Rahul Writes

While reading “Recess: The Penguin Book of Schooldays” (Penguin Books; Edited by Palash Krishna Mehortra; ISBN 978-0-14-310011-9), I came across some curious portions which touch internal conflicts within Indian society during growing years of Christianity:  

1. … Calcutta in 1834 when I came to that city from my native village. There were then four principle schools – the Hindu College; the General Assembly’s Institution, always called Duff’s School; the School Society’s School, called Hare’s School; and the Oriental Seminary, usually called Gour Mohana Addhya’s School. The question with my father was – into which of these schools should I be put? … There remained then the General Assembly’s Institution, where admission was given generously…  

But, then, there was one serious drawback. Dr. Duff (he was then simply Mr. Duff) was a most zealous Missionary. He made no secret of it, but publicly avowed, that his chief object in setting up the Institution was to initiate Hindu youth into the principles of the Christian religion. He had already appeared as a Public Lecturer on Christianity, and his Lectures had taken Calcutta by storm. Those Lectures had not only created a great sensation in the Hindu community, but had brought to the Christian faith some of the brightest and most intelligent youth of the city. Only a year and half before, Dr. Duff had baptized Krishna Mohana Banerjea (now the Reverend K. M. Banerjea); and the conversion of Krishna Banda – as he was then universally called – had produced a tremendous impression on the Hindu community.  

“Is it right – is it expedient,” argued some of my father’s friends, “to imperil the religion of your son by putting him for education into the hands of so zealous a Missionary, of a man whose avowed object is to eat the religion of young Hindus, of a man who has already succeeded in eating the religion of several young men?”…  

(From Lal Behari Dey, Bengal Peasant Life, Folk Tales of Bengal, Recollections of My School-days (1876), edited by Mahadevprasad Saha, Calcutta: Editions Indian, 1969) 

—  

2. The Mission School and the Girls’ School were housed in a large bungalow, and were separated by a wall. Only Christians studied in the Girls’ School. The fear of losing caste was so great among the Hindus that they would not send their daughters to school.  

(From Fakir Mohan Senapati, Story of My Life (1918, published in 1927), translated from the Oriya by Jatindra K. Nayak and Prodeepta Das, Bhubneshwar: Sateertha Publications, 1997.) 

—  

3. “What an annoying fellow that old teacher is, to be sure. If it were not for the English I wouldn’t tolerate him a bit. I had a good mind to give it to him this day. What does he mean by always dinning into our ears the Bible, as if we had no Shastras of our own? I told him today, when he took me aside and spoke to me in serious tones about my spiritual condition, to learn a little more of our Shastras. What can compare with our grand old Vedic religion and our scriptures?” 

“That is right T…! Make the old fellow a convert to our religion,” says an old dame jocularly. “We will give him some marks on his forehead and besmear him with ashes. He will be a perfect Brahmin.” 

“Ha! ha! ha!” laugh all the females, while the males put their heads down and deign to smile inwardly and wear a pleased expression.  

“The polluted old one, how dare he speak of the religion of the pariahs to you, my dear son! I greatly fear him,” says the mother.  

“No need of fear, mother! He will be a convert first before I become one. I am quite a match for him and can hold my own. I tolerate him and the school only for the English. Do you mean to say I like him?” 

The father chuckles in silence. The meal ends and the son majestically stalks out with a heap of books under his arm. The father says to the women with a wink in the direction of the young man, meant to express a sort of a self-satisfied pride. “Leave him to himself. He knows how to manage the old fanatic. Be sure he will come out scatheless. He is no ordinary lad.” 

(From Krupabai Satthianadhan, ‘The Story of a Conversion’, in The Satthianandhan Family Album, Edited with an Introduction by Eunice de Souza, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2005.) 

—  

4. Ours was a Lutheran Mission School – mostly for boarders who were Christian converts. The teachers were all converts, and, towards the few non-Christian students like me, they displayed a lot of hatred. Most of the Christian students also detested us. The scripture classes were mostly devoted to attacking and lampooning the Hindu gods, and violent abuses were heaped on idol worshippers as a prelude to glorify Jesus. Among the non-Christians in our class I was the only Brahmin boy, and received special attention; the whole class would turn in my direction when then teacher said that Brahmins claiming to be vegetarians ate fish and meat in secret, in a sneaky way, and were responsible for the soaring price of those commodities.  

(From My Days, R. K. Narayan) 

—  

Posted [here]

I received the following piece from a friend. I usually avoid Sardarji jokes, but my friend who sent it was one himself and hence I am posting this without any alteration.  

Each Friday night after work, Sardar ji would fire up his outdoor grill and cook a Tandoori chicken and some meat kebabs. But, all of his neighbors were strict Catholics … And since it was Lent, they were forbidden from eating chicken and meat on a Friday.  

The aroma from the grilled meats was causing such a problem for the Catholic faithful that they finally talked to their Priest. The Priest came to visit Sardar ji and suggested that he become a Catholic. After several classes and much study, Sardar ji attended Mass… And as the priest sprinkled holy water over him, he said, You were born a Sikh, and raised as a Sikh, but from now, you are a Catholic.”  

Sardar ji’s neighbors were greatly relieved, until Friday night arrived. The wonderful aroma of Tandoori chicken and meat kebabs filled the neighborhood. The Priest was called immediately by the neighbors and, as he rushed into Sardar ji’s backyard, clutching a rosary and prepared to scold him, he stopped and watched in amazement.  

There stood Sardar  ji, holding a small bottle of holy water which he carefully sprinkled over  the grilling meats and chanted: “Oye, you were born a chicken, and you  were born a lamb, you were raised as a chicken and you were raised as a lamb but now onwards you are a potato and you are a  tomato. 

This is such a fitting comment on religious conversions and their hypocrisy! Yet, world’s two largest religions found their members by such methods! Wish there were more people in this world like our Sardarji.

Just read the following article and can’t contain my happiness. I believe organized religious conversion out of Hinduism should be legally banned in India. Individual conversions are personal choices and should be left out. But the manner in which Christian / Catholic missionaries have been spreading their propaganda funded by foreign money/donations, it is shameful if our democratic govt should not stop it.  

