Author: Hermann Jung
Publication: Aseemaa
Date: June 2002
Dear Mr. Haubold
If the large English language papers
in India continue to maintain that the violence against Christian institutions
was unprovoked and was all committed by members of the Sangh Parivar, then
I can understand this behaviour. These journalists want the present Government
to go, and to achieve this goal they use any sort of defamation.
That is why they ignore even affidavits
of respected personalities if these documents happen to incriminate Christians.
If the Pope, staying In India as
a state guest, makes an appeal for the conversion of Asia I can understand
him as well. His doctrine contains a commandment to that effect. I fail,
however, to understand the defamatory reports of some Western correspondents
on Indian affairs.
On 15 August 2000 I explained to
you, inter alia, the background of the happenings in Dangs district of
Gujarat. In the present article you repeat the old version.
Regarding Ayodhya the present Home
Minister did not tour the country "alleging" that a mosque had been built
on a destroyed temple but he proclaimed facts which people had not forgotten
during centuries and which were proved by excavations.
Nor can I believe that "the whole
world" is at Vajpayee's remark that the construction of a Rama temple on
the site of the destroyed mosque would be the fulfillment of the wish of
the people. The, amazement is surely on the side of those who believe what
certain news media report in this connection. But there are well informed
people everywhere - and their number is on the increase who think that
this kind of statement from the top was overdue.
I could hardly believe my eyes when.
I read in your article that the destruction of the dilapidated structure,
which had not been used as a mosque for decades, was "the-worst sacrilege
in Indian history since independence". I must ask myself whether the incidents
in Pakistan, Bangla Desh and Indian Kashmir can escape the attention of
a correspondent of a respected newspaper: There out of insignificant or
fabricated causes dozens of Hindu temples were destroyed, Hindus murdered
and lakhs of them driven out of the country. Similar things happen in the
Northeastern states of India where Christians are in a majority.
Judging by your reports during recent
years I arrive at the conclusion that those incidents would have served
as material for sensational reports in Western media only if the victims
had been Christians or Muslims.
It is a fact that educational institutions
run by Christian missions in India belong to the best of their sort in
that country - and therefore they are an effective means for influencing
young -people.
They seem to be conceived as a sort
of preliminary stage of missionary work. Genuine conversions of educated
Hindus, however, came to a halt already in the 19th century. Today missionaries
can have some success only among the poor and the backward.
Moreover, Sangh Parivar (Vidya Bharati
etc.) by and by are also reaching a high level of education in their schools,
which is the reason, 'why certain people are getting nervous.
The "growing and-Christian literature"
in India is a late reaction to the meanest attacks from the Western and
Christian side, also and predominantly from missionaries, on Hinduism for
more than two 'centuries. I can send you a photo showing a few modern samples
of these abusive Christian pamphlets.
The monstrosity of the Pope's appealing
from Indian soil to convert Asia follows the same mental pattern (for,
if you consider other religions as equal you need not issue a call to convert
their followers).
Your paper has become conspicuous
by its negative and derogatory reports on India. The tone of your articles,
as far as they treat Hindu organizations, resembles that in the publications
of Indian Marxists (who are hardly known in Europe and who in their own
country am losing ground pretty fast because they seek to stabilize their
rule ill West Bengal and Kerala through rigging and terror during elections
and terrorizing and killing of their political opponents).
As long as Western Missionary activity
in India goes on on even intensifies ethnic and religious disturbances
will also intensify and expand. Wherever so far followers of a Semetic
religion reached a majority in India they tried to break away from the
motherland and started persecuting and killing the Hindu minority. This
is happening in Muslim majority Kashmir and in Christian majority Northeaster
states.
Thanks to the present mode of reporting
from India Europeans cannot discern these goings-on and their background.
But people in India are waking up fast, and they will not tolerate a further
weakening and dismemberment of their country.
India is still being regarded as
a soft target by ail sorts of unruly' elements and aggressors. Violence
and bullying are still thought to meet with success there. In this connection
I have to mention the. Pope again; The manner and circumstances of his
appeal to convert Asia again show how little respect is being shown for
India and her culture. As a guest of a Muslim country he would not have
dared to do this. In the Hear East he apologized for the atrocities of
the crusaders. In India, however, he ostensibly thinks that he not only
need not apologize for the outrages of the" Portuguese and their Inquisition
but can even make an appeal to convert the country.
In short: Christians and Muslims
practice conversion in India because their books command it and because
the country tolerates it. Some Hindus try to prevent or to reverse this
because they have to fear grave dangers to the integrity of their country.
Here you could object that in recent
years some Hindu organizations also started "converting" people in Western
countries. But these different groups are not coordinated under a central
leadership, as Christian missionary organizations are, they do not have
the rich funds of the churches and, above ail, their chief aim is not conversion
but correcting the distorted image of Indian religious Boon in Europe and
America through speeches and the sale of their books.
I hope time is near when even the
proselytizing churches understand that a mutual approach of Hinduism and
Christianity is badly needed, is better than conversion and is possible
only without the latter. By the way: The photo from action press in your
article (caption: "Summer 2000 in New Delhi. Protest against attacks on
Christians") makes things worse. The English text on the banners - they
seem to be carried by patriotic Muslim students - reads: "For peace and
not terrorism" and: "A true Muslim can never tie a terrorist". The banner
in Urdu starts: Pakistani Dehshatgardi Murdabad" (Down with Pakistani terrorism).
Ostensibly they are protesting against attacks of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists
in Kashmir or elsewhere in the country.
I assure you that I shall distribute
copies of your article and of this letter among all my Indian and German
friends. With the appropriate amount of respect and the inevitable share
of anger.
