A Sentinel Event

An open plea to the relevant Government departments:

Dear Sir/Madam

The Sentinelese have shown us the way.  They have shown you, the Government, the way to deal with unwanted intrusions and unruly behaviour by foreign elements.  

Shame on our national defence and security systems, that one missionary could bribe local fishermen and gain access to the protected island not less than five times.  

That the Sentinelese have a protected area - however tiny - to call their own and to follow their own customs and regulations in their own space, is revealing.  

It also shows that on the so-called civilized and secular mainland, we are unable to safeguard our own interests from the virus of conversions and misdemeanours of illegal immigrants and foreign criminals.  

Over the last few months, there have been several incidences of crime by these very same visa-dodgers and over-stayers.  Many illegal immigrants have procured passport/Aadhar/voter cards through racketeers.  

In certain parts of Bengaluru, for example, foreign elements have formed enclaves of their own - 'foreign Sentinelese' areas, if you like, that are no-go areas for 'locals'/'natives', as they call us.   

Go through page three crime news in any newspaper these days.  Nepalese, Bangladeshi and/or African nationals figure prominently in such crimes as drug-dealing, prostitution, petty theft and drunken driving.  

Are those foreign criminals that are caught - if at all - by the police, deported to their country of origin, after they are punished by our legal system?

While law and order problems continue unabated, the other unseen breaking-India force, to quote Rajiv Malhotra, continues its surreptitious accumulation of masses of gullible public into its dragnet.  I am talking about evangelism and religious conversions.  

The Andaman incident is only the tip of the iceberg; one that made it to news reports because of what happened to the missionary.  Unseen, unchecked, unabated, other missionaries carry on in their merry ways all across the mainland - from coastal Andhra and Orissa, to northern Karnataka, to even Punjab.  Indeed, no state is exempt from their proselytizing activities.

What are you doing to check these threats to national security and Sanatana Dharma?  

Cutting off foreign funding to these so-called NGOs was a good move, but it does not seem to be enough anymore.  Declare all conversions illegal.  Put the onus of proving willingness to convert on these NGOs by officially registering and/or restricting their activities.  Send officials/volunteers to remote areas where missionaries are most active, to counter-educate the gullible public as to the futility of conversions.  Even better, improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations, and provide them with good healthcare and education so that they do not have to depend on proselytizing NGOs.  

Kick out visa over-stayers and illegal immigrants.  Come down hard on the passport/Aadhar/voter card procurement racketeers.  Make sure that foreign criminals are compulsorily deported with no chance of return, after they have served out their prison sentences.

For god's sake, do something.  And do it NOW, before it's too late.  

Else, be prepared to deal with race-riots and Sentinel-type direct action even on the mainland.   

Thank you

A concerned 'local'/'native' citizen

******

Update (December 2023): 

An open plea to the relevant proselytizing departments:

Dear missionaries

I have just finished seeing the documentary, The Mission on Disney+ Hotstar India, based on the above incident that involves your fellow missionary.  It delves into the background of the missionary in question, and attempts to explain what motivated him to do what he did.  I am afraid there is no justification for what he did.  The underlying reason remains the same as that for any kind of proselytizing activity as explained in my earlier articles.  

Apart from breaking Indian law in approaching a protected area, he amply demonstrated the amorality involved in evangelical activities by bribing the local fishermen to take him there.  Thereupon he put himself and the tribespeople at risk by contaminating their space by his words, presence and possible infections that they might have no resistance against.  

This just goes to show the extent to which you missionaries have been afflicted by the evangelical bug; you are unable to consider an alternative worldview of mutual respect for other cultures and religions, and a spirit of cooperative coexistence rather than the patronising, condescending, colonizing, bigoted notion of 'my religion is the only true path to emancipation and all others are false' that is drummed into you.   

Contrast this with what Mr Pandit, a Hindu explorer had done in the past (as shown in the documentary): he approached the Sentinelese with respect, and presented them with coconuts which the tribespeople accepted willingly.  Shortly after, when one of them showed him a knife, he took this as a signal to go away, and made a quiet exit.  

