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Re: the tolerance debate - time to move on?
Dear Mr Wallia
Sender: owner-india_policy@cinenet.net
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I am sorry to have taken so long to suggest the following, but as you may know I
have been travelling quite widely for the last 3 weeks, speaking at several
conferences; do you know the following book? If not, you may want to see it:
Vishal Mangalwadi, MISSIONARY CONSPIRACY: LETTERS TO A POST-MODERN HINDU (Good
Books India, Ivy Cottage, Landour, Mussoorie, U.P., India 248 179
Professor Prabhu Guptara
Director, Organisational and Executive Development
Wolfsberg Executive Development Centre
(a subsidiary of UBS AG)
CH-8272 Ermatingen
Switzerland
Tel: + 41.71.663.5605
Fax: +41.71.663.5590
e-mail: prabhu.guptara@ubs.com
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: the tolerance debate - time to move on?
Author: cjwallia (cjwallia@indiastar.com) at nyuxuu
Date: 19.10.98 01:11
Ash Mahesh wrote:
>> How can the state forbid proselytisation while not regulating faith,
>>if proselytisation is part of the faith?
>On the face of it, reasonable question. But I might have a faith that
>requires eliminating kaffirs, surely the state can forbid that? I
>thought we all agreed on something so definite. At any rate, it is
>perfectly legitimate to have the opinion that anything can be regulated
>on reasonable grounds, whether or not it is part of anyone's faith. (at
>least the kaffir example suggests this is true).
>
>Since I've held up one end of this debate all by myself, I will now tell
>you a few things. I do this especially because several of you now feel
>that the debate is sick and want to move on.
>Moving on will not solve these problems.
======================================
Quite so. Moving on merely ignores the major problem
afflicting South Asia.
Regarding proselytization, Gandhiji's views
might be of interest: "If I had the power and could
legislate, I should certainly stop all
proselytising." (Collected Works,
Vol 61, page 46-47)
.
Gandhi was extremely articulate in opposing the conversion
activities of
Christian missionaries in India and questioned their motives in
establishing
educational institutions and other services in India. The
following are cited
from Arun Shourie's 302-page book, Missionaries in India
New Delhi, ASA Publications, 1994):
"There was a deeper problem with these services, and Gandhiji
drew attention to it again and again. The services were incidental.
They were the means. The objective was to convert the natives
to Christianity. "The Collected Works of Gandhi" contain
several accounts as do Mahadev Desai's "Diaries" in which
missionaries acknowledged to Gandhiji that the institutions
and services are incidental, that the aim is to gather a fuller
harvest of converts for the Church.
"To gain acces to non-Christian households, counsels the
'Catholic Dharma ka Pracharak,' [How to Preach the
Catholic Religion] the preacher should know something of
medicine. He will then be sought after whenever there
is some illness in the house. Once there, he should try
to prevail upon the parents that he should be allowed to
baptize the child as the baptism would aid the child's recovery.
If they do not agree, says the guide: 'If it is clear to you that
the father is not going to agree to the child being
baptised, and, as far as you can see, the child is close to death,
then, on the pretext of administering some medicine, sprinkle
water on his head in some secret way and pronounce the words
of baptism. O, preacher, should the child die, you would have
opened the gates of heaven for this child. Is this not a good deed?
Now, if every preacher were to devote himself to his work,
then how many children would they send to heaven in a
year?' " (Shourie, page 7-8)
Shourie goes on to question the motives of Mother Teresa.
Just how strongly Gandhi felt about Christian missionaries in
India can
be gauged from his recorded comments:
1. Gandhi's writing: "The cultured Hindu society has admitted its
grievous sin against the untouchables. But the effect of
Christianity upon India in general...has been disastrous."
(Shourie, p.6)
2. Gandhi to Krezenski, a visiting professor of Philosophy from
Poland, who
had told him that Catholicism was the only true religion : "The
idea of
conversion, I assure you is the deadliest poison that ever sapped
the fountain of truth." (Shourie, p.11)
3. Gandhi to a visiting missionary nurse: "The other day a
missionary
descended on a famine area with money in his pocket, distributed
it among the famine-stricken, converted them to his fold, took
charge of their
temple and demolished it. This is outrageous. This friend goes
and gets it
demolished at the hands of the very men who only a little while
ago believed
that God was there." (Shourie, p. 17)
4. Gandhiji: "If I had the power and could legislate, I should
certainly
stop all proselytising." (Collected Works, Vol 61, page 46-47;
Shourie, p. 38).
5. Several missionaries tried to convert Gandhi. When they failed,
one of the reverend gentlemen, writes Mahadev Desai, "retired
with the
imprecation...'Mr. Gandhi, soon there will come a day when you
will be
judged, not in your righteousness, but in the righteousness of
Jesus.' "
(Collected Works, Vol 60, p.323; Shourie, p. 240)
c.j. wallia
>
>
>
---------------------------------------------------------------
C. J. S. Wallia, Ph.D.
Publisher, IndiaStar Review of Books
http://www.indiastar.com
Phone and Fax: (510) 848-8200
P.O. Box 5582, Berkeley, CA 94705, U.S.A.
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