Came across this very well-researched article last week that looks at the other side of the story of Kandhamal.
It is written by Shri P Chand Dogra, a retired IPS officer who personally spent time in Kandhamal earlier this year to find out the “truth” of what happened in the district.
Shri Chand Dogra makes a few interesting points in the article, namely:
1.�Hindu households and dwellings were also attacked during the violence and in much larger numbers - a fact that has been overlooked by most of mainstream media.
2. The roots of the problem lie in social issues rather than religious ones.
Keep Reading…
March 15th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Media Related, Politics and Governance in India, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
54 comments
A few weeks ago I got in touch with all the 8 finalist of Times of India’s Lead India programme and requested them to share their views on a several important issues of national interest with the readers of my blog.
Sadly only one of the contestants bothered to write back (not an encouraging sign)…He was Ujjwal Banerjee who not only wrote back, but did so promptly…in spite of his obviously busy schedule.
Ujjwal suggested doing the interview in parts as he needed time to reflect on the questions…So here is Part I of the interview where Ujjwal shares his views on reservations, criminalization of politics and economic policies.
If any of you are in touch with the other Lead India contestants (not just finalists), please ask them to respond as well.. I did write an email to each of the finalists but have not heard back from anyone - and unfortunately I do not have contact details of other contestants.
Without further ado, here are my questions and Ujjwal’s responses.
Keep Reading…
February 8th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Indian Economy, Politics and Governance in India, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
no comments
…Wall Street Journal thinks so.
And if the eminent WSJ says so (in a title, no less), it must be true, right?
During last weekend, came across this half-baked opinion passing off as a news-story (Note: this article is not available for free viewing; Subscription only) “How a Muslim Billionaire Thrives in Hindu India” - note the last two words.
It is written by Yaroslav Trofimov.
If the name rings a bell, there is a reason.
He tried to better his own record in this piece from a few days ago (Sept 19): “In India, ‘Untouchables’ Convert To Christianity - and Face Extra Bias” (Note: this article is not available for free viewing; Subscription only).
Do read Retributions’ review of the Azim Premji article and BarbarIndian’s take on it.
.
UPDATED: Additional posts that have have some relevance to this (in the broader context)
Of Turkey, Secular States and Religion
Hinduism as a secular concept
P.S. Thanks to “An only mouse” (see comment #4) for alerting me to this article, “A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation“. I found this sentence very interesting:
“The founders (of US) were not anti-religion. Many of them were faithful in their personal lives, and in their public language they evoked God.
They grounded the founding principle of the nation — that all men are created equal — in the divine. But they wanted faith to be one thread in the country’s tapestry, not the whole tapestry.”
Food for thought, I think.
October 7th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
An Indian Identity, Conversions, Missionaries in India, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Social System, Media Related, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
20 comments
A few weeks ago, I wrote a detailed post examining the various issues with the current system of reservations and quotas. In that analysis, I identified the following serious problems:
- The present system does not address the fundamental issue of lack of good quality primary education
- That there continue to be unfilled seats suggest it may not be working as it should
- It appears to be mis-targeted and imbalanced
- It is in danger of becoming self-perpetuating
- It may fail to create a longer term positive impact and finally,
- It may be based on faulty, missing, un-validated and inconsistent inputs.
In this post, I will try and look at some ideas and proposals that might help overcome at least some of the issues identified above.
What is the solution?
Let me say at the outset that I am not sure if there is/are any perfect solution(s) to this issue. In fact, I am not even sure whether any/all the ideas I am proposing (below) are practical and/or can be implemented. And yet, it is not possible to avoid the topic and I believe it is essential to have a serious debate on this. Please treat the thoughts below as catalysts to that discussion.
Here are a few ideas worth considering:
- Privatise and heavily encourage provision of elementary education by the private sector. Done well, this could also boost entrepreneurship in rural and semi-urban areas and possibly generate some employment too. This addresses issues #1 and #2.
- Heavily subsidise (through scholarships, grants and other means) education at primary and secondary level based on economic criteria. This addresses issues #1 and #2.
- Offer needy and bright students continuing/long-term scholarships to help them progress to higher education. This addresses issues #1 and #2.
- Offer extra incentives to set up educational institutions which will cater only to SCs and STs – or in areas dominated by SCs and STs. This addresses issue #3.
