Foreign Missionaries, Quit India: RSS
From Our Correspondent
“Foreign missionaries should quit India immediately and Indian Christians should free themselves from the clutches of foreign domination and establish Indian National Church”, said Dr Shripati Shastri, senior RSS functionary and Akhil Bharatiya Sahsampark Pramukh. He was addressing a public gathering recently in the presence of RSS Sarsanghchalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)'s Working President Shri Ashok Singhal.
Dr Shastri said : “It is high time foreign missionaries should go home.” Blaming foreign missionaries for fomenting trouble in India and causing friction between Hindu society and Christian community, which Dr Shastri stated was patriotic and competent enough to take care of its own secular and spiritual needs, he cautioned: “No minority can be safe in any country by constantly irritating the majority community.” Quoting former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Dr Shastri said: “The greatest guarantee of Christian minority lies in having peace and brotherhood with Hindu majority and reminded the Christian community of persecution and victimisation their counterparts suffer in neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia where death sentences are pronounced for blasphemy.
Describing the total domination of foreign-born missionaries over churches in India as “a threat to Indian security,” Dr Shastri claimed that all the charitable and welfare activities like schools, colleges, orphanages, and hospitals run by missionaries were not an indifferent philanthropical activity but were being run with an ulterior motive to create a fertile land for evangelisation.
The senior RSS functionary accused the foreign missionaries and their supporters of being part of a great international conspiracy to defame Indian and Hindu society and brand them as intolerant lot before the international community. An isolated incident in Dang district of Gujarat was published in a planned manner by the Western media to defame the Hindu society, he alleged. Quoting the Home Minister’s report, Dr Shastri claimed that 80 per cent of the foreign funds received in India for various charitable purposes were diverted towards Church activities and were spent in areas where the Christian population was less.
Putting forth the RSS view-point that Hindus are the most liberal and tolerant society, the senior RSS functionary stated that Hindu society has always tolerated and welcomed different faiths with open fold and would have accepted the Christian faith as well. But the Vatican and Christian clergies have refused to accept the basic premise of Hindu thinking that all religions are equal and their orthodox thinking is creating friction in Indian social life, he claimed. Urging the Church not to create friction and strike a discordant note, he stated that it did not fit into our cultural ethos.
Dr Shastri said that the RSS has always accepted voluntary change of faith but the missionaries and the Church were indulging into conversions through dubious means like offering allurements, inducements, and exploiting the poverty of Indian masses.
Warning Hindu society not to undermine and underestimate the serious threat posed by this proselytisation activities of Church, Dr Shastri stated that this was not merely a change of faith involving reading a different scripture or going on a different pilgrimage but was one that would bring a basic change in campaign carried out to weaken Hindu society. He stated that dwindling number of Hindus had always resulted in separation of territory from India and this fact of history should not be forgotten.
Dr Shastri asked the gathering to strive for creating a conducive atmosphere in which ghar vapsi or re-conversion could be held in more numbers.
Elaborating on the concept of Swadeshi Church floated by the RSS Sarsanghchalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan, Dr. Shastri pointed out that while Indian Christians are patriotic, for unknown reasons the foreign domination over churches still continues.
Indian Christians have produced clergies, priests, bishops, archbishops and even cardinals and were managing their affairs quite efficiently. The Bible has been translated into all vernacular languages, the Church has adopted many Indian procedures and it is high time the foreign domination and control over the administration of Indian churches should be thrown once for all, Dr. Shastri opined.
National Church is not a new phenomenon, Dr Shastri said and pointed out that England has its own National Church headed by Archbishop of Canterbury and British Monarch is proud to wear the title of defender of faith.
After the demise of Mother Teresa, Sister Nirmala, who is of Indian origin, is carrying out the work, said Dr Shastri and hoped that Indian Christians could similarly run their own affairs without the guidance of foreign missionaries.
