Quoted below is a question posed in a semester examination to students of M.S. (Communication) of a reputed educational institution, a deemed university in fact, under the subject paper ‘Political Communication’, about a month back:
Author: T R Jawahar
There was one group of people whom both Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi were sure could never be converted: The women of India. And there was one group that the western sponsors of conversions deemed vital for the capture of India for Christianity: women again.
Welcome to the ‘casteless’ egalitarian world of Christianity. Or at least, that is what the board outside Evangelists Inc claims. Then what do the above advertisements that routinely appear in very secular newspapers point to? Well, they reveal what really one confronts behind the facade, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but unfortunately kept captive by an army of lies.
Contextualisation. Synthesis. Adaptation. Indigenisation. Localisation. What an impressive array of innocent terminology to couch what should actually be described as ‘impersonation’! Christianity in India is no longer the ‘phoren’ European stuff that would raise the hackles of potential converts who are averse to changing their practices that a change of faith would automatically entail. Not anymore.
Why a temple in Ayodhya when there are so many temples rotting all over the country and again when we are confronted by several more pressing problems? This is a common refrain of the media, intellectuals and also much of the indifferent middle-class. Are the people aware of the number of churches that are being raised all over the country in a frighteningly frantic pace?
Societal inequalities and economic deprivation are evils that haunt all people, irrespective of their religion. It is a misnomer to imagine that religion can addressthese issues and it needs real courage to admit this. Particularly so when the missionaries are looking for just this confession so that they can make their entry with doles and false promises.
If the secular Indian, who is invariably a Hindu, was to believe that the missionary zeal of Christianity, particularly in India, has been diminished by the advent of technology and the preponderance of money in modern life, he is in for a suicidal surprise.
Whatever he might imagine himself to be, Karunanidhi remains a Hindu by religion.There is no news of he converting till date, though one got the impression, going by his robed companions on stage and the venom he spat on Hinduism
It is heartening to know that secularism can fire both ways. If not handled with care, it can blow up in the face of even its expert proponents, like a bomb in the making. Of course, such occasions are rare in this very ?tolerant’ country, given the one-sided secular-sermons that the people are customarily and consistently subjected to, but a wonder has indeed happened.