- Put in a filter(s) to reduce the dominance of the current quotas by those from the “creamy layer”. This addresses issue #3.
- Extend current quotas by a maximum of another 5 years and gradually phase them out (say by reducing 10% every 5 years) until they reach 20% (Assuming 50% reservations of seats/places at the moment, it will take about two decades to get to 20%). Then fill the seats and places that make up the 20% based on income and socio-economic backwardness indicators. This addresses issue #4.
- Limit reservation for OBCs to 20% while re-examining the inputs based on current, validate and empirically verifiable data; Once better data is available, re-assess. This addresses issue #6.
- Make a serious effort to gather data and better quality inputs; None of these measures will be very effective unless they are based on sound evidence (Evidence needed not only to justify the measure but to ensure that is well-directed and can make a difference). This addresses issue #6.
I believe a combination of these measures can create long-term positive impact and, over time, eliminate need for caste-based reservations.
The quota system can then morph into an affirmative action programme that is better able to address the needs of a developing society in the years to come.
Very Important:
I am putting forward these ideas to initiate a discussion. Although most of these views reflect my thinking, this is not etched in stone. The purpose of this piece is to start a dialogue and come up with a broad consensus on what might actually work.
Better ideas are very likely to emerge from this discussion. For that to happen, we must all be open-minded and ready to hear/think about opposing points of views.
The discussion will be enhanced by the breadth of participation and a spectrum of diverse views.. So please ask everyone/anyone who you think is concerned about this issue to write in.
If someone could get YFE (Youth For Equality) and others to respond, that would be even better.
Additional Ideas:
1. Polite Indian’s Deprivation Certificate (also suggested in slightly different form by Dr Vinaya Singh)
2. Purushottam Agrawal’s MIRAA Index
3. Arvind Subramanian’s Graduated Vouchers Scheme
.
Related Posts:
A fresh look at Reservations and Quotas
This, not reservations is the answer
.
Additional Reading (Highly recommended)
Are Brahmins the Dalits of today? - by Francois Gautier
The middle class deserves what it is getting - by Sushant Sareen which has the conclusion:
Frankly, the Indian middle class deserves what it is getting. The basic lesson which they need to learn is that if they don’t shed their supercilious attitude towards politics and don’t vote, and don’t express their outrage with everything that is wrong in this country, they will get by-passed.
Well said.
Comment, views, thoughts, suggestions and counter-points welcome, as always.
September 29th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Hindu Social System, Politics and Governance in India, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
10 comments
This has been one of my longest posts in the making…taking almost two months since I first started putting down my thoughts on this issue.
To a large extent this was because I wanted to be able to capture as many viewpoints as possible in writing this post and to get accurate references.
This has been such a “loaded” subject that I hesitated a lot before venturing into it. At the same time, it is not a topic that any seriously concerned citizen can shy away from.
So please consider this as an humble and modest attempt at trying to understand what may be wrong with the current system. Hopefully this will help us to get it right and really achieve what we set out to do - viz. improve the lot of under-privileged and deprived sections of our society.
While doing my background research, I came across a number of articles and blogs on this topic but not enough that had a pro-reservation slant. I did come across a few counterpoints – e.g. Sujai has a series of posts with a pro-reservation slant which make for interesting reading (and no doubt some arguments) and Krish’s blog too has quiet a few posts on the topic (e.g. this one) – but they were few and far between.
So this analysis too may suffer from an intrinsic bias that creeps in after looking at something from only one side of the prism. Back to “reservations” and “quotas”.
.
This post was precipitated by the recent disruption and agitation in Rajasthan regarding the demand of Gujjars to be categorized as Scheduled Castes from their current status as OBCs.
The demand was an indicator of a fundamental problem with the whole system – it has largely become a system of patronage & dispensing largesse and a way to capture a slice of the “lucrative” government jobs and other benefits.
To an observer who may not be familiar with the reality of caste-based politics and reservations in India, the Gujjar demand may have appeared to be strangely regressive.
If you look at it from a purely rational and logical viewpoint, it appeared absurd. Why would a group wish to reclassify itself as even more backward? – and that too several years after having been the beneficiaries of a system designed to uplift their status?
Keep Reading…
August 9th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Hindu Social System, Politics and Governance in India, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
13 comments
Some of you may remember a post I wrote earlier this year mentioning an unusual (and very innovative) initiative in various cities in India that involved training students (and particularly girl students) from scheduled tribes and scheduled castes for cutting-edge jobs in the private sector.
