AN APPEAL TO INDIAN CHRISTIANS

LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN…. An appeal to Indian Christian conscience

By P.N.Benjamin

 Christians in India are unique: not only did the first Christian community in the world establish itself in India – the Syrian Christians of Kerala in the 1st century AD – but before the arrival of the Jesuits with Vasco de Gama in the 16th century, they developed an extraordinary religious pluralism, adopting some of the local customs, while retaining their faith in Christ and accepting the existence of other religious practices. It should also be said that Christians are amongst the most educated Indians and even though they constitute only less than 3% of the population, they wield an enormous influence in India through education mainly, as many of India’s top educational institutions are managed by Christians and also because of the quality care in Christian hospitals and nursing homes. Finally, Indian Christians are often gentle, soft-spoken, friendly and God-fearing. Very often Christians in India have to depend not so much on their rights as on the goodwill and generosity of the powerful majority Hindu community. Christians in India are dependent in a double sense, on the goodwill of the Hindus and on the Churches in the West whose fellowship sustains them and whose affluence often supports them. Judging from numbers there is hardly any equality in relationship. But Christians in India can play a creative and critical role in the life of our nation. What matters most is the quality of their life as Christians and the courage of their faith. In a religiously plural India the mission of the Church is not to make other people Christian but to invite people to enter the Kingdom of God. If the Christian churches recongnise that real conversion is not from one religion to another but from unbelief to God, and that “mission” is not the Church’s work but God’s, then the implications of this in the context of religious pluralism must be more openly acknowledged. The Kingdom is present wherever people are being transformed by Jesus Christ, showing ‘the marks of love and self-sacrifice in their commitment of human liberation’, even if for many in countries such as India, such transformation does not lead to baptised membership of the institutional Church. “Christ’s call to conversion as a turning towards God stands; what it need not imply is conversion to Christianity” The Commission to preach the gospel is usually quoted by all Christian groups. But, they conveniently ignore the fact that there are other very important elements in the teachings of Christ. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust do corrupt but lay up your treasures in heaven…You cannot serve God and Mammon. Forgive your brother not seven times but seventy times seven…Love one another as I have loved you…” Such teachings should have led to the formation of a distinctive lifestyle based on simplicity and integrity and total non-acquisitiveness. But, we do not find Christians any different from others. They go to law over property disputes. They sell their sons and daughters for specific sums of money in the marriage market. They accept bribes and play the game of money and power, as assiduously as anyone else. Unless Christians in this country share the sufferings of the people they have no word of the gospel to them, whatever true things they might say. Revival songs they sing, long prayers they pray and long sermons they preach amount to lip religion and at the same time they swallow widow’s houses. This is how Jesus Christ characterises hypocrisy. This is an old phenomenon where integrity of life and the truth of words don’t conform to one another. Life does not confirm the words that Christians speak. If Christians as a community took the teachings of Christ seriously, then they would be justified in preaching. To preach what they do not practise is to put the cart before the horse. “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.” Raimon Panikkar averred that “if the Church wishes to live, it should not be afraid of assimilating elements that come from other religious traditions, whose existence it can today no longer ignore”. Almost in the same vein, a brilliant Danish Professor, Dr. Kaaj Baago, in the United Theological College, Bangalore, made history when he said in the 1960s: “Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists should never give up their religion to join the Christian Church”. On the other hand the Church should humble itself and find ways of identifying itself with other groups, taking Christ with them. Christ, he said, was not the chairman of the Christian party. If God is the Lord of the universe he will work through every culture and religion. We must give up the crusading spirit of the colonial era and stop singing weird hymns like “Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war”. This will lead to Hindu Christianity or Buddhist Christianity. It must involve the disappearance of the Indian Christian community, but he reminded us: “a grain of wheat remains a solitary grain unless it falls to the ground and dies”. Needless to say, the Indian Christians were furious. He left the College, the Church and the mission and took refuge with the Danish Foreign Service!! He later returned to India as his country’s Ambassador and died in harness in 1988. P.N.BENJAMIN Founder & Coordinator Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue

RESPONSE TO USCIRF’S REPORT ON KARNATAKA

 

USCIRF REPORT 2010 ON INDIA’S KARNATAKA STATE: A REBUTTAL

 

By

 

P.N.BENJAMIN*

 

Chairman and Coordinator

 

Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD)

 

www.birdindia.org, e-mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com

Member, Karnataka State Minorities Commission

 

Freelance Journalist

 

 

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) annually issues its report on the status of religious freedom in other countries. However, it does not have a fair representation of religious leaders from non-Abrahamic religions on its policy making bodies. Among its nine Commissioners there is not a single one to represent faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other Eastern religions. Yet, the Commission feels that it is qualified to pass judgments on the extent of religious freedoms in countries like India where Hindus constitute nearly 81 percent of the country’s population, and where the Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh faiths were founded. It is in the context of the 2010 USCIRF report on India, and the criticisms made in that report that the following rebuttal is presented.

As a freelance journalist I have contributed feature articles to English-language newspapers and magazines for more than three decades. Like most of those who have to regularly write for newspapers and need factual information, I diligently file press clippings so that I don’t slip up on accuracy.

I am the founder and coordinator of the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD), promoting pluralism, tolerance and understanding for a society and a world free of all prejudices. It provides a platform for addressing issues which are causes for religious/communal tension/resentment by inviting people of all faiths to share through it the richness of their various religious traditions and experiences.

In addition, I am at present a member of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission, representing the Christian community in the State. As a member of the Commission I have visited several places where alleged attacks against Christians took place and interacted with people belonging to different faiths and also government officials to find out the facts behind attacks.

As far back as 2002, I was part of the RSS-BIRD fact finding team that enquired into the attack on the Holy Family Church at Hinkal in Mysore. And I wrote the report which is available on the internet. In the same manner, I was a member of another fact-finding team that exposed the political conspiracy behind the Mangalore incidents of violence against Christians in 2008.

So, I have the first hand information about several of the alleged attacks against Christians Karnataka. I can thus confidently say that

the incidents of violence against Christians in Karnataka have been few and far between. However, all of these incidents have been blown out of proportion and internationalised by a handful of leaders from the Christian community and by unscrupulous politicians. They are using ordinary Christians as pawns for their narrow selfish ends.

Incidents in Karnataka: What really Happened

The latest (2010) report of the USCIRF on the Indian state of Karnataka is a classic example of how naively and unthinkingly US government agencies swallow the baseless propaganda against Hindu organisations. Interestingly, the report begins with the now forgotten 2008 Mangalore riots and goes on to refer to a few insignificant incidents of violence against Christians allegedly perpetrated by “Hindu extremists” until March this year in Karnataka.

It says: “Attacks in Karnataka state continued during the 2009-10 reporting period against Christians and church properties. For instance, in February 2010 Hindu extremists reportedly beat two Christian pastors unconscious after literally dragging them from their church compound. In March 2010, a pastor was assaulted during a prayer service when reportedly 15 Hindu extremists forced themselves into the meeting. In neither case did authorities bring charges against the attackers. However, in recent months, police in Karnataka have detained several pastors and held them overnight on charges of ‘forcible’ conversions.　In March 2010, about 30 Hindu extremists reportedly forcibly entered the private home of a Christian family and accused the pastor of ’forceful’ conversions. Police arrested the pastor based on these allegations, while no action was taken against the intruders”.

