[world-vedic] Why The Pope Should Apologize to India

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This Article has been taken from http://www.swordoftruth.com

 

Sword of Truth Weekly Web magazine - www.swordoftruth.com

 

Vishwas Varghese

Why The Pope Should Apologize To India

 

The VHP's protest march against the Pope's visit in India this

week, has drawn quite a lot of attention and flak as a misguided

attempt to "create disorder by fascist". The Indian media has been

having a field day with mongering rumors that seek to undermine

and defame the Hindutva oriented organizations. One has to look

beyond all the politically motivated hype and hoopla and look

analytically at what is the logic behind the demand for the Pope's

apology. The rationale behind this demand is cited to be the

Christian Inquisition which took place in Goa, for the purpose of

forcefully converting the Hindus to Christianity. Let us take a look

at some historical facts to see if the Hindutva minded organizations

are truly justified in asking the pope as the representative of the

Catholic church to apologize and atone for such crimes against

Hindus in the past.

 

Alan Machado-Prabhu has recently written a book about the

history of Goa starting from ancient times, titled "Sarasvati's

Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians". The book

describes in detail the origins of Goa's inhabitants. According to

Machado's account and that of several established historians, some

time around 1000 B.C. an immense number of Vedic people who

originally lived on the banks of the river Sarasvati migrated to this

coast. Their emigration was forced by the drying up of the

Sarasvati River which was the basis for much of the so called

Indus Valley civilization. This civilization has now been termed the

Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization in view of its indelible dependence on

the Sarasvati and Sindhu rivers. Moreover the work of such

accomplished scholars as N.S. Rajaram, David Frawley, N. Jha,

S.R. Rao, etc. has proven that the Sarasvati Sindhu civilization was

a Vedic one. As a consequence the people who were forced to

seek fresh fields and pastures in view of the drying up of Sarasvati,

were none other than Hindus. Large numbers of them followed the

ancient Dakshinapatha, the southern route and came all the way to

Gomantak and to what is now called Goa. Gomantak had no

indigenous population and therefore made an ideal place to settle

down for these scholars.

 

The new location was a highly successful one because of the fertile

quality of the land. The majority of the emigrants were highly

educated and well versed in the advanced scientific, artistic and

literary traditions of Vedic civilization and therefore began to be

called the Brahmins of the north (Gaud). Eventually they began to

be referred to as the Gaud Sarasvat Brahmins. They were famous

all over India and abroad for their immense scholarship and

learning. Over the centuries Goa was comparatively undisturbed

under the rule of the Mauryas, the Kadambas and the Chalukya

dynasty. But around 1327 AD Goa was conquered by

Mohammed Bin Tughlak and thousands of Hindus were

massacred in cold blood. A number of murderous Muslim rulers

such as Bahamani king Mohammed Shah, Yusuf Adil Shah, etc.

held the state in the grip of terror until the Portugese Christians

who came to foreign lands led by Vasco De Gama in the hope of

converting millions of "Heathens" managed to overcome them. By

the mid 1500s, the Portugese had established a strong hold on

Indian ports and the terror of the Inquisition sanctioned by the

Catholic Church was established and institutionalized in Goa. The

main objective of the Inquisitors was to ensure that all natives be

converted to Christianity whether by the sword, bribery or

blackmail.

 

Around 1540 the Inquisition was at its peak, thousands of Hindus

were dispossessed, massacred and mutilated if they refused to

convert. Half the property of a person found in possession of idols

went to the Church. According to Machado, "The Church

acquired urban and rural properties on an impressive scale". An

incredible amount of loot and plunder of the immense riches

possessed by the Hindus was shipped off to the Church. Hindus

were forbidden from performing any of their festivals openly.

Hindu were amassed and deliberately forced to participate in

grotesque public performances for the Christian feast days during

the very same days that they used to celebrate Hindu festivals. To

this day these macabre enactments still survive in Goa today as the

Milagres feast dance, the Carnavalo and the Festa de Leques.

 

In 1542 the most barbaric of these oppressors in the form of Jesuit

priest

"Saint" Francis Xavier arrived on the scene. The incredible hatred and

venom that this man nursed against the Hindus is obvious from his own

writings and records. In 1543 , Xavier sent a Letter from India, to

the Society of Jesus at Rome which outlined his perspective of the

Indian people. The extremely racist and intolerant views of Christian

proselytizers like Xavier pour out of every word in this letter:

 

 

"We have in these parts a class of men among the pagans who

are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods,

the superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and

taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set

as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the

words of holy David, "from an unholy race and a wicked and

crafty man deliver me, O Lord." They are liars and cheats to

the very backbone. These are the ignorant people whose blind

superstitions have made the others their slaves, their

imposture and tricks, and this has induced many to leave the

worship of the false gods, and eagerly become Christians. If it

were not for the opposition of the Brahmins, we should have

them all embracing the religion of Jesus Christ.

