Are There Communalists Elsewhere?

By M.V. Kamath

Foreigners can abuse Hinduism and Hindus but nobody says a word about them. It is as if Hinduism is there for one and all to kick around. For Hindus to defend themselves and their religion would be 'communalism' - a word of abuse made popular by our Leftists.

The Baptist Church is the single largest Christian denomination in the United States of America. It has been spewing venom against Hinduism. The Church has been spreading false-hoods against Hindu religion, maintaining that "Hindus do not have a concept of sin or of personal responsibility". According to a text released by the Baptist Church "more than 900 million people are lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism, worshipping 330 million gods and goddesses created by the imagination of men and women..."

The Church asked its members to "pray that Hindus who celebrate the Festival of Lights would become aware of the darkness in their hearts that no lamp can dispel" and to "ask God to show Hindus that their worship of and prayers to the gods ultimately are futile."

Does Bill Clinton countenance the Baptists Church's ignominious claims?

Pope John Paul comes to India as an honoured guest. He is received with all due ceremony. India is one of the few countries that recognise the Pope as a religious leader. That is exactly what he is. But the Pope came to India not as a political leader of a secular state but as a religious leader out to "harvest" souls for Christianity.

He himself made that very clear. The Pope hoped that the coming millennium will see "the Cross firmly planted" in Asia. Commenting on the Pope's statement, the television network CNN in its Asiaweek editorial said: "The Pope's message threatens to alienate liberal Indians who previously dismissed the warnings of Hindu chauvinists as fanatical paranoia."

The editorial said that the Pope's statements in India made clear the Vatican's expansionist agenda. And it added: "And they lend credence to the long-standing complaint that Christianity's many good works in India are meant to give a foothold on the nation's soul."

Indian hospitality to the pope

That notwithstanding, Indian leaders went out of their way to receive the Pope and to honour him. But other Christian leaders elsewhere take a dim view of the Pope's plans. Thus, Russia's Orthodox Patriarch ruled out on November 20 any immediate meeting with Pope John Paul, saying that the Catholic Church was involved in large-scale poaching of its congregations in former Soviet Republics.

Reuters quoted Russian News Agencies as saying that the Patriarch, Alexiy II told a missionary congress that there was no point in meeting the Pope until issues like proselytising were cleared up. Catholics, he said, were engaged in "expansion" in Russia, Belarus, Ukranine and Kazakhistan!

Fancy one Christian denomination accusing another of 'poaching' on its preserve! The Pope himself accused protestant faiths of behaving like "wolve"! If Christianity is divided among so many sects what indeed does it stand for? Colonialism?

Proselytising has been a sensitive issue in Russia since the fall of Soviet rule, with Catholic and other denominations making inroads into what was long considered an Orthodox preserve.

The Orthodox Church does not like the Pope's proselytising activities. The Patriarch told his audience that "throughout its 1,000 year history, Russia has been dominated by a single religion" Orthodox Christianity.

What about Hindu leaders being received as state guest abroad? The Pope is not going to be received in Russia as he was received in liberal Hindu India. Only India honours other religious leaders. But can one imagine the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Vidyapith being ceremoniously received by the President of Italy?

As David Frawley, Director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies told Rediffusion on Net in an interview: "Clearly no western country would give a state welcome to a Hindu religious leader seeking to promote Hindu conversion activities in the West." How right he is!

Christians get mighty angry if a Church is demolished in India. But the Vatican has no compunction in protesting against a mosque being built near a Christian shrine. According to the reputed Agence France Presse "Muslims unveiled the foundation stone for a new mosque near a Christian shrine in Jesus's boyhood town of Nazareth despite a mounting religious feud in the Hold Land".

The Agency reported that "a crowd of 3,000 Muslim faithful witnessed the ceremony in Nazareth just as the Vatican issued an unusually vehement statement accusing Israel of fomenting division by approving the mosque project next to the Church of the Annunciation."

"The decision of the Israeli government appears to lay the groundwork for conflict and tension in the future between the two religious communities, Christian and Muslim", said Vatican spokesman Joechim Navarro Valls. Christian sites across the Holy Land remained shut for a second day in protest at the project in Nazareth, Israel's largest Arab town with Church leaders accusing Israel of neglecting their interests.

Apparently Christians can desecrate a Hindu temple and build a Church within it as is seen in Mandapeshwar near Vasai close to Mumbai, but Muslims cannot build a masjid next to a Church as it offends Christians. At Vasai, every year, during the first Sunday falling around 7th December, the church celebrates its founding day and there is a fair of the St. Francis Church at Mandapeshwar which is Lord Shiva's name and has been conveniently changed to a similar sounding name, viz Mount Poinsur. No objection from Hindus is entertained.

Let Hindus protest and the western press comes heavily on them. It is not accidental that a columnist, Rod Dreher, writing in the popular New York Post ( November 1) accused 'Hindu fundamentalist'. Persecute a tiny minority? The term 'persecution' is a favoured one to damn Hindus. Referring to "Hindu brown-shirts" Dreher said "these thugs have carried out vicious attacks on Christians since a coalition led by the hard-line (BJP) came to power two years ago". Thugs? What sort of people are the Catholic Irishmen willing to kill their Protestant brethren? Saints?

Hindus have been too long on the defensive, afraid of being dubbed communal for defending themselves. It is about time they told the Christians to be true Christians and first evangelise themselves. The Vatican can make a good beginning by proselytising the Protestants in Ireland and Baptists everywhere.

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