In India Religiosity Turns into Theatre of the Absurd?
Dalit group's statement stokes Church-VHP fire
George Iype in New Delhi
Just as the anti-Pope campaign by organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad appeared to be petering out, the Catholic Church on Tuesday was painted into a corner by a statement terming the Hindu religion "bloody and rabid".
The statement did not come from the Church itself. But in its eagerness to fight the VHP's campaign, the Church had roped in an obscure dalit organisation -the Bahujan Swayamsewak Sangathan - and distributed its statement at its own media briefing.
"As the day of arrival of our saviour [the Pope] is fast approaching, fear is mounting in the minds of the treacherous, rabid Hindu society and its accomplice organisations," the BSS statement distributed by the Church's apex organising committee for the visit of John Paul II said.
The statement said Hindus had been exploiting the majority of dalits, tribals and backward castes "in the name of their bloody religion".
It went on to add that the Hindus [Aryans] are alien to India whereas Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists have not come from England, Turkey, Arabia or Iran, but from the soil of India and have suffered tyranny through the ages at the hands of Hindus.
"Hinduism is so weak to withstand any iota of reality as it is based on fictions and fantasies. Even after 52 years of Independence, they do not want to give the due to the oppressed and exploited and victims of their own sin," the BSS added.
Sensing that there was nothing Christian in the contents of the BSS statement, the Protestant Church theologian who also addressed the media disowned the remarks. But some observers said the Catholic Church is groping in confusion on the eve of the Pope's visit.
On one side is the eagerly awaited all-religion meeting on Diwali -- November 7 --where the Pope is expected to preach religious friendship and harmony to usher in the third millennium.
On the other side is the Church's eagerness to somehow defend itself against the anti-Christian propaganda of outfits like the VHP.
To stress the first point, Protestant theologian Valson Thampu remarked that the Pope would be in India as "a pilgrim". He quoted from John Paul's statements made during his visit to India in 1986 to show that the pontiff knows well that "the strength of Indian culture is its resilience".
"But the strength of Indian culture and diversity is under threat because of the anti-Christian campaign going on in the country," he added.
"As a state guest, the Pope is coming home to the people of India. We are a pluralistic society and it is naive to expect any uniformity of opinion, especially on a historic event like the papal visit," Thampu said.
Church leaders also claimed that the intense national debate on the papal visit had served as the ideal curtain-raiser. "The basic issue is not whether the Pope is popular. The crucial issue is if religion should be turned into a curse rather than a blessing. At the present stage of our national evolution, it is positively suicidal to allow religiosity to degenerate into a theatre of conflict," the Protestant theologian said.
He said that as India moves into the new millennium, the need of the hour "is to relocate religions in a model of harmony". "But this calls for a shift from divisive religiosity to integrative spirituality," he added.
Church leaders stressed that religions must shape a shared agenda for the good of the people and stand by their needs and struggles, and "the multi-religious meeting that the Pope will attend on November 7 will be the right step in that direction".
"The Church is hoping that the all-religions meeting will result in a climate of co-operation and friendship between religions in India," Father Dominic Emmanuel, one of the leading organisers of the papal visit, said.
Church officials later admitted that inviting non-Christian leaders and organisations like the BSS to attack the VHP serves no purpose except to worsen the rift with Hindu groups.
Thus, to show that the community holds no grudge against those who have been protesting against the papal visit, Fr Emmanuel said, "We have forgiven the Shiv Sainiks who burnt an effigy of the Pope in New Delhi".
"The Pope had gone and met the man who tried to assassinate him [in 1981] and forgave him. If an attempt on the life of the Pope can be forgiven, certainly the Pope would forgive those who tried to burn his effigy in front of the Red Fort last week," the church official added. (Refdiff)
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Catholic Bishops' Conference goes on offensive
November 3, 1999, 11:00 Hrs (IST)
New Delhi: The apex body of the Catholic Church today joined issue with Hindu fundamentalist organisations saying that the attack on missionaries will block the process of empowerment of Dalits and tribals whose "historic oppression and deprivation still continue in free India".
The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) said that the Dalits, or former untouchables in the Hindu caste hierarchy, and tribals who converted to Christianity continue to live among their own communities.
In perhaps the first official defence of conversion of tribals to Christianity since the controversy began, S Lourduswamy of the special CBCI commission on these communities said "Dalits and the tribal community in India embraced Christianity out of their conviction. They sustain in faith in spite of sufferings."
Fringe Hindu fundamentalist groups have been protesting what they call forced conversions of Hindus to Christianity in many parts of the country. The organisations have demanded that Pope John Paul II, during his visit to India later this week, should apologise for such conversions.
The Indian government and the ruling pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have dissociated themselves from the anti-Christian protests. No visit of a head of state to India in recent years has generated so much controversy as the visit of the Vatican leader from November 5 to November 8.
In recent days Catholic leaders have gone on the offensive as anti-Christian rhetoric has tapered off in the face of all-round condemnation. The CBCI said the government should prepare a White Paper about foreign funding of religious organisations, claiming that such a government document would prove that foreign funds were not being used for religious purposes and that even Hindu organisations were receiving funds from abroad for religious purposes.
"Unless there is a White Paper the government will continue to give us half-truths creating a structure of hate and fear," the CBCI said.
Eduardo Faleiro, Congress MP from Goa state which has a large Christian population, today criticised Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for not having condemned the anti-Christian propaganda by Hindu organisations at the very outset.
"Fundamental organisations of all religions should be banned," Faleiro said, adding that there should be no attempt at mass conversions and reconversions. "Such attempts smack of religious totalitarianism and are inconsistent with religious pluralism and democratic ethos (of the country)," Faleiro said.
He, however, said there were many "dark chapters" in the history of the church in India.
Church leaders, meanwhile, said the population of Christians in Goa, which has curiously become the focus of anti-Christian protests with a long march to New Delhi, has in fact declined from 36.8 per cent in 1961 to 28 per cent in 1991. Christian organisations claim that the population of Christians in India in fact has decreased to around 2.6 per cent of the population from around 2.8 per cent. India's Christian population is estimated at around 26 million.
The 2,000 km march from Goa is led by a little known Hindu organisation which started from the state last week and is scheduled to end in the capital on the eve of the Pope's visit. The Congress government in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh had stopped the protestors from marching through the state. But the protesters are expected to reassemble near Delhi.
Valson Thampu, a senior Catholic leader and professor of English at the reputed St Stephen's college in Delhi, however, felt that the groups like the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) do not have anything against the Pope as such but were using the visit as an occasion to grab global media attention.
(India Abroad News Service )
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