Hard pill to swallow, but I can't help highlighting the difference between the two religions: Hinduism does not seek to convert anyone, whereas Christianity does.  Hinduism accepts all religious beliefs as valid paths to the One Eternal Truth that is present in all living beings.  In fact, we Hindus believe that the only conversion that really matters is the one that occurs from within: from egoism to egalitarianism, and from a feeling of separateness to a feeling of oneness of all.  

It was appalling to see in the documentary one of your kind, a friend of the slain missionary, exhort his audience by using his friend's 'martyrdom' as a motivating factor for others to strive harder to spread the gospel.  On the other hand, the program redeemed itself somewhat by including the views of a failed missionary, one who has learnt the hard way the stupidity inherent in the notion of painting all people with one religious colour, and forcing uniformity in the place of respectful diversity.  

Please note that indigenous cultures and Hinduism have existed for thousands of years before book-based religions even entered the world.  In India we have hundreds of saints who have experienced this One Eternal Truth and expounded ways and means of attaining the same to others without seeking to convert them.   

So here's what it comes down to.  We are doing just fine with our culture, tradition, food, attire, lifestyle and religion.  Just leave us alone, if you can.  Practice your faith with enthusiasm, but just don't try to thrust it upon us.  

Thank you

A heathen Hindu

Image sources:

• https://www.businessinsider.com/american-murdered-by-an-isolated-sentinelese-tribe-in-the-indian-ocean-2018-11?IR=T
• Deccan Herald, page 11, 25th November 2018
• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28097834/?ref_=tt_mv_close

Freedom: Is this the India we want?

I am writing this on the morning of 2^nd October.  Gandhiji’s favourite hymns and bhajans are playing in the background.  Later in the day, the film Gandhi will be shown on television, just as it is shown every year this day. 

The day’s newspaper carries the screaming headline: the family of the man who was lynched for eating beef demands CBI probe, and eight families flee the village where he was living.  The irony is inescapable.

Is this the India Gandhiji would have wanted to see?  Is this the India you and I want? 

Over the last few months, there have been several instances of intolerance and superstitious practices that have made headline news.  No doubt, there are regional issues at play in the occurrence of each of these incidents, but taken collectively, they are indicative of the hypocrisy and misplaced sense of importance ascribed to certain matters that we hold dear.

Yes, go-raksha is important, but don’t we also come across several abandoned cows roaming our streets, blocking traffic, sitting in filth, and eating garbage?  If we were genuinely concerned about the animal’s well-being, there would not be a single stray cow in our urban areas. 

Why should the culinary habits of certain communities affect our sentiments so much anyway?  How different is the imposition of beef ban from ‘non-believers’ being forced to refrain from eating in public during the fasting month in middle-eastern countries? 

Besides, why confine your daya to the cow only?  Doesn’t Sanatana Dharma consider every living being to be an aspect of the divine?  Therefore, shouldn’t we be saving all animals; dogs, cows, donkeys, buffaloes, and birds in cages from a life of bondage and abuse?

A prominent weekly magazine recently reported that in a southern state – where animal sacrifice during religious festivals is rampant – there has been a spate of human sacrifices.  At least two individuals – a man and a child – were found murdered with their throats slit, and the paraphernalia of ritual worship were lying all around them. 

In another harrowing incident, this time in another southern state, a mother who went looking for her missing son, was shocked to find his body parts in her neighbour’s house.  The man had enticed the child into entering his house and carried out the deed.  Vigilantes later caught hold of the man and attempted to burn him. 

I can almost visualize the missionary exhorting his gullible audience: “Is this the kind of religion that you want to belong to?  Give up your barbaric faith, you heathen, and repent while you can!  Join the only true path and save your souls!!”

Hold on Mr Missionary.  Let’s look at what your brethren from a northeastern state have been up to.  Members of a certain NGO have apparently taken it upon themselves to “cleanse the society of homosexuals”.  As part of the anti-LGBT drive, volunteers have pledged to go door-to-door to “bring them back” to “proper culture”.  Further, they said, “we believe in God; as per our teachings, homosexuality is a wrongful deed, we want males to be like males and females to be like females.”

