The Conversion Agenda

"Freedom to convert" is counterproductive as a generalized doctrine. It fails to come to terms with the complex interrelationships between self and society that make the concept of individual choice meaningful. Hence, religious conversion undermines, and in extremes would dissolve, that individual autonomy and human freedom.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Katherine Mayos and Pat Robertsons of India

by V Sundaram

Christians and Christian missionaries in Karnataka, seem to be on the prowl today against the majority Hindus of that State in a mood of joyous and assertive exultation, mainly because of the wholesale political and administrative support that they are receiving from the UPA government under the stranglehold of a Catholic woman from Italy owing her allegiance to the Pope in Rome and not to the letter and spirit of the ever-disposable and shaky Indian Constitution. Many Christian outfits have been openly demanding a ban on the Sangh Parivar in a shameless manner. When Christians and Muslims attack Hindu temples, it is viewed as enjoyment of constitutional minority rights by the Sonia-directed union government. When Hindus retaliate in self-defence then it becomes ‘a savagely communal and fundamentalist Hindu attack on minority shrines’.
For the first time after Independence we are having an anti-Hindu Congress government in New Delhi, which uses its Civil Servants to behave like whole-time Congress party functionaries. There is a cut throat competition amongst Additional Secretaries and Secretaries in the government of India to catch the personal attention of either our surrogate de jure Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh or de facto Super Prime Minister Sonia Gandhi all the time just to demonstrate that they are more committed to the political dictates of Congress Party than to the mandatory commands of the Indian Constitution. The fact of the matter is that they are all holding their ‘mighty’ transitory and ephemeral offices only at the pleasure of No:10 Janpath, New Delhi and not Rashtrapathi Bhavan, which is only a Post Office of the Congress Party.

When Christians and Christian missionaries in Karnataka openly printed, published and distributed deliberately planned obscene and vulgar anti-Hindu evangelical literature directed against the Hindu Gods and Goddesses in Mangalore, Udupi and Chikmagalur districts, the Hindus like the Hindus of Jammu and Orissa rose in open rebellion. I am quoting below a few extracts from one such evangelical book, Satya Darshini, which ought to gladden the heart of the Union Home Secretary and more particularly Special Secretary (Internal Security). This blasphemous book is in Kannada language. This book was printed in Andhra Pradesh for large-scale distribution for achieving wholesale conversion in Karnataka:

a) Urvashi - the daughter of Lord Vishnu - is a prostitute. Vashitha is the son of this prostitute. He in turn married his own Mother. Such a degraded person is the Guru of the Hindu God Rama, (page 48)

b) When Krishna himself is wallowing in darkness of hell, how can he enlighten others? Since Krishna himself is a shady character, there is a need for us to liberate his misled followers, (page 50)

c) It was Brahma himself who kidnapped Sita. Since Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were themselves the victims of lust, it is a sin to consider them as Gods, (page 39)

d) When the Trinity of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) are consumed by lust and anger, how can they liberate others? Their projection as Gods is nothing but a joke (page 39)

e) When Vishnu asked BRAHMA to commit a sin, he immediately did so. How can such an ‘evil Brahma’ be a Creator of this Universe? How is it possible for both the sinner and the entity, which provoked the sin to be gods? (Page 39)

f) God, please liberate the sinful people of India who are worshipping false Gods that believe in the pleasures of illicit ‘Vyabichari’ relationships. (Page 39).

A Central team headed by M L Kumawat, Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Union Home Ministry was sent to Karnataka to visit the affected areas. A K Yadav, Additional Secretary in the Union Home Ministry was also a member of this team. The Central team has already visited Mangalore and Hubli districts. When pressmen asked M L Kumawat, in the manner of an already recorded message in North Block, New Delhi, he said, ‘The State Government has failed to protect certain specified communities against violent attacks on them and their property’. The Hindus of Karnataka and indeed in the whole of India would like to put these questions to M L Kumawat and the other members of this Central team.

1. Why did THEY (Central team) not go to Kandamal District in Orissa when Swamy Lakshmanananda and three of his disciples were brutally murdered by Christian missionaries (their ‘beloved’ Christian minorities!) on Krishna Jayanthi Day on 23 August 2008?

2. Are they aware of the fact that a militant Christian organisation (almost like SIMI) called NEW LIFE has been spreading venom against the majority Hindus by the publication and distribution of offensive and blasphemous anti-Hindu evangelical literature in different parts of Karnataka?

