Author:
Publication: Organiser
Date: December 31, 2000
"Foreign missionaries should
quit India immediately and Indian Christians should free themselves from
the clutches of foreign domination and establish Indian National Church",
said Dr Shripati Shastri, senior RSS functionary and Akhil Bharatiya Sahsampark
Pramukh. He was addressing a public gathering recently in the presence
of RSS Sarsanghchalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan and Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP)'s Working President Shri Ashok Singhal.
Dr Shastri said : "It is high time
foreign missionaries should go home." Blaming foreign missionaries for
fomenting trouble in India and causing friction between Hindu society and
Christian community, which Dr Shastri stated was patriotic and competent
enough to take care of its own secular and spiritual needs, he cautioned:
"No minority can be safe in any country by constantly irritating the majority
community." Quoting former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Dr Shastri said:
"The greatest guarantee of Christian minority lies in having peace and
brotherhood with Hindu majority and reminded the Christian community of
persecution and victimisation their counterparts suffer in neighbouring
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia where death sentences are pronounced
for blasphemy.
Describing the total domination
of foreign-born missionaries over churches in India as "a threat to Indian
security," Dr Shastri claimed that all the charitable and welfare activities
like schools, colleges, orphanages, and hospitals run by missionaries were
not an indifferent philanthropical activity but were being run with an
ulterior motive to create a fertile land for evangelisation.
The senior RSS functionary accused
the foreign missionaries and their supporters of being part of a great
international conspiracy to defame Indian and Hindu society and brand them
as intolerant lot before the international community. An isolated
incident in Dang district of Gujarat was published in a planned manner
by the Western media to defame the Hindu society, he alleged. Quoting
the Home Minister's report, Dr Shastri claimed that 80 per cent of the
foreign funds received in India for various charitable purposes were diverted
towards Church activities and were spent in areas where the Christian population
was less.
Putting forth the RSS view-point
that Hindus are the most liberal and tolerant society, the senior RSS functionary
stated that Hindu society has always tolerated and welcomed different faiths
with open fold and would have accepted the Christian faith as well.
But the Vatican and Christian clergies have refused to accept the basic
premise of Hindu thinking that all religions are equal and their orthodox
thinking is creating friction in Indian social life, he claimed.
Urging the Church not to create friction and strike a discordant note,
he stated that it did not fit into our cultural ethos.
Dr Shastri said that the RSS has
always accepted voluntary change of faith but the missionaries and the
Church were indulging into conversions through dubious means like offering
allurements, inducements, and exploiting the poverty of Indian masses.
Warning Hindu society not to undermine and underestimate the serious threat
posed by this proselytisation activities of Church, Dr Shastri stated that
this was not merely a change of faith involving reading a different scripture
or going on a different pilgrimage but was one that would bring a basic
change in campaign carried out to weaken Hindu society. He stated
that dwindling number of Hindus had always resulted in separation of territory
from India and this fact of history should not be forgotten.
Dr Shastri asked the gathering to
strive for creating a conducive atmosphere in which ghar vapsi or re-conversion
could be held in more numbers. Elaborating on the concept of Swadeshi
Church floated by the RSS Sarsanghchalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan, Dr.
Shastri pointed out that while Indian Christians are patriotic, for unknown
reasons the foreign domination over churches still continues.
Indian Christians have produced
clergies, priests, bishops, archbishops and even cardinals and were managing
their affairs quite efficiently. The Bible has been translated into
all vernacular languages, the Church has adopted many Indian procedures
and it is high time the foreign domination and control over the administration
of Indian churches should be thrown once for all, Dr. Shastri opined.
National Church is not a new phenomenon,
Dr Shastri said and pointed out that England has its own National Church
headed by Archbishop of Canterbury and British Monarch is proud to wear
the title of defender of faith.
After the demise of Mother Teresa,
Sister Nirmala, who is of Indian origin, is carrying out the work, said
Dr Shastri and hoped that Indian Christians could similarly run their own
affairs without the guidance of foreign missionaries.
