On
Wednesday, Tarlochan Singh, vice-chairman of the National Commission for
Minorities, wrote to the presidents of the Catholic Bishops Council of India and
the National Council of Churches in India, citing incidents in Punjab, Bhilai
and Jharkhand where "Christian missionaries fully supported with medical
teams have been going around in many villages alluring poor Sikh families to
adopt Christianity." Directing the Christian leaders "to desist from
this activity" he wrote, "I have been approached by a large number of
Sikh organisations to take up this matter. I request you to... adopt a policy
not to make further attempts of converting Sikhs through any means."
It's
good to know the NCM supports a group that's opposing the Church's nefarious
activity; and comforting that it's the Sikhs who are rejecting conversion. After
all, if the pinkos' schemes succeed, the remaining Hindus -- as per Sikhism's
foundation charter and Hindu "tradition" (read, cowardice) -- can once
again fall at Sikh feet for protection.
Christians
fanatically evangelize. Muslims aren't into conversion anymore but want Islam to
rule all polities, and we know what that entails. Ditto, the Communists with
their creed. Ask a Gay his thoughts on the "curing" of nascent
homosexuals via psychotherapy, and he, too, will flare up in anger. But the
Hindu is the *only* species that not only watches benignly as his own kind
diminishes, but also blocks those who resist conversion...
As
my friend Amberish
Diwanji once put it: "If one converts because doing so accords him
respect and gives him a sense of identity and belonging, where is there the
question of forcible conversion. If one chooses to follow the faith of those who
have helped and are helping him the most, as opposed to those who torment him,
can he be faulted? If there are Hindus who are worried by conversions, they
should try and redeem Hinduism, go out and serve the tribals and Dalits and the
poor. Make the lowest believe that Hinduism too provides balm for the soul, for
a poor has little else to ask for."
That
was in 1996. And Amberish didn't question the "respect" and
"sense of belonging" that "Dalit Christians" and "Dalit
Muslims" feel. A minor oversight?
But
observe the change of tune by "secularists" now: "There is a boy,
orphaned since the age of five, who is housed, fed and schooled here just
outside New Delhi, free of charge... The school is part of a network of social
service organizations that cater to indigenous people and 'dalits,' or those on
the lowest rungs of the Hindu caste ladder... Across remote villages, it
dispatches so-called barefoot doctors armed with first-aid kits and drugs to
combat dysentery. It sets up orphanages for the abandoned and hostels for
children who must travel long distances to go to school" (The New York
Times, May 13). Actually, this article, "Hindu Right Goes To School To
Build A Nation," written by a Bong, is one bashing the RSS for serving the
tribals and Dalits and the poor...
But
let's get back to the Sikhs, who've learnt from at least one part of their
history: After the second Anglo Sikh war, the British exiled the boy Duleep
Singh to Fatehgarh, in the care of a British guardian. Unlike previous British
rulers, Lord Dalhousie wished to transform India, towards which end he promoted
and supported the work of Christian missionaries: Fatehgarh just happened to be
a mission. John Login and his wife, who had taken on the parental role in the
boy's life, just happened to be devout Christians. Duleep was encouraged to have
two English boys as his closest friends, one of whom just happened to be the son
of a missionary. The textbooks he was given just happened to be full of
Christian messages. His servant, Bhajan Lal, just happened to be a Christian
convert. And Bhajan Lal just happened to read from the Bible to the boy every
night. Duleep Singh was, in fact, totally dependent on the goodwill of his
prisoners and limited to living in the centre of Christian missionary activity.
What
happened next? Exactly what can be expected when missionaries shower the weak
with their mercies: The last Sikh ruler of the kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
was surreptitiously converted to Christianity, dispatched to England and
resettled near Cambridge, thereby minimising all chances of his becoming a
rallying point for the people of Punjab. Next, "A facade of a ceremony was
arranged in which the young prince was made to present the famous Koh-i-Noor to
Queen Victoria and 13 most valuable relics pertaining to Maharaja Ranjit Singh
to the Prince of Wales. The remaining jewellery in the Toshkhana of the Maharaja
was either taken over by the British officials or auctioned to public thus
putting to an end the glory and grandeur of the mighty empire of a mighty ruler
of Punjab" (The Tribune, April 8, 2001).