3. Why are they closing their pseudo-secular and anti-Hindu eyes, minds and hearts to the Crass, Vulgar and abusive language used against Lord Vishnu, Lord Krishna, Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva in the book called SATYA DARSHINI in Kannada, distributed by NEW LIFE referred to above?

4. While they dare to issue a needless warning to the duly elected non-Congress Chief Minister Yeddyurappa, will they dare to issue a similar warning to the Office bearers of Christian organisations like NEW LIFE? Will they dare to recommend a ban on such ‘communal’ organisations? Will they dare to use their authority in the Union Home Ministry for recommending the prosecution of this evangelical organisation under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code? Why did they not choose to issue a warning to Lalu Prasad Yadav Union Railway Minister and Mulayansingh Yadav Prisident of Samajwadi Party for their open Illegal demand for the removal of ban on Simi?

5. Are the members of the Central team aware of the rulings of the Supreme Court of India on ‘forced’ or ‘induced’ Conversions? Such conversions have been constitutionally ruled out by the Supreme Court of India. Why are they ‘politically’ acceptable to the disgraceful Sonia-directed UPA government and their servile and ever-obliging Civil Servants (Civil Serpents in actual practice! ) in the Union Home Ministry?

I have seen from newspaper reports that the Bengaluru Archbishop Dr.Bernard Moras insulted the Karnataka Chief Minister very much like Saint Francis Xavier treated the Hindus of Goa in the 16th century! The Archbishop told the Chief Minister ‘For Christians, the Blessed Sacrament is the most holy religious symbol signifying the body and blood of Christ. I am prepared to shed blood and give my life for the cause of Christ and Christians’. The Archbishop ought to know that the Hindus in majority, not only in Karnataka but also in the whole of India, are in the same mood to defend their Hindu Gods and Goddesses against the Christian fraud of forced or induced conversions in India. It has been reported that the Archbishop asked the Karnataka Chief Minister ‘What will you do if your temple is destroyed?’ Dr.Bernard Moras should know that the Hindus of Karnataka have reacted against the blasphemous Anti-Hindu literature and fraudulent methods of conversion resorted to by Christian Missionaries and agencies in Karnataka.

In these columns, in a series of articles very recently, I have fully documented the atrocities let loose against the Hindus of Goa by Christian Catholic Missionaries from 1560 to 1612. St.Francis Xavier was the man who inaugurated the Holy Inquisition against the Hindus of Goa. May I request Bengaluru Archbishop Dr. Bernard Moras to issue a statement defending the Holy Inquisition in Goa? Is he not aware of the blasphemous Anti-Hindu Evangelical literature in wide circulation in Karnataka? Can he deny the fact that this kind of savage denigration of Hindu Gods and Goddesses was mainly responsible for the Hindu rebellion in Karnataka? Dr. Bernard Moras cannot now say that New Life is a Protestant Organisation and not a Catholic Organisation. Supreme Court of India does not distinguish between induced/forced/fraudulent Conversions done by either Catholic or Protestant Organisations.

The Convenor of the Chennai Churches Fraternity V.Devasahayam has urged the Central government to impose a ban on the Sangh Parivar and the Bajrang Dal and also to enact a legislation to protect the Minorities. He has said that the Union government must bring in a new legislation on the lines of the SC/ST atrocities Prevention Act. In a shameless manner he has alleged that the BJP Party is undermining the country’s values. He has spoken like a third grade politician in this context: ‘Wherever the BJP is in power, violence is unleashed against the minorities. Muslims and Christians become victims of the fascist tendencies of the Sangh Parivar outfits’.

I am fully aware of the open fight and continuous cold war between the Nadar Christians and the SC/ST Christians in the Church of South India in recent years. The number of criminal/civil cases, between these two Christian Groups, pending in all the Courts of Law in Tamil Nadu (from the District Munsif’s Court to the High Court) will amply bear out this fact. Against this background I am amused to see that Devasahayam has sought legislation on the lines of the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act. The existence of this Act has in no way given any protection to the SC/ST Christians either within the Catholic Church or the Protestant Church in Tamil Nadu

You can ask me as to why I have given the title of ‘THE KATHERINE MAYO’S AND PAT ROBERTSON’S OF INDIA TODAY’ to this story today. An American tourist called Miss Katherine Mayo visited India in the winter of 1925-26. She wrote a book called Mother India, severely criticizing India and the Hindus. All the leading men of India like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Lala Lajpath Rai, Pandit Madan Mohan Malavya, Sarojini Naidu, Tej Bahadur Sapru and many others protested against the viciously mischievous, distorted and unrealistic portrayal of Hindus in Mother India. Mahatma Gandhi dismissed Katherine Mayo’s Report as ‘A Drain inspector’s Report’.

