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Like I already said, if the missionaries are cheating the tribals,
then it should be easy to get them to convert to Hinduism. If the
tribals aren't converting to Hinduism, then something must be wrong
with your theory.
>> In the article, it was made clear that the missionaries were also
>> getting the tribals to give up their bad habits, like tobacco.
>
>No where in the article was it mentioned that missionaries were working
>against bad habits of tribals. For your benefit, I am posting the
>complete article below so that you can read it and verify it for
Not surprisingly, you posted the wrong article. I'll post the real one.
Here's the relevant excerpt:
# It is not that the church is not doing good to their lives. Says
# Keshu: "After I became a Christian, I stopped drinking and chewing
# tambaaku. They [the nuns] talk to us so endearingly that we get a
# feeling that someone is there to care for us... they help us in all
# possible ways."
>After having lived in India for so many years (I presume you have lived
>in India for sometime), surely you should have realized by now that
>social service is least important of all factors in electoral politics.
>More important are the factors of liquor, caste, creed, en block voting
>by Muslims etc. etc.
Ah, yes, it was just a matter of time before you brought in the
Muslims.
Incidentally, look at the article I posted, and you'll see that
help is sometimes _preconditioned_ on the conversion ot Hinduism.
# After much persuasion he says: "Pandurangshastri
# Athavale's followers approached us a couple of weeks ago asking us to
# reconvert. They said they would give us more benefits than what the
# church gave us."
>> allocation among the three events? OK, I'll make it easy - would you
>> care to guess which of the three events received the least attention?
>
>You cannot generalize an issue by picking out isolated examples that
>suppport your claim.
Perhaps, but if this is the same order of importance that other NRI
groups across the country use, then it's not surprising that we're
seeing such sad attempts to portray all this political grandstanding
are pure, unmotivated attempts to save the tribals from the
missionaries.
>> I won't mention Napoleon and Hitler, then.
>
>It is stupid to presume that Napolen and Hitler were guided by religious
>issues or issues that affected German community. And it is even more
>stupid to group them together.
>
>Jingoism and racial hatred towards Jews were the guiding principles of
>Hitler.
Yes, I'm sure that no right-wing group in India relies on jingoism and
racial hatred directed against some religious minority in the country.
Do the words "hook, line, and sinker" mean anything to you?
Anyway, you can read the article yourself. I particularly liked the
author's little whine about "everybody's so mean to Hindutva". If it
weren't for that nonsense, I wouldn't have even mentioned the
right-wing. You seem surprised by all of this, as though you'd never
read the article in question. Again, not too surprising.
I'll leave you to have the last word on this topic. I've made all
the points I feel necessary.
