Commentary/ Varsha Bhosle

In the name of the Lord

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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