Katherine Mayo’s representative in today’s India is PAT ROBERTSON. He is an enemy number one of Sanatana Dharma, Hinduism and the Hindus of India. The UPA government under Sonia Gandhi and the Andhra Pradesh Government under Y.samuel Rajashekara Reddy are open political supporters of this anti-Hindu American vermin of a missionary. He has carried on his anti-Hindu campaign in several parts of Andhra Pradesh .Let us hear his words of Christian compassion: ‘that problem is idol worship. It is said there are hundreds of millions of Hindu deities. All this has put a nation in bondage to spiritual forces that have deceived many for thousands of years’.

In my view all the Churches in India are the political bridges between Katherine Mayo and Pat Robertson.

The chairman of the UPA Co-ordination Committee Sonia Gandhi has succeeded in converting India into a banana republic. Ever since the minority UPA anti-Hindu Government came to power in New Delhi with the outside support of known fifth columnists from the days of Quit India Movement in 1942—I am referring to the Communists of all grades and shades—the sovereignty of India has been on sale in the International market under the malignant umbrella of ‘National Soul Destroying Secularism’.

When Swamy Laksmanananda was brutally murdered by Christian missionaries in Orissa on Krishna Jayanthi day on 23 August 2008, the Hindus of Orissa rose in revolt in Kandhamal District. At that time the Italian Government had the temerity to summon the Indian Ambassador in Rome to take ‘decisive action to curb anti-Christian violence in Orissa’. Even a first year graduate student of international relations will declare without much ado that the 62nd Government in Italy after the end of Second World War in May 1945 (almost at the rate of one new Government every Calendar year!) breached all known canons of diplomatic propriety, resulting in a public relations disaster of enormous magnitude, when it summoned the Indian Ambassador. The UPA Government, maintained an indifferent attitude of cold, neutral, and secular silence without even lodging a protest with the Government of Italy for brazenly interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign country like India.

The fascist Italian Government’s poor diplomacy followed the Pope’s condemnation of bloodletting in Orissa. As the head of a denominational commercial enterprise, which is what the Vatican is, Pope Benedict XVI is perhaps justified in raising questions about the security of Christians everywhere. However, in the immediate context of India, he chose to look at the issue only selectively. The fact of the matter is that in Orissa, like elsewhere in India, Christian evangelists — largely from Pentecostal and Baptist groups in the United States but sometimes from Catholic orders as well — look upon local populations as a viable market, and converts as ‘market share’. Their known business is ‘The Harvest of Pagan/Heathen Souls’.

Following the Government of Italy and the Pope in Rome, it is now the turn of the US Government to interfere in the internal affairs of India. The disgraceful track record of blatant interference of American Government in the internal affairs of countries in Asia after the Second World War is too well known. The American Government has been functioning as the self declared ‘Head Constable of the World’. The US State Department issues two significant reports annually—one on International Religious Freedom and the other on Global terrorism. The report on terrorism is titled ‘Patterns on Global Terrorism’ and is issued normally in the first week of May. The report on Inernational Religious Freedom is issued in September of each year by the Office of International Religious Freedom of the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. This report is besides the other report on International Religious Freedom issued by the more infamous USCIRF in May of every year. Both the USCIRF and the Office of International Religious Freedom were constituted by an Act of Congress, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

Two days ago, the US Government has condemned violence against Christians in India during the last two months. Ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom Thomas Hanford, has said: ‘We urge all parties to refrain from violence and urge government officials to protect religious freedom throughout India and thus preserve India’s longstanding tradition of religious tolerance.’ Our External Affairs Minister, perhaps awaits his instructions not from South Block (which he can ignore without any detriment to the safety of his (In!)- glorious ‘PUBLIC OFFICE’) but from No 10, Janpath, New Delhi. For all our Union Cabinet Ministers and more so for our Prime Minister, the Sovereignty of India can be compromised at any time, anywhere in any part of the world!. What can never be compromised at any cost is the Sovereignty of Sonia Gandhi.

The political inspiration for Thomas Hanford’s uncalled for interference in the internal affairs of India stems from White House in Washington. President Bush has politically chased two things like an American Bull Dog during the last eight years—the first being Saddam Hussain and his ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ in Iraq and the second being Faith Based Social Service Initiative emanating from a White House Office to promote Government aid to Churches and Christian faith-based Organizations.