Mangalore Violence

First things first. As the USCIRF report refers to the violence in Mangalore in 2008. I wish to go into some details I have gathered as a member of fact-finding team sent by “Citizens for Harmony,” a Bangalore-based voluntary organization. The team consisted of Mr. Y R Patil (retired Inspector General of Police) and Director of Academy of Career Counseling and Coaching, Bangalore, Mrs. Vijayalakshmi, (Social worker and Creative Director, Varnila Designs, Bangalore) and P N Benjamin (founder and coordinator, Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue – BIRD.

The team visited Mangalore and Udupi on September 30 and October 1 respectively, and received several complaints and representations from Hindu and Christian organizations and from individuals who did not represent any institutions. Nearly 200 affected persons deposed before the team and submitted memorandums with documentary evidences at the open hearings held at Circuit House, Mangalore and Travelers Bungalow at Udupi. The team also visited most of the trouble spots and sought to know from the local communities, their responses to the incidents of violence. Following are excerpts from the report of the fact-finding team submitted to the Chief Minister of Karnataka in November 2008..

Excerpts from the Report

The places of worship which were attacked in Mangalore and surrounding areas included the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration Monastery (Mangalore), Christ Church at Kodikal near Mangalore, Believers Church of India at Puttur, Mahima Prathanalaya and Indian Pentecostal both at Madanthyar and Bethesda Aradanalaya at Sullia. In Chikumagalur, miscreants attacked Yavana Swami church at Magodu village, and Time and Paul Gospel Harvest prayer hall at Koppa. In　Udupi district, New Life prayer hall located behind KSRTC bus stand was attacked apart from two other prayer halls at Shiroor and Kollur.

According to depositions before the team, a large number of Hindus and organizations were highly critical of the many Christian groups that have been indulging in aggressive evangelization and conversion activities in recent years in Mangalore and surrounding districts. They denigrate Hindu gods and their rituals in their attempt to get new converts from Hindu community. These activities made a section of the Hindu community ‘very angry’, but they had internalised it for long. But the killing of the Swami in Kandhamal and the Christian leaders’ call for protest closure of schools triggered the sudden eruption of violence in Dakshina Karnataka, especially in Mangalore and Udupi,　on September 14 and 15.

It has been brought to the notice of the team that the Christian evangelists and missionaries have been targeting the poor and illiterate extensively as also the youth. Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes like Kudubis, Vishwakarmas and Lingayats are some who have fallen prey. Their modus operandi is to visit poor Hindu houses without their permission and distribute Christian tracts and literature. They seek those who are mentally and financially weak and induce them to give up their Hindu way of life and join the Christian religion with promises of moral and financial support on conversion to Christianity. The team also was told that here is a drastic increase in recent times in aggressive faith marketing strategies followed by the Christian groups in this region, which has caused this anger and resentment against Christians.

Encroachment of private and public property

There have been instances of Christian groups encroaching upon public and private properties in Mangalore. Two specific cases in point are: The Nagavana, at Shanthinagar, is a place of worship for the Kudubi tribes for centuries. The property has been encroached upon by the International Jesus Christ Church in India. A large church complex and living quarters have been built on this land by desecrating the sanctity of the Nagavana and also preventing the Kudubis from their worship at their sanctified shrine. It has led to much emotional trauma to the tribals of incomplete rituals. There has been a continuing protest by the Kudubi community but of no avail.

The same Church also causes much disturbance to the entire neighborhood with its week-end events that include loud music and dancing through the night shattering the peace and tranquility of the entire area. The leaders of the Kudubis have expressed their anger and disgust, displeasure and resentment, against the presence of this Christian group several times in the past to the civic authorities and have also legally proceeded against them in the civil court.

The founder of this church is Pastor Mani David Joseph and the present pastor is Immanuel Santosh Kumar.

Pachinady Kurchugudde

This is a hillock belonging to the government. A couple of years ago, the Catholic Church authorities encroached on it and erected several crosses all around its boundaries. They also built a statue of the Crucified Jesus Christ and a house-like structure. The Mangalore Bishop inaugurated it on January 20, 2007.

The Mangalore Municipal Corporation has illegally allotted a number to the structure thus giving it a semblance of legal sanction, and creating an impression among the local people that the land and the structures are owned by the Catholic diocese.

The local residents who met the team at the site asserted that this particular property belongs to the government. They wanted to know how the Municipality had allowed the Christians to erect the structures, a statue of Crucified Jesus Christ and several concrete crosses on the said government land.

Some activists of Hindu organizations have, in the aftermath of Mangalore incidents, hoisted several flags on this land in protest against the illegal occupation of the hillock by the Catholic Church. Incidents such as these have led to growing anger, heartburn and tension amongst Hindus against Christians.

Incidents at Holy Cross Church: A Case Study

On September 14 and 15, church bells continuously tolled in all the Catholic
Churches of Mangalore signaling to the faithful that the churches were in imminent threat of destruction. Consequently, at the Holy Cross Church compound in Kulashekar, about 800 Parishioners gathered within a few minutes. In addition, many people who had attended the first Mass were holed up inside the Church. All the gates to the church premises and school building adjacent to the church were locked from within. The school was closed inspite of a government directive not to close schools.

Some miscreants from among the crowd inside the Church compound snatched away the wireless set from an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI). They were asked to return it and the priest was unable to convince the youngsters to do so saying that he was recently transferred to the church and did not know anyone of them personally and therefore helpless.

The police surrounded the compound from outside because all the gates were locked. Police Inspector Ganapathy repeatedly asked the miscreants on the megaphone to voluntarily come out and surrender the police wireless set. He also requested the crowd to disperse as it was against the curfew orders that had been clamped to congregate in public.

The negotiations went on for almost five hours until the Superintendent of Police (Mangalore) Satheesh Kumar arrived on the scene. The situation was getting out of control. Sensing the seriousness of the situation, he entered the compound wearing a helmet supplied by a constable and broke open the gates with the help of about 50 constables.

As they moved in, they were attacked with stones and bricks from the top of the school. The photographs of youngsters – face covered with duppatas/clothes given to them by girls/women — throwing stones and roof tiles from the third and fourth floors of the school in the Church compound, are seen in the unedited videos in the possession of the fact-finding team. This was handed over to them by an amateur free-lance videographer.

When the miscreants started attacking the police, the SP had no other option but to order a lathi-charge and ultimately burst teargas shells. In the melee, several policemen were injured and a woman constable suffered serious head injuries. A Tata Sumo belonging to the Deputy Superintendent of Police was also destroyed by the miscreants.

　

　

　

Church using doctored tapes to spread hatred

It has come to the notice of the fact-finding team that the Church authorities have been circulating doctored video clips of the events that day in the church.　 Fr. Frances Vincent of Holy Cross Church showed us the tampered video to prove that the police action against the church members, said to be numbering about 800, was brutal, inhuman and heartless. He also emphatically claimed that the police “brutality” was without provocation on September 15, and in violation of all canons of human rights.

