Are we heading towards a Christian India? (Part I)
I am a westerner and a born Christian. I was mainly brought up in catholic
schools, my uncle, Father Guy Gautier, a gem of a man, was the parish head
of the beautiful Saint Jean de Montmartre church in Paris ; my father,
Jacques Gautier, a famous artist in France, and a truly good person if there
ever was one, was a fervent catholic all his life, went to church nearly
every day and lived by his Christian values. There are certain concepts in
Christianity I am proud of :
charity for others, the equality of system in many western countries,
Christ's message of love and compassion….
Yet, I am a little uneasy when I see how much Christianity is taking over
India under the reign of Sonia Gandhi : according to a 2001 census, there
are about 2.34 million Christians in India ; not even 2,5% of the nation, a
negligible amount. Yet there are today five Christian chief ministers in
Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
One should add that the majority of politicians in Sonia Gandhi's closed
circle are either Christians or Muslims. She seems to have no confidence in
Hindus.Ambika Soni, a Christian, is General Secretary of the Congress and a
very powerful person, with close access to Sonia Gandhi. Oscar Fernandes is
Union Programme Implementation Minister.
Margaret Alwa is the eminence grise of Maharasthra. Karnataka is virtually
controlled by AK Anthony, whose secretaries are all from the Southern
Christian association. Valson Thampu, a Hindu hater, is Chairman NCERT
curriculum Review Committee, John Dayal, another known Hindu baiter, has
been named by Sonia Gandhi in the National Integration Council ; and Kancha
Ilaya, who hates Hindus, is being allowed by the Indian Government to lobby
with the UN and US Congress so that caste discrimination in India is
taken-up by these bodies.
I have nothing personnally against Sonia Gandhi, in fact she probably is a
good person to win the alliegance of so many and certainly a loving mother .
I share with her a love for India, like her I have lived in this country for
over 30 years and like her I have married an Indian. But nevertheless, since
she is at the top, Christian conversions in India seem to have gone in
overdrive. More than 4,000 foreign Christian missionaries are involved in
conversion activities across different states. In Tripura, there were no
Christians at independence, there are 120.000 today, a 90% increase since
1991. The figures are even more striking in Arunachal Pradesh, where there
were only 1710 Christians in 1961, but 1,2 million today, as well as 780
churches! In Andhra Pradesh, churches are coming-up every day in far flung
villages and there was even an attempt to set-up one near Tirupati. Many of
the North-East separatist movements, such as the Mizo or the Bodos, are not
only Christian dominated, but also sometimes function with the covert
backing of the missionaries. In Kerala, particularly in the poor coastal
districts, you find "miracle boxes" put in local churches: the gullible
villager writes out a paper mentionning his wish: a fising boat, a loan for
a pukka house, fees for the son's schooling… And lo, a few weeks later, the
miracle happens ! And of course the whole family converts, making others in
the village follow suit. During the Tsunami, entire dalit villages in Tamil
Nadu were converted to Christianity with the lure of money.
It is true that there have been a few backlashes against missionnaries and
nuns, particularly the gruesome muder of Staines and his two sons.
But Belgium historian Konenraad Elst laments that « When over a thousand
Hindus are killed and a quarter million Hindus ethnically cleansed in
Kashmir, the world media doesn't even notice, but watch the worldwide hue
and cry when a few local riots take place and a few missionaries are killed
by unidentified tribal miscreants. Christian Naga terrorists have been
killing non-Christians for decades on end, and this has never been an issue
with the world media, except to bewail the "oppression" of the Nagas by
"Hindu India" ». More than 20,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency
in Assam and Manipur in the past two decades. As recently as last week, four
paramilitary Assam Rifles soldiers were killed in an ambush yesterday by the
outlawed United National Liberation Front (UNLF).
The other day I was at the Madras Medical center, the foremost heart
hospital in Madras. Right when you enter the lobby, you find a chapel,
inviting everybody to pray, there are pictures and quotations of Christ
everywhere and a priest visits all the patients, without being invited at
all. Educational institutes and orphanages run by Christian organisations
have become big business in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and other states. In
Pondichery, where I am often, schools run by Adventists force their pupils,
mostly Hindus, to say Christian prayers every day and attend mass. They are
constantly fed anti Hindu slogans and biases under different forms, whether
it is in history books, or discourses by priests during religious classes.
Even in the elite schools or colleges, such as Saint Stephen in Delhi, Saint
Xavier in Calcutta or Loyola college in Madras, where no direct
proletization is attempted, Hindu pupils are subtly encouraged towards
skepticism of their own religion, and admiration of whatever is Western. One
should also say that it's a one way traffic : remember the furor when MM
Joshi wanted the Saraswati hymn to be sung at a Chief Ministers' meet on
education ? And imagine the uproar in secular India if portions of the
Bhagavad Gita, this Bible for all humanity, were read at the beginning of
the day in public schools ? (Continued....)