Conversion not a constitutional right: SC judge 

Satya Prakash,Hindustan Times

New Delhi, February 27, 2011 

Maintaining that there was no constitutional right to convert a person from one religion to another, justice P Sathasivan of the Supreme Court on Saturday said the right to propagate one’s religion was not an unrestricted right. Delivering the third Dr LM Singhvi Memorial Lecture on “Secularism and rule of law in India,” justice Sathasivam said the state has a right to pass laws restricting conversions if such activities created public disorder. 

Quoting from the SC’s 1977 verdict in Stainislaus vs State of Madhya Pradesh & Orissa, he said: “The right to propagate means the right to ‘transmit and spread one’s religion by an exposition of its tenets’. But…there is no constitutional right to convert a person from one religion to another, because this would impinge on the ‘freedom of conscience’ guaranteed to all the citizens of the country alike.”  

The Supreme Court delineated the boundaries of the right to propagate in the context of state legislation prohibiting forcible conversions, said justice Sathasivam, who headed the bench, which made a controversial remark against religious conversions while upholding the conviction of Dara Singh in the Graham Staines murder case last month.  

But the bench chose to modify it after several Christian organisations termed it uncalled for and demanded its withdrawal. 

On state’s the right to pass legislation restricting conversions, justice Sathasivam, quoting from an SC verdict said: “the ‘public order’ provision of Article 25(1) of the Constitution has a ‘wide connotation’ and that the state could legislate conversions if they ‘created public disorder.” 

While maintaining, “Secularism is the part of the basic structure of the Constitution,” he said the term ‘secular’ has not been defined, presumably because it is a very elastic term not capable of a precise definition and perhaps best left undefined.  

He, however, said in Indian context secularism meant “Sarva Dharma Sambhav” ie tolerance for all religions, which springs from due deliberation for one’s own happiness and also for welfare of all beings. 

http://www.hindustantimes.com/tabloid-news/newdelhi/Conversion-not-a-constitutional-right-SC-judge/Article1-667294.aspx  

I hope this creates a better environment and consensus for our govt to be able to put a ban on the corrupt conversion activities with help of money or jobs.  

I have a friend who has a Christian name though he comes from near my hometown where almost no Christians live. Still this guy has installed Ram Sita pictures, burnt incense sticks and worshipped every morning (which even I didn’t do daily), did Yoga often in the evening and celebrated Diwali in full spirits. I got to know that his family was converted under influence from some Christian missionary, but from his heart he has never accepted the new religion. He is happy being a Hindu in heart.  

But he is of marriageable age and I wonder if any Hindu father would give his daughter to him. In that case, he would certainly marry another Christian and if his wife would be an evangelist kind of Christian, he may also change his heart or his children and future generations would definitely be Christians. In such case the best thing to happen is if he “converts” to Hinduism officially. But here too, there are hurdles: 1. His parents may not allow it to happen, and 2. Even if he converts, would any Hindu father give his daughter to such a person? Then what is the way out? 

I think a solution can come if there is any Hindu organisation which provides good assistance to such estranged Hindus. I read a lot about Arya Samaj, but I wonder if they have kept up pace with the Generation-Y. Also, what is the way for any such organisation to reach him, if he himself doesn’t go to ask for help.  

I wonder what the way out is for people like him…

What do you remember when you think about Goa? Most probably it would be its sea beaches. But here is someone who found out some uncomfortable truths about history of the same beautiful place we call Goa.  

Richard Zimler is an award winning author and journalist who also wrote a book titled ‘Guardian of the Dawn’. This novel documents the little-known Portuguese Inquisition in India of the 16^th century. 

Some portions of his interview titled ‘Goa Inquisition was most merciless and cruel’ published with Rediff is here for your read and pondering over: 

About 15 years ago, while doing research for my first novel, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, I discovered that the Portuguese exported the Inquisition to Goa in the sixteenth century, and that many Indian Hindus were tortured and burnt at the stake for continuing to practice their religion. Muslim Indians were generally murdered right away or made to flee Goan territory. 

I couldn’t use that information for my novel but decided, a few years later, to do more research into that time of fundamentalist religious persecution. I discovered that historians consider the Goa Inquisition the most merciless and cruel ever developed. It was a machinery of death. A large number of Hindus were first converted and then persecuted from 1560 all the way to 1812! 

Over that period of 252 years, any man, woman, or child living in Goa could be arrested and tortured for simply whispering a prayer or keeping a small idol at home. Many Hindus — and some former Jews, as well — languished in special Inquisitional prisons, some for four, five, or six years at a time. 

I was horrified to learn about this, of course. And I was shocked that my friends in Portugal knew nothing about it. The Portuguese tend to think of Goa as the glorious capital of the spice trade, and they believe — erroneously — that people of different ethnic backgrounds lived there in tolerance and tranquillity. They know nothing about the terror that the Portuguese brought to India. They know nothing of how their fundamentalist religious leaders made so many suffer.  

Few people in today’s Portugal know anything about the Inquisition. Many of them would rather not examine what their ancestors did, both in Portugal and its colonies. But others are very curious about what they didn’t learn in school about their own history. Yes, in a sense I am opening old wounds. But I think it’s important to do that. I think that we need to face the bad things we do — both individually and as a society. In general, the Portuguese have been very receptive to my books.   

Full article: http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/14inter1.htm

Gandhi ji’s autobiography “My Experiments with Truth”, presents many circumstances where he was lured by others to convert into other religions. And on each occasion, he came out unscathed. It was because he was such possessed humbleness and humility. This paragraph describes his idea: 

They also took me on one occasion to the Blavatsky Lodge and introduced me to Madame Blavatsky and Mrs. Besant. The latter had just then joined the Theosophical Society, and I was following with great interest the controversy about her conversion. The friends advised me to join the Society, but I politely declined saying, “With my meagre knowledge of my own religion I do not want to belong to any religious body.”  

