Pseudo-SecularismChristian MissionsAnd Hindu Resistance

Presentation based on a book bySita Ram Goel

History of Hindu-Christian encounter falls into five distinct

phases.

First Phase

•The First phase opens with the coming of Portuguese pirates and the Patron saint the pirates, Francis Xavier.

•Hindus are helpless and suffer number of atrocities.

•Fortunately, Portuguese lose power except in Goa and some other small territories.

Second Phase •It opens with the consolidation of the

British conquest after the final defeat of the Marathas in 1813.

•British do not allow Christian missions to use physical methods.

•But missionary language continue to be as crude as ever.

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The phase ends with the rise of Hindu reform movements, particularly the call given by Maharshi Dayanand & Swami Vivekananda

Third Phase•It starts with the advent of Mahatma

Gandhi & his slogan of sarva-dharma-sambhaav.

•Christian missions are forced to change their language.

•Now they are out to “share their spiritual riches” with Hindus, like a beggar in dirty rags promising to donate his wardrobe to wealthy persons.

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Mahatma Gandhi’s mindless slogan of sarva-dharma-sambhava was proving to be effective disguise for Christian missions to steal a march against Hinduism.

This phase ended with the Tambram Conference of the International Missionary Council (IMC) in 1938 which decided to reformulate Christian theology in the Indian context.

Fourth Phase •This phase started with the coming of

Independence and proved a boon for Christianity.

•It now stood recognized as “an ancient Indian religion” with every right extend itself.

•Christian missionaries could now denounce any one who raised the slightest objection to their means and methods as a Hindu communalist, chauvinist and Hindu Nazi.

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Pt. Nehru who dominated the scene for 17 long years, promoted every anti-Hindu ideology and movement behind the smokescreen of a counterfeit secularism.

Fifth Phase•This phase started with Hindu awakening

brought about by the mass conversion of Harijans to Islam in Tamil Nadu.

•Sangh parivar, startled by the rout of BJP in 1984 Lok Sabha elections, decided to renew its Hindu character.

•The Ramajanmabhumi was the result. It was aimed at arresting Islamic aggression.

Christian media power in the West raised a storm, saying that Hindus were out to destroy the minorities in India and impose Nazi regime

•Hindus are committing a grave mistake in regarding the encounter between Hinduism & Christianity as a dialogue between two religions.

•History tells us Christianity has never been a religion.

•It has always been a predatory imperialism par excellence.

It can be described as war between the Vedic and the

Biblical traditions.

Difference between Vedic and Biblical

tradition.

Difference between Vedic & Biblical tradition

Vedic tradition Biblical tradition

• It allows people to choose desired path for their own moral & spiritual development.

• There is no uniform perception for everybody, no coercion or allurement into a belief system & no regimentation for aggression against others.

• It teaches people to follow the commands of one superior beings without questioning.

• The only training one needs thereafter is how to convert others by all available means.

Vedic tradition has given to the world schools of Sanatana

Dharma which has practiced peace among their own

followers.

Biblical tradition has spawned criminal cults such as

Christianity, Islam, Communism, and Nazism which have always

produced violence.

Indian Constitution

•The constitution of Independent India made things quite smooth for Christian missionaries.

•The bans on Christian missionaries during British rule were now uplifted .Proselytisation was much easier now.

•Freedom of propagation does not mean conversion but Christian missionaries took disadvantage of this freedom.

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It was solely due to Pandit Nehru’s dishonest demagogy that forced Hindu and Hinduism on defensive and then on a run for shelter.

Census of Growth of Christian community as compared to General

population

0.00%10.00%20.00%30.00%40.00%50.00%60.00%70.00%80.00%90.00%

Percentage growth of General population

percentage growth of Christians

Percentage growth of General popula-tion

According to census of 1901 Christians in the North-east constituted 1.23% of the whole, by 1951 the proportion was 7.8% and in 1971, 12.5%.

Christian missionaries in India.

The Catholic Educational Network

Effects of Catholic Education

•The Catholic education is one of the most important form of missionary point of view.

•It alienates Hindu young men and women from their ancestral culture.

•It neutralizes Hindus against missionary point of view.

In 1935, missionaries were operating 299 primary schools, 9 middle and high schools, and 2 colleges and by 1951 the number increased to 591 primary schools, 65 middle and high schools and 2 colleges.

Hindu

Muslim

Christians

Sikhs

Others

The number of kindergarten in 1990 had reached 7,319, the number of primary schools 7,319, the number of secondary school 3,765 and the number of colleges 240.

Social welfare agencies

The medical and social welfare agencies in 1994 comprises 704 hospitals, 1,792 dispensaries and health centers, 1085 orphanages, 228 crèches, 111 leprosaria, 102 rehabilitation centers and 455 homes for the aged, destitute and handicapped.

