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The
pope, pardon, Pope indeed had no business meddling in the affairs of
a sovereign country that India is. But pray, it is also not the
business of bishops, who are supposedly citizens of this sovereign
country, to embark on a lament lap around the globe to elicit
'outside' support on what is essentially an internal matter of
'their' country. Unless of course, they deem that there is a higher
authority that constitutes a forum of appeal against the laws of the
country of their citizenship. And that is precisely what they
believe and also act on, as true toilers who till the Pope's grand
farm, always on the lookout for fertile fields of humanity to reap
bountiful harvests for the faith! And the lord of Vatican has
promptly reacted in sync with his courtiers here by condemning the
offending laws that threaten to play spoilsport by inducing a 'crop
failure' in this part of heathen country. No Pope, unless he is a
doupe, can countenance this slight to His supremacy . Hence the
chorus of hurt.
There has never
been a dearth of indignant voices whenever suspicions are raised
about the danger to the nation's security and sovereignty owing to
cross-border religious loyalties. But such protests and
self-righteous rhetoric emanating from these robed gentle(?)men are
just smokescreens to hide their unholy motives and to carry on their
nefarious mission of securing souls into their flock by whatever
means they could muster. Denationalisation and separatism are
inherent and inseparable from missionary activity for they are
legacies of the British who were ever on the lookout for
justifications to perpetuate their rule in India. What better way
could there be to ensure loyalty to the Raj than religious affinity,
went the logic. And concerns about such subversive tendencies were
adequately expressed and documented in detail with facts and
figures, not now, but at least fifty years back, when India was a
just-born nation. The Niyogi committee which went into the
activities of the missionaries in the wake of tensions owing to
conversions in Madhya Pradesh had not minced words on such extra
territorial loyalties and what it portends for India. Here are some
of the observations:
...the idea of change of religion as bringing about change of
nationality appears to have originated in the Missionary
circles..the missionaries by converting them give them a separate
nationality, so that they may demand a separate state for
themselves.
The separatist tendency that has gripped the mind of the aboriginals
under the influence of the Lutheran and Roman Catholic Missions is
entirely due to the consistent policy pursued by the British
government and the Missionaries.
After a villager is converted to Christianity, it is easy to
alienate his mind against his society as well as his country and
State ...Christian convert changes his style of dress and assumes
the air of a foreigner.
The supremacy of the Christian flag over the national flag of India
was also depicted in the drama which was staged in a school in
Jabalpur.
The expression 'jai Hind' was substituted with 'Jai yeshu'..
And what were the
Committee's conclusions? Here goes:
Since the Constitution of India came into force there has been an
appreciable increase in the American personnel of the Missionary
organisations operating in India. This increase is obviously due to
the deliberate policy of the International Missionary Council to
send evangelistic teams to areas of special opportunities opened to
the Gospel by the Constitutional provision of religious freedom in
some of the newly independent nations, equipped with new resources
for mass evangelism through the press, film, radio and television.
Missions are in some places used to serve extra-religious ends
...instances of indirect political activities were brought to the
notice of the Committee.
As conversion muddles the convert's sense of unity and solidarity
with his society, there is a danger of his loyalty to his country
and state being undermined.
Evangelisation in India appears to be part of the uniform world
policy to revive Christendom for re-establishing Western supremacy
and is not prompted by spiritual motives. The objective apparently
is to create Christian minority pockets with a view to disrupt the
solidarity of the non-Christian societies, and the mass conversions
of a considerable section of Adivasis with this ulterior motive is
fraught with danger to the security of the State..
The allegations by missionaries that they are being harassed by
Government officials is part of the old established policy of the
Missions to overawe local authority and to carry on propaganda in
foreign countries...
Aah, how true the
last one rings, though a full fifty years have passed since those
ominous pronouncements. So today, the anti-forcible conversions law
is deemed harassment by these priestly predators and what do they
do? Appeal to the Pope who sits in far away Vatican, which till the
time of going to press, is not a part of India and nor has the
latter become its colony, not yet! It is the Pope and the 'oath'
that matters, not India and its laws! But silly, you and me, does
the Jesuit oath not ordain them thus --' ...to be all things
to all men, for the Pope's sake whose servants we are unto death'.
So what if their trans-national sob-sojourns take an anti-national
tinge as has happened now? And what if someone dares to bell these
holy cats? The Pope, nay the entire Christian world, will then rise
to their rescue as one man against the heretics and their
blasphemous laws that cannot comprehend the sovereignty of the Pope
and the right of Christianity to confiscate consciences at will!
What suckers, we have turned out to be!
And the joke is on
India on another count too. These franchisees of faith are deemed
minorities in this country while they have none less than the Pope
with all his mammoth army of minions, muscle, money etc, etc at his
disposal to back them. Suddenly our Constitution becomes sacrosanct
for them for does it not ensure religious freedom and unhindered
minority rights under which cloak they can go about in gay abandon,
planting insidious seeds of hatred and discord! The law of the land
is acceptable only so long as it is subservient to their oath of
allegiance to the Vatican. Heads win, Tails win! What a
double-cross!
Their sermon is
quite emphatic, only that we are all too naive to read the blunt
message: To hell with your Constitution and laws, Pope is our only
hope, Amen!
T
R Jawahar is Editor, News
Today, Chennai | 