The video clips in the possession of the Church were supplied by the same source that gave the fact finding team the unedited version of the video pictures. It is shocking that the video tapes in the possession of the fact finding team show pictures of mounds of stones, sticks and bottles stored inside the Holy Cross church. There is no explanation forthcoming from the Church as to why those materials were stored inside the church. Circulation of such doctored tapes by the church authorities has been further stoking the flames of ill-will against the police and the Hindus at large.

Police Action

Seventy-two cases of arson were registered in Mangalore and two in Udupi. Sixty-seven policemen suffered injuries when Christians attacked the police. Twenty-six Christians and 17 Hindus were injured in police lathi-charge. The police conducted more than a mild-lathi-charge. However, it is fair to suggest that the police were also at their wit’s end having seen some of their injured colleagues and did not want to take any chance, especially when they did not have any wherewithal to judge the armed nature of the miscreants.

Findings of fact-finding team

All the incidents of violence that came to the notice of the team were directed against what is known as independent churches, house churches, Christian fellowships and associations belonging to New Life, Pentecostal, Assemblies of Gods, etc. All of them are independent of the mainstream Christian churches in India.

The Catholic Churches were targeted because of mistaken identity. The majority of Hindus cannot distinguish between the mainline churches and the independent churches. On 14th September some miscreants damaged and desecrated the idol of Jesus Christ at the Perpetual Adoration Chapel of the Monastery of the Poor Clares in the premises of Milagres Catholic church in Mangalore. The VHP and Bajrang Dal have condemned the desecration of Jesus Christ’s idol in the chapel. They have also clarified that they are not against the Catholic Church.

To the pointed questions to those who deposed before the fact-finding team as to why the miscreants turned their ire against the Catholic Church the answer was simple and straightforward: “How can we – the Hindus – distinguish between Catholic Christians and evangelicals? All denominations of Christianity are one and the same in the eyes of Hindus and we need not know the differences within the Christian community.”

The sordid events in Mangalore and elsewhere are the obvious result of unethical religious conversions and the denigration of Hindu practices and symbols by evangelists that polarize families and communities and aggravate long standing social conflicts as well.

The USCIRF has conveniently ignored the above report as well as the following news report: that appeared in Times of India of October 8, 2008 quoting Intelligence Bureau sources that the provocative activities of the New Life Christian church were a major source of disquiet in Karnataka and other states…The New Life movement has been accused of brazenly indulging in conversions in Karnataka and other states. In fact, the Catholic hierarchy is itself concerned about the activities of New Life movement which is allegedly taking many faithful members away from the mainstream Church. Its publications, “Satya Darshini”, for instance, are seen by many as having painted Hindu gods and goddesses in extremely poor light”

Incidents in other places in Karnataka: 2009-2010

As a member of the State minorities Commission, I have visited the following places and gathered information about the alleged violent incidents reported from there during this period.

Hebbagodi attack: Infighting, the Real Cause

St. Francis De Sales church at Hebbagodi, on the outskirts of Banglaore, was attacked in the second week of September 2009. Five persons were taken into police custody in connection with the attack. It was later confirmed that the incident was an effect of the infighting and confusion between different factions in the church, mainly the Syrian and Latin Catholic groups. Many were sore with the authorities after they were forced to vacate the quarters in the rear of the church compound, where they were living for decades.

Meanwhile, a section of believers had protested against the prayers being held in different languages and also vented ire over the celebration of Onam inside the church. In addition, another section was fuming after the priests failed to give permission to bury a parishioner, Peter, who had died three months before.
St. Antony’s church in Bangalore: The motive was obviously theft

Miscreants broke open St. Antony’s church in Kavalbyrasandra in near Bangalore on November 7, 2008. The miscreants had probably broken open the doors of the newly built church past midnight. The main door was forcibly opened and the miscreants had obviously tried to steal the gold-plated chalice and two ciboriums kept in the tabernacle and also in the sacristy for keeping the Blessed Sacrament. The tabernacle was broken open and the communion elements were thrown out and sprinkled all over. (Deccan Herald, November 8, 2008)

Four persons including three juveniles were arrested for allegedly breaking into the St. Anthony’s Church in Kavalbyrasandra on November 11. The accused had destroyed the Holy Communion and escaped with valuables. They were drug addicts and had cases against them. The three juveniles were all 16 years old, and the fourth accused, Nauphal, is 20. On November 11 at about 2 a.m., they used iron rods to break the church door and emptied five offering boxes.

Later, they desecrated the church, broke the Holy Tabernacle, and got away with two gold-plated bowls, old iron pieces and also the crown of Christ, the police added. The accused then sold these articles in a scrap shop belonging to Alkatti Mazhar and Alkatti Wazeer at Lingrajpuram. The stolen articles were later dispersed in the Sunday bazaar. (New Indian Express, December 14, 2009)

Humnabad church attack

　 　 　 　 　
The ‘attack’ on a church in Humnabad town in November 2009 embarrassed the district administration and the police and caused quite a stir among the Christians who wanted the Government to take immediate action against those responsible for the attack. Furniture, electrical fittings in the main prayer hall, and the cross on the dome of the church were damaged.

But, according to The Hindu, December 18, 2009, police investigations revealed that the previous pastor of the church – Vasant — had hired three goons, all belonging to the same locality, to attack and vandalise the church on November 17, 2009. Vasant was the pastor of the church till June 2009 before his transfer to a church at Basantpur in Chincholi taluk in Gulbarga district. He had conspired to damage the church with the hope that the church authorities would cancel his transfer and keep him in Humnabad.

Whipping up hatred against Hindus

Spreading hatred has become a pastime for several Christian leaders. For example, a retired judge of Karnataka High Court, M.F. Saldanha, has recently claimed that there were

1,000 attacks against Christians in Karnataka. Compass e-magazine, August 16, 2010, repeats that false claim stating that “Christians in Karnataka State are under an unprecedented wave of Christian persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in the last 500 days, according to an independent investigation by a former judge of the Karnataka High Court”. But, the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has recorded only 72 attacks on Christians in 2009. That represents a decline from 112 attacks the previous year.
　
It proves that Justice Saldanha’s allegation that there were 1,000 attacks against Christians in Karnataka during the last 500 days is utterly false and outrageous, and the reality easily verifiable. Asked for the details of the attacks, Justice Saldanha failed to provide me with the list of names of churches and even dates of attacks. The allegation reflects his shocking ignorance about the real religious situation in Karnataka.
　

Reasons for Attacks

The reasons for the attacks against certain Christian groups are not difficult to ascertain. Simply put, they are a reaction to the “aggressive faith marketing,” propaganda, and mindless evangelism and conversions through foul and unethical means indulged in by Christian missionaries who denigrate and make fun of Hindu gods and abuse Hindu rituals as barbaric.

