The Christian Missionary Onslaught
On Hindu Dharma and Society
(in Telugu States, especially in Andhra Pradesh)
Dr T H Chowdary*
For the past few weeks and , vandals had been desecrating Hindu temples by acts like disfiguring and breaking idols , setting fire to temple chariots , stealing bells and precious ornaments etc. During the times of Islamic invasions and during their rule such things used to happen extensively. Conversion or enslavement of defeated soldiers and their families used to take place.
2. After the death at the cross of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, the successive Roman emperors persecuted the followers of Jesus. Saul, who later became Paul and embraced Christ’s moved to Rome, the imperial capital of the Roman Empire . For over 300 years he and many persons following the faith of Jesus propagated what came to be called Christianity in all the territories of the Roman expire. They were desecrating and destroying the temples of people whom they called pagans, people who were not following either Judaism or Christianity, propagated by several self-proclaimed Pastors and Bishops and preachers. In all the territories where the preachers of Christianity spread themselves to preach and convert, there were conflicts, clashes and even deadly fights between the pagans and the evangelists and their militant followers . There was general unrest and disturbance to peace in the empire’s territories. The Roman rulers were hard put to keep order and peace and restrain the evangelists.
3. By the 4th century the disturbance was so widespread and severe that emperor Constantine decided to impose a solution. He called for a convention of hundreds of Bishops and evangelists propagating Christianity in their own ways and in their interpretation of the message of Jesus Christ ( who wanted to reform Judaism as edicted and implemented by the high priests of the
Temple in Jerusalem). The convention was in Nicaea (modern Turkey) in the year 325 AD . They passed resolution by vote and in a way standardized a few fundamental concepts like the Trinity and a few versions of the gospel . There were of course dissidents also . These gospels finally were compiled as they exist now by Luke, John, Mathew and Mark . In AD 384 emperor Constantine, while on his death bed, converted to Christianity. Before that, he made a pact with the Christians. According to that, ( Pope would be the head of the church and he would rule what is right and authentic in Christianity. The emperor would be acclaimed as the appointee of God, ruling over the people and promoting and protecting Christianity. So, Christianity and imperialism of Rome became bed- fellows. Since then it was the duty of all the Christian kings and emperors to facilitate propagation of Christian faith and conversion of the conquered peoples to Christianity. Every European empire - British, French, Dutch, Portuguese , Spanish, Belgium and Italy facilitated the propagation and evangelization and conversion of the people in countries and continents where they established their imperial rule.
4. When Islam arose in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century AD and spread by conquest and conversion all over the Middle East and north Africa, Spain and eastern parts of Europe, there was conflict between Christianity and Islam. What are called Crusades were wars undertaken by consortia of Christian rulers of Europe against Islam to take control of the Holy Land around Jerusalem in Palestine which was conquered by Islam in the 7th century . The crusades went on for over 300 years. The Christians could not prevail over the Muslim rulers excepting for a brief period. The conquests by Islamic rulers resulted in the wiping out of Christianity in the whole of North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia and also in Spain.
5. Both Christianity and Islam marched to conquer and convert the rest of the world. Christianity has not been able to make any inroads into countries ruled or dominated by Islam as such efforts would be violently put down. In Christianity there are scores of sects like Catholic, Lutheran, 7th Day Adventists, Baptists, Methodists, Anglicans and so on. All of them are united in a common endeavor to evangelize and convert people of other faiths and dharma to Christianity. There are organizations at the global level. They raise finances for various christianising missions operating in several parts of the world. An extensive description of the global evangelizing efforts is given in the book, “Armies of God by Iain Buchanan .
6. At the turn of the 20th century an International Council of all evangelical missions noted that in the first millennium, Europe was conquered for Christ; in the second millennium America and Australia and New Zealand and the Pacific and Atlantic Island peoples were conquered and converted to Christianity. So, in the third millennium, that is from the year 2000 onwards Asia must be conquered for Jesus Christ . China does not allow missionaries to propagate the faith; neither do Islamic countries . Therefore what is left are the Hindu and Buddhist countries - India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Kampuchea, Thailand and Laos. In all these countries hundreds of thousands of missionaries belonging to various Christian countries are operating with finances raised from several countries and pumped into the targeted countries; that is, Hindu and non-Chinese Buddhist countries . They made a plan called “Joshua”. According to that, in India churches must be planted firstly, at a cycling distance that is, every 10 kmts; in the next stage, within walking distance that is every 5 kmts and in the 3rd stage within hearing distance; that is, within the residential and commercial areas themselves. Money has been pouring into India in several ways circumventing the regulations for NGOS linked with the evangelizing missions . Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are targeted for early conquest by Christianity. In AP, in the last 15 to 20 years over 50,000 churches had been planted, almost all of them without any permission from local bodies and without anybody’s knowledge as to where from the money has come and how many are converted. Curiously, despite mammoth planting of churches, the census of India records decline in the number of Christians and their proportion to the total population as given in the table below:
Christian Population in Andhra Pradesh (undivided)
|
Year |
||||
|
1971 |
1981 |
1991 |
2001 |
2011 |
Total population mln |
43.5 |
53.6 |
66.5 |
76.2 |
84.5 |
Christians mln |
1.8 |
1.43 |
1.2 |
1.1 |
1.1 |
% of Christian population |
4.19 |
2.68 |
1.83 |
1.44 |
1.38 |
Source: Census of India
7. The explanations for this decline is ; if the SCs are converted to Christianity and if that fact goes into government record, they cannot get the benefit of reservations meant for Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain SCs. So, the converted are instructed not to disclose the fact of conversion but go to the church and imbibe the Christian faith . The fraud has been going on with increasing intensity and hence the continuous decline in numbers in the census.