A few weeks ago, I came across another initiative which struck me as a novel and truly path-breaking effort to promote literacy in some of the desperately poor tribal areas of Orissa.
The lady who is directing this effort is Parama Karuna-ji. Parama-ji is Italian in origin…but is as far removed as you can think from India’s most famous lady who shares her country of birth.
She runs a school near Puri in Orissa imparting education to rural children from nearby villages. Unlike most other charitable initiatives, Parama’s efforts are aimed (in her own words) at “creating a wave of self-reliant, responsible, proactive people to become genuine leaders and members of an ideal Hindu society at global level, making Bharat a true leader of Nations”
There is more information available at www.pavan.org.in and you can reach Parama-ji on paramakaruna AT rediffmail.com OR paramakaruna AT gmail.com [ OR xparamakaruna AT yahoo.com ]
Parama-ji and her organisation needs support and help.
If you feel, you can contribute anything at all, please do get in touch with her…I think at the very least you will be impressed by her sincerity and commitment to the welfare of these children.
April 24th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
no comments
Nitin (from The Acorn) has this gem of a comment on RealityCheck’s post from the day of Ash-Abhi (or is it Abhi-Ash) wedding: “Around the Blogosphere“:
“Mr Arjun Singh is in a hole. And he’s trying to get out of it by digging ever more.
You would think that’s a bad strategy of getting out of the hole.
But he’s perhaps counting that if he digs a sufficiently wide hole, everyone will be in it…(sorry for this tortuous metaphor, but these are extraordinary times)”
Brilliant!
April 24th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Hindu Social System, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
no comments
Our honourable Railways Minister Shri Yadav made the headlines again last week with his promise that “priority would be given to Muslims in appointments in all sectors of the Railways.”
Now thats a great statement except I am not at all sure what this means in practice.
Is it that all things being equal they would be preferred over a say, Hindu or Christian candidate?
Or would they be preferred even if they come short on some of the criteria as compared to other candidate(s)? If so, what is the “margin” (or “premium” or level of compensation)? Would they be given an extra 10% (20%, 30%?) on each criteria for just being followers of Islam? Would they be able to avail of this concession even if they are not “practising” Muslims?
Or would they be guaranteed a job as long as they fulfil all the “necessary” (not necessarily “sufficient”) requirements for the job?
As you can see, we are walking into a minefield here…and no one (least of all Shri Yadav) appears to have given this any thought.
Keep Reading…
April 19th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Hindu Social System, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
no comments
From a front page story in “The Economic Times” today (Apr 5, ’07) titled, “Hindu, Muslim equal in income”*:
“Forget all half-baked opinions you may have heard on the economic state of religious communities in India. Truth be told, at the national level, Hindus and Muslims are closer than you thought as far as average household income, expenditure, savings..go. In fact the gap between the two communities narrows appreciably, even reverses in some cases in favour of Muslims, in rural India”.
The report is based on a recent NCAER survey. For the record, Average Annual Household Income amongst Hindus is Rs 61,423 vs. Rs 58,420 for Muslims. For Christians, it is Rs 70,644 while Sikhs are appreciably better off at Rs 91,153.
So Muslims may still be socio-economically backward as a community (although their literacy rates are also higher than Hindus in several states**), but the emphasis on improving their condition should be on the “social” aspects of backwardness which are to a large extent due to poor literacy amongst women, lack of family planning, lack of education (or reliance on the alternative education system - the madrasas) etc.
* Title of the story on the web version is slightly different (I wonder why): “Muslims spend more than Hindu peers”.
** See also a related post: “Literacy rates and “first claims”
April 5th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Muslim Population in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
no comments
…to upliftment and betterment of Dalits, backwards and Muslims…
From the Time of India, 7th Dec ‘06 (article by Subodh Ghildiyal):
“Tectonic shift: Dalits find new vistas in private sector” Excerpts:
“NEW DELHI: Jhumur Das sits with a telephone in a Kolkata building and dishes out advice to callers from cities she has only heard about. She is a customer care executive with Aegis BPO.
Nothing surprising. Except that the young graduate, from an extremely modest Dalit family, left Hooghly a few months ago to stay alone in the crowded capital and be a career woman. In what could mark a trend shift in professional choices of backward classes, SC, OBC and minority youngsters — taught since independence to avail the quota to enter government jobs — are taking a definitive turn towards the private sector.