Father Adolf Washington of the Archdiocese of Bangalore has said: “There are several groups of people doing the rounds in Bangalore adopting persuasive techniques not just to convert people but also to spread animosity against mainstream Christian denominations.　　They hurl invectives against the teachings of Christian denominations and even induce people to tender a written ‘resignation’ to the pastor or priest. Since some of these groups do not even accept the divinity of Christ, in effect, their conversion should not be understood as conversion to Christianity but to their organisation.　Mainstream Christian denominations do not go on a conversion spree, only splinter groups and cultic groups do so probably for some self-gain.”　

The Indian subcontinent has become the principal target for a wide range of western Christian missions which are determined to spread the gospel to India’s “unreached” people. There is little doubt that the current communal tension in India would not be serious if foreign-funded missionaries had been content with giving Indians the choice of Christianity and left it at that.

Christians under siege

Christians are a tiny minority in India. But their attitudes often elicit counter-reaction from among militant Hindus who sometimes incite violence against Christians. Many preachers of the Christian Gospel rattle off verses from the Bible to preach hellfire and damnation to those who do not agree with their interpretations of the contents of the Bible. They lay enticing traps for people whom they think must be “saved” at all costs.　One hopes that the fanatics among the Christian faith will soon realize that theirs is a losing battle even if they derive their financial and other means of support from the wealthy nations overseas.

Animosity against Christians is a reaction to the aggressive propaganda and mindless evangelism of thousands of foreign-funded, cultic, fundamentalist, fanatic, and revivalist Christian groups working in India. They denigrate Hindu gods and abuse Hindu rituals as barbaric. They are the root cause of tension between Christian and Hindu communities. Invariably, incidents of violence against Christians are always bloated out of proportion and internationalized. Why should anybody be surprised if the “extremists” among Hindus are offended and react violently? It is urgent that leaders of the established mainline churches, known for their erudition, equipoise, and empathy came out in the open and disowned such provocative acts of intolerance of the fundamentalist Christian groups masquerading as real Christians.

Terms such as “evangelistic campaign,” “missionary strategy,” “campus crusade,” “occupying non-Christian areas,” a “blitzkrieg” of missionaries, and sending “reinforcements” sound more appropriate to military enterprises than to Christian witness to God’s redeeming love in Jesus Christ. The statistical approach implied in the words “the unreached millions” is derogatory to neighbours of other faiths. “Unreached” by whom? When Indian Christians themselves use these phrases, which have originated outside the country, to describe their neighbours living next door to them in the community, Christians should not be surprised if the neighbours are offended, as Dr. Stanley Samartha mentioned in his famous book, “Courage for Dialogue”.

The real source of danger to the Indian Christian community is not the handful of Hindu extremists but the self-styled saviours of Christianity who assert that they alone are the holders of valid visas to heaven and paradise.

The tragedy is that those who claim to be spokesmen and defenders of the Indian Christian community spread distress and division, and fan the flames of hatred against peace-loving Hindu community. To all appearances, these Christian leaders enjoy the grace and favour of the Congress Party-led Government of India. This encouragement helps the growth of powerful elements of separatism and disunity in the country.

It is unfortunate that there are not many Indian Christian leaders who can light a candle amidst the encircling gloom spread by religious proselytizers of both fundamental Christianity and Jihadi Islam. What Indian Christians today have unfortunately are leaders like John Dayal, and Joseph D’souza, who are bank-rolled by US and other western funding agencies.

Yes, no civil society should condone violence. But mere condemnation is not a method to avert the repetition of violence. We have to find out if the violence is deliberate and unprovoked, or due to provocation. If it is the former, then there is one set of solutions, which mostly involves applying the law and severely punishing the perpetrators of the violence. However, if there is provocation, then we have to study the issue in greater detail. We have to understand why there has been a provocation for the violence, and who are the persons or organisations behind the provocation.

It is high time that the USICRF made an earnest attempt to appreciate this basic fact. That would be true humility if that is indeed possible for them to manifest.

The USCIRF should apologize for its irresponsible and unsubstantiated comments; it should also check and re-check facts before deciding to disparage Hindu “extremists” in its reports. When greater inter-religious understanding and mutual respect is the need of the hour, leveling wild accusations that do not have any foundation is dangerous gamesmanship.

Finally, Hindu “fundamentalism” is a reaction to the provocations of Christian proselytizers. Under attack, Hindus have partly woken up to the need for self-protection and self-preservation. When they attack such Christian proselytizers they generate much criticism, especially from organizations like USCIRF and from the media world-wide.

People like me, who have access to the media, know that all such propaganda is being peddled in the name of a bogey man called Sangh Parivar. If one is honest in one’s analysis, it is not the Sangh Parivar but certainly the actions of Christian proselytizers and jihadi Muslims who challenge the religious sensitivities of the Hindu majority in the State.

The Sangh Parivar bogey man will disappear if the mainline Churches in India come out openly and affirm that they are taking a solemn pledge in the name of Jesus to abide by the admonition of Jesus not to go miles to make a proselyte. If they can do that, the so-called Sangh Parivar will disappear.

.
P.N.BENJAMIN　

Church in India

CHURCH IN INDIA
I strongly believe that the Church need not too much worry about outside harassment, but should worry about the internal cancer it carries within its body. I have moved away from direct involvement and am leading a quiet life. Christians in India will never be protected by international supporters, they are being protected by the majority Hindus and we should be thankful to God for the majority of Hindus who are very tolerant and open in spite of the aggressive posture of Christians. The Uniqueness of Christ is in that God revealed in Christ the open, selfless, liberal personality of God. How unfortunate it is that even some well meaning Christians become so arrogant, self righteous and even give themselves to hate in the name of Christ who came to show a new way of LOVE. I wish the Christian brothers and sisters would engage in serious reflections and identify the causes for the growing antagonism of people of other faiths.

P.N.BENJAMIN

28/03/2009

Thoughts on International Women’s Day 2009

ARE WOMEN CHILDREN OF LESSER GODS?

P.N.BENJAMIN

Whither Indian women on this International Women’s Day? A question well worth asking.

Today Indian women have to choose between a lifetime of abject slavery at home and warding off mandatory passes at the work place, where they are rarely treated as equals. In many less than literate sectors of our society, they are treated as children of a lesser god to be burnt alive as young bride, for not brining adequate dowry. If she survives all this, and the ignominy of being forever treated as a receptacle for male lust, often forced into whoring or raped by her near ones too.
Hundreds of cases of rape and dowry murders are reported from different parts of country every day. Domestic violence is not even reported: husbands who physically ill-treat their wives do so with utter impunity because neither the police nor the public will interfere in a ‘private matter’. Women are hunted down and murdered by mobs because they are branded witches. Girl children are kidnapped from their homes or sold to pimps and forced into prostitution.

New born girl babies are abandoned and left to die – sometimes drowned or given poison by their own parents who perceive a daughter as an economic burden. They are often not even allowed to be born – sophisticated scientific tests have been misused to detect sex of the foetus and an abortion follows promptly if the test reveals the sex to be female. In short, it is indisputable women are increasingly being subjected to greater violence and aggression, both physical and mental.

