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By: V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
March 05, 2007
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The Congress government of Himachal Pradesh deserves the congratulations
of the Hindus in majority in India for having passed a Legislation banning
forced religious conversions. The Congress-led government in the State
passed the legislation during its four-day winter session in the last week
of December, 2006.
Kaul Singh, Law Minister, Himachal Pradesh, said that "according to the
bill if someone was forced to change his religion without his consent then
he could come back to his own religion within a month. Under the bill,
persons who had forced or induced someone to change his/her religion, then
he/she would be liable for punishment."
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also welcomed the Bill.
Already five States ruled by the BJP or its allies have introduced such
anti-conversion laws. They are meant to protect India's religious identity
and to foster communal harmony. Under most of these new laws, anyone
planning to leave the Hindu fold must obtain certificates and affidavits
from courts to the effect that they are converting out of free will and
not by inducements in cash or kind.
It is reliably understood that an Indian-American Christian outfit in the
United States has expressed concern over the new anti-conversion bill
passed by Himachal Pradesh, alleging that it is aimed at harassing
Christian workers in the Congress-ruled State. In a letter to Congress
president Sonia Gandhi, the Federation of Indian American Christian
Organizations sought help in stopping the bill passed by Himachal Pradesh
in December 2006, saying the law will be used to harass and intimidate
minorities. In that letter copies of which have been sent to President A P
J Abdul Kalam and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, they have protested
against the anti-conversion legislation and said: "We cannot understand
the basis of these anti-conversion bills/laws. "As you mentioned on
several occasions, particularly in your letter to Dr John Dayal of the All
India Christian Council on 27 July, 2006, the Congress party was opposed
to this divisive, hate-filled anti-religion strategy used by some bigoted
members of certain political parties. Everyone knew about your views on
this issue. The development in Himachal Pradesh therefore comes as a
profound shock to us. We express our utmost disappointment and urge you to
use your influence to ask the State to rescind the law or withdraw it
altogether. As President of the Indian National Congress, you must undo
the grievous damage being done to the sanctity of the Indian Constitution
and to the freedom of faith of the Indian People." According to these
international evangelists, induced conversion is not a fraud on the Indian
Constitution. At any rate, their attitude shows total contempt for the
final verdict of the Supreme Court to the effect that freedom of faith and
induced conversions are incompatible and that there is no legal sanctity
for unfettered induced conversion founded on induced fraud under the
Indian Constitution.
Every enlightened Hindu all over the world who does not want to sell his
soul for a mess of pottage offered as incentive or inducement by the
Christian establishment is fully aware of the fact that the Christian
Church in India does not want to severe its ties with its foreign masters
even 60 years after the British have left our soil. In order to survive
and to consistently prey upon the heathen pagans as part of an organized
campaign for what they call "Harvesting of Souls," the church
establishment in the country has no other option but to continue to
receive a steady flow of cash or bigoted missionaries or both into India
from abroad. Most of them are indulging in disgraceful acts of national
subversion and national sabotage. Keeping in view this background, and
having regard to the imperative national need for the prevention of
induced or forced conversion of Hindus which only promotes
anti-nationalism in India, the RSS called for nationalization of the
Christian Church in India. Without furnishing any logical reasons against
this suggestion, the Christian community vehemently opposed this
suggestion.
All the Christian missionaries in India know very well that they can never
succeed in persuading the Hindus and other pagans to convert to
Christianity by using logic alone. Therefore, they have set up an outfit
in the country which cons the unsuspecting "heathens" and then robs them
of their religion and way of life. In order to maximize the "harvest of
faith," these con artists resort to disgraceful practices of forcible
conversion, apart from financing separatists movement in the country in a
subterranean and surreptitious manner. It is a well-known fact that in
this goal of national subversion, the Church establishment in India is
hand-in-glove with the naxalites and the hard core communists who are
anti-nationalists to the core. Its members are trained for the sole
purpose of converting the heathen pagans, i.e., Hindus, Buddhists, etc.
through all possible means fair or foul.