Over the last few months, as many as three rationalists have been shot dead, allegedly for publicly airing their opinions.  The fact that dissent and debate have been time-honoured components of free speech in India doesn’t seem to matter anymore.  Or perhaps, this must be a sign of emasculation; if you are unable to counter the rationalist’s view with a sane counter-argument, get rid of the source of the problem itself. 

Why does somebody else’s culture, dietary habits, sexuality and opinions rankle us so much?  Are we so insecure that differences such as these should erode our sense of acceptance, tolerance and peaceful coexistence? 

If our culture, religion and society do not evolve, and instead rigidly hold on to pietistic and deadwood practices, we would be in serious danger of turning into Taliban-land.  Or an ISIS-controlled state.  And that is the last thing we would ever want.  Before it is too late, we need to shun the narrowness, the hypocrisy, the superstition, and the intolerance.

Speaking of hypocrisy, the media should also accord equal importance to misdemeanours committed by adherents of all faiths.  Focusing entirely on the antics of a few fringe elements of the majority religion takes the attention away from the fruitful work that the present government is carrying out, which is so much better than that of the previous ridiculous government.  And the same request goes out to the 'civil' society of India, authors included.

So, to answer the question, this is not the India I want.  I want my religion and country to be free in every sense of the word.  How about you?   




Image sources:

http://www.livemint.com/rf/Image-621x414/LiveMint/Period1/2015/03/04/Photos/bee-kKrH--621x414@LiveMint.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Gay_Pride_Flag.svg/261px-Gay_Pride_Flag.svg.png

Man-made disaster: the virus of conversion strikes again

The 'converters' are at it again.  

On 14th April, Deccan Herald published a report about conversion activity in Bangalore. 

Apparently three neo-converts herded together a group of children aged between 10 and 15, and attempted to brainwash them into accepting the 'only true God'.  It is only when an alert neighbour, Mr Ramanna confronted the owner of the house - who was also a convert - that truth came to the fore. 

The neo-converts apparently told him to mind his own business.  But displaying rare courage, Mr Ramanna lodged a complaint against them at the police station, and the trio were arrested under Section 295A of the IPC (which deals with deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).  

It seems the virus of conversion is very much alive, and spreading faster than H1N1 - not just in rural and deprived areas, but also in urban areas, where newly infected people seem to be the main sources of epidemics.  

Please note that the virus of conversion is also opportunistic in nature.  It strikes mostly when the host population's immunity is at an all time low.  The latest population group that is vulnerable to infection appears to be group of victims of the earthquake in Nepal.  News reports suggest that copies of the much needed holy book have been shipped across to the land locked Himalayan nation.

The fomites and reservoirs of the virus - proselytisers - must be having a field day.  So many infections to carry out, and so little time!   Food and water can surely wait.  Accepting the true path is the need of the hour, you see.  Everything else will magically fall into place after that.  After all, the heathen have to be shown the right path; it is their barbaric faith that is the cause of all this devastation. 

If at all you are concerned about the rapidly spreading epidemic, please at the very least follow the example of Mr Ramanna and use the antidote of Section 295A.  

Or even better, spread awareness about the prevention of the epidemic.  Prevention, after all, is better than cure.  In fact, there doesn't appear to be a cure to this viral infection.

May the breed of public health workers like Mr Ramanna increase!



Image source: http://dekhnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/np1.jpg

Forget IAS, here's IES

IES.  Yes, we have a new civil service establishment in the country - the Indian Evangelical Service.  It comes with the added benefit of civil servants doubling up as priests and proselytizers.

For those of you who are still in the dark, an IAS official, no less, has been proselytizing!  Not just advertising his religion, but, as reports suggest, openly denouncing other faiths in a communally sensitive area.  Apparently, this very same person had gone on record saying that it is "a sign of wrath of God on Hindu sinners" about the Uttarakhand floods.

There was a raging debate on the issue of the IAS official proselytizing last night on the News Hour on Times Now channel.  His defenders were suggesting that there is a constitutional right - Article 25 - that allows one to adhere to, believe in and propagate one's religion.  No doubt, evangelical organisations have taken full advantage of this clause to carry out their clandestine activities.

