Orissa under Attack?III

Organiser,2008 Issues > November 30, 2008


Indepth

Orissa under Attack?III
Church strategy after the lull
By Balbir K Punj

?...Well funded, superbly networked, backed by the highest of the land, seized up its moral supremacy, it has India as arc of its key targets?. Talking about the findings of its countrywide investigations, the Tehelka report says ?the conversion drive was more than just a numbers game; it was an unabashed exercise.?

To carry out its sordid business of harvesting of souls, the church now adopts a multi-layered strategy, full of prevarication, snivel and subterfuge. It?s Janus faced. For the elite, the church claims that it worships the Lord through the service of the poor and has no conversion agenda. At ground level there are covert and overt attcks on other faiths. (The trouble in Karnataka followed publication of such a booklet Satyadarshini, in which Hindu Gods were abused). Protests against such insults are termed as attacks on the Christians. While allegations of conversions are denied, the right to evangelise is defended and exercised. Inducements to change the faith are never accepted, but ?help? to the needy and subsequent conversions are explained as ?change of heart !

The above mentioned stratagem followed by the church in the post-Independence era is not a part of the Bajrang Dal propaganda. This is the substance of the Neogi Committee (NC) report. The NC was constituted by a Congress government of Madhya Pradesh and it submitted its report running 1500 pages in 1956. Subsequently four Congress run states ? Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa and finally Himachal Pradesh (in 2007) brought out laws to check such unethical conversions to protect local culture and maintain social harmony.

The church and locals have become more frequent and violent in the last few years. This was inevitable in view of the church?s plan to evangalise India in the 21st century. The ?sinister plan? was revealed in a detailed investigative report by the weekly Tehelka (February 7, 2004) (surely not a Sangh Parivar publication). The report said, ?a new mood of aggressive evangelism has been emanating from America. Well funded, superbly networked, backed by the highest of the land, seized up its moral supremacy, it has India as arc of its key targets?. Talking about the findings of its countrywide investigations, the Tehelka report says ?the conversion drive was more than just a numbers game; it was an unabashed exercise. And the aim was sinister?.. frightening and equally sinister was revelation that US trans-national organisational had personal data down to last man, important because he was the vehicle who would get the next convert?.

The Tehelka report says ?The missionary goal is to set up a church within cycling distance. Then within walking distance and finally within hearing distance. The church growth figures with Tehelka clearly indicate that this missions mandate is on in full swing?. During 2000-2001, according to Tehelka, various denominations of churches received from abroad a total of Rs. 4,535.23 crores, 15.56 per cent increase over the amount received in the previous year.

Recently there was a clinching admission of church?s strategy in the last lines of the dispatch??Life As The Other??The Indian Express, Delhi edition, October 23 last. ?The entire problem began because New Life was attracting poor people in distress and challenging their shallow faith by offering money and property to convert?, was how Father Austin Menezes of Melagres Church of Mangalore described the work of New Life Fellowship Trust whose actions provoked violence in Karnataka's port city. In reality, such an abrasive approach to evangelism was at the core of a popular outrage against the Trust. Notice that Father Menezes has no qualms describing the belief of poor people as ?shallow? and admits offers of ?money and property? being made to the poor for inducing conversions.

But if New Life was 'offering money and property to convert' it is only part of church's well-established stratagem to bring people to Christ. It is empirically as integral to strategy of church, as conversion is integral to Christianity itself. Evangelical organisations frequently run into troubles for such acts whether in Karnataka or Orrisa. But they receive support from the fourth estate, (even when kingdom of heaven doesn't intervene), for whom any opportunity is as good as the other to demonise Sangh Parivar and BJP. Not infrequently such ?atrocities against Christians? are laced with gory tales of rape of a nun and a lot worse.

Fortunately, most of the Christians do not subscribe to the church?s agenda of harvesting of souls and are as good citizens as any one else. Many of them do suffer (along with the rest) in the social unrest triggered by the shenanigans of the church. The victims of this mindless violence should not be seen as Christians and non-Christians. They are first Oriyas and Indians and anything else later. Painting the ?Sangh Parivar? black will not help. The hostile relationship between the locals in India and abroad, and the church pre-dates the birth of the `Parivar? by several hundred of years.

The ugly events in Kandhmal and elsewhere are the result of what Gandhiji called as the destruction of the ?social superstructure? by the missionaries over the last several decades. India is steeped into pluralistic ethos and believes in ?God is one?, irrespective of His numereous names and shapes. church has faith only in ?One God?. To it, all the rest are false and those believing in them have to be ?saved? and ?harvested? for the Lord. Should not the church heed Gandhiji and leave people to their faith? The innocent Kandhs are fighting a battle for the pluralistic character of India. They look at missionaries and their evangelical enterprise the way Gandhiji saw it. Their hurt is the same as that of Gandhiji. But they are not Gandhians. They do not have the benefit of education and are unequipped to deal with sophism which comes naturally to the elite. While their methods to do so at time may be outside the frame work of law, their intent is noble. The civil society must stand by them, give them a lead and articulate their concerns as Gandhiji did.

(The writer is a Member of Parliament (RS) and can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com)

Sl.No. State / UT Rate of growth
Christians % by which
Christian rate of
growth is higher
compared to Hindus
1. Arunachal Pradesh 130.9 18.7 600 %
2. Assam 32.5 14.9 118.12
3. Bihar 35.9 23.0 56.09
4. Delhi 56.7 44.1 28.57
5. Gujarat 56.3 22.1 154.75
6. Haryana 73.2 27.0 171.11
7. Himachal Pradesh 73.3 17.0 331.18
8. Madhya Pradesh 33.9 21.7 56.22
9. Manipur 17.7 -5.9
10. Meghalaya 42.1 18.3 130.05
11. Mizoram 30.7 - 9.3
12. Nagaland 69.2 25.1 175.70
13. Orissa 34.8 15.9 118.87
14. Rajasthan 51.4 27.9 84.30
15. Sikkim 169.3 18.6 810.22
16. Tamil Nadu 19.0 11.0 72.73
17. Tripura 120.5 14.9 708.72
18. West Bengal 34.3 14.2 141.55