--------------------
#
# Subject: ARTICLE : Church luring Gujarat tribals to Christ
# From: Ashok V Chowgule <ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in>
# Date: 1997/06/03
# Message-Id: <ghenEB6wpu.G79@netcom.com>
# Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
#
#
# Title : Church luring Gujarat tribals to Christ
# Author : Sunil K Poolani in Saputara
# Publication : The Sunday Observer
# Date : May 18-24, 1997
#
# Bhavarsinh Hasusinh Suryavanshi is a king. No buts about it. But his
# subjects respect another king: Jesus Christ.
#
# Suryavanshi, king for the last 13 years, is the 22nd in the line of
# Bhil kings who ruled Linga, a village 28 km from Saputara, in Gujarat.
# He still receives a monthly privy purse of Rs 3,400, and the two
# sipahis appointed by him are paid Rs 1,800 a month by the government.
# Moreover, he has 48 acres of land allotted by the government where he
# grows crops and is the proud owner of a colour television set - so
# what if there is no electricity in the village!
#
# Despite all this, Suryavanshi's life is no better than any of his
# subjects': he moves around on foot unlike his predecessors who
# travelled in a palanquin (a sipahi was seen resting his leg on the.
# "throne" while the king was seat ed), and - gravest of all the ruler
# doesn't have any powers over his subjects, though once in a blue moon
# he holds court in his patio to resolve petty quarrels.
#
# Says he ruefully: "Most of my men [there are about 250 families in his
# village] have ditched me. Notwithstanding my plea, every family,
# except mine, has converted to Christianity. "
#
# Linga's case is not an isolated one. Traipsing through the tribal
# villages of south Gujarat, more incidents of conversion by Christian
# missionaries came to our notice. And we found a slow but steady
# revolution taking place - unreported and unlooked at.
#
# Keshu Pawar and his family in nearby Malegaon hamlet embraced
# Christianity two years ago. What prompted him to do that? "Once when
# I was suffering from fever and headache, a couple of Keralite nuns who
# were on a visit to our village gave me a white powder. I consumed it
# and felt better. They told me it was God's prasad which can cure any
# illness. They, visited us often, held catechism classes, and told us
# about Christ and his supernatural powers. Convinced, we joined them."
#
# Chanduram, Keshu's brother, was next in line. His daughter had some
# "incurable" disease and the nuns took her to their monastery, and two
# weeks later, says Chanduram, "she came back home walking on her feet".
# Seventy-five per cent of the families in the village followed suit.
#
# If a major chunk of the villagers we talked to converted to
# Christianity as the church offered them money and free medicines and
# clothes, some of them were influenced or intimidated by neo-converts.
# Soon church bells started tolling in the village where electricity and
# primary education are unheard of.
#
# It is not that the church is not doing good to their lives. Says
# Keshu: "After I became a Christian, I stopped drinking and chewing
# tambaaku. They [the nuns] talk to us so endearingly that we get a
# feeling that someone is there to care for us... they help us in all
# possible ways." A priest who visits them once a week tells them that
# "bad habits are Hindus' prerogative and those who reconvert to
# Hinduism will fall into the putrefied life again".
#
# Interestingly, Chanduram, who is not as obsessed with Christianity as
# his brother is, admitted that he is seriously thinking of reconverting
# to Hinduism. Why? After much persuasion he says: "Pandurangshastri
# Athavale's followers approached us a couple of weeks ago asking us to
# reconvert. They said they would give us more benefits than what the
# church gave us."
#
# Suryavanshi is optimistic: "My men are lured by cash, kind and help.
# But I'm sure they will reconvert to Hinduism if some Hindu group
# offers the same benefits. Also, the government should chalk out some
# measures to curb this practice . "
#
# Surya Goswami, an artist working in the tribal belt for the last 17
# years and founder member of Gandharapur Artists' Village in Saputara,
# says: "The church uses weird ways to lure tribals - like giving
# powdered Crocin or other tablets for various illnesses, saying it is
# God's gift to mankind. One of their lures is: a Hindu idol in a
# tribal temple will go down under a flood, but not the cross on top of
# a church. Then they ask the tribals: 'How do you expect a god to save
# you if he is not in a position to save himself?'' And the poor,
# illiterate tribals, often failing to find a suitable answer, succumb
# to the church's exhortation."
#
# Says a confused Suresh Gadvi, a neo-convert: "I'm aware that the
# church is now adamant that we shouldn't reconvert, because, as the
# priest keeps telling us, Christ will never pardon us if we do. But
# for us, religion is immaterial - what is important is we should get
# basic amenities. "
#
# Is anyone listening?
#
# I have tried to present the facts. But facts don't matter much in the
# secularist's dim little world. It's much easier to remain ignorant and
# much more popular to jump up and down frothing at the mouth and
# denouncing everything you don't like in your shrillest - but
# oh-so-secular - voice. Especially if you are doing something as PC as
# tongue-lashing Hindutva. Facts can be mortifying, so cowards just
# ignore them. Courage lies in facing up to charges, examining them
# critically, and swimming against the PC stream if needs be. No
# religion in the world is perfect. Pretending that ours is won't serve
# any purpose but it's the only religion we have, and it's a darn good
# one, at that.
#
# Bethany says, "The Church cannot afford to wait until caste is not an
# issue in India, as that day will probably not arrive until Jesus
# returns. If the Church thinks India can reform the caste system by
# itself, perhaps millions of souls will perish while the Church waits
# for the unbelievers to do in the strength of their flesh what has been
# hard to accomplish in the Spirit". Can't "afford to wait"...?
# Hmmm.... If I was in the crowd when Jesus asked the people who have
# never sinned to cast the first stone, I'd have chucked a boulder -
# provided it was a secularist in place of the woman: After all, Mary
# Magdalene prostituted only her own body.
#
# --
# -------------------------------------------------------------------
# Mail posts to: ghen@netcom.com : http://www.hindunet.org/srh_home/
#
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