Further, another guest on the program suggested that if what the IAS official is doing is wrong, then the pooja offered to Hindu Gods in government offices is also wrong.  Two wrongs still do not make a right.  By all means ban religious activities in all public service institutions and organisations.

Then they will still cry foul, because that would mean the end of all Christian schools, colleges and hospitals, where faith is openly propagated and religious symbols and icons are prominently displayed. 

But then again, why wouldn't they propagate?  It is all part of the grand scheme of influencing gullible and vulnerable sections of populations, such as children and the sick people, so that the number of 'believers' increases manifold.

Actually, it already has increased; go to North Karnataka and East Godavari areas and see for yourself.  We are not even talking about Kerala and Tamil Nadu here, where Christianity is said to have had its origin, and, over the years, has established a firm base.

As the numbers increase, we should expect more and more of such proselytizers from prominent walks of life, brazenly advertising their religion and gaining new recruits.  Ghar wapsi, it can be argued, is a flawed response to evangelisation and conversion activities of all sorts.    

Actually, the proselytizers can't help it you see, because it is written.  The church 'rule book' has made it very clear that there is going to be a second coming of the Son of God, and when that happens, all the souls who are true believers would be saved and housed in the Kingdom of God.  Therefore it is incumbent upon every believer to propagate the faith and get more recruits.

On the other hand, if you haven't signed on to the program, well, then that's your grave error, and you will be rotting in hell for eternity.  Really?  Only because you did not believe in a notion?  I thought God was a lot more benevolent than that. 

It is this basic tenet that compels people such as the IAS officer to 'harvest' souls that can be saved from damnation.  Remember also, that merely signing on to the program is not enough.  You have to totally give up on your old practices and faith, and not just that, totally denounce them, abhor them and tear up your scriptures, which are an affront to the 'True God'.  Really?  I thought God was a lot more mature and tolerant than that.

So to fulfil something which has been decreed by the church, which of course, may never come true, proselytizers go out on their mission to create a nation of 'believers'.  

Now which of these tenets and notions are actually secular?  How can we, as citizens of a progressive, emerging, secular democracy, put up with a notion that says 'mine is the only true path, my God is the only real God, yours is demonic, therefore you should join me if you want to save yourself, otherwise you will rot in hell'?  Isn't this kind of thought process that can 'splinter' the country, Mr Obama?

We love Jesus - his life, his work, his example, is worth worshipping and emulating.  But he is not alone, as evangelists would have you believe.  India has been home to multitudes of seers of similar magnitude and spiritual aura.  Besides, Sanatana Dharma has always extolled the validity and equality of all faiths. 

The fundamentalist ideology propagated by evangelists goes against the very foundation of a secular democracy.  Worryingly, the Christian community has not so far denounced the IAS official's opinion or behaviour at all.  Therefore, the only secular alternative that we would be left with - if this continues unabated or spreads to other parts of the country - might just be banning advertising and propagation of all religions.  

In this context, there are three monumental works that clearly elucidate the issues at play, the reasons behind them, and possible solutions.  These are:

• Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dalit Faultlines by Rajiv Malhotra & Aravindan Neelakandan  
• Harvesting our Souls: Missionaries, Their Design, Their Claims by Arun Shourie
• Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan

Breaking India speaks about the funding sources of certain vested interests who are bent upon bifurcating the country.  Harvesting our Souls is a no-holds-barred attack on the lies, manipulations and ulterior motives behind all conversion activities undertaken by missionaries.  It also cleverly quotes from the Bible itself to highlight fundamental and intolerant ideas at play.  Zealot, on the other hand, tells the charming and touching story of the historical Jesus, which has been twisted, glorified and appropriated to suit the evangelical requirements of the early church.

To date, there hasn't been a convincing response to the above works from the defenders of evangelism.  All three, are highly recommended if you are interested in knowing the truth and preserving the secularism and unity of the country.


Image source: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rJxSg4dejsM/0.jpg