I recall having read, at the brothers’ instance, Madame Blavatsky’s ‘Key to Theosophy’. This book stimulated in me the desire to read books on Hinduism and disabused me of the notion fostered by the missionaries that Hinduism was rife with superstition.  

Whenever someone said that the religion of his forefathers was bad and he should leave it to join the new one, he first looked inwards and asked himself if he was in a learned position to make a decision? Did he know enough about the tradition of his family and did he know as much as his forefathers did about his native religion? If no, then wouldn’t it be unlearned decision to take a decision to desert it and break a chain which has carried itself through ages? 

I believe if everyone thought it like Gandhi ji did, not a single person would have converted into the missionary religions of this world. Some convert for easy job, some for easy acceptance in a foreign society. Some convert after being offered money and some very few also convert to get rid of the drawbacks of their present religion, hardly realising that there are drawbacks in every religion. As we say, “Grass is greener on the other side”.  

If there was one great quality in Gandhi ji which made him keep his faith intact then it was his intention to “look inside” when in doubt. This is why he never gave up vegetarianism too, no matter how harsh the environment. Let us learn from the way he showed to us.  

- Rahul

These are excerpts taken from Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography “My Experiments with Truth”, abridged version as published by Navjivan Trust.  

This portion comes when he describes his life in South Africa.  

Mr. Baker (whom Mohandas met in South Africa), besides being an attorney, was a staunch lay preacher. He is still alive and now engaged purely in missionary work, having given up the legal profession. He is quite well-to-do. He still corresponds with me. In his letters he always dwells on the same theme. He upholds the excellence of Christianity from various points of view, and contends that it is impossible to find eternal peace, unless on eaccepts Jesus as the only son of God and the Saviour of mankind.  

During the very first interview Mr. Baker ascertained my religious views. I said to him: “I am a Hindu by birth. And yet I do not know much of Hinduism, and I know less of other religions. In fact I do not know where I am, and what is and what should be my belief. I intend to make a careful study of mu own religion and, as far as I can, of other religions as well.” 

Mr. Baker was glad to hear all this….  

(Mr. Baker then invited Mohandas to his Church and offered to introduce him to many other friends and colleagues. The next day, Mohandas went to the Church for prayer meeting. He came to know many other Christians there. One of them was Mr. Coates. He gave him many books on Christianity to study).  

He (Mr. Coates) had great affection for me. He saw, round my neck, the Vaishnava necklace of Tulsi beads. He thought it to be superstition and was pained by it. “This superstition doesn’t become you. Come, let me break the necklace.” 

“No, you will not. It is a sacred gift from my mother.” 

“But do you believe in it?” 

“I do not know its mysterious significance. I do not think I should come to harm if I did not wear it. But I cannot, without sufficient reasons, give up a necklace that she put round my neck out of love and in the conviction that it would be conductive to my welfare. When, with the passage of time, it wears away and breaks of its own accord, I shall have no desire to get a new one. But this necklace cannot be broken.” 

Mr. Coates could not appreciate my argument, as he had no regard for my religion. He was looking forward to delivering me from the abyss of ignorance. He wanted to convince me that, no matter whether there was some truth in other religions, salvation was impossible for me unless I accepted Christianity which represented the truth, and that my sins would not be washed away except by the intercession of Jesus, and that all good works are useless.  

Mr. Baker was getting anxious about my future. He took me to the Wellington Convention. The Convention lasted for three days. I could understand and appreciate the devoutness of those who attended it. But I saw no reason for changing my belief – my religion. It was impossible for me to believe that I could go to heaven or attain salvation only by becoming a Christian. When I frankly said so to some of the good Christian friends they were shocked. But there was no help for it.  

My reason was not ready to believe literally that Jesus by his death and by his blood redeemed the sins of the world. Metaphorically there might be some truth in it. Again, according to Christianity only human beings had souls, and not other living beings, for whom death meant complete extinction; while I held a contrary belief. I could accept Jesus as a martyr, and embodiment of sacrifice, and a divine teacher, but not as the most perfect man ever born.  

The pious lives of Christians did not give me anything that the lives of men of other faiths had failed to give. I had seen in other lives just the same reformation that I had heard of among Christians. Philosophically, there was nothing extraordinary in Christian principles. From the point of view of sacrifice, it seemed to me that the Hindus greatly surpassed the Christians.  

As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, even so were Musalman friends. Abdulla Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam.  

Though I took a path my Christian friends had not intended for me, I have remained for ever indebted to them for the religious quest that they awakened in me. I shall always cherish the memory of their contact.  

Ref: “My Experiments with Truth”, abridged version, by Mahatma Gandhi.

These are excerpts taken from Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography “My Experiments with Truth”, abridged version as published by Navjivan Trust:  

My father had Musalman and Parsi friends, who would talk to him about their own faiths, and he would listen to them always with respect, and often with interest. Being his nurse (Young Mohandas nursed his father who was ill), I often had a chance to be present at these talks. These many things combined to inculcate in me toleration for all faiths.  

Only Christianity was at the time an exception. I developed a sort of dislike for it. And for a reason. In those days Christian missionaries used to stand in a corner near the high school and hold forth, pouring abuse on Hindus and their gods. I could not endure this. I must have stood there to hear repeating them once only, but that was enough to dissuade me from repeating the experiment. About the same time, I heard of a well known Hindu having been converted to Christianity. It was the talk of the town that, when he was baptised, he had to eat beef and drink liquor, that he also had to change his clothes, and that thenceforth he began to go about in European costume including a hat. These things got on my nerves. Surely, thought I, a religion that compelled one to eat beef, drink liquor, and change one’s own clothes did not deserve the name.  

I also heard that the new convert had already begun abusing the religion of his ancestors, their customs and their country. All these things created in me a dislike for Christianity.  

Ref: “My Experiments with Truth”, abridged version, by Mahatma Gandhi.

Posting a very informative article, with thanks to the original author.

St. Thomas In India: Myth or Truth? 