 

As there is so great a variety of color among men, and the

Indians being black themselves, consider their own color the

best, they believe that their gods are black. On this account

the great majority of their idols are as black as black can be,

and moreover are generally so rubbed over with oil as to smell

detestably, and seem to be as dirty as they are ugly and

horrible to look at."

 

Xavier would become an increasingly frustrated and embittered

man as he discovered the obstinate stubbornness with which the

Hindus refused to be forced to convert to Christianity. His

frustration is evident in a Letter on the Missions

sent in 1949 to St. Ignatius de Loyola, of the

Catholic Church. In it as usual he displays his

ample hatred for the "idolaters" as he calls the

Hindus, but his most vitriolic animosity is

reserved for the Brahmins who were the primary

defenders of Hinduism. By this time Xavier has

apparently become aware of the fact that it is the

Brahmins who are the final line of defense in

keeping the Hindu followers together. His

inability to suppress them leads to his sweeping generalization that

the entire race of Indians is "barbaric" in this letter:

 

"May the grace and charity of our Lord Christ always be with us! Amen.

 

My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the

many letters from this place which have lately been sent to Rome

will inform you how prosperously the affairs of religion go on in

these parts, through your prayers and the good bounty of God. But

there seem to be certain things which I ought myself to speak about

to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to these parts

of the world which are so distant from Rome. In the first place, the

whole race of the Indians, as far as I have been able to see, is very

barbarous; and it does not like to listen to anything that is not

agreeable to its own manners and customs, which, as I say, are

barbarous.

It troubles itself very little to learn anything about divine things

and

things which concern salvation. Most of the Indians are of vicious

disposition, and are adverse to virtue. Their instability, levity, and

inconstancy of mind are incredible; they have hardly any honesty, so

inveterate are their habits of sin and cheating. We have hard work

here,

both in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the

heathen.

And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this account you

should

take great care of us and help us continually by your prayers to God.

 

You know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who

neither

have any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it a strange and

intolerable thing to be told to give up their habits of sin, which have

now gained all the force of nature by long possession. The experience

which I have of these countries makes me think that I can affirm with

truth, that there is no prospect of perpetuating our Society out here

by means of the natives themselves, and that the Christian religion

will hardly survive us who are now in the country; so that it is quite

necessary that continual supplies of ours should be sent out from

Europe."

 

One is amazed at Xavier's Christian definition of barbarism. Apparently

anyone who does not recognize Jesus Christ as his savior qualifies for

this title. It would have been fascinating to know what the victims of

this undisguised genocidal aggression thought of their tormentors.

Indeed

"barbarism" is too mild a word to aptly describes the horrific

aggression

that was perpetrated on the Goans for the sake of Christ!

 

In Machado's book the chapter on the Inquisition is aptly headed:

Horrendum

Ac Tremendum Spectaculem. Machado relates how the historian Fryer

describes

one of the instances of the Christian aggression - "In the principal

market

was raised an Engine of great height, at top like a Gibbet, with a

Pulley

for the Strapado which unhinges a Man's joints, a cruel Torture." Even

Fryrer's (1675) brief reference to the Inquisition barely does justice

to

the fearful dread it brought to the people living in Portuguese

territories.

Of all the organizations the Portuguese took to her overseas

territories

it was the Inquisition that stalked the land, menacing and seeking all

it

might devour".

 

Portugese records themselves show that the Inquisition burned at the

stake

57 alive and 64 in effigy, 105 of them being men and 16 women. Others

sentenced

to various cruel punishments totaled 4,046 of whom 3,034 were men. The

people

who were converted but still continued occasionally and secretly to

perform Hindu

rituals were treated even more harshly. Even this low number

represented by the

perpetrators themselves is enough to provide us a clue to how many were

truly

subjected to the horrors. There can be no doubt that thousands if not

millions

perished at the hands of the Christian Sword which would not tolerate

non

believers in the path of the Church.

 

Many of the orders dictated by the Portugese administration demonstrate

the depth

of oppression against their victims. Mr. Kanchan Gupta, the editor of

BJP Today

had researched and presented these records in his brilliant article on

Rediff

magazine, earlier this year. Some of the historical records that Mr.

Gupta

unearthed, clearly demonstrated the unabashedly oppressive nature of

the Christian

regime which had ruthlessly usurped Goa.

