truth

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The truth about conversions - letter by S Subramanyan, Mumbai, Business Standard 3/12/02

Here are some comments on T Thomas’s articles ( November 21 and 22 ). I am born

in a place which is the cradle of Hindu religion with hundreds of ancient Hindu

temples existing alongside Christian Velankanni and Muslim Nagore. Much the same

obtains in other Much the same obtains in other parts of our country. If such

peaceful coexistence of all religious groups should continue, as it must, it is

necessary that conversions are banned. The Tamil Nadu Bill seeks to ban only

forced conversions. The furore of various religious group is thus uncalled for.

Comparing political conversions with religious conversions is like comparing the

incomparable. The former is invariably chameleonic. On education being the

process of conversion, the British and their Christian missionaries have used

that vehicle to the utmost to undo Hindu culture in the last three centuries.

The Methodist Mission School in Thanjavur where I studied wouldn’t include

Sanskrit in its curriculum. Like me, several generations of Hindus had been

de-Sanskritised.

Some months back, my wife and I were sitting in the Sahar airport lounge waiting

to receive daughter. A Christian missionary was seated next to us. He started

talking about his conversion activities. He wanted to know whether we would

like to receive the Bible to which we offered to send him the Gita. He pointed

to the gentleman sittings beside him and told us that he was his latest

convert. He boasted that his converts included Brahmins. As we were rushing to

meet our daughter, he thrust a visiting card at my wife.

This crude conversion attempt resembled the cold canvassing of an insurance

agent. If conversion campaigns can occur so blatantly in Mumbai, imagine the

aggression with which it is practised in the tribal and rural pockets.

Writing in The New York Review R Scott Appleby, a professor of history at the

University of Notre Dame, writes, in his review of Phillip Jenkins’s book The

Next Christendom ( OUP ), "Marky your calendar. By the year 2050, six nations,

Brazil, Mexico, Congo and the US, will each have 100 million Christians or

more. Sub Saharan Africa will have long displaced Europe as the leading center

of Christianity, while Brazil will count 150 more Catholics and 40 million

Protestants. And more than 1 billion Pentecostals will be spreading their

distinctive brand of Christian supernaturalism. In 2050, almost 20 of the 25

largest nations will be predominantly or entirely Christian Muslim; at least 10

will be the sites of intense conflict…. The coming havoc will make the bloody

religious wars of the 16th century look like calisthenics ( emphasis mine )."

The British encouraged the Christian missionaries using the vehicle of education

not so much to provide them with English – knowing clerks for their trade,

commerce and their sly foray gradually into politics and ruling, but to

introduce Christianity and Western way of life in this country. If in spite of

this, the percentage of Christians is small as Thomas puts it, it is because

Hindus were spiritually strong.

Thomas states: "By switching over to alternate religions, the new converts may

feel a sense of equality, security and belonging." How far removed this is from

fact can be seen if one were to go through the matrimonial columns in The Hindu.

Christians still refer to themselves as Christian -–Nadars, RC Vellala, RC

Adi-Dravida, RC Naidu, Christians this and Christian that. This exposes and,

indeed, knocks off the raison d’etre of conversion.

It is not Hindutva that will be exposed but those who are resorting to

conversions. Hindus will have to be alert if they have to ensure that their

future generations find themselves reduced to the status of minorities in their

own land.

S Subramanyan, Mumbai

Discover your Indian Roots at - http://www.esamskriti.comLong Live Sanatan /

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sharedBe Open Minded, pick up what yu like from the worldBe Thick skinned,

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AGENDA, be proactiveIn an argument, no emotions, be detached, get yr facts

right, then attack with the precision of a missile