11/07/09 

According to Christian leaders in India, the Apostle Thomas came to India in 52 A.D., founded the Syrian Christian Church, and was killed by the fanatical Brahmins in 72 A.D. His followers built the St. Thomas Church near the site of his martyrdom. Historians however say this apostle, even if he existed, never came to India. The Christian community in South India was founded by a Syrian (or Armenian) merchant Thomas Cananeus in 345 A.D. He led four hundred refugees who fled persecution in Persia and were given asylum by the Hindu authorities. 

This story was too commonplace to attract converts. So Christian leaders identified the merchant Thomas with Apostle Thomas and created the dramatic story of the Apostle’s persecution and death at the hands of the ‘wicked’ Brahmins of South India. This became current in the 16th century when the Portuguese gained control of the west coast of India and forced the Syrian Christians to follow the Catholic faith. The Portuguese also destroyed the Kapaleeswara Temple that originally stood on the site now occupied by the San Thome Cathedral on the beach. 

The creation of this myth and the history is told in detail by the Canadian scholar Ishwar Sharan (not his original name) in his famous book The Myth of St. Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple. The purpose of the myth was to create a local martyr. Christianity depends heavily on the appeal of martyrs who are projected as victims like Jesus Christ. Then as now, Church leaders liked to pose as victims to generate sympathy and propaganda. But no matter how much they tried, the Hindus of India refused to supply the Portuguese with martyrs. So they were forced to create their own. So they turned the merchant Thomas into the Apostle Thomas killed by the Hindus. 

In his foreword to Ishwar Sharan’s book the Belgian scholar Koenraad Elst wrote: “In Catholic universities in Europe, the myth of the apostle Thomas going to India is no longer taught as history, but in India it is still considered useful. Even many vocal ‘secularists’ who attack the Hindus for relying on myth in the Ayodhya affair, off-hand profess their belief in the Thomas myth. The important point is that Thomas can be upheld as a martyr and the Brahmins decried as fanatics.” 

Targeting Brahmins to undermine Hinduism was a favorite tactic among missionaries. Elst gives the true picture: “In reality, the missionaries were very disgruntled that the damned Hindus refused to give them martyrs (whose blood is welcomed as ‘the seed of the faith’), so they had to invent one. Moreover, the church which they claim commemorates St. Thomas’ martyrdom at the hands of Hindu fanaticism, is in fact a monument of Hindu martyrdom at the hands of Christian fanaticism. It is a forcible replacement of two important Hindu temples (Jain and Shaiva) whose existence was insupportable to the Christian missionaries.” 

Another motivation for the myth was to erase the unsavory record of the Catholic Church’s close association with the Portuguese pirates and even worse, the Goa Inquisition inspired by St Xavier. But serious scholars including Christians have rejected this myth as we shall soon see. 

Who was this Apostle Thomas and why was his name invoked? The main sources relating to Apostle Thomas are two Gnostic (non-Biblical) texts known as The Acts of Thomas and the Gospel of Thomas. According to them Thomas was the twin brother of Jesus. For this reason the Thomas myth is not accepted by the Vatican because of a doctrinal problem: Jesus as the Only Son of God cannot possibly have a twin brother. (Greek for Thomas is Didymus, which means twin brother.) 

Christians in South India who identify themselves as St. Thomas Christians claim that their ancestors were blessed by Apostle Thomas in 52 A.D. who preached from the Bible. This has no historical basis as we shall see. In fact, there is no evidence that Thomas even existed. His ‘history’ is full of contradictions as will become apparent. 

Christians in South India who identify themselves as St. Thomas Christians claim that their ancestors were blessed by Apostle Thomas in 52 A.D. who preached from the Bible. This has no historical basis as we shall see. In fact, there is no evidence that Thomas even existed. His ‘history’ is full of contradictions as will become apparent. 

As just observed the Portuguese missionaries who came to India in the 16th century found that they could not do without a local martyr and created the Myth of St. Thomas claiming that he was martyred in India. They gave no explanation as to how they discovered it more than 1500 years later. Marco Polo is supposed to have mentioned it but there is no authentic manuscript that can be attributed to him. Then there is the question of how he discovered it more than a thousand years later. 

There is even a Mount of St. Thomas in Mylapore in Chennai with a tomb that is supposed to contain his martyred remains. But the problem is there are several such memorials spread across Persia, Acre (Turkey) and a few other places dating to different times, all laying claim to be the place where Apostle Thomas was martyred and buried! 

After examining all the evidence, the late Father Heras, former Director of the Historical Research Institute, St. Xavier’s College, Bombay, said in 1953 that he was convinced that the tomb of St. Thomas was not in Mylapore. He had earlier said, quite emphatically in The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagar, that the Portuguese account of their discovery of some relics was “a most barefaced imposture [with] all elements of a forgery.” Heras was himself a Jesuit father but also an eminent historian. 

This is not the end of the story, for while denying the myth because it challenges Jesus as the ‘Only Son of God’ the Vatican wants to have it both ways. On September 27, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech at St. Peter’s in Rome in which he recalled an ancient tradition claiming that Thomas first evangelized Syria and Persia, then went on to Western India, from where Christianity also reached Southern India. Syrian Christians derive status within the caste system from the tradition that they are converted Namboothiris (Brahmins), who were allegedly evangelized by St. Thomas after he allegedly landed in Kerala in AD 52. 

There are serious problems with this theory: the Namboothiris started settling in Kerala only from the sixth century onwards, which means they did not exist at the time the alleged St. Thomas allegedly came to Kerala. So we have a possibly non-existent apostle preaching in the first century from a text, the New Testament, dating to the 4th century, to a people, the Nambootharies who settled in the sixth century or later. In reality the Pope’s original statement at St. Peter’s, reflected the geography of the Acts of Thomas, i.e. Syria, Parthia (Persia/Iran) and Gandhara (Afghanistan/northwest Pakistan)— all far removed from Kerala in the southernmost tip of India. 