Crimes against women are increasing at an alarming rate in our country. Yet, for some strange reason, we have reduced them to statistics. Cold, brutal statistics that pile up in the morgues of government offices, welfare homes, small town courts and prisons, confirming our suspicion that the single largest minority in this country is being viciously battered into submission

What perverse instincts impel such acts of aggression? And why do they go unpunished? No one can argue that these issues have not received their share of publicity today. In the print-media there are women’s pages and carry articles and reports on contentious women’s issues and even special supplements. Television boasts of woman’s programmes. The other powerful medium – advertising – has always been over-eager to use women in ways women would rather not be used. Even politicians, who have often forgotten that women form any part of their electorate have bestirred themselves and, with unaccustomed activity, have launched a flurry of legislation ostensibly aimed at helping and protecting women.

With all the seemingly positive changes in the society women have become the targets of increasing violence. Why, despite the stringent laws against dowry, have dowry deaths registered a sharp increase? Why have the ‘official’ figures of reported rapes doubled in the last decade and the rate of conviction been so low? Why are there so many child prostitutes in big cities? Why is the right to live denied to a girl child in some communities and why are women still the most chronically undernourished sections of the population? And, finally, why do the shocking statistics and daily reports about the deteriorating condition not create the kind of national uproar that the antics of film-star-politicians and other leaders do?

Crime is endemic to the human condition, but a crime specifically directed at one sex is most despicable and, unfortunately, the one that is punished least. Because, despite all the hype and hyperbole, the protective laws and action plans, the seminars and speeches, the basic patriarchal structures and attitudes have undergone very little change. The majority of women are still second class citizens, their worth measured purely in economic terms: how much work they can do inside and outside the home, how many male children they can bear, how much dowry they will bring.

The media exposure and all the legislation thus have little impact. Besides, they are themselves contradictory and often betray their own biases. Print and electronic media may carry reports castigating police connivance in a rape case or highlight a dowry death, but at the same time will carry/telecast advertisements, photo-features and illustrations that exploit women’s bodies, and perpetuate sexist images of women and flippant headings that belittle important issues. The media’s understanding of the issues involved is so confused and half-baked.

Legislative enactments by government have so far been mere tokenism. Another factor that blunts the edge of any attempt to give women a better deal is that women’s issues are often politicised.

Whatever positive changes taken place so far on the women’s front are due to the hard work, dedication and commitment, of thousands of ordinary men and women and unheard of groups, braving the scorching heat and heavy rains, sacrificing the comfort and many allurements of the consumerist society, in the cause of millions of dispossessed women in the remote villages and hilly regions of this vast land of ours. They give us reasons for hope. They are building a new India. The saga of such endeavours is hardly publicised by the media addicted to the burlesque of the women who are holding up their dirty pink panties publicly.

However, waiting for the real changes to occur for women in India is rather like waiting for Godot.

P.N.BENJAMIN

Whither Indian media?

COLLAPSE OF MORAL STANDARDS IN MEDIA By P.N.BENJAMIN THE FOURTH Estate ranks first in shaping public opinion when society is politically literate and socially sensitive even in this information age and knowledge era. We have not yet fully realized the profound importance to our democracy of an educative, objective newspaper, which publishes promptly and marshals information without fear and favour, affection and ill will. Journalistic independence, intelligence, investigative ability and probity are integral to the greatness of the Press. Unfortunately, the massive outcry on the recent spate of vigilante attacks by alleged Hindu groups against young women and pub-hoppers in Mangalore raises doubts about the quality and integrity of Indian journalism. The media makes instant heroes and villains. It can be brutal, callous and utterly casual in doing so. Sensationalism sells. Serious issues can be trivialized in crisp but meaningless sound bytes and photo opportunities or in the manner of their display and editing. This makes it that much more important to insist on and uphold media values professionally and socially. Distorted mirrors can warp society. From being a marketplace of ideas, these newspapers are marketed more than edited – commodification of news, sensation, trivia, and gossip. Often there has been less depth, inadequate follow-up and a certain arrogance of power manifest in disdain for correction. John Pilger (Hidden Agenda) writes: “I have become convinced that it is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers, without understanding the hidden agenda of the message and the myths that surround it. High on the lists is the myth that we now live in an “information age” – when, in fact, we live in a media age, in which the available information is repetitive, ‘safe’ and limited by invisible boundaries. In the day-to-day media, much of this is the propaganda of Western power, whose narcissism, dissembling language and omissions often prevent us from understanding the meaning of contemporary events. ‘Globalization’ is a prime example. This smokescreen extends to journalists themselves. Jack Anderson, wary of the collapse of moral standards in the media observes that they have become the lap dogs of government (and also powerful persons in the private institutions) instead of watchdogs over them. They wag their tails and seek approval instead of growling at the abuses of power. The reporters who go along with the powerful, and act as explainers and apologists for those who violate the public trust, must be considered accessories to the pillage. Like the politician and special seekers, these men sell a little of themselves each day; and the chumminess between the power structure and the Press apparatus robs the reports of integrity. In the Mudroch epoch, sex, vulgar values, purchase of the readers’ souls and propaganda which beats cultural heritage and vintage traditions, are apt to captivate readership and buy up the media with monopolistic hunger. Many national dailies in India have taken to “sensationalism and soft porn” to keep ahead in the mad race for increasing circulation. Today there is no news-balance in any of these “largest” circulated ‘national’ papers. They all promote commercialism. They are selling our souls to “glamourous” models who stand still, look stupid and bare their navels. But, there are newspapers even today, which are no mere mechanical messengers but are dailies with a message, which makes the reader more informed, illumined and thoughtful. . It is high time Indian newspapers returned to their moorings and maintained their high standards. Why? Because the media influences what people think of and the way they think. If the focus is wrong, direction is lost. A people without reliable news, rooted in its vintage values and primitive of its progress will sooner or later be a people without the basis of swaraj. The soft stories demanded are a slice of a cake. It is being presented as if it is the whole cake. There’s an overwhelming emphasis on the light and trivial. We are not an affluent democracy. The media in a poor country like India must be the voice and face of the voiceless, faceless millions; it is warped just to be the face of the upwardly mobile, urban middle class. Newspapers by plurality of editions, should not indulge in fragmentation and localization of news, missing the national perspective which alone keeps alive the unity and integrity of the country. They, with their long history of glory in the field of nationalist struggle and thereafter for the freedom of the Press, have a soul to preserve and a struggle to wage, so that they are no longer opium but tonic. The patriotic duty of the Fourth Estate today is to stress democratic discipline, expose untruth wrapped in gloss and party and individual interests in appealing dross. If power belongs to the people and the Press is a trustee, resistance to exotic pressure is a new challenge to the Indian media. P.N.BENJAMIN 7, 4th A Cross HRBR II Block Kalyan Nagar Bangalore 560 043 Tel. 25455620 E-mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com 09/02/2009

MAHATMA GANDHI

Banished to a currency note

By P N Benjamin

We have denied Gandhi in every step we have taken since Independence…

Today is January 30. As a nation we pay our homage to Mahatma Gandhi’s memory with great fanfare and publicity: the visit of dignitaries to Raj Ghat, the laying of wreathes, the singing of Ram dhun, garlanding of Mahatma’s statues and portraits, the mass spinning, the public speeches of praise for all that he was to us and to the world, and in our individual and collective life. Our duty done on that day, we revert to our ways of individual and collective violence, greed, political chicanery, economic and social oppression.