We
know that the exit of British rule did not mean the exit of Christian evangelism
- that remains a clear and present danger: "India also has vast areas of
more unreached groups - people with no access to the Gospel - than any other
country. One such area is the Punjab - home of the Sikhs... Today there is much
opportunity for Christian outreach." So says the Maranatha
Gospel Mission based in Bhilai. The same Bhilai that Tarlochan Singh
mentioned.
Last
week, a Christian dork wrote me, "Adivasis are being re-converted from
funds that come in from NRIs and others... but, aren't they doing exactly what
the Christians are doing? But, you seem to justify what the RSS does by saying
that the Christians did it... what a hypocrite!"
Actually,
I never have justified the RSS's actions by saddling them with those of the
missionaries. Read my lips: I support reconversion and the dissemination of
Hindu awareness because I want Hindus to remain Hindu, Jains to remain Jain,
Buddhists to remain Buddhist, and Sikhs to remain Sikh. Secondly, because a
blunderbuss is no match for a daisy-cutter, the RSS must use the same weapons
that missionaries use. So, more power to its fund raising. Where's the hypocrisy
in that?! Regardless of it not being a zero-sum game, I don't see why I
shouldn't root for Hinduism. Unlike the
"secularists," I'm not ashamed of being a Hindu!
But
we all know the reasons for the "secular" anger, right? The
synchronized "action alerts" of pinko groups worldwide; the constant
slamming of "Hindu nationalists" by the "liberal" media --
again, worldwide; the appearance of Kanwal-Rekhi-with-a-Christian-wife before
the US Commission on International Religious Freedom; Father Prakash's
deposition against the funding of "Hindu terrorists"... It's
because the Sangh Parivar has been checking the tide of conversion:
- "A Hindu organisation has
re-converted 37 Adivasis who converted to Christianity, back to Hinduism, at
a one-day Vishwa Hindu Sammelan held at Peth, the tribal dominant tehsil
town in Nashik district. The sammelan, organised by a recently formed Hindu
organisation, Dharmaraksha Samiti, was attended by over 9,000 delegates from
all over Maharashtra and neighbouring states." (UNI, January
6, 1999)
- "The first-ever mass
reconversion drive organised by the VHP in West Bengal took place in Malda
district today as the Marxist government of the state watched helplessly.
Amidst fanfare, 500 tribal Christians and 50 Muslims embraced Hinduism as
priests chanted mantras and performed the paraavartan yajna."
(rediff.com, March 25, 1999)
- In July 2000, seven families,
belonging to the Mising community, were reconverted to Hinduism in Majuli.
"The Satradhikar also said that originally 300 families had been
converted to Christianity and it was likely that many of them would
reconvert to their original religion." (The Asian Age, July
10, 2000)
- In February 2001, over 1,300
tribals were reconverted to Hinduism. The reconversion was co-sponsored by
the VHP, and was named Sanatan Ghar Vapsi. "Rituals of
reconversion began with recitation of hymns by members of 270 families who
had earlier adopted Christianity." (The Tribune, February 13,
2001)
- "Hundreds of families who
converted to Christianity over 100 years ago and were settled by the British
in Haryana villages by giving them land are now shedding their Christian
identity in a bid to join the mainstream of rural Haryana. Their younger
generation has completely discarded Christian names and reverted to Hindu
names... [Joseph] was also honest enough to admit that most of them
continued to be Christians because they got preference for admissions to
Christian educational institutions and jobs in mission hospitals and
schools." (The Tribune, January 25)
- In April, over 20 Christian
tribals near Malda re-converted to Hinduism on Baisakhi. "With this,
the total number of conversions of the tribesmen to Hinduism from
Christianity and other religions in Malda district stood at some 300. The
ceremony was conducted at the VHP's Buddhikamach Chitrakut." (The
Tribune, April 23)
In truth, I do not fear Islam -- for its attacks are open,
direct and can be fended off with a bit of spine. But Christian evangelists are
another can of worms altogether: Not only do they get unlimited financial and
political support from the fundamentalists in the US and Europe, including the
Vatican, but they also attack with stealth, cunning and persistence.