This is not the end to the contradictions. If Thomas landed in Kerala in 52 AD, he could not have taught from the Christian Bible (New Testament) with its four gospels which came into existence only in the fourth century. In fact Christianity did not exist at the time because there was no Christian scripture! In addition, the famous St Thomas Cross supposedly brought by him made its appearance in Kerala only in the sixth century, about the same time as the Namboothiri Brahmins. So it is quite possible that the highly ornate St Thomas Cross was borrowed from the Namboothiris, having nothing to do with St Thomas or even Christians. The Church borrowed its cross from the Egyptians and the oldest so-called St Thomas Cross is a pagan Persian symbol. (See picture.) 

As if this were not confusing enough, Father Francis Clooney, a theologian with the Harvard Divinity School has stated that St Thomas had preached in Brazil, no matter that Brazil as we understand today was unknown in his time. According to Clooney, one Ruiz de Montoya, writing in Peru in the mid-seventeenth century, thought that since God would not have overlooked the Americas for fifteen hundred years, and since among the twelve apostles St. Thomas was known for his mission to the “most abject people in the world, blacks and Indians,” it was only reasonable to conclude that St. Thomas had preached throughout the Americas: 

“He began in Brazil – either reaching it by natural means on Roman ships, which some maintain were in communication with America from the coast of Africa, or else, as may be thought closer to the truth, being transported there by God miraculously. He passed to Paraguay and from there to the Peruvians.” 

So here is the substance of the St Thomas story. First, if he existed he was a twin brother of Jesus which is unacceptable because Jesus was the Only Son of God (born to a virgin). Next, he could not have preached Christianity in 52 AD because Christianity and the New Testament came into existence only in the 4th century, after the Council of Nicea called by Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 AD. The first Christians came to India with the Syrian merchant Thomas in 345 AD escaping persecution in Persia. This was probably because Roman and Persian empires were great rivals. The Namboothari Brahmins settled in Kerala only in the 6th to 7th century AD, so could not have been converted by Apostle Thomas in 52 AD using the Bible from three centuries later. 

Finally, the myth was created by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century with the help of pirates. They destroyed also the Kapaleeswara Temple and a Jain temple building the church known as San Thome in 1504. It acquired its present status and recognition as a cathedral (grand church) under British patronage in 1893. It was also the Portuguese who converted the Syrian Christians to the Catholic faith. 

So, all these contradictions have to be reconciled before the myth of St Thomas can be taken seriously. 

Source: http://folks.co.in/2009/11/st-thomas-in-india-myth-or-truth/comment-page-1/

From what I have understood, if there are some basic practices in Hinduism which are rooted to the most fundamental elements of our belief and psychology, then “Mother Worship” or “Feminine Worship” is one of these. Recently I saw something which made me think in the direction leading through this text:   

As we know, Mumbai has a huge population of Christian religious converts (along with neo-Buddhist converts too). I believe it is because in a loose-n-large city like Mumbai there are less social stigmas attached against conversion. With presence of highly active dalit christian organizations as well as huge network of missionaries and NGOs, the city is a good missionary fodder ground. While traveling by a local bus, I came across one joint where a small temple was erected by the side of the road. At first glance, the temple seemed to me like one of goddess Durga or Parvati. But when I looked cautiously I was shocked to see that it was an idol of mother Mary (virgin mother of Jesus of Nazareth). The idol itself and the colorful decorations were exactly as they happened in a Hindu temple! (May be they had purchased an idol of goddess Durga and installed it in the name of Mary) 

It wasn’t difficult to guess the intent behind such a gimmick by the Christian missionaries. They wanted to “exploit” the deep Hindu system of feminine reverence and worship, and wanted the newly converts to “feel at home”. (Otherwise, as Dan Brown and other researchers have exposed, Christianity has done huge historical injustice against women and the feminine.) In a way, they borrowing from us and hence changing for the better are alright; but their evil intent of religious conversions disrupts them from being called noble.  

Who is our “Holy Mother”? I may sound like “competing” and “reacting”, but competition and reaction are not things that are “absolutely wrong”!! So I asked myself, “Who is our “Holy Mother”? 

Each of the Hindu gods is considered incomplete without their female counterparts. Sita with Ram, Radha with Krishna, Shakti with Shiva: we have plenty of goddesses to put our faith in. But I thought some living and more recent one whose life can be seen as pure as purity, as pious as piousness and as Hindu as our dharma: a life with whom Hindus could connect with and keep their faith intact would also be great. What came to my mind is: Sharada Devi. Holy Mother Sharda Devi.  

Her introduction can be put as follows:  

Sharada Devi, (1853—1920) was the wife and spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother. Sarada Devi played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement. 

Date of birth: December 22, 1853 (1853-12-22)

Birth: Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya

Date of passing: 20 July 1920 (aged 66)  

Although Sarada Devi led the life of a simple rustic woman, she is accorded worship—and was, even during her lifetime—considered an incarnation of the Divine Mother.  

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarada_Devi)  

Some Quotes: 

“I am the mother of the righteous, I am the mother of the wicked as well. Never fear. Whenever you are in distress, just say to yourself ‘I have a mother.” 

“God is one’s very own. The more intensely a person practices spiritual disciplines, the more quickly he attains to God.”  

I am sure there would be more mothers like her who are called “Holy Mother” by the Hindu devotees.  

Now there are two questions in my mind: (1) Will promoting the concept of “Holy Mother” help in reducing the menace of conversions? (2) Who are the other great women whom you revere as Holy Mother? 

(Rahul)

The Pope, it seems, is this world's most selfish and cunning man. He plants the feeling of truthfulness of a single religion and he calls all others as false religions. Read this news. What the Hindus' and Jews' representatives say here puts the Pope to a shame:

Jews, Hindus find Pope's message "shocking"

Retweetby ANI on September 24, 2009

Nevada (US), Sept 24 (ANI):

Jews and Hindus have found some of the Pope's World Mission Sunday message posted on The Holy See website "shocking".

Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California in USA; and Rajan Zed, acclaimed Hindu statesman; in a joint statement in Nevada, said that Pope, who heads the largest religious group in the world, should be a unifying force to bring all the religious traditions closer so that they could work together as equal partners on a mutually acceptable agenda for the enrichment of the humanity while still keeping their unique identities.

