Author: N.S. Rajaram
Publication: Intellibriefs.Blogspot.com
Date: May 31, 2009
URL: http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2009/05/treat-conversion-as-politics-and-offer.html
The LTTE is a Church supported terrorist organization
with a fascist ideology. The recent turmoil and tragedy in Sri Lanka should
serve as a warning to India. Christian officials often serve as imperial agents.
I have been a student of religions, especially
Christianity and its history for nearly two decades. I am the author of several
books and articles on the subject that have been published worldwide. This
has convinced me that conversion is to Christianity what Jihad is to Islam-
an expansionist doctrine in the guise of religion and service. Everywhere
they have gone- Latin America, the Philippines, East Timor (Indonesia) the
churches and its officials have installed a politico-religious establishment
to the serve the interests of foreign masters, particularly in the exploitation
of natural resources. What we are seeing in Sri Lanka is a repetition of this
five century old pattern going back to Columbus.
This neo-imperialism follows the same pattern
as the classical imperialism practiced by European powers. It has the following
aspects:
1. Create social turmoil through conversions.
2. Infiltrate and control crucial areas of the state like the civil service,
police, the judiciary, and if possible, the armed forces.
3. Control crucial service areas like health care and education that have
the greatest contact with the masses.
4. Monopolize the media and maintain a continuous propaganda campaign to demonize
opponents and promote oneself.
This being the case, oft repeated statements
like 'Christians are less than 3 percent of India's population' are misleading.
Christian institutions control disproportionately large assets, including
real estate, health care, education and the media. This has two reasons: first,
they were beneficiaries of colonial patronage. Next, even after Independence
they continue to get government benefits as minority institutions. Further,
they serve as liaisons for foreign institutions like the Vatican and U.S.
government sponsored organizations like the USCIRF (United States Commission
for International Religious Freedom).
USCIRF is a foreign institution, yet its spokesmen
in India are the likes of Father Cedrick Prakash. When Narendra Modi's name
came up as a possible future prime minister of India, he issued a statement
saying, "Modi cannot nurture prime ministerial dreams unless he is acceptable
to the Western world…"
Father Praksh was serving or trying to send
a message to the West that he was prepared to serve as an agent of Western
interests. Prakash identifies himself as a human rights activist, in which
capacity he has typically taken positions against Hindu leaders and organizations.
In this context, one is entitled to ask, why were their voices silent when
Kashmiri Hindus were driven out of the Valley? (The same question can be put
to Dravidian politicians shedding tears over the fate of Tamils in Sri Lanka.)
All this lends support to the position of
the critics of Prakash and his ilk that the Indian Christian 'leadership'
has never accepted India as a free sovereign nation, especially led by the
Hindus. The USCIRF is a third rate mercenary outfit that is not taken seriously
by most countries. China has never allowed it in their country.
Following the defeat of the LTTE by the Sri
Lankan forces, a massive propaganda campaign has been set in motion to paint
its slain leader V. Prabhakaran and his men as 'Hindu terrorists.' One newspaper
went so far as to claim: "Velupillai Prabhakaran, the slain leader of
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was inspired by Bhagavad Gita,
says one of his close associates in the formative stages of the Tamil militant
movement in northeastern Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran's ideology was derived from
Bhagavad Gita."
This is totally false. He named his eldest
son Charles Antony, and most, if not all of his closest associates were Christians.
His ideology was the same Dravidian ideology as formulated by that inveterate
Hindu hater 'Periyar' E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker. His supporters were hard core
Dravidianists who harbored the dream of Tamil Eelam. This was let out by none
other than M. Karunanidhi who called him a 'friend' and 'not a terrorist'.
What is more significant is that the LTTE
has long had the support of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.
Quite early, LTTE joined hands with Radio Veritas, a worldwide Catholic broadcasting
station. The Hindustan Times (May 25, 1999) reported that the "Voice
of Tigers (VOT) has established …a coordinating office to tie up Radio
Veritas at St. Sebastian Church in Mallavi located in the Wanni. Radio Veritas
is a Catholic outfit run by the Asian Catholic Bishops Conference."
I am preparing a journal article on the rise
and fall of the LTTE, which places it in the historical context of Christianity
as an aggressive imperial movement. What I found during my research was that
the LTTE is a church supported Naxalite type terrorist organization that by
no stretch of the imagination can be called Hindu. In fact they have destroyed
many Hindu temples while leaving the churches mostly untouched. Many of the
Tamil Tigers are Christian, including the late Miss Dhanu (Thenmozhi Rajaratnam)
who was Rajiv Gandhi's suicide-murderer. These were Christian fanatics.
The point of all this is that we must see
conversions as part of an expansionist movement that tries to achieve political
aims behind the cover of religion. Once they establish a strong enough base,
they may begin to resort to violence if necessary. We have already seen instances
of this in the northeastern states. But the immediate danger in allowing aggressive
conversion activities is the risk of social turmoil. This kind of religious
aggression is what caused the 1857 uprising. Writing about the uprising, which
the British called the Sepoy Mutiny, the great historian R.C. Majumdar observed:
"A vague dread that the [British] government
was determined, by hook or by crook, to convert Indians to Christianity pervaded
all ranks of society, and the sepoys, fully shared these apprehensions with
the rest." These aggressive methods included "open and unchecked
denunciation of their cherished social usages and customs in most violent
language, and filthy abuses of their gods and goddesses by bands of Christian
missionaries."
Judging by the activities of many missionaries,
this dangerous and indefensible practice still continues. If it continues
unchecked, a similar reaction should not come as a surprise. Least of all
such anti-social activity should not receive government patronage in the name
of minorities. Their goal is always the same- gain control of the institutions
of the state.