 

1. On April 2, 1560, Viceroy D Constantine de Braganca issued orders

instructing

that Brahmins should be thrown out of Goa and other areas under

Portuguese control.

They were given al of one month to dispose of all possessions. Anyone

found

violating the order would have their properties seized.

 

2. On February 7, 1575, Governor Antonio Morez Barreto declared that

the estates of

Brahmins whose "presence was prejudicial to Christianity" would be

confiscated and

used for "providing clothes to the New Christians".

 

3.In 1585, The Third Concilio Provincial which was a gathering of

bishops and other

Christian leaders adopted a resolution declaring, 'His Majesty the king

has on

occasion ordered the viceroys and governors of India that there should

be no

Brahmins in his lands, and that they should be banished therefrom

together with

the physicians and other infidels who are prejudicial to Christianity.

As the

orders of His Majesty in this regard have not been executed, great

impediments

in the way of conversion and the community of New Christians have

followed and

continue to follow. From now onwards at certain times in each year the

archbishop

should obtain information regarding Brahmins, physicians and any other

infidels

who might be prejudicial to conversion to Christianity, and in

consultation with

the Christian priests, prepare a roll of their names which should be

signed by

him. This should be presented to the viceroy or the governor in order

that the

latter might issue orders for banishing them from the lands of the

king, as

His Majesty has ordered...'

 

 

4. On January 31, 1620, the Portugese declared that '...no Hindu, of

whatever

nationality or status he may be, can or shall perform marriages in this

city of

Goa, nor in the islands or adjacent territories of His Majesty, under

pain of a

fine of 1000 Xerafins.' The Third Concilio Provincial also demanded a

ban on

the traditional thread ceremony and the ban was imposed by the Sword.

The

Brahmins who tried to evade such prejudicial ceremony were prevented

from doing

so by the ominously threatening order that said 'I hereby order that no

Hindu

subject proceed beyond the borders of the state to celebrate the thread

ceremony...' Orders prohibiting Hindu women from wearing Bindi on their

foreheads along with an order allowing the Christian clergy the right

to

baptize all orphans are blatant proofs of the violent suppression of

religious

rights by the Christian Church in Goa.

 

 

 

Such then is the history of Christian persecution in Goa. And yet the

cruelest of

these proselytizers from the past are supposed to be treated as

'Saints" by the

very nation that was victimized by them! Stating the facts about the

past tyranny

of the Church in India, quickly becomes an "earth shattering"

conspiracy by the

"fascist" Hindu extremists. The signs of India's humiliation and

oppression at

the hands of her Christian aggressors are present everywhere in the

nomenclature

of innumerable roads, buildings and educational institutions named

after the

very criminals who sought to annihilate all traces of India's vast and

ancient

repertoire of advanced knowledge.

 

Is asking the Pope to apologize for such a vast range of heinous crimes

unjustified? Saint Francis Xavier, the missionary who was responsible

for

the death of thousands of innocent Hindus of Goa was canonized and is

cited

today as one of the foremost Saints of the Catholic Church. A quick

search

of the catholic Encyclopedia yields us this information about him.

 

"It is truly a matter of wonder that one man in the short space of ten

years

(6 May, 1542 - 2 December, 1552) could have visited so many countries,

traversed

so many seas, preached the Gospel to so many nations, and converted so

many infidels.

The incomparable apostolic zeal which animated him, and the stupendous

miracles

which God wrought through him, explain this marvel, which has no equal

elsewhere.

St. Francis Xavier is considered the greatest missionary since the time

of the

Apostles, and the zeal he displayed, the wonderful miracles he

performed, and

the great number of souls he brought to the light of true Faith,

entitle him to

this distinction. He was canonized with St. Ignatius in 1622, although

on account

of the death of Gregory XV, the Bull of canonization was not published

until

the following year. The body of the saint is still enshrined at Goa in

the church

which formerly belonged to the Society. In 1614 by order of Claudius

Acquaviva,

General of the Society of Jesus, the right arm was severed at the elbow

and

conveyed to Rome, where the present altar was erected to receive it in

the church

of the Gesu. "

 

Even today the body of the "Saint" in Goa is said to be in a

"marvelous" state of

preservation as proof of his miraculous character.

 

With Saints like Francis Xavier epitomizing the nature of Christian

kindness in

India, is it any wonder that the proselytizing nature of the Church is

increasingly

condemned and denounced by civilized human beings all over the world?

The souls of

the thousands of Indians that suffered genocide at the hands of the

religious

fanaticism which was institutionalized by the Catholic Church, would

hardly

find succor in any apology by the Pope.

 

But at the very least it would have been some small form of retribution

for

the sins committed by the forces he represents.