I am a westerner and a born Christian. I was mainly brought up in catholic
schools, my uncle, Father Guy Gautier, a gem of a man, was the parish head
of the beautiful Saint Jean de Montmartre church in Paris ; my father,
Jacques Gautier, a famous artist in France, and a truly good person if there
ever was one, was a fervent catholic all his life, went to church nearly
every day and lived by his Christian values. There are certain concepts in
Christianity I am proud of :
charity for others, the equality of system in many western countries,
Christ's message of love and compassion….
Yet, I am a little uneasy when I see how much Christianity is taking over
India under the reign of Sonia Gandhi : according to a 2001 census, there
are about 2.34 million Christians in India ; not even 2,5% of the nation, a
negligible amount. Yet there are today five Christian chief ministers in
Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
One should add that the majority of politicians in Sonia Gandhi's closed
circle are either Christians or Muslims. She seems to have no confidence in
Hindus.Ambika Soni, a Christian, is General Secretary of the Congress and a
very powerful person, with close access to Sonia Gandhi. Oscar Fernandes is
Union Programme Implementation Minister.
Margaret Alwa is the eminence grise of Maharasthra. Karnataka is virtually
controlled by AK Anthony, whose secretaries are all from the Southern
Christian association. Valson Thampu, a Hindu hater, is Chairman NCERT
curriculum Review Committee, John Dayal, another known Hindu baiter, has
been named by Sonia Gandhi in the National Integration Council ; and Kancha
Ilaya, who hates Hindus, is being allowed by the Indian Government to lobby
with the UN and US Congress so that caste discrimination in India is
taken-up by these bodies.
I have nothing personnally against Sonia Gandhi, in fact she probably is a
good person to win the alliegance of so many and certainly a loving mother .
I share with her a love for India, like her I have lived in this country for
over 30 years and like her I have married an Indian. But nevertheless, since
she is at the top, Christian conversions in India seem to have gone in
overdrive. More than 4,000 foreign Christian missionaries are involved in
conversion activities across different states. In Tripura, there were no
Christians at independence, there are 120.000 today, a 90% increase since
1991. The figures are even more striking in Arunachal Pradesh, where there
were only 1710 Christians in 1961, but 1,2 million today, as well as 780
churches! In Andhra Pradesh, churches are coming-up every day in far flung
villages and there was even an attempt to set-up one near Tirupati. Many of
the North-East separatist movements, such as the Mizo or the Bodos, are not
only Christian dominated, but also sometimes function with the covert
backing of the missionaries. In Kerala, particularly in the poor coastal
districts, you find "miracle boxes" put in local churches: the gullible
villager writes out a paper mentionning his wish: a fising boat, a loan for
a pukka house, fees for the son's schooling… And lo, a few weeks later, the
miracle happens ! And of course the whole family converts, making others in
the village follow suit. During the Tsunami, entire dalit villages in Tamil
Nadu were converted to Christianity with the lure of money.
It is true that there have been a few backlashes against missionnaries and
nuns, particularly the gruesome muder of Staines and his two sons.
But Belgium historian Konenraad Elst laments that « When over a thousand
Hindus are killed and a quarter million Hindus ethnically cleansed in
Kashmir, the world media doesn't even notice, but watch the worldwide hue
and cry when a few local riots take place and a few missionaries are killed
by unidentified tribal miscreants. Christian Naga terrorists have been
killing non-Christians for decades on end, and this has never been an issue
with the world media, except to bewail the "oppression" of the Nagas by
"Hindu India" ». More than 20,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency
in Assam and Manipur in the past two decades. As recently as last week, four
paramilitary Assam Rifles soldiers were killed in an ambush yesterday by the
outlawed United National Liberation Front (UNLF).
The other day I was at the Madras Medical center, the foremost heart
hospital in Madras. Right when you enter the lobby, you find a chapel,
inviting everybody to pray, there are pictures and quotations of Christ
everywhere and a priest visits all the patients, without being invited at
all. Educational institutes and orphanages run by Christian organisations
have become big business in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and other states. In
Pondichery, where I am often, schools run by Adventists force their pupils,
mostly Hindus, to say Christian prayers every day and attend mass. They are
constantly fed anti Hindu slogans and biases under different forms, whether
it is in history books, or discourses by priests during religious classes.
Even in the elite schools or colleges, such as Saint Stephen in Delhi, Saint
Xavier in Calcutta or Loyola college in Madras, where no direct
proletization is attempted, Hindu pupils are subtly encouraged towards
skepticism of their own religion, and admiration of whatever is Western. One
should also say that it's a one way traffic : remember the furor when MM
Joshi wanted the Saraswati hymn to be sung at a Chief Ministers' meet on
education ? And imagine the uproar in secular India if portions of the
Bhagavad Gita, this Bible for all humanity, were read at the beginning of
the day in public schools ? (Continued....)