Albert Einstein had wondered whether future generations would ever believe that such a man as Gandhi walked this earth. His wonder stemmed out of his uncanny discovery that Gandhi’s unshakable faith in the efficacy of non-violence in thought, word and deed, his warning against industrialisation for its own sake and his crusades against social oppression, wherever it occurred, were relevant to the entire humanity.

The famous comedian of the last century, Charlie Chaplin, who packed his films with a philosophy of life, of simplicity, sincerity and human brotherhood, is credited for his movie, Modern Times — a satire on the dehumanisation of modern man in the machine age — only after he had met Mahatma Gandhi in London. But these are far away things for today’s India.

It’s unlikely that our decision makers, society doyens and grassroot activists own up much on Gandhi these days, but perhaps they should. He had said in an essay: “Industrialism is going to be a curse for mankind. The world we must strive to build needs to be based on the concept of genuine social equality — in it, the prince and the peasant, the wealthy and the less well-off, the employer and the employee are on the same level. Economic progress cannot mean that few people charge ahead and more and more people are left behind.”

In the light of today’s globalisation and its consequences, Gandhi was remarkably prescient even though he was referring to his time of infant industrialisation more than a hundred years ago. Globalisation may have swaddled the industrialised societies in prosperity, but there are more poor people now than ever before. Caught up in the growth of Internet, it would be a mistake to confuse the vibrancy of the present industrialised world with the increasingly troubled state of the real world.

We have denied Gandhi in every step we have taken since Independence. Wherever we turn, whether the scene is political, economic or social, our record is nothing but un-Gandhian. It is all a mad struggle for power. The massive lures us and our villages present a picture of desolation, with millions of people migrating to the cities to eke out their pitiful existence. The rising toll of dowry victims and the regular killings of the socially oppressed, and the rape and parading of dalit women naked through the streets blotch our social scene.

We have morally killed Gandhi by rejecting every one of his cherished principles. Of course, we offer lip service to them — a measure of our departing from his principles. Father, forgive us…!

Having bid goodbye to truth in every walk of life, as individuals and as a nation, we are reaping the bitter fruits of a rat-race. We have relegated Gandhi to national holidays, stamps and currency notes. He may well be “the greatest Asian of 20th century”, but his influence on Indian politics is negligible today.

For 43 years, Mahatma Gandhi had worked for a free India. He was a frail, wizened, enigmatic little man, toothless and bald, bowed by the weight of the sorrows of mankind. But he was one of the fabulous figures of human history.

(Deccan Herald, Bangalore- 30 Jan. 2009)

The Crusade behind Conversions

COVERT- Fortnightly

Jan. 16-31 2009

 

The Crusade Behind Conversions

By P.N. Benjamin

Christians are thoroughly muddled over the business of conversion. They don’t want to quit this field of clover. However, think for a moment. Do they really want their Hindu and Muslim friends to join the churches? Listen in at their Pastorate Committee meetings. Quarrels over who is to be the next bishop, principal or secretary? What’s so wonderful about Christians that they should appeal to others to leave their traditions and come to Christian camps? Christians, who are neither fish, flesh nor good red herring? Do they really take the teachings of Christ seriously?

Christians’ morals are no better than others. Don’t they take and give bribes, tell lies like anyone else? As to violence, they don’t need to learn anything. They have in the past set fire to a bishop and his wife. The bishop survived and the wife died. That happened in the late 1970s. The bishop was none other than Bishop Anantha Rao Samuel who later became the Moderator of the Church of South India. I ask my Christian brethren: wasn’t there anything else we could burn — paper, cigarettes, fireworks?

What is more — Jesus was not a Christian. He was a Jew and he remained one. He did not found Christian religion. That was done by organisation-loving men. He showed the Christians a way, which was he himself. But he was a daredevil all right, and used pretty strong language when it came to telling the priests and leaders where to get off. He even called them “whited sepulchres” [isn’t that a lovely phrase?]. The Jews despised the Samaritans, somewhat like the way Dalits have been despised in our country for centuries or the Blacks in the US. But Jesus was always telling them stories about how much better as human beings the Samaritans were.

When the traveller fell among thieves the priest and the upper-castes passed him by, but the Dalit bound his wounds and took him to an inn. Ten lepers were healed. Only one returned to give thanks to God and he was a Dalit.

One day Jesus was found talking to a Dalit woman — a woman, believe it or not. Jews never spoke to women and even his disciples were shocked at his atrocious behaviour. Added to it, the woman had had five husbands. To top it all, he asked her for a drink of water. As bad as a Brahmin asking a Dalit in some parts of Tamil Nadu for water from an out-caste well. No wonder the priests wanted to do him in. They waited around corners to slosh him on the head. Finally, they got him crucified with two thieves.

No one can deny that genuine conversions do take place through the influence of one individual. A lovely Ca nadian girl came to India [Bangalore] on a Government of India scholarship to learn Bharatnatyam in the 1970s. Like so many of her generation she was an agnostic. She was U.S. Krishna Rao’s star pupil and made her debut in six months. One day she met Mother Teresa. She fell under her spell. She abandoned dance and donned the robes of a nun. “You are a born artiste. How dare you become a nun?” Krishna Rao raged in vain. She went to Kolkata and later to Mexico where she was working in a slum when we last heard about her. No one can quarrel with such a conversion. But when a well-organised body financed by foreign money begins to shift a whole herd of people from one caste to another, one begins to suspect their motives.

A brilliant Danish professor, Dr Kaaj Baago, in the United Theological College, Bangalore, made history when he said in the 1960s: “Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists should never give up their religion to join the Christian Church.” On the other hand, the Church should humble itself and find ways of identifying itself with other groups, taking Christ with them. Christ, he said, was not the chairman of the Christian party. If God is the Lord of the universe he will work through every culture and religion. We must give up the crusading spirit of the colonial era and stop singing weird hymns like “Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war“. This will lead to Hindu Christianity or Buddhist Christianity. It must involve the disappearance of the Indian Christian community, but he reminded us: “A grain of wheat remains a solitary grain unless it falls to the ground and dies.”

Needless to say, Indian Christians were furious. He left the College, the Church and the mission and took refuge with the Danish Foreign Service. He later returned to India as his country’s Ambassador and died in harness in 1988.

One last story. About 150 years ago, the Church of England was sending out a very important Anglican Church dignitary as Metropolitan of Calcutta. The Brahmin priests got wind of it. This foreign religion might become a threat to their own traditions. They must investigate. So they sent one of their men to investigate. He wandered around the city till he came to the Bishop’s residence. It was a vast, sprawling opulent mansion. As he stood at the gate the great man walked down the steps, arrayed in his magnificent robes. He stepped into the waiting carriage drawn by two horses with a postillion sitting at the rear.

