Author: M. Promod Kumar
Publication: Bhartiya Pragna
Date: February 2002
Consider the following recent events:
The Carmel Convent of Chandigarh
punished over 100 Hindu girls studying in the convent for applying Mehendi
on the occasion of Karva Chauth. The students were lined up and made to
stand with their hands up for nearly 15 minutes apart from a fine ranging
from Rs l00 for a higher secondary student to Rs l0 for a nursery kid!
Immaculate college in Vijayawada
issued a Transfer Certificate to a student who protested against the depiction
of pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses and religious symbols of Islam
and Sikh religions, including the Quran and the Guru Granth Sahib, on the
tiles of the flooring of the toilets in the college premises.
Haven't these students been denied
their freedom of religion? These incidents would have probably been considered
as acts of religious cruelty on children in any other nation. But what
motivated the authorities running these institutions to commit them? Get
it straight from the horse's mouth: Sister Oleen, Principal of Carmel Convent,
defended the action on the grounds of discipline. "Today they want to apply
mehendi. Tomorrow they might go ahead with lipsticks. Where do we draw
a line then?" Supporting her stand, Bishop Gerald Mathias said: "We respect
the religious sentiments of all the people, but when it comes to children,
there must be some discipline. If people from different communities start
coming to school with their religious accessories, there will be no end
to it." However, wearing the cross is permissible since this learned bishop
claims that "nobody wears big crosses to schools. Even if they wear little
ones, they are generally not seen."
But lest they are dismissed as stray
incidents, consider the following not-so-recent happenings which are yet
typical of most of the Christian institutions in India:
Books published by private Christian
institutions have replaced textbooks prescribed by the govt.
Anew subject called moral science
is a common feature in many of these convent schools meant to impart (Christian)
values.
Don't these incidents indicate a
pattern? It appears so, for there seems to be a common thread running through
them - the imposition of Christian values, customs and culture through
educational institutions administered by them - all in the name of maintaining
uniformity and discipline at schools and colleges.
A Day at School is as good as a
day at Church
To drive the point home, consider
the daily routine at any convent school which imparts 'secular education'
to Indian children, mostly hailing from a non-Christian background:
The day begins with the standard
prayer to "Our Father in Heaven" adopted by many Christian educational
institutions in India.
A daily Bible reading is compulsory
in some convents.
Students are induced to participate
or at least watch skits depicting the conversion of "impure hearts" into
divine souls after receiving Christ as their personal saviour and listen
to choir songs describing the glory of Christ during Christmas.
A minimum amount of money has to
be raised by all students occasionally by collecting donations from patents,
friends and neighbours for orphanages arid other "social service" organisations
run by Christian missionaries. Though this is declared as optional, a cutthroat
competition is introduced even here to attract them into this begging contest
by offering prizes for those who raise the highest amount!
Insecurity Complex
The day the Carmel Convent incident
came to light, S Gurumurthy, the noted columnist of the Indian Express,
was addressing an elite gathering at Ooty on "Conversions: A threat to
National Harmony". When this was brought to his notice during the question
and answer session, he made an interesting observation that such incidents
reveal a cultural and religious phobia that every converted Christian inherits
by the very virtue of his conversion to the "true faith". When a Hindu
girl applies mehendi on her hands, a Christian girl might naturally have
the desire to do the same. And a religion like Christianity which has made
European culture a part of its religious ethos and which considers every
other religion as a threat to its hegemony and as an irritant that delays
the return of Christ and the speedy establishment of the "Kingdom of God"
on earth, is naturally forced to proscribe such practices among converts
which remind them of their ancestral faith.
Leo Panakal gives us a graphic portrayal
of this process, what he calls 'operation uprootment': "Most of the people
converted to western Christianity in India are totally uprooted from their
Hindu past... The operation begins with baptism of the newborn. The child
is given a name chosen by the cleric from a list of supposed saints. Two
adults who stand witness are titled godfather and godmother. It is their
duty to see that the baptised child does not revert to his Hindu roots.
The process continues until death, the cleric having been called in to
impose what is known as the last rites of uprootment."
The same psychology seems to be
at work behind the incidents mentioned at the beginning of this write-up.
Constitutional Protection?
Agreed that the Constitution grants
the right to minorities to propagate their religion through their educational
institutions. Article 26 of the Constitution declares:
"Subject to public order, morality
and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have
the right-
(a) to establish and maintain institutions
for religious and charitable purposes;
(b) to manage its own affairs in
matters of religion;
(c) to own and acquire movable and
immovable property; and
(d) to administer such property
in accordance with law."
Does clause (a) of the Article 26
include the right to impose the religion of the minority on the majority
or other minority communities?
There seems to be a greater compulsion
driving these Christian zealots; whether the constitution guarantees it
or not, Christian theology makes it imperative on every Christian to "spread
the good news". Christian missionaries have understood that their failure
in gaining the expected number of converts in India is owing to the strong
collective and cultural underpinnings of the Indian society. This pretext
of discipline seems to be a part of this operation uprootment'. The first
stage of this operation is to dislodge the Indian mind from its cultural
roots. What better way than to catch the targets young? The pseudo-secular
establishment in India provides great help in implementing this grand design
through the Anglicised educational system.
Formulating a cogent response:
Though all this disruptive activity
had been going on for many years now, there had been no sign of a protest
or a positive response emerging from the victims of this aggressive agenda.
However, the reactions that the Karva Chauth incident has evoked are indeed
a ray of hope. The Punjab Human Rights Organisation demanded that the school
be blacklisted The Genera! Secretary of Lawyers for Social Reforms served
a legal notice on the principal of Carmel convent.
Also, another promising development
is the formation of the International Forum for India's Heritage (IFIH).
Finally, eminent Indians from diverse fields have come together to speak
out and to act for "the promotion of India's heritage in all aspects of
national life, especially the education system." It is indeed a bold and
praiseworthy initiative.
The crux of the problem is that
Indian children, particularly those from the majority community are forced
to join convent schools which provide the kind of secular education that
the English educated elite in India aspire for. The need of the hour is
to establish a chain of educational institutions which will impart such
quality education without uprooting the students from their cultural ethos.
This will prevent parents from having to bargain for a brand of scientific
excellence that leads to cultural death. And a long term solution to all
such threats from vested interests well be the creation of a new educational
framework which will convey in no uncertain terms that minorities or not,
every Indian is duty bound by the Constitution to respect and cherish our
cultural heritage.
(The author is an alumnus of the
Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. He is associated with The Mother's,
Institute of Research, Kotagiri, T. N.)