…The social justice ministry has tied up with NIIT to provide training for BPO jobs to those from backward groups. Out of the initial batch of 355 students, 116 like Jhumur have started working in the BPO sector. The response has seen the scheme extended beyond six cities to Chandigarh, Shimla, Pune and Jaipur.
The success has encouraged the ministry to explore other avenues. Airlines are next on the radar. Sources said the Centre may fund states in coaching girls and boys from these groups as air hostesses and stewards. It is seeking to build up on the experience of Karnataka. The issue will be deliberated by the ministry soon.
…Significantly, an official said, the idea was to look for sectors where wages and growth is good but not incumbent on academics. “Education remains an issue and while it has to go up, it should not handicap this generation of job seekers,” he said.
For sociologists, this shift, though in a nascent stage, is significant for reasons beyond professional. BPO, Hospitality sector etc are part of urban job centres which can help people in overcoming birth-based handicap when many laws have failed.
January 9th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Hindu Social System, Muslim Population in India, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
no comments
One of the things I am hoping to get better at (and do more of) is a quick (but broad) sweep of the blogosphere to pick up posts from fellow bloggers that I find interesting and insightful…
This morning, I visited some of my favourite bloggers and came across these “must-read” for this week items:
India Should Give Up its Subcontinental Mindset: Air Chief on Apollo’s Blog. I wish I could find the full text of the speech it refers to. There is an allusion to the instability in India’s neighbourhood in the speech on which I hope to write something soon.
Great post on Manmohan Singh’s Communal Socialism by Offstumped (what a great name for a blog - I wish I had thought of that!). He also has a few posts in Hindi - something that I hope I can begin in 2007.
Also read Indian Politics and News Media 2006 - Offstumped Retrospective
and finally, Rajnath Singh Blasts the UPA for its ‘Communal Socialist’ Politics
December 26th, 2006
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), India & Its Neighbours, Media Related, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Reservations, Affirmative Action, Terrorism in India |
no comments
While surfing the blogosphere looking for some data and information on the Sachar report, I came across Reality Check India’s blog.
I must say he/she has the most comprehensive coverage on the reservations issues/ Sachar etc that I have seen in a long time. I have written an email to Reality Check and hope to hear from him/her…and possibly also get a contributory article for this blog.
After looking at the breadth of coverage on Reality Check, I think I should just shut up and put up a link to the blog and some of the posts instead.
One of the best thing I liked about the blog is the rigour that Reality Check brings to the analysis…see e.g. the Data Sheet and this post… The India social cartogram project maps
From all of us, Keep up the good work…and I am looking forward to reading more of your work.
P.S. by the way, this has to be one of the best posts: Look who opposed OBC data in the millenium census !
December 2nd, 2006
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Muslim Population in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Post Independence History, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
9 comments
I have not yet been through the Sachar report and various comments and articles on it but one thing is clear…poverty doesn’t come in quotas…
Do our politicians get it? Of course they do…then why indulge in senseless things like the Sachar Report?
Because poverty may not come in quotas but votes do.
How does the Sachar recommendation propose to deal with the situation where there is only one seat and 3 equally deserving and equally poor applicants - except that two are Muslims and one is Hindu? Ignore the Hindu? and what about the other Muslim applicant - how will that choice be made?
more on this over the weekend…
December 1st, 2006
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Hindu Social System, Muslim Population in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
3 comments
June 18, 2006
Below is an article by Prof. Dipankar Gupta from the School of Social Sciences at JNU. This is another (sad) example of how the terms caste, jati, varna and class continue to be mis-used and abused.
***
I’m backward class, and you?
PLEASE READ the bold print.
When the abbreviation OBC is spelt out, it refers to Other Backward Classes and not Castes.
This is the meaning that the Constitution of India gave to the phrase. There is a world of difference between the two and it is only by means of deft political jugglery that the impression has been conveyed that the Constitution is interested in uplifting a section of the population that can be labelled under the totally spurious term called backward caste.
As the Constitution was interested in the lot of backward classes, it did not easily equate them with any cluster of castes, nor did it privilege a solely castebased criterion to determine them. Backward classes could mean the poor, or village-based artisans, or the unemployed, or those who are in remote regions, or those who are educationally deficient, or those who suffer from food deprivation. In all such cases, the focus is on actual people and not communities. As those answering to such descriptions could come from any caste group, the founding figures of the Constitution, very purposively, used the term OBC strictly in terms of classes and not castes.