The spy returned to his friends. “Have no fears,” he said, “this is not a religion we need fear.” The priests were relieved, and rightly relieved, for the pomp and splendour of organised Christianity holds no appeal for any genuine seeker after truth

P.N. Benjamin is Coordinator, Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue [BIRD]

Mahatma Gandhi & the ‘Modern Times’

Mahatma Gandhi and the ‘Modern Times’

By P.N.BENJAMIN

Today, January 30. As a nation we pay our homage to Mahatma Gandhi’s memory with great fanfare and publicity – the visit of dignitaries to Rajghat, the laying of wreathes, the singing of Ram Dhun, garlanding of Mahatma’s statues and portraits, the mass spinning, the public speeches of praise for all that he was to us and to the world, and in our individual and collective life. Our duty done on that day, we revert to our ways of individual and collective violence, greed, political chicanery, economic exploitation and social oppression. The great scientist, Albert Einstein, had wondered whether future generations would ever believe that such a man as Gandhi walked this earth. His wonder stemmed out of his uncanny discovery that Gandhi’s unshakable faith in the efficacy of non-violence in thought, word and deed, his warning against industrialization for its own sake and his crusades against social oppression and injustice, wherever it occurred, were relevant to the entire humanity. The famous comedian of the last century, Charlie Chaplin, who packed his films with a philosophy of life, of simplicity, sincerity and human brotherhood, is credited with the production of the movie, “Modern Times” – a satire on the dehumanisation of modern man in the machine age – only after he had met Mahatma Gandhi in London. But these are far away things for the present day Indians. It’s unlikely that our decision makers, society doyens and grass-root activists own up much on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi these days – but perhaps they should. He had said in an essay: “Industrialism is going to be a curse for mankind. The world we must strive to build needs to be based on the concept of genuine social equality – in it, the prince and the peasant, the wealthy and the less well-off, the employer and the employee are on the same level. Economic progress cannot mean that few people charge ahead and more and more people are left behind.” In the light of today’s globalisation and its consequences, Gandhi was remarkably prescient – even though he was referring to his time of infant industrialisation more than a hundred years ago. Globalisation may have swaddled the industrialised societies in prosperity, but there are more poor people now than ever before. Caught up in the growth of Internet, it would be a mistake to confuse the vibrancy of the present industrialised world with the increasingly troubled state of the real world. We have denied Gandhi in every step we have taken since Independence. Wherever we turn – whether the scene is political, economic or social – our record is nothing but un-Gandhian. It is all a mad struggle for power. In the economic field the massive lures us and our villages present a picture of desolation, with millions of people migrating to the cities to eke out their pitiful existence. The rising toll of dowry victims and the regular killings of socially oppressed, and the rape and parading of dalit women naked through the streets blotch our social scene. This is our India today – every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. We have morally killed Gandhi by rejecting every one of his cherished principles. Of course, we offer lip service to every one of them – a measure of our departing from his principles. Father, forgive us…! Having bid goodbye to Truth in every walk of life, as individuals and a nation, we are reaping the bitter fruits of the rat-race. We have relegated Gandhi to national holidays, stamps and currency notes. He may well be “the greatest Asian of 20th century”, but his influence on Indian politics is negligible today, as negligible as his impact on the present-day Indian politicians. For forty-three years Mahatma Gandhi, saint and mystique, had worked for a free and united India. He was a frail, wizened, enigmatic little man, toothless and bald, bowed by the weight of the sorrows of mankind. But he was one of the fabulous figures of human history. The light of Gandhi that “shone over this country was no ordinary light… In a thousand years that light will still be seen, the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts. For that light represented something more than the immediate present; it represented the living, the eternal truths, reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error, taking this ancient country to freedom”. (Nehru) Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom/Lead thou us on; /the night is dark, and we are far from home, / Lead thou us on. P.N.BENJAMIN

Beyond the road to Gethsemane

BEYOND THE ROAD TO GETHSEMANE*

(Deccan Herald, Easter Sunday, 15 April 2001)

P.N.BENJAMIN

 

