Living in darkness
By M.V. Kamath
http://www.organiser.org/16jan2000/mfinger.html

The Christian Church, like the Bourbons of old, has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. It obviously does not understand that times have changed and what may have held good four hundred years ago has now turned into a cruel joke. This is all-too-painfully apparent in the 140-page document approved by the Roman Catholic Church after the meeting of the Catholic bishops held in Delhi under the guidance of the Pope. The document says: "Just as in the first millennium the Cross was planted on the soil of Europe and in the second on that of the Americas and Africa, we can pray that in the third Christian millennium a great harvest of faith will be reaped in this vast and vital continent of Asia." Never were more insulting and impertinent remarks made against non-Christian religions flourishing in Asia, some of them preceding the birth of Christ. 

They are in keeping with the kind of ignorant remarks that British Christian missionaries used to make in the nineteenth century against Hinduism. It is important to remind the Roman Catholic Church-and the Pope who heads it-that if Christianity means love and understanding, there are no Christians in Europe. No other continent has been more racked by bloodshed and violence than Europe. Is it necessary to remind the Pope that two of the bloodiest wars in history are the two world wars started by Christians in Europe that saw entire cities decimated? Was it Christian Germany that sent some five million Jews to the gas chambers? Was it Catholic Spain that drove Muslims out of the country and demolished their masjids? Was it Christian United States that dropped two nuclear bombs, one on Hiroshima and another on Nagasaki? Was all that done in the spirit of Christian love and understanding? Except in the case of Syrian Christians, both Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity came in the wake of western imperialism, following in the footsteps of western dacoits and marauders. The atrocities they perpetrated are on record and they exceed in cruelty anything mankind may have done anywhere else. 

The darkness that Christian missionaries see is not in Asia but in their own hearts. The comic part of it all is that in the name of Christ, Catholic and Protestant groups are fighting each other to death. What is happening in Ireland, for example, is there for all to see. The Pope himself has described Protestant efforts to rope in Catholic Christians to their faith as the attack of wolves. If Catholic Christians can't stand Protestant Christians, how do they expect their work to be taken kindly in Asia where established religions much older than Christianity have flourished from time immemorial? The habit of needlessly egging on Hinduism and Buddhism has to be stopped. Leaders of both Hindu and Buddhist faiths have already expressed their strong feelings against the remarks of the Synod, remarks which can only be dismissed as tasteless and demeaning. Where there is peace, the Church is sowing seeds of hatred. The days when stupid missionaries could make atrocious remarks against Hinduism are over. 

It is difficult to believe that anybody could have been as stupid as Rev William Ward, an English missionary who wrote a four-volume polemic which characterized Hindu faith as "a fabric of superstition" concocted by Brahmins, and as "the most complete system of absolute oppression that perhaps ever existed". How would Christians feel if the compliment is returned by saying that nothing could excel superstition as the concepts of virgin birth and resurrection, the two pillars of faith central to Christianity? Won't the Church feel insulted? What is more interesting is that in the Protestant political theory of the 19th century it was the Church of Rome and the absolutist monarchies of Europe which imposed tyrannical despotism on free-born Christians, deforming their characters and making them ‘womanish’ and slave-like.

That Christianity to this day is hand-in-glove with a new form of economic imperialism is becoming evident by the day. Not so well-known is the fact that in taking crucial decisions like granting loans to Third World countries, the World Bank consults the Pope. When this issue was posed before the Archbishop of Delhi, Rev Alan de Lastic, his reply was evasive. He said: "I am not much informed about this. This must be at the level of the Vatican. I do admit that Holy Father's guidance is taken with all seriousness by many leading world organisations." That is letting the cat out of the bag, howsoever reluctantly.

Two points raised by Rev de Lastic in an interview to the press demand attention. One is that, just as Christian organisations get funds from outside, so do many Hindu organisations. The matter, however, should not be allowed to stop there. Hindu organisations do not spend the money to convert people. How can Hindus convert Hindus? The money allegedly received by ‘Hindu’ organisations is spent on activities that are easily monitored. The second point is even more revelatory of Christian intentions. It is Rev de Lastic's belief that "tribals are not Hindus". It is an astounding statement to make. Tribals are as much Hindus as any Hindu in the country because they are part of India's culture. Hanuman was a tribal leader and he evokes as much veneration as Shri Ram does. The Mahabharata is full of instances of marriage between the Aryan heroes and tribal women. Tribals are as much part and parcel of Hindu society as anyone else. Rev de Lastic's logic is, to put it plainly, lop-sided, and cock-eyed. He says that tribals believe in only one spirit and not "hundreds of Gods" that Hindus believe in; ergo, goes his argument, tribals can't be Hindus. This is a sick understanding of Hinduism. Hindus don't believe in "hundreds of Gods". They only see God in a hundred manifestations which is a different matter altogether. If Rev de Lastic doesn't understand the nature of Hinduism, the least that he can do is not to pontificate on matters he does not apparently understand. To say that tribals are not Hindus is a clever ploy. It is a way of telling Hindus that tribals not being Hindus, the latter should not feel upset with tribal conversion.

The Christian Church, it would seem, does not understand that the hegemonism of the West is over and gone. To suggest that because conversion is basic to Christianity and should therefore not be challenged is childish. The world is not beholden to the Church to accept the role that the Church allots to itself. The best way for Christianity to live in peace and amity with other religions in Asia is for the Church to respect and honour them and not to make them targets of religious greed. The days are long gone when Hinduism and Buddhism will accept slights from alien religions whose claims to spiritualism do not stand the test of reason or close scrutiny. The Church must turn an inward eye before embarking on adventures that could only disturb world peace.   

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