Contrast this with the way the Scheduled Castes were classified by the Constitution. Though the job of determining which castes were untouchables proved tricky, in all such cases, only the caste criterion was the determining factor. Economic or educational concerns had no role to play when it came to deciding on the listing of the Scheduled Castes. So when the Constitution clearly states ‘classes’ and not ‘castes’, as in the term OBC, it is deliberate, and not an oversight.
As there were too many competing factors to contend against, the first Backward Class Commission set up in 1955, under Kaka Kalekar, decided to fold up its proceedings after rounds of futile negotiations. Its members found no clear criteria for determining backwardness that would be free from counter claims. In spite of long deliberations, the task proved hopeless and unachievable and this conclusion was more or less ratified by the government of the day.
The Mandal Commission, seemingly, had no problems at all in designating the ‘backwards’. This is because it cleverly masked the term class with caste and put forward a set of criteria where economic and educational backwardness received very low points compared to social backwardness. As the definition for social backwardness was very fuzzy, it was possible to score 12 points on the four criteria within this sub-set. There was no need to go further and consider educational or economic factors, as only 11 points were needed to be eligible for reservations. Space does not allow a full elaboration of the various categories under which ‘backwardness’ points can be awarded in the Mandal formula, but it needs to be noted that the economic criteria get the least emphasis. While on social backwardness it is possible to easily score 12 points, the best one could do in terms of economic backwardness is only three. This is surely a travesty of what it means to be ‘backward’.
The points system also contains other constitutional improprieties. When considering social backwardness, full three points are given if a caste practices child marriage. In this case, you have a clear instance of actually being rewarded for breaking the law. What could be more unconstitutional! Further, again within the category of social backwardness, a caste scores three points if other castes have a low opinion of its standing in society. As is widely known to specialists in this subject, no caste thinks well of any other caste. Even among Brahmins there is no unanimity. All too frequently, charges of being imposters, pretenders and worse are freely traded among them.
This bias in the points system clearly reveals that the Mandal Commission did not want to draw attention to the fact that its intended beneficiaries were not really economically and educationally backward. This is to be expected, as the castes favoured for reservation by Mandal were never really discriminated against in history as the Scheduled Castes were. That they chose not to seek education and urban jobs as the so-called ‘forward’ castes did still does not make them a once persecuted category or community.
It must also be remembered that these so-called backward castes were often the rural dominant castes and they were perhaps, on occasion, more brutal in their persecution of the Scheduled Castes than the Brahmins were. The deprivations resulting from the odium of untouchability were the highest in South India — a region where the traditional dominant castes are, in the main, the designated ‘backwards’ of today. Interestingly, Mandal activists ignore this feature of rural caste interaction.
As the heat and dust of political controversy around the issue of reservation for OBCs obscured from view the fact that it was really all about class and not caste, the Mandalites were able to win valuable political points. They also spuriously occupied the moral high ground by claiming that they were adhering to the Constitution, when in fact they were subverting it. By making backward class synonymous with backward caste, the Mandal Commission opened the gates for identity politics of the kind that would be very hard to reverse.
It is just as well that the Supreme Court has asked the government to clearly spell out what it means by ‘backwardness’ and to whom the label should apply. Hopefully, in the course of this exercise, the unpardonable equation of backward classes with backward castes will be exposed.
***
The writer is Professor of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
June 18th, 2006
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Politics and Governance in India, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
no comments
Just read this brilliant piece by Dr Francois Gautier (on Rediff’s website):
Francois Gautier writes to Dr John Dayal, member, National Integration Council, in response to the letter he wrote Prime Minister Manmohan Singh:
Dear John Dayal,
I am a Westerner and a born Christian. I was mainly brought up in Catholic schools, my uncle Father Guy Gautier a gem of a man, was the parish head of the beautiful Saint Jean de Montmartre church in Paris. My father Jacques Gautier, a famous artist in France, and a truly good person if there ever was one, was a fervent Catholic all his life, went to church nearly every day and lived by his Christian values.
There are certain concepts in Christianity I am proud of: Charity for others, the equality of social systems in many Western countries, Christ’s message of love and compassion.