On the other hand, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in this message encourages his followers to "make disciples of all peoples" and says that the Church works "to lead all people to Christ, the salvation of the world."

The Pope further tells his followers- "The goal of the Church's mission is to illumine all peoples with the light of the Gospel as they journey through history towards God, so that in Him they may reach their full potential and fulfillment. We should have a longing and a passion to illumine all peoples with the light of Christ that shines on the face of the Church, so that all may be gathered into the one human family, under God's loving fatherhood."

Pope Benedict points out- "Christ calls, justifies, sanctifies and sends his disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God, so that all nations may become the People of God."

He stresses- The whole Church must be committed to the mission and gentes, until the salvific sovereignty of Christ is fully accomplished: "At present, it is true, we are not able to see that all things are in subjection to him".

Rabbi Freirich and Rajan Zed (who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism) argue that instead the Pope, being a respected religious world leader, should attempt to bring various religions together to work as a team on common world religious and human concerns like economic and social development, peace-making and peace-keeping, freedom and human rights, ecological responsibility. Religion tells us to rise from our own selfish concerns and work for the higher ideals of welfare of all humanity.

We all seek the truth. As we head in the same direction, so in our shared quest for the truth, let us learn from one another and thus come closer to the truth, Freirich and Zed point out. Moreover, if God wanted us to be one homogeneous people with a single belief system, God would have done it. Existence of different faith traditions exhibited God's generosity and bountifulness, they said and added that Pope Benedict, who was a renowned theologian and had served as professor at various German universities, very well knew that religion being a complex component of human life encompasses much more that our own particular tradition or experience.

Jewish and Hindu leaders urged Pope to initiate dialogue among world religions because dialogue would bring us mutual enrichment and help us to overcome prejudices passed on to us from previous generations. (ANI)

Ref:http://trak.in/news/jews-hindus-find-popes-message-shocking/7637/

What the Pope is saying here is nothing new as such. Christian Missionaries have been kept alive and kicking with such motivating speeches. And a whole history of brutal inquisitions and unholy business of conversion has been going on

(Rahul)

(Mission Exposed)

Are these in contradiction?

The Gospel of Matthew is part of the New Testament, the second major division of Christian Bible. At one place it shares a great wisdom about keeping a non-judgmental attitude. It tells:

(1) "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." (2) "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Matthew 7:1,2, NIV).

But in the same chapter, it tells about how to recognize and judge 'false prophets':

(15) "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." (16) "By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles?" (17) "Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit." (18) "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." (19) "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (20) "Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." (Matthew 7:15-20, NIV)

Let us first ignore the assertion that every tree that does not bear good fruit is or should be cut down and thrown into the fire; or this exclusive idea that "bad trees can not bear good fruits". Things on the contrary become clear if we remember another proverb: "One man's medicine is another man's poison"; and what if we judge Jesus the messiah by seeing his fruits in the horrifying torture done by Church in the name of Inquisition? So let us come to the main point related to this article:

This second para from the Bible (7:15-20) talks about how we should judge false prophets by their actions and deeds rather than about their words and appearance. Are these two paragraphs contradicting each other? Why does the Christian Bible tells us not to judge others, but at the same time tries to teach us the 'right way to judge' false prophets? This can be called hypocrisy by some and erroneous by some others. But to reach the truth we have to know more about it.

Going deeper: who wrote it and why?

Let us find out who wrote these paragraphs and why. Initially people believed that these paragraphs in the New Testament were written by Matthew the evangelist. Matthew is called Saint Matthew and is considered one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew from New Testament even bears his name. Later on, researchers dug in to know more about him and they found that he was the same person in the gospels known as Levi and a tax-collector by profession. They also thought that a tax collector should not have that much literary ability to write so learned volumes. In the end the researchers reached to the conclusion that these gospels were written by anonymous persons and they gave them the name of Matthew.

And what was the main purpose of writing these gospels? Knowing the history of Christianity, it is clear that the main purpose was to prove to the Jewish readers that Jesus was their Messiah!

Now that we know the persons who wrote these, their purpose in writing these, and the target readers, things fall in place.

We can say this as conclusion on this contradiction: They wanted people not to judge each other and hence they tried to secure a social acceptance for the newly converts. But when they saw the threat of more persons doing some public miracles and claiming that they were new prophets like Jesus of Nazareth, they also added the later paragraphs and tried to teach others on how to judge 'false prophets'. This was also done to secure the supreme position for Jesus of Nazareth as the messiah.

Understanding Christianity and Evangelism

If we think about the way Christianity was spread, more things fall in place. One of the word meanings for 'Evangelist' is:

Evangelist: A Christian who explains his or her beliefs to a non-Christian and thereby participates in Evangelism.

And let us also know the definition of evangelism:

Evangelism: Evangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to a religion. The term is used most often in reference to Christianity’s religions, since they mandate that their followers make efforts to recruit as many people as possible into their faith.

Did Jesus Christ ask for Conversion?

Most Christian evangelists try to convert those who do not follow the Christian God to Christianity for the purpose of effecting 'eternal salvation'. Evangelism is done in obedience to the Great Commission, a command from Jesus to his disciples to proselytize, according to accounts in the New Testament.

The final verses of the Gospel of Matthew say:

(18) Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (19) "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", (20) "and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28: 18-20, NIV).

Now we realize that this is the reason why there are missionaries who collect money from rich Western nations and come to developing and poor countries to buy salvation for themselves. These texts are the reasons why every innocent Christian may also attempt to bring some of his/her friend to the Church and may directly or indirectly attempt to convert him/her to Christianity. These texts are the reason why if you are a Hindu, one day you and your sons and daughters will have to face such evangelist solicitation.

I make one statement and you would know the answer for any confusion: Look who wrote this text and think about the reason why did they write this! Things would fall in perspective.

Religion of Miracles and Superstitions

Christian groups believe in miracles ' and loads of them. Bible is filled with stories like how Jesus turns water into wine, Jesus walks over water, Jesus cures the sick and paralytic, Jesus gives sight to blind men, or Jesus heals two demon-possessed men. Perhaps they wanted weak and needy people to convert to Christianity in expectation of similar miracles. But a grave realization is that even their fundamental concepts are based on miracles and superstitions. Let us start from one fundamental belief of Original Sin.