In these columns on 20 February 2007, in an article titled ‘Bush-sponsored Evangelization of India’, I had commented as follows: ‘One of the early and most important major policy decisions which President Bush took on 29 January, 2001, was in regard to a ‘Faith Based’ social service initiative that included a new White House office to promote government aid to churches and Christian faith-based organisations. This had the immediate effect of throwing the massive weight of the federal government behind religious groups and religious conversions. The Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was set up in the White House in the first week of February 2002 and a man called Jim Towey was appointed as Director. The most interesting and important point to be noted in this context is that Jim Towey was the legal counsel to Mother Teresa in the late 1980s. Thus he was fully qualified in every sense of the term to play the role of an aggressive evangelist. What is most disturbing to note is that though Bush’s initiative as a 11th century Crusader to fund ‘salvation and religious conversion’ has been stalled in the Congress over constitutional and civil rights concerns, yet he has pushed for its implementation through his own executive orders. Consequently, new waves of aggressive evangelism have been emanating and issuing out from America and invading India, with its epicenter in Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, under the control of Seventh Day Adventist Chief Minister Dr. Samuel (Rajasekhar Reddy). This White House-sponsored movement for the evangelization of India is well funded, superbly networked and backed by the highest of the land in America. This is being fully supported informally by the UPA government in New Delhi under the stranglehold of a de facto Prime Minister, tracing her spiritual and cultural roots to Italy in general and to Vatican in particular’.

I am very amused to see that Christian Leaders like Bengaluru Archbishop Dr Bernard Moras, V Devasahayam, Convenor of the Chennai Churches Fraternity, (CCF), All India Christian Council (AICC!!) President Joseph Dsouza, National Integration Council Member John Dayal, etc. etc., are crying hoarse about the persecution of Christians in the India of today. In this context I would like to invite their kind attention to what I had written in these columns on 10 July 2007 under the title ‘Genuine tears in Pakistan vs Hypocritical tears in India’: ‘Let us contrast this politically imagined situation of fictionalised atrocities against the Christians in India with what is actually happening in Pakistan today. It has been extensively reported in all forms of media during the last one week that Christian clerics in Multan District in Pakistan are being forced to convert to Islam or face death. Naveed Amer Jeeva, Pastor Joseph Daniel, Dr Elvin and Pastor Mehtab Masih, all front rank leaders of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) stated at a joint news conference on 6 July 2007 in Multan: “As many as 10 Christian Clerics have received threatening letters from unidentified people reading ‘Embrace Islam, Stop Preaching Christianity and quit your faith. Otherwise the count down of your life has begun’. Naveed Amer Jeeva of the APMA said: ‘A state of fear prevails in Shanti Nagar (Multan Town) because District and Provincial Governments have turned a deaf ear to our problems. We are feeling insecure and unsafe today because of these threatening letters from Muslim fanatics. Pastor Mukhtar Barkat had received a similar threatening letter from Muslim fanatics in 2004 and was assassinated on 5 January 2004 in Khurrampura Khanewal. The minorities in general and the Christians in particular are not safe in Pakistan. Recently, Christians in Charsadda also received threatening letters warning them to shut their Churches and convert to Islam... Even a petition has been filed against the appointment of Justice Bhagawan Das as acting Chief Justice of Pakistan on the ground that he is a non-Muslim (a Hindu)’.

When a Church in Cochin near Nedumbassery International Airport was attacked recently, in an orchestrated Anti-Hindu chorus, many Christian Leaders unconscionably attacked the Sangh Parivar. Now I have received the report that the Kerala Police have arrested a Christian named Elias in connection with this attack. The pseudo-secular mafia of mass media in India—both print and electronic—which ran ‘sensational’ stories to link Hindu organisations with the attack along with Pinarai Vijayan is not uttering a word since the arrest of Elias – A laity of the Jacobite church!

Last year Swamy Dayanand Saraswati told me in Chennai that three leading Rabbis who met the Swamiji in New Delhi had told him that India is the only country in the world where the Jews have never been persecuted at any point of time in the last 2000 years. Our hypocritical Christian leaders should also take their lessons from them, if not from the fanatic Muslims of Multan District in Pakistan today. In this context, I cannot help quoting the brilliant words of VOLTAIRE (1694-1778):

Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world- - -Where is the prince sufficiently educated to know that for seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm?’ (LETTERS TO FREDRICK THE GREAT, 1767)’.

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