In
the name of the Lord
By Varsha Bhosle
http://www.rediff.com/news/may/16varsha.htm
Parochial as one is, it was not long before I went looking for
traces of amcha Maharashtra in the ether. What I found has put the fear of Christ
in me: At www.bethany-wpc.org, site of the Louisiana-based Bethany World Prayer Center,
there are several kilobytes devoted to a detailed analysis of Marathis with a view
to converting the same to Christianity. Don't worry, we ghaatis aren't special:
The same treatment's been given to others, too, all of whom are sought to be delivered to
His Eternal Kingdom. There are "The Diaspora Gujarati", Punjabi, Sindhi,
Bengali, etc with international subgroups like Kenyan Gujarati, Spanish Sindhi,
too. Scheduled Castes and Tribes? Bethany knows 'em all. Its Joshua Project 2000 List acts
as a base for missions and organisations on their crusade, and helps "mobilize the
cell churches worldwide to pray for the Unreached Peoples".
And how detailed is detailed? An example: 'The Marathi
villages located in the coastal regions of the Arabian Sea consist of long streets that
run north and south, with houses on either side
The tribes that live in the hills
are practically cut off from those in the plains
They have a great need for
stability something that can only be found through knowing Christ.' If that weren't
panic-making enough, there follow these "Prayer Points": Pray against the
spirits of Hinduism and Islam that have kept the Marathi bound for many generations. Ask
the Lord to raise up people who will go to India and share Christ's love with the Marathi.
Pray that God will raise up prayer teams to go and break up the soil through worship and
intercession. Ask God to grant favor to the missions and agencies that are targeting the
Marathi. Ask the Lord to raise up strong local churches among the Marathi for the glory of
His name...
That's a helluva lot of praying and asking, and I doubt
if it stays confined tojust that considering the terms "raise up",
"break up", "intercession" and "targeting". For instance,
have you heard of the forced conversions in Dharavi? On May 1, Bombay Times
reported (with photographs of the wounded) that the Christian goondas of Jesuit
missionaries assaulted one Meenakshi Nadar and stabbed her nephew Muthu and his friend
because they resisted conversion. An FIR was lodged with the police who did not
take action (probably in fear of secularists screaming murder against
"defenseless" minorities). There are 40 churches in Dharavi alone, and 500 Hindu
families have been converted.
I thought of Mother Teresa, who had once told Malcolm
Muggeridge, 'There is always the danger that we may become only social workers or just do
the work for the sake of the work.' Not for 'the living saint' a secular labour to relieve
poverty; and how apart the idea from karmanye-vaadhikaraste
(toil without
expecting the fruits of labour). In his biography, Christopher Hitchens mentions secret
baptisms of the dying who are asked if they want a "ticket to heaven", and
concludes that Teresa is "a servant of earthly powers" and works for a
"very politicised papacy". Her pals include Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier,
Washington's corrupt mayor Marion Barry and Charles Keating, the Californian banker who
was jailed for swindling investors out of $252 million and had given her $1.25 million. In
fact, during Keating's trial in LA, the Mother wrote to Judge Lance Ito seeking clemency
for Keating. Since she had Judge Ito's name, exact designation and address much before the
OJ Simpson case made him a household name, it's safe to assume that the saint has more
temporal powers guiding her.
Like most Hindus, I once believed that Ma Teresa's
giving succour to Calcutta's unfortunate was reason enough to turn a blind eye to the
conversion undertaken by her mission. After all, if we cannot look after our own, we have
no right to whine when somebody else reaps whatever benefit from doing so. Now, I refute
it. Catholics continue to take conversion on a war-footing, and the problem has assumed
dimensions far beyond religion by entering the scope of politics and, more significantly,
demography. Conversion is not a holy, beneficial act of faith it never was
but the systematic handling of the Joshua Project indicates to me that if it remains
unchecked, religious conversion has the potential to destroy India.
It's no use citing what the European explorers, whether
Columbus, Da Gama or Cook, all armed with Papal Bulls, did to heathens centuries ago; how
they "civilised" the world by converting/exterminating the others. For a whole
millennium, the proselytising Semitic found easy prey in Hindus, Africans, native
Americans, South Americans, Aborigines and Asian peoples. Europe enslaved them
politically, robbed them of national assets, burned them in trade, crushed their spirits,
drove two-thirds of humanity to poverty and starvation and more crucially
broke their cultural backbones by instilling values contrary to their ethos. But that's
all water under the bridge now. The question is, has the White man stopped carrying his
burden? For, mentalities don't change; only modalities do.
