The Pope in India
By Francois Gautier
The Hindustan Times
http://members.xoom.com/newsplus
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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