The path that Jesus last walked as a free man, before the soldiers of Pontius Pilate apprehended him, is known as the Via Dolorosa, the road of sorrows. It was on this road that Jesus had walked his last one-mile to Gethsemane garden where Judas Iscariot planted the kiss of infamy on his cheek.
It was when he set out on this road that Jesus took the crucial decision of his life, where he consented to be part of the Passion play that was to be staged by the Romans and the Sahedrin on the Via Dolorosa. It was the final, most important parable of all his teachings, the only one that he would not live to explain to the faithful. It would become the greatest of his mysteries, an event on such a scale that it could become the central icon of a world religion.
The road to Gethsemane was akin to a bridge, which is crossed once, and no more. It is burned when you cross it; you cannot even look back. Such moments come in every person’s life. On this side lies the security of compromise, of petty, quotidian adjustment. On the far side is the difficult country of uncertainty, principles and sacrifice. Most people take a good look, weigh their options and beat a dignified retreat. The bridge stands unused. The battle is not even joined, lost before it even began.
But, a few do not hesitate. They reach the bridgehead, walk across and welcome the new land on the far side. And as soon as they have walked over, they find the bridge burnt, destroyed. A conscious choice had removed it as an avenue of retreat.
The contemporaries of Jesus did not understand him because they did not have the courage to walk their own bridges. They reached their bridgeheads but returned to the comfort of their compromises. Very few had the courage to reach the land beyond because the bridge would no longer offer an escape route once it had been crossed. There was certain finality about the choice,.
Jesus walked the path alone without fear, without a moment’s hesitation. He knew he had to cross the bridge. Today, I look back down the crowded corridors of history to see how many walked that path alone, how many crossed the bridge. How many placed compassion, truth and love over their own lives. In the darkness I see the profile of a tall figure – a man walking to Gethsemane garden. He was a man in a hurry. He had an appointment on the far side of the bridge, and he was determined that he should keep it.
Via Dolorosa will be remembered as the one traversed by a man of destiny, whose crucifixion served as a reminder that saviours have to die for their faith and to pay for the sins of their own brethren. Jesus was such a man, and so were Mahavira and Buddha before him and Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr almost two thousand years later. What binds them, despite the minor differences in their beliefs, is their fearlessness and their peace with those beliefs. Each was far, far ahead of his time. Each had to speak in parable, in allegory, if he hoped to be even understood.
Christ went with three of his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, below the Mount of Olives. His soul, he said, was ‘exceeding sorrowful, even unto death’, and he wanted to be alone and to pray. So he left the disciples to sit and wait for him, and withdrew by himself. The earth’s shapes and sounds and colours and living creatures, we should remember, were not less dear to Christ because of his divine destiny than they are to us; rather more so, if anything. To leave them behind, to ‘ die, so early in his earthly life, was still a deprivation even though his death was to put an end forever to dying in the old pagan sense of finality.
We cry when we leave our homes to venture out into a world we long to explore. So Christ was sorrowful that the time had come when he must leave loving friends and disciples and all the familiar scenes and dear companionship he had known on earth. “O, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou will,” he prayed, reflecting as he must have done, how easy it would be for him to slip away by himself, back to Galilee, and a happy private life there like other men, with a wife, children and all the other migrations of the loneliness and mystery of our human fate. How easy, and how impossible!
He found the disciples asleep, and rebuked them rather irritably: “What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Then he again went off by himself to continue with his prayers, returning to find them once more asleep. This time he let them be. What did it matter now? Soon the Garden of Gethsemane resounded with the noise of a mob armed with swords and staves who were looking for him. Judas, to earn his thirty pieces of silver, proceeded to identify him with a kiss and a “Hail, Master!” and Christ was apprehended. Someone drew the sword in his defence, but Christ quickly told whoever it was to put up his sword, “for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword”. There upon, we . are told, “all the disciples forsook him and fled”. He was alone.
Now began for Christ the farce of the judicial proceedings against him, intended to give his.execution a show of legitimacy. As I see it, Christ’s real crime was simply that he spoke the truth, which is intolerable to all forms of authority but especially ecclesiastical. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” Christ had said. In the eyes of Caiphas and his associates, as later in the eyes of Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor, Christ had to die because the truth he spoke and the freedom he offered undermined the authority other men claimed and exercised. There followed the Crucifixion. Christ humped his cross along the Via Dolorosa until he was too weak to continue, when another took it for him. Just before he died he was heard to cry out in a loud voice: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Thus ostensibly it all ended in defeat and despair. “Well, that’s all over,” Caiphas and his friends must have thought. How wrong they were! It was only beginning. Not defeat, but a fabulous new hope had been born; not despair, but an unexampled joy, had come into the world. Christ died on the cross as a man who had tried to show his fellow men what life was about; he rose from the dead to be available forever as an intermediary between man and God.
How, rose from the dead? After his death on the cross, we are told, he was seen by the disciples and others on numerous occasions; the stone in front of the tomb where he was laid was found to have been removed, and the tomb to be empty. These are matters of legitimate historical investigation; what is not open to question is that today, two thousand years later, Christ is alive. The words he spoke are living words, as relevant now as when they were first spoken.
Christ turned the world’s accepted norms upside down. It was the poor, not the rich, who were blessed; the weak, not the strong, who were to be esteemed; the pure in heart, not the sophisticated and the worldly, who understood what life was all about. Righteousness, not power or money or sensual pleasure should be man’s pursuit. We should love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us, in order that we may be worthy members of a human family.
No words ever uttered, it is safe to say, have had anything like the impact of these, first spoken to some scores, may be hundreds, of poor, and mostly illiterate people, by a teacher who in the eyes of the world, was of small account. Besides belonging to eternity Christ belonged to his times.
On the outskirts of the dying Roman civilisation, he spoke of dying in order to live. Today, when human civilisation is likewise dying, his words have the same awe-inspiring relevance as they had then.
What Christ had to say was too simple to be grasped, too truthful to be believed. So the great majority of Christians have never been able to believe when Christ said that the whole duty of man resolved itself into loving God and our neighbour, he meant just that. It seems so simple, so obvious. And, furthermore, there is the question of who is our neighbour. In Christ’s estimation our neighbour is everyone. He said: Feed my sheep – all black, white and piebald.
The rest of the story of Christ belongs to history. Terrible things have been done in his name; the doctrine of unwordliness which he preached has been twisted to serve worldly purposes; the cross on which he died, besides inspiring some of the noblest lives which have ever been lived, and some of the noblest thoughts and actions of man, has also served as a cloak for some of the basest; his gospel of love has been enforced with the rack and the whip, and driven home with the sword.
Let others better qualified than I work out, if they can, the gain and the loss, in human terms. Here, in this world, where he was born, lived and died, we may remember how miraculously, nonetheless, his light continues to shine in the dark jungle of the human will, as I a true child of these troubled times, with a skeptical mind and a sensual disposition, most diffidently, unworthily, but with the utmost certainty testify.
Standing amid our personal Calvaries, confused and disillusioned, we need Easter to remind us that there is always “a third day” on its way. With that knowledge we can look at any evil in the face and say with confidence: “You can’t win”. Easter is the birthday of vibrant hope for every individual and for the entire world. It is also a warning to every evil power that preys on mankind, a warning that truth is again coming out of its tomb. Easter is again a ringing reminder that the human spirit cannot be confined. An eminent theologian once said: “Eternal truth is eternal. It can be distorted but not destroyed. It may have to carry a cross to Calvary or drink a r.utj of hemlock in a Grecian gaol. But after every black Friday there dawns an Easter morn”.

P.N.BENJAMIN

E-mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com

OF BIRD AND ITS ACTIVITIES

UTC’s heritage and its strong ecumenical base enhance inter-faith contacts, which it often has undertaken in partnership with a sister organization, the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD). For example, UTC hosted a worship service featuring Gandhi’s favorite Hindu and Christian hymns with BIRD and other groups to commemorate the 60th anniversary of his martyrdom. The event showcased Gandhi’s universalism, tersely manifested in his famous statement. “I am a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, and a Jew.”

Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD)

For its part, BIRD explicitly stated in a January 1, 2007 open letter to the Prime Minister of India, the U.N. Secretary General, the European Union, and the U.S. State Department that it supports peaceful coexistence among Indian religions and opposes aggressive proselytism. The letter was signed by some 650 Christian leaders including BIRD’s founder and coordinator, P.N. Benjamin, and Rev. Dr. Jayakiran Sebastian, Professor of Theology and Ethics at UTC.

Benjamin has spotlighted poignantly the futility of exclusivist religious truth claims by pointing out that not only Hindus bear responsibility for mistreating the Dalits or “untouchables.” He echoes Dr. Razu’s perspective by arguing that even Christians “… have miserably failed in taking care of 16 million Dalits converted to Christianity.”

BIRD members profess the Christian faith, but they value the Hindu tradition of Dharmic tolerance. BIRD not only writes about religious tolerance and pluralism; it also provides forums for mutual dialogue such as lectures, workshops, and conferences. These discussions lead to the formulation of action plans for peacebuilding in India, the U.S., and around the world. BIRD further organizes cultural tours, offers articles and commentary in the media, and conducts rallies and campaigns.

Of special note, BIRD joins with Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), a sister Hindu organization, in sending intervention teams to quell outbreaks of inter-religious violence and to set a framework for post-conflict resolution. In 2002, for example, it intervened to help squelch Hindu-Christian tensions arising from an attack on Mysore’s Holy Family Church. An article in the March 1, 2002 National Catholic Reporter said that a priest and a dozen Catholics were injured in the attack, and the new church was ransacked.

The joint fact-finding team condemned violence on the part of Hindus, while encouraging the Christians to evangelize with awareness that they “… should not cross the limits of decency and should not hurt the sensitivities of adherents of other faiths.” The report thereby pinpointed the Hindu misperception of aggressive proselytizing as a root cause of the violence while reassuring Christians that the joint team shared their anxieties. The joint team also recommended formation of a permanent Hindu-Christian community forum for dialogue “… to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the future….”

In conclusion, I found on my tour that the minority Christian community of South India has contributed substantially to building a culture of peace. This is reflected in the history, curriculum and programs of three ecumenical seminaries and a Christian advocacy group. These institutions have manifested Christian pluralism by embracing the religious stranger and learning from other faith traditions. In joining hands with Hindus and Muslims through education and reconciliation, these Christian institutes have helped thousands of people in southern India to realize Gandhi’s – and Samartha’s – vision of inter-religious harmony and social justice.