And yet, I don't take issue with what missionaries are furtively
doing in India if they succeed, they deserve credit for their tenacity. I don't
want to stop evangelists from coming here just as I wouldn't want others to bar
swamis and lamas. The Constitution of India allows freedom of religious practice; but it
also prohibits forced conversion, *induced* conversion and conversion motivated by
non-voluntary actions all of which laws have been rendered impotent by the
ignorance of the masses, the treason of vote-bank politics, and the propaganda of
self-serving communists and secularists. It's the latter who make me see red. For the
right way to combat conversion is by abolishing caste divisions from and reviving pride in
Hinduism. Hindutva? O me gawd, but that's so antithetical to being modern and civilised
and enlightened! "Garv se kaho hum Hindu hai" is simply "Seig
Heil"!
The secularists' rebuttals will go thus: Bethany is part
of the "lunatic fringe" (but we won't damn it like we do the Bajrang Dal). No
Western nation can ever support such a league (and we aren't interested in where the
funding comes from). There's no need to panic since conversion can't make a dent in the
Hindu population (it isn't fair that Hindus are a majority, anyway). The VHP keeps similar
track of Indian groups (so why shouldn't foreigners?). It's wrong to halt others from
serving the destitute (since we won't do it, and will slam the RSS for doing so, too). Or,
"I'm not religious; there are so many more urgent issues at stake" (like looking
into, er
secular riots). For, no matter what proof is presented, Hindutwadis always
live in a fantasyland, with their Fascist propaganda machine blaming the problems of the
country on minorities. No matter what Christian history and Islamic Khilafat
indicates, there simply cannot exist a collusive agenda to overrun Hindus of India.
To which I say: Now take a look at the Joshua
Project, ponder over the Vatican's programme Evangelisation 2000, then look back and see
where the original religions of the peoples of Albania, Africa, Brazil, Canada, Mexico,
Malaysia, blah, blah, have vanished: Do you see a parallel... I'll bet you won't. You lack
the requisite perception. Politics in the garb of religion is a fact of life: As Jomo
Kenyatta said in Absurdities in the name of Religion, "When the missionaries
arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us to
pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the
Bible."
Hindustan has already been partitioned on communal lines
thanks to conversion upsetting its demography. In north-eastern India, conversion
among tribals continues unabated; in Arunachal Pradesh alone, about 10,000 people join the
church every year; in Kerala, a battery of 29,000 full-time workers, including nuns and
priests, has been put into action for Evangelisation 2000; in the Central tribal and dalit
areas, the so-called "delicate belt" of Hinduism, millions are poured in under
the name of Christian charity. "During the last 30 years, the Catholic population
increased ninefold to 90,000", brags an official church report. And even when the
poor convert, do their problems disappear? Sure, pigs have wings. Which is why we have
Christian dalits and Muslim chamaars clamouring for reservations.
I have tried to present the facts. But facts don't
matter much in the secularist's dim little world. It's much easier to remain ignorant and
much more popular to jump up and down frothing at the mouth and denouncing everything you
don't like in your shrillest but oh-so-secular voice. Especially if you are
doing something as PC as tongue-lashing Hindutva. Facts can be mortifying, so cowards just
ignore them. Courage lies in facing up to charges, examining them critically, and swimming
against the PC stream if needs be. No religion in the world is perfect. Pretending that
ours is would not serve any purpose but it's the only religion we have, and it's a
darn good one, at that.
Bethany says, "The Church cannot afford to wait until caste is
not an issue in India, as that day will probably not arrive until Jesus returns. If the
Church thinks India can reform the caste system by itself, perhaps millions of souls will
perish while the Church waits for the unbelievers to do in the strength of their flesh
what has been hard to accomplish in the Spirit". Hmmm
If I was in the crowd
when Jesus asked the people who have never sinned to cast the first stone, yes, I'd have
chucked a boulder provided it was a secularist in place of the woman: After all,
poor Mary Magdalene prostituted only her own body.
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