty in this regard have not been executed, great
impediments in the way of conversion and the community of New Christians have
followed and continue to follow. From now onwards at certain times in each year
the archbishop should obtain information regarding Brahmins, physicians and any
other infidels who might be prejudicial to conversion to Christianity, and in
consultation with the Christian priests, prepare a roll of their names which
should be signed by him. This should be presented to the viceroy or the governor
in order that the latter might issue orders for banishing them from the lands of
the king, as His Majesty has ordered...'
On January 31, 1620, the Portugese declared that '...no Hindu, of whatever
nationality or status he may be, can or shall perform marriages in this city of
Goa, nor in the islands or adjacent territories of His Majesty, under pain of a
fine of 1000 Xerafins.'
The Third Concilio Provincial also demanded a ban on the traditional thread
ceremony and the ban was imposed by the Sword. The Brahmins who tried to evade
such prejudicial dictates by going outside Portuguese territory for the ceremony
were prevented from doing so by the ominously threatening order that said 'I
hereby order that no Hindu subject proceed beyond the borders of the state to
celebrate the thread ceremony...' Orders prohibiting Hindu women from wearing
Bindi on their foreheads along with an order allowing the Christian clergy the
right to baptize all orphans are blatant proofs of the violent suppression of
religious rights by the Christian Church in Goa.
Such then is the history of Christian persecution in Goa. And yet the cruelest
of these proselytizers from the past are supposed to be treated as 'Saints"
by the very nation that was victimized by them! Stating the facts about the past
tyranny of the Church in India, quickly becomes an "earth shattering"
conspiracy by the "fascist" Hindu extremists. The signs of India's
humiliation and oppression at the hands of her Christian aggressors is present
everywhere in the nomenclature of innumerable roads, buildings and educational
institutions named after the very criminals who sought to annihilate all traces
of India's vast and ancient repertoire of advanced knowledge.
Is asking the Pope to apologize for such a vast range of heinous crimes
unjustified? Saint Francis Xavier, the missionary who was responsible for the
death of thousands of innocent Hindus of Goa was canonized and is cited today as
one of the foremost Saints of the Catholic Church. A quick search of the
catholic Encyclopedia yields us this information about him.
"It is truly a matter of wonder that one man in the short space of ten
years (6 May, 1542 - 2 December, 1552) could have visited so many countries,
traversed so many seas, preached the Gospel to so many nations, and converted so
many infidels. The incomparable apostolic zeal which animated him, and the
stupendous miracles which God wrought through him, explain this marvel, which
has no equal elsewhere. St. Francis Xavier is considered the greatest missionary
since the time of the Apostles, and the zeal he displayed, the wonderful
miracles he performed, and the great number of souls he brought to the light of
true Faith, entitle him to this distinction. He was canonized with St. Ignatius
in 1622, although on account of the death of Gregory XV, the Bull of
canonization was not published until the following year. The body of the saint
is still enshrined at Goa in the church which formerly belonged to the Society.
In 1614 by order of Claudius Acquaviva, General of the Society of Jesus, the
right arm was severed at the elbow and conveyed to Rome, where the present altar
was erected to receive it in the church of the Gesu. "
Even today the body of the "Saint" in Goa is said to be in a
"marvelous" state of preservation as proof of his miraculous
character.
With Saints like Francis Xavier epitomizing the nature of Christian kindness in
India, is it any wonder that the proselytizing nature of the Church is
increasingly condemned and denounced by civilized human beings all over the
world? The souls of the thousands of Indians that suffered genocide at the hands
of the religious fanaticism which was institutionalized by the Catholic Church,
would hardly find succor in any apology by the Pope.
But at the very least it would have been a some small form of retribution for
the sins committed by the forces he represents.
|