Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 19, 2004
Europe's civilian revolt against
the stranglehold of the Catholic Church was won by resurrecting its
Pagan heritage as exemplified in Greek philosophy and Roman law.
The resultant duality of religious and secular authority provided
space for individual liberty, science, and material progress. Hindu
society, despite civilizational stresses from hostile invasions,
managed to preserve its cosmic worldview and to resist imposition
of a mono-source of political and religious power. Islam has been
consistent in its advocacy of a single religio-political authority.
Of the three traditions, I consider
the White Christian the most treacherous because the First World,
despite wrestling personal freedom from the pulpit, uses the Church
as an instrument of imperialism. Secularism placed Church aspirations
for dominion under non-religious leadership, which is why Western
regimes aggressively promote proselytization and the decimation of
non-Christian faiths and cultures. The US State Department, as the
Vigil public forum rightly points out, views religious freedom an
integral part of its foreign policy, which makes evangelization a
political agenda.
As Europe's secularization went
hand-in-hand with successful colonial conquests, the West's post-Second
World War thrust for perpetual sales and profits naturally accompanies
the evangelization drive. In my view, Western secularism resulted,
not in separation of religion and politics, but in Church subordination
to politics. As senior partner in the new equation, the secular polity
assumed responsibility for facilitating the twin evils of Christian
conversion and market domination (through cultural subversion of
traditional lifestyles) upon the world. Unlike Islam, the naked sword
was hidden by wooing and co-opting academic, political and economic
elites in a grand alliance for "progress" from traditional moorings.
The White Christian world is thus far more lethal than Islam, which
is openly against non-Muslims.
From this perspective, the All India
Christian Council's agitation at the rising stature of the Vanvasi
Kalyan Ashram in the tribal belt spanning Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa, makes perfect sense.
Mr. John Dayal, general secretary, typically rants against VKA social
service activities amongst tribals and shows disrespect for tribal
resentment against missionary activities and the loss of cultural
identity caused by loss of faith. In an article posted on the www.pakistanchristainpost.com
website, Dayal alleges coercion and violence in VKA's Ghar Vapsi
(return to roots) programme. He claims that the RSS distributes arms
and that this has polarized tribals, stimulating the violence witnessed
against Muslims in Gujarat's tribal areas after the Godhra conflagration.
Ghar Wapsi is essentially the brainchild
of former Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo, erstwhile ruler of Jashpur
in Raigarh (Chattishgarh) and hereditary royal guardian of the Korwa
tribals of Sarguja. Apart from resisting the tide of conversions,
what rankles with missionaries is Judeo's determination that village
communities regain land appropriated by missionaries for schools,
hospitals and churches. Judeo, who is well acquainted with missionary
tactics through several decades of hard work, wittily advises tribals
to accept the services offered by missionaries, but on no account
discard their traditional faith and culture in lieu of these services.
Irritated at the success of this
advice, Mr. Dayal is further enraged that Ghar Wapsi has succeeded
to the extent that conversions have virtually stopped and the 'homecoming'
movement is gathering momentum. No doubt Judeo's impressive personality
and colourful language have contributed to his substantial success.
He first came to national attention in 1992, when he told a popular
magazine that he had issued a "manifesto to the missionaries" which
stated that "we" (tribals) would eat up anyone who ate a cow, and
would clip two throats for every choti (tuft of hair on a shaven
head) clipped. It bears mention that though evangelists routinely
quote this statement, not a single incident has occurred under Judeo's
jurisdiction.
The All India Christian Council
has also picked up a quarrel with the Chairman of the National Commission
for Minorities, Mr. Tarlochan Singh, for having asked Delhi Archbishop
Vincent Concessao to refrain from evangelization among the Sikh community.
The Archbishop sent Mr. Singh a loaded missive on Christian theology,
individual freedom of conscience, and the power of the Holy Spirit,
adding sharply: "We certainly want inter-religious harmony and peace..But
this harmony cannot be achieved at the cost of the individual citizen's
freedom of conscience, which every other citizen has to respect."
The Archbishop smugly reiterated the Church's old ideological deceits
that conversion is an adult choice of a chosen way of life; that
nobody can convert another person; one can only present a way of
life to another person, who is then free to decide his response.
If this is indeed true, conversions
to Christianity should normally occur in driblets of one and two,
and not in the form of the mass conversions that accompany sustained
pressure from evangelists. More often than not, the neo-converts
have little idea of Christian theology and its anti-Jewish bias,
the schisms and purges caused by fanatical Popes and Bishops, and
the myriad changes wrought in the Holy Bible due to the political
exigencies of prevailing elites. Conversion of the illiterate and
uninformed does not meet my standard of a "free interaction between
God and man in the sanctuary of an individual's conscience," as the
Archbishop so loftily claims.
That tribals on their own have little
time for Christ or the pious missionary can be seen from the fact
that the merciful exit of Mrs. Gladys Staines (widow of Australian
missionary Graham Staines) from India led to a massive homecoming
of converted tribals. In Orissa's Mayurbhanj district, seventy-five
Christians returned to the Hindu fold last month and more are slated
to re-embrace their native faith. The cognoscenti would be aware
that acute resentment at Graham Staines' conversion activities had
resulted in his sensational murder some years ago.
Of course, Christian activists do
not believe in a level playing field. Hence the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram,
which merely facilitates tribals wishing to live according to their
traditional mores, received unexpected flak when it observed its
golden jubilee in the capital's Mandoli village recently. Even as
delegates debated problems of the country's eight crore tribal population,
leaders of the minority communities raised Cain on the ground that
VKA was bringing tribal hamlets back to the Hindu fold (The Telegraph,
3 October 2004).
Objectively, VKA is by no means
as pervasive as its critics aver. Organizing secretary Gunwant Singh
Kothari claims that out of the 698 tribes in the country, VKA has
established contact with 380 only. From humble beginnings in Jashpur
(royal estate of the Judeo family) in 1952, VKA today has a presence
in twenty-seven States and Union Territories, including all States
of the sensitive north-east; but it does not have even a toe-hold
in areas like Goa, Lakshadweep, Ladakh and Pondicherry.
The VKA operates on the premise
that loss of culture is loss of identity, and strives to help the
myriad tribes to preserve their distinct identities. This is also
the keynote of the first ever Draft National Policy on Tribals prepared
by the NDA Government to bring tribals into the national mainstream,
which is currently being debated nation-wide. The Draft National
Policy was prepared as it was felt that despite pious statements
of intent made in the Constitution in 1952, the majority of Scheduled
Tribes even today live below the poverty line, have poor literacy
rates, are prone to malnutrition and disease, and are vulnerable
to displacement.