Let me give a few telling instances in this context. Sometime ago in
Kothapara, in the Idukki wildlife sanctuary, Kerala, the forest department
discovered a series of 14 crosses put up by the Christhuraj Church. The
wildlife sanctuary was being used as a pilgrimage centre by the Church.
When the church trustees were confronted and told that they were breaking
the law by trespassing and creating an imbalance in the eco-system, they
explained to the authorities that the Church had been using the forest as
a pilgrimage centre for over 50 years. This was a complete lie as the
Forest Department authorities had proof that the crosses had started
coming up only a few months earlier. Father Mathew Pandyamakkal, a former
parish priest of Christhuraj Church, justified the putting up of the
crosses by saying that forest stretch where the crosses had been set up
was rocky and therefore people visiting this area could in no way harm the
forest and the wildlife! It is clear that the Church set up this
pilgrimage centre in a remote location, only to quietly conduct conversion
ceremonies. The Kerala Forest Department is fully aware of the fact that
the preservation of wildlife sanctuary is the least of their concerns.
A similar situation also occurred in Nilackal in Kerala when a Church
attempted to construct a shrine after unearthing a stone cross from the
forests close to the Sabarimala Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Church
claimed that the cross was installed by Apostle St Thomas, but when the
Kerala government wanted to send it for archaeological study and scrutiny,
the cross mysteriously vanished from the site. It was later revealed that
the cross had been mischievously planted only to perpetuate the myth of
the greatness of St. Thomas, so that the pagan Hindus in the area could be
converted with ease.
India's much neglected north-eastern region is the hotbed of atrocities
committed by the Christian Missionaries against the heathen pagans.
Sometime last year the Indian Church of Christ in Assam was caught
red-handed in the act of forcibly converting 14 Hindus. Over a period of
six months the missionaries belonging to this Church offered money, jobs
and other economic benefits to these extremely poor Hindus if they chose
to convert to Christianity. These Hindus were threatened with dire
consequences if they chose to reveal to anyone the circumstances under
which they had been converted. However, two brave individuals who had been
forcibly converted came to the police and gave them the lurid details of
how the Christian priests had lured them to their residence with the
promise of jobs and money. In return for this favor, the priests then
asked these individuals to convert to Christianity. The police have
identified Father Jojy Vomen as the mastermind behind these forcible
conversions. It is understood that he moved to Assam from Bangalore in
1995.
The Christian Church establishment in India is also involved in
anti-national activities supporting various separatist movements
throughout the country. To cite just one example, in Tripura, the Church
authorities known to threaten innocent Hindus with reprisals from the
naxalites if they do not convert to Christianity.
I was shocked to note that some Indian missionaries belonging to Gospel
for Asia had intruded in to the site of the "Ardh Kumbh" festival at the
confluence of two sacred rivers at Prayag (Allahabad) in the last week of
January, 2007 to carry out their disgraceful deeds of induced conversion,
as they did in Tirupathi Tirumala Temple a few months ago. GFA native
missionaries and Bible College students were attending the event to offer
the pilgrims an alternative to the traditional rituals by introducing them
to Jesus. The team for the festival outreach included staff members from
the GFA State office, women from local churches, students and staff
members from Bible colleges as well as pastors from Allahabad. Some of
them were driven away; some beaten and some were arrested by the police.
Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating UPA government
would view these splendid deeds of "Gospel for Asia" as acts of
benediction - or at any rate as a legitimate exercise of minority rights
in a land of pseudo-secularism!!
Perhaps Helen Ellerbe had missionaries like "Gospel for Asia" in mind when
she wrote the following lines: "The dark side of Christian history can
help us understand the severing of our connection with the sacred. It can
teach us of the most insidious and damaging slavery of all: the control of
people through dictating and containing their spirituality. This ignored
side of Christian history can suitably illuminate our minds, opening our
eyes to the pernicious ideas and beliefs which foster the denigration of
human rights, the intolerance of difference and the destruction of the
natural environment."
Mahatma Gandhi during the course of his famous trial in Ahmedabad in 1922
described the British Government in India as "Satanic". I would like to
describe the conversion tactics of Evangelism as evils of "Satanism."
V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
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