Take, for instance, the case of the
Haryana constables: The state recruited 1,600 police constables in 1995, which
recruitment was then challenged in the high court. Subsequently, in 2000, the
Supreme Court ruled against the recruitment procedure and hence their services
were terminated. Nevertheless, in August 2001, the vice-president of the Haryana
Police Employees Union ("Union," "NGO,"
"academic," "professor," "documentary maker"
usually indicate you-know-what) announced, "If all 1,600 dismissed Haryana
police constables were not taken back into service, all of them, who are Hindus,
will adopt Christianity..." But that wasn't all; the sentence ended with:
"...and in this regard they are in regular contact with Christian
missionary people."
The British politician did not
invent the policy of Divide & Rule, nor did the pinkos -- it was handed down
to them by the Church. The 1954-instituted Niyogi Commission, while
investigating the charge that Christian missionaries had instigated the movement
for an independent State, noted in The Report of the Christian Missionaries
Enquiry Committee MP, Nagpur, 1956:
- On the integration of the
States, Missionaries became afraid of losing their influence. So they
started an agitation, playing on the religious feelings of the primitive
Christian converts, representing the Madhya Pradesh government as consisting
of infidels... Some of the articles published in Missionary papers... were
hardly distinguishable from the writings in Muslim papers advocating
Pakistan before the 15th of August 1947.
- The demand for Adiwasisthan
was accentuated along with the one for Pakistan in 1938. The Muslim League
is reported to have donated Rs 1 lakh for propaganda work. With the advent
of political independence in India, the agitation for Adiwasisthan was
intensified, with a view to forming a sort of corridor joining East Bengal
with Hyderabad, which could be used for a pincer movement against India in
the event of a war between India and Pakistan.
- This attempt of the Adiwasis
initiated by the Christian section thereof is a feature which is common to
the developments in Burma, Assam and Indo-China among the Karens, Nagas and
Amboynes... But the idea of change of religion as bringing about change of
nationality appears to have originated in the Missionary circles... Thus
while the Census officer isolates certain sections of the people from the
main bodies, the Missionaries, by converting them, give them a separate
nationality so that they may demand a separate State for themselves.
Nothing has really changed in India
between now and then: The ethos of the politicians is about the same, so is that
of the people, and Godse was a villain even then. Even so, the six members of
the Niyogi Commission were not harangued and abused as "Hindu
fundamentalists." The difference lies only in the media: Then, opinion
makers aired the facts -- and not the leftist versions thereof.
Update:
The day after I submitted this column, The Hindu reported that
250 villagers were baptised on Saturday by pastors of the Seventh Day Adventist
Church at its South Tamil Conference in Madurai. The villagers were asked to
affirm their commitment to Christianity and "to donate one-tenth of their
monthly earnings for missionary work. Enquiries show that the villagers, mostly
below the poverty line, had been brought for baptism with promises of 'economic
emancipation.' During 2001, the Seventh Day Adventist Church here had converted
1,500 Hindus... According to an organiser of the
baptism, the president of Seventh Day Adventist Church, India, DR Watts, a
Canadian, had set a 'tough target' for the pastors, titled 'Go 1 million.' The
website, 'maranatha.org,'
reveals the activities carried out by this congregation throughout the
country... where thousands of Hindus were converted."
No
religion, no ideology, no government can guarantee anybody's "economic
emancipation." If this is not a deceit only to diminish the strength of
Hinduism, what is? Get out your checkbooks, guys; we can do better than
one-tenth.
Towards
Balkanisation, IV: Catholics
Towards
Balkanisation, V: Adivasis
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