Original Sin is believed to result from the fall of man, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of a tree in the Garden of Eden. They believe all humans inherit this sin because we all humans have come from Adam and Eve. Christian belief says this Original Sin is transferred to children from their parents because they indulge in physical intercourse involving 'lust'. Now only Grace of God can save us humans from this sin which we have automatically carried because of our birth from a sexual act!

It is so clear that this dogma tries to make all believe that they are sinners and then establish Church and Christian God as the only way for them to get rid of their sin! It doesn't stop here. Baptism is an important step ' and Christian groups believe that the infants who die before their baptism go to hell! It happens because even though the infants didn't get any chance to do anything good or bad act in this world, they did carry the original sin and hence they should go to hell. (By the way, where would infants go if they die, is so beautifully explained by theory of Karma and reincarnations). Christianity believes in only two destinations for the soul ' heaven or hell. And by installing Christian Church as a mediator between God and humans, it secures its political and social power for ever.

Let us know more. The Christian dogmas would tell that birth of Virgin Mary was a miracle; that Mary was a virgin even as she gave birth to Jesus and she went directly to the heaven in her body rather than after dying like other mortals. Is it easy to believe? Why did it happen so? Its because Christians believe in Original Sin. If they accepted that Jesus Christ was also born like human beings, it would mean that even he carried the 'Original Sin' with him, right? And how can the Christian messiah carry even an iota of something which is not nice? (This concept is so different from the Hindu philosophies where even gods are shown to be making mistakes and getting punished )

How to know if such miraculous events were true or fictitious? We need to go deeper. One, we realize that most of such concepts were established by Church much later than they actually were claimed to have happened. Secondly, they are more indicating towards 'reactionary approach': trying to explain as and when things were challenged. For example, let us consider things and claims around mother Mary.

Christian days of Celebration ' were they invented and are false?

It was said that Mary had undergone Immaculate Conception through her parents and Christians started celebrating her birthday on 8^th of September. Christians celebrate her immaculate conception on every 8^th of December. But the feast of the Immaculate Conception (celebrated on 8^th of December) was established as a universal feast by Pope Sixtus IV in as late as 1476. Bible and scriptures are not sure about the date of either her conception or her birthday. If we look at the two dates, then 8^th of September (birthday) is exactly 9 months after 8^th of December (day of conception). It is obvious that these days were imposed or invented rather than being true representative of her actual days of conception or birth. Also, we already know that Christmas which Christians celebrate on every 25^th of December may not be the exact date of birth of Jesus Christ as Bible doesn't tell about this date. Their 25^th of December and Sundays as holidays ' are more about Pagan beliefs than Christian ones. Why the Church invented such dates like day of birth, day of conception, etc? I think the purpose was to give the converts more days for religious celebrations. We have to think about the psychology of converts.

The Psychology of Converts

Since lifeline of Christian evangelists is getting more and more converts, they have to market their religion using all concepts right from 4Ps of marketing. More than acquiring the converts, the greater challenge is to maintain them and serve their expectations. Since the miracles claimed by Christianity would be too difficult to be mass distributed, they had to play the mind-game.

How do you satisfy the expectations of a newly convert? His request for fast-relief, quick demonstration of miracles, instant solutions and ready answers to his prayers to the New God can be handled well by showing them how difficult the path towards salvation was and how their Father will reply to their prayers if they keep praying from true heart. The verses from Bible (again from Gospel of Matthew) support this by making as blunt promises as these:

(7) "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (8) “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (9) "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (10) “Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?” (11) If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11, NIV)

The immediate job of the conversion missionaries is to make the converts feel at home with the new religion and its new rituals and symbols. Hindus in general worship multiple deities and the cultural influence on their religious practices is immense. In this condition, it is good for the Church to localize their practices even at the cost of changing the rules to suit the needs.

Their own Mata Ji

See the attached picture with this article. It shows idol of Virgin Mary wearing bright red Indian saree and it appears she is wearing a crown too. She is laden with genda flowers. The whole decoration makes her look like Devi and it is not a coincidence. Hindus have this practice of feminine worship and their all major gods are feminine ' Shakti is feminine and goddess of strength and power; Saraswati is feminine and goddess of knowledge and literature; Lakshmi is feminine and goddess of wealth and prosperity; each male Hindu deity is not complete until he is accompanied with his female counterpart ' like Radhe Krishna, Sita Ram, Shiv Parvati and so on. Compare this with the religion of Christianity where they have historically neglecting and demonizing the feminine.

Much has been written about how the early caretakers of Church discriminated against women. For centuries Church and Christian groups kept considering Mary Magdalene as a 'reformed prostitute' and painted her picture as a symbol of 'penitent', until researchers delved deeper and found she was one of the most favorite disciples of Jesus and many even think she was the wife of Jesus. The Church didn't want Jesus to be represented with any human like characters and hence they hid any information about the historical figure called Jesus of Nazareth which made him appear human-like. Even the New Testament gives indication that he didn't accept his parents and relatives as family but merely as sons and daughters of God. And I fear Mary Magdalene was not the only female discriminated by Church and Christian beliefs. Or didn't it start right from the time of Adam and Eve where female Eve is blamed?

If you have to serve to the Hindu converts, you have to make them feel at home. Hence it helps if they make Virgin Mary appear like Devi. It helps if they create multiple deities for converts to be able to worship. It helps if they invent lots of dates and events for Hindu converts to celebrate ' as Hindus have plenty of festivals in their original religion. So it helps - to have their own ' New Mata Ji.

Conversion Business ' why I want it to STOP

My other concerns against religious conversions risk being called communal in the kind of secularism we are following in India. So I would pick up an issue which is unique because many of us don't think about it much. Let us think about cultural imperialism being done by business of conversions.

Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting and artificially injecting the culture of one society into another. Usually the imposing culture belongs to an economically or militarily stronger nation and the victim is a smaller, poorer and weaker society. The Greek did it when they won over other states by making their buildings and architectures and promoting their own language. The Muslim armies almost invariably tried to destroy the local culture, implanted their own and promoted their Arabic language over the defeated lands. (Is not this why Muslims invaders destroyed university in Nalanda and we still see burqa clad women in India?) Then the European colonizers did it on a larger scale. Cultural imperialism is what happened when the European or Christians destroyed the local cultures of Native Americans and Africans. And it is happening in India when the missionaries get large scale converts for their own faiths. We risk getting destroyed as a nation ' as the soul of our nation Hinduism - risks to be taken over by this business of conversion and it has to be stopped.

We also need to understand why India and Hindus are so important for the Christian Church.

Christianity is Shaken and it needs New Grounds

The developed world is almost getting away from Christianity. I think it is directly related to their education and freedom of intellect. According to pollster Gallup International, percentage attendance of churchgoers in Europe declined from 60-65% in 1980 to 20% in year 2000. This is why countries like India hold immense importance for the Vatican. The question is: are we ready to become victims to their designs?

Why should we pick up something which is being discarded by the developed societies?

Indian Christians should be ashamed to be a Convert!

We know why they wrote evangelist texts within the New Testament ' to get Jewish and other converts into their faith. We know why they tried to create fictitious days and festivals ' to take care of psychology of a convert. We know why they need India and Hindus so much ' to make up their fallen numbers. We know who gains from such conversions into Christianity ' Church as a powerful organization. We know how India loses its soul when people convert to Christianity ' by becoming victim of cultural imperialism. We know how shaky and opportunist the Christian concepts and theories are. We know their hidden agenda in doing social service to get more converts. We know why they put that red saree on Virgin Mary's idol. After knowing all, how can any Indian convert to Christianity remain without being ashamed? Ashamed to be a victim!

Christian and Western concept of religion is like a form of membership to a club ' something which can be joined and deserted. They have inserted religious texts to sanction and legalize (in a way) evangelism and cultural imperialism for themselves. Indian religion ' Hinduism or Sanatan Dharma ' didn't have the concept of conversion in or out of it ' it was and is a way of life and thinking. But if there would be one word for the converts, it would be - Vidharmi. I don't know if Adharmi would be better. How can anyone be happy to become a vidharmi and desert the religion of one's forefathers? Is it not like calling one's ancestors as stupid and foolish? And shouldn't we think twice before deserting our natural religion and joining an already shaken faith?

How to stop this Conversion Menace

First we have to understand the demography and psychology of the Indian / Hindu population which converts to Christianity. Most of them are from so called 'lower' castes who want to get out of the discriminating caste system. Then there are those opportunist families which see conversion to Christianity as a shortcut to economic progress. This is explained from the geography and demography of portions of India where the Christian Missionaries get their maximum converts. The points related to these are two: One, caste system is a social system which is dying out for the good and it didn't have religious sanction. Secondly, one who leaves his roots for a better opportunity will lose one's soul and would belong to nowhere ' the new religion will never accept him/her as its own and s/he already had left one's native religion. A world full of religious converts would be a world filled with weak and wandering lost souls who always look 'out' for solutions while the truth resides 'inside' them. Therefore it is very important to stop the deception happening in the name of Christian evangelism.

There are many ways to stop this menace. Legal solution is the best ' with all organized attempts to convert people of native faith being legally banned. But given the kind of political parties having been enjoying power in India (INC/UPA) and given the fact that most of non-Hindu religions form vote-banks and enjoy political power in government, this is not going to be easy. Then there remains only one permanent solution: knowledge.

Knowledge as a Weapon for Self-defense

Historically the Christian evangelist organizations have been successful in getting converts in societies and nations which are poor, uneducated and neglected. In the present state of India, they may be successful here too, but it is not going to remain like this forever. Can we show them on their face how hollow, selfish, fictitious and opportunist most of their Christian concepts are? (Refer earlier past of this article). Can we try to know real facts about Christianity and then make good judgments? Can we then communicate these findings and truths to all Indians and Hindus? (This article is an attempt in the same direction.) Along with this, we have to make our Hindus more knowledgeable of our own religion, because a strong and confident Hindu is less prone to become a convert.

Remember that historically we never had this kind of open sharing of information across the globe. For example, now the truths about Britain can't remain unexplored for Indians, as everything is on the internet forums. Now their version of Bibles can't be forced upon the masses because copies of it are available easily on the internet. Now there are no language barriers by which they can fool us by twisting word-meanings, as English translations of almost everything are available. Now that we have this power of knowledge in our hands ' are we ready to use it for Self Defense? Let us say ' YES!

Allowing reentry for the lost, mislaid and persuaded

Along with making our fundamentals strong and exposing the missionary agenda, we should also work in the direction of allowing and promoting lost Hindus to come back to their true Dharma. Though Hinduism didn't have this concept of in and out as conversion, now situation demanded us to make a systematic attempt in this regard. Arya Samaj has been hugely successful in this area. Government has authorized Arya Samaj to convert (or reconvert) people into Hinduism and the organization even issues certificates to the converts. They do suddhi (purification) ceremony along with Vedic rites and welcome the lost person back. Such persons are not given any caste as such and this is a good thing because castes were more of a social system and our original texts didn't prescribe birth-based castes. I think the Hindu converts should seriously think about returning back ' if they had heart to do sin by converting to Christianity after being misled and persuaded, they should also have the courage to repent and correct themselves.

Making an all round attempt to prevent the menace of Christian conversions and to strengthen and empower our own religion is the need of the hour

Conclusions

I am leaving this article without written conclusions because if you go through its length you would make your own… learned ones

(Rahul)

Note: Thoughts shared are personal of the author and may not be universally accepted or accurate everywhere. I have tried to represent all historical figures and facts correctly but, factual errors, if any, would be regretted and I am open to edit the post for correcting them. For my personal interpretations and research behind the historical events and religious beliefs, I expect sensibility and tolerance from readers. (Rahul)