8. As the fight between the regional parties and the national parties intensified, for getting votes of people and power, both of them have been competing for the Christian and also Muslim votes, subverting secularism and funding the construction of churches and providing subsidy for Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem ( also construction of Urdu Ghars, Shadi Khanas and funding Tablighi conversions, Haj Houses) and subsidizing the Haj pilgrimage .
9. The churches and mosques of Christians and Muslims respectively are not under the management and administration of the State governments . ( AP, Telangana Karnataka, Kerala). Only the Hindus temples are administered and managed by the state governments through Endowment Departments and also Trust Boards for bigger temples. For eg: in AP there is an Endowment Department with a Minister at the head. It controls and administers of all temples whose annual income is above a certain amount, leaving the temples with less finance fund for themselves. AP also constitutes the TTD Board which administers the temples centered around Tirumala and Tirupati . Financiers and party unawarded leaders of the ruling party are appointed trustees. Such Trust Boards and Endowment Department ignore the offensive activities of the evangelists. Encouraged by the state subsidies to missionary activity like grants for construction of churches and subsidy to pilgrimage to Jerusalem and now payment to pastors Christianizing propagation goes on . That Christian converts carry their caste along with them into the new religion. They are now stridently operating in AP. The government has gone to the YSRC party, the chief of which himself is and his family are practising , professing and propagating Christians . The name of “Prabhu “ popular word for Jesus Christ, is invoked for every welfare scheme and Prabhu’s name is mentioned for the achievements of the government headed by the Christian Chief Minister.
10. Those who had been crypto -Christians in and outside government are now openly and stridently practicing and propagating Christianity and evangelization. The propagators take over under the Atrocities Act while propagating Christianity as in government records they are Hindu SCs . When they are confronted by Hindu activists, they register police cases under the Atrocities Act. Conversions have gone so extensively in certain areas like East Godavari district that a leading Christian even claimed that a separate Christian majority district should be carved out. They are encouraged in their demand by the examples of communist government carving out a Muslim district, of Malappuram in Kerala and Congress government carved out a Muslim majority district, Mewat by splitting Gurgaon district in Haryana. If Muslim majority districts can be carved out, why cannot Christian-majority district be carving out, is the argument .
11. Hindu society which resisted Muslimification for eight hundred years and remained Hindu including Dalits to the extent of 75% in undivided India, and Christianization for 190 years (since 1757) till 1947, (Christian population 2.3% and Muslim 9.9% in 1951) and was 87.9% Indic (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain) in 1951, is now reduced to less than 82% (2011) officially, but possibly 75% (if illegals from Bangladesh / Myanmar /Pakistan and crypto-Christians are also counted). Free India is seeing depletion of Hindus, The reasons are : peculiar “secularism” propagated by Nehru Dynasty, communists, and Macaulayan (mentally anglicized resident un-Indians/ non-Indian(RNI), “liberal” intellectuals of Jawaharlal Nehru University) calumniating Hinduism as communal.
12. While Muslims increase by producing large number of children and love-jihad; and infiltration from Bangla Desh Christians are increasing by “secular” and regional parties assisting the evangelists, by giving government money to construct churches, subsidizing their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, paying pastors, turning a blind (sometimes, patronizing) to the planting of thousands of churches without permission from local authorities and not inquiring as to sources of many and giving false certificates (as SCs) so that they get benefits of reservation ( for Hindu, SCs) to become MLAs, MPs get government jobs and admissions to educational institutions and use of “Atrocities Act” to intrusively , aggressively evangelize.
13. Measurers to prevent fraudulent conversions:
13.1 Government to appoint a “Niyogi”-like commission to inquire into fraudulent conversions (planting churches, false enumeration as SCs, source of funds, illegal church constructions, invocation of atrocities etc.)
13.2 Governments should take a census count of all churches to record when built, cost of construction , source of funds, when and from whom the site was acquired as what cost, its area, whether the sanction of the local authority (Panchayat/ Mandal/ District) was obtained for the sitting and construction ; in whose name is the church & property is registered; how many are in the baptism, register, what s the Christian population as per the latest count ( census of India or otherwise) ; how many churches in the village/ town/ city and their designation etc., property and assets of the church; how many employees, income and expenditure .
13.3 Study as t how to establish fact of conversion. By whom are the pastors paid and sources of income of the charities
13.4 Whether any organisation(s) exists to supervise and direct their functioning.
Whether all members in a family are converts are there are religious divided families; is so any strife in the family (Luke: CH: 12: 51 to 53).
(1,977 words)
END