Yet, when I read your letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, apropos the inaugural meeting of the National Integration Council, I was a little uneasy.
First, you seem to assume that you are speaking for the entire Christian community in India. But I know many Christians in this country, and they never voice the grievances you so loudly proclaim. In fact, I have found that most Christians in India are not only happy to live in this country of traditional tolerance, but that they are also different from many Christians in the world: More multicultural and ecumenist in spirit, maybe.
Then, you speak of the marginalised Dalits. I agree that there are still unforgivable atrocities committed against Dalits, although very often they are done by backward castes themselves. I remember during the tsunami in Pondichery, how the Vanniars, an OBC caste, stopped the Dalits from a coastal hamlet from crossing the Vanniars’ part of the village to bury their dead, as the Dalits’ cremation ground had been submerged.
At the same time, my 30 years in India have taught me that nowhere in the world has there been so much effort to rectify a wrong — from 1947 onwards. This resulted in a Dalit, the late K R Narayanan, born in a poor village of Kerala, to be elected President of India, one of the highest posts in this nation.
Has a black man ever been President of the United States?
Reservations for Dalits have made it possible for them to access education and jobs regardless of their merits — and this is a unique feature of India today.
You continue by saying that ‘the agenda draftsmen of papers for NIC seem to believe that forcible and fraudulent conversions (to Christianity) are the main cause of civil unrest in tribal and other rural areas’. And you retort that ‘this is a malicious myth propagated by obscurantist and fundamentalist — and often violent — political groups’. Meaning Hindu groups, of course.
I have to disagree with you on two points.
One, I have seen with my own eyes how conversions in India are not only highly unethical — that is, using unethical means of conversion — but also that they threaten a whole way of life, erasing centuries of tradition, customs, wisdom, teaching people to despise their own religion and look Westwards to a culture which is alien to them, with disastrous results.
Look at what happened to countries like Hawaii, or to the extraordinary Aztec culture in South America, after Portuguese and Spanish missionaries took over.
Look how the biggest drug problems in India are found in the Northeast, or how Third World countries which have been totally Christianised have lost all moorings and bearing and are drifting away without nationalism and self-pride.
Second, I think people like you show very little gratitude to that Hindu ethos which has seeped into Indian Christian consciousness. It is because of that Hindu ethos, which accepts that god may manifest himself at different times in different names, that Christians were welcomed in India in the first century. Indeed, the Syrian Christians of Kerala constituted the first Christian community in the world.
It is because of this inbred tolerance in Hinduism that Christianity and many other persecuted minorities in the world flourished and practiced their religion in peace in India throughout the centuries.
But how do Christians thank the Hindus?
When the Jesuits arrived in India with Vasco de Gama, they committed terrible persecutions, particularly in Goa, crucifying Brahmins, marrying local girls forcibly to Portuguese soldiers, razing temples to build churches and splitting the Kerala Christian community in two.
And today, people like you continue ranting against Hindus and promoting unethical conversions, using the massive power of the dollars donated by ignorant Westerners, who do not know that their money is used to lure innocent tribals and Dalits, who still possess that all encompassing acceptance of all gods, towards another religion.
Furthermore, you use false statistics, saying for instance that nuns have been raped. You no doubt allude to the Jhabua rape case, when courts have shown that these nuns were not raped by Hindus, but by Christian tribals.
I know, I went there and interviewed these innocent souls.
And who has been hijacking of the educational system in India? Not the Hindus, as you accuse, but the Christians, who control much of the higher education in India and by subtle and not so subtle means, poison the minds of the students, teaching them to look down on their own culture and look up to whatever is Western — even if it has already failed in the West.
In how many schools and hospitals in India today, the Bible is read at the beginning of each day, each session? Would you approve of the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible of 850 million Hindus being read in Christian schools in the West to Christian students and nurses?
Finally, when you say: ‘God bless you, you Government, and God bless India’, which god are you talking about? Is it Jesus Christ? But the message of Christ was one of love, of respecting others’ cultures and creed — not of utilising unethical means for converting people.It is false to say that Jesus is the only ‘true’ god. As Hindus rightly believe, the Divine has manifested himself throughout the ages under different names and identities, whether it is Christ, Buddha, Krishna or Mohammad.
Let this be the motto of the National Integration Council of India.
December 31st, 2005
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Reservations, Affirmative Action, Sanatana Dharma |
10 comments