Sovereign Christian state

•Before independence, some Christian missionaries floated the scheme of a sovereign Christian state composed of tribal areas in the North east and Central India.

•The two enclaves were to be linked together by a corridor towards Christian population in Madras presidency and the princely states of Travancore and Cochin.

The Christian Inquisition used torture routinely to obtain confessions. Here boiling oil is poured into the victim's mouth as a clergyman takes notes

Clergy members observe as yet another "confession" is obtained.

Missionaries activities in South-East Asia

India

•After Vasco da Gama reached Calicut, Christian missionaries accompanied every Portuguese naval expedition to India.

•Rooting out of Hinduism was a special task assigned to every Portuguese viceroy.

•Schools and colleges were established many parts of India where education in Bible was compulsory to Hindu students.

Fra

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Xavie

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Under advice from Francis Xavier, the king of Portugal established the Inquisition in Goa.

His vision was not confined to India. He was eyeing the whole South-east Asia and the Far East, China and Japan in particular.

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He made study of Bible compulsory to Hindus in all Christian schools and colleges.

He design to create “a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect”

The British Government (India)•The British Government of India pretended

to be indifferent to Christian missions but it helped missionaries indirectly.

•The High court decisions enabled converts to blackmail their wives to follow them into the folds of their new religion.

•The government encouraged the missionaries to work among the backward tribes.

Japan

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Oda Nobunag started his career of conquest to unite Japan and in 1568 he encouraged Catholic missionaries to built churches.

Under his powerful protection the missionaries made unexpected progress.

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Hideyoshi, who succeeded Nobunag, noticed that the Portuguese had landed artillery to protect the area in which Christians lived.

He ordered the arrest of all Spaniards in the country and had them crucified in Nagasakyas spies.

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Ieyasu seized power in 1600.In 1614 Iyeasu, the Tokugawa Shogun, made it clear that Christian teachings will no longer be tolerated and an edict banning the religion was issued that year.

China

•A Portuguese embassy under Thomas Pires was sent to Peking & the Emperor readily received it.

• In 1565 Jesuits built a residence in Macao and Christian missionaries started arriving.

•In 1724, the preaching of the Christian religion was officially suppressed & the foreign missionaries were deported to Canton.

Opium trade

•British East India company forced Opium trade on China, which led to many Opium wars.

•China was defeated and Christian missionaries gained the right to operate in China.

•The Christian missionaries created mischief everywhere and were protected by the consuls of foreign powers.

70 years of sustained missionary effort for Christianizing China had inflicted great damage to Chinese society & culture.

Siam(Thailand) and Burma

•Siam was able to resist Western pressures for unequal treaties till 1885.

•Missionary activity had but a little impact on the people of Siam due to the strength and vitality of the Buddhist Church.

•Missionary activity in Burma able to effect neither its social structure nor its religion.

The Niyogi CommitteeThe Niyogi Committee published a report on Christian Missionary Activities. It was published by the government of Madhya Pradesh.

•The Committee contacted 11,360 persons, interviewed people from 700 different villages and received 375 written statements and 385 replies from a questionnaire.

•The report writes that especially Roman Catholic missions used money-lending as a device for proselytisation.

“There was a general complaint from the non-Christian side that the schools and hospitals were being used as means of securing converts."

The recommendations of the report

1. Those missionaries should be asked to withdraw and the large influx of foreign missionaries should be checked.

2. The use of medical and other professional services as a direct means of making conversions should be prohibited by law.

3. Attempts to convert by force or fraud or material inducements, or by taking advantage of a person’s inexperience or confidence or spiritual weakness or thoughtlessness, or by penetrating into the religious conscience of persons for the purpose of consciously altering their faith, should be absolutely prohibited.

4. The Constitution of India should be amended in order to rule out propagation by foreigners and conversions by force, fraud and other illicit means.

5. Legislative measures should be enacted for controlling conversion by illegal means.

6. Rules relating to registration of doctors, nurses and other personnel employed in hospitals should be suitably amended to provide a condition against evangelistic activities during professional service

7. Circulation of literature meant for religious propaganda without approval of the State Government should be prohibited.

The minister of State of Home Affairs, B.N. Datar, came promptly for their defense.He said “no steps would be taken to check the work of the foreign missionaries.”

Om Prakash Tyagi introduced a Lok Sabha Bill No. 178 of 1978 under the title THE FREEDOM OF RELIFGION BILL. 1978 “to provide for prohibition on conversion from one religion to another by use of force, or inducement or by fraudulent means & for matters incidental thereto”

A few months later the Janta Party split and the Morarji government had to resign. Tyagi’s Bill could not even be discussed in the Parliament Thus an opportunity got enacting an all-India legislation against forceful conversion was missed.

It is high time for Hindus to dismiss the dogmas of Christianity with the contempt it deserves, and pay attention to the Christian missionary apparatus planted in their midst.