Harvest of Hindus as Converts By Pavithran
Harvest No. 3 - General Personal Experiences with Conversions
‘O Sinners! Listen to us. Jesus Christ had shed his blood for all your sins. Convert to Christianity to eschew all your sins and start a new life and save yourself from hell!’ - I heard in my native town as a young boy studying in government school a few white clad Christian missionaries preaching in corners of streets. Some of them would be playing music - prominent amongst them the drummers and cymbals. First, they would sing some Christian prayer songs to attract the passers-by and after some crowd being gathered around them, they would start to preach and then distribute Christian literatures - denigrating the Hindu gods and canvassing to join Christianity for their salvation.
I used to these propaganda from my early age and had never been affected by it - perhaps due to my family background.
I loved my School Teacher whose name was Jesudass. He was a bachelor and was permitted to live at the school premises itself. He used to write the lessons in many black boards which would be copied by us coming very early in the morning before the school opened its regular sessions. He was just a dedicated teacher whom I loved very much from the bottom of my heart. But, he used to denigrate Hindu Gods and some Hindu religious practices which would not be palatable to me - still, I adored him as a best model teacher.
Even my wife had the brunt of the Christian missionary propaganda even at Dortmund, West Germany during her short stay there. This event would prove how the Christian Missionaries are heavily funded to spread Christianity amongst other religious sects. Conversions are an integral part of their religious practices and they are strong believers that Jesus Christ is the only God who could give salvation to humanity as a whole and that it is their ordained solemn duty to save the man kind from peril.
Even at Pattukkottai, Tamil Nadu, some missionary girls had requested my wife to come and attend their prayer meetings for which my wife had confronted them by stating whether they would attend some Hindu rituals. When their replies were in the negative, my wife had emphatically told them why should they ask her to attend their prayer meetings. When they asked my wife to buy some Christian books, she had asked them whether they would like to buy Hindu Religious Books like Bhagavad Gita. When they had said no, she had pointed to them that there should be no point in their stand to propagate their religion when we had no problem with our religion.
In India and abroad, such confrontations are going on. Under the guise of secularism, we are being targeted regularly with threats of religious propaganda.
One of my relatives was having a fascination about Christianity. This was because his relatives, though Brahmins by birth, had converted into Christianity en bloc perhaps to have material benefits, as the head of the family was a lecturer in a Christian controlled college. He was not educated, but, quite fond of conversing in English. His English was very bad, but he would never mind about his so-called butler English! He used to go to Church wearing tie and would sit along with those ‘Iyer Christians’ as they were affectionately called. But, his presence was disliked and was asked to sit somewhere. His father was a prohit and could not tolerate his son’s behaviors. As he was not admitted to Christianity by his relatives who had themselves converted into that religion, he lost his cool and became somewhat insane. His love of Christianity was purely on account of his wrong notion that one would be bestowed with material benefits simply by converting to Christianity. His case might be rare, but, the attitudes of some had been affected by effective propaganda.
One more incident: One Sastrigal was admitted to a Christian hospital for some operations. He was approached by the senior surgeon who is a Christian that the entire cost of operations would be free, if he embraced Christianity! On hearing these sermons, Sastrigal was shaken and had lost his peace of mind. He got himself discharged and said that he would rather die than to have an operation. Because of this, he had refused to get himself operated elsewhere!
The main plank under which the propagandists had based their attacks against Hindu religion, was the castes systems prevailing and practiced in Hinduisms and more so the un-touch abilities amongst upper castes. One should not fail to know that converted Christians had never mixed with other Christians, as there are Brahmin Christians, Nadar Christians, Anglo-Indian Christians, Dalit Christians etc. and the same seclusions are prevailing in other religions as well.
But, the Hinduisms are being singled out for the caste systems, though the same are gradually being eradicated and there will be casteless society in Hinduisms in days to come.
It is an open secret that huge funds are being flooded from abroad for proselytizing. If we view their aggressive activities to covert non-Hindus into Christianity, such propaganda could be termed as Religious Terrorisms. Gandhi had once said that while he had great faith in Christianity, he hated ‘Churchianity’ - thereby criticizing religious propagandas and conversions.
Even Mahatma Gandhi was not spared by such missionaries. As the missionaries had thought that if Gandhi could be converted into Christianity, then majority of Hindus would automatically convert themselves into Christianity and hence, Gandhi was inundated with many such committed missionaries. As Gandhi was a real Mahatma, nothing as wished by those Christian zealots had happened.
These details will be dealt with in our coming issues. (To Be Continued.)
‘O Sinners! Listen to us. Jesus Christ had shed his blood for all your sins. Convert to Christianity to eschew all your sins and start a new life and save yourself from hell!’ - I heard in my native town as a young boy studying in government school a few white clad Christian missionaries preaching in corners of streets. Some of them would be playing music - prominent amongst them the drummers and cymbals. First, they would sing some Christian prayer songs to attract the passers-by and after some crowd being gathered around them, they would start to preach and then distribute Christian literatures - denigrating the Hindu gods and canvassing to join Christianity for their salvation.
I used to these propaganda from my early age and had never been affected by it - perhaps due to my family background.
I loved my School Teacher whose name was Jesudass. He was a bachelor and was permitted to live at the school premises itself. He used to write the lessons in many black boards which would be copied by us coming very early in the morning before the school opened its regular sessions. He was just a dedicated teacher whom I loved very much from the bottom of my heart. But, he used to denigrate Hindu Gods and some Hindu religious practices which would not be palatable to me - still, I adored him as a best model teacher.
Even my wife had the brunt of the Christian missionary propaganda even at Dortmund, West Germany during her short stay there. This event would prove how the Christian Missionaries are heavily funded to spread Christianity amongst other religious sects. Conversions are an integral part of their religious practices and they are strong believers that Jesus Christ is the only God who could give salvation to humanity as a whole and that it is their ordained solemn duty to save the man kind from peril.
Even at Pattukkottai, Tamil Nadu, some missionary girls had requested my wife to come and attend their prayer meetings for which my wife had confronted them by stating whether they would attend some Hindu rituals. When their replies were in the negative, my wife had emphatically told them why should they ask her to attend their prayer meetings. When they asked my wife to buy some Christian books, she had asked them whether they would like to buy Hindu Religious Books like Bhagavad Gita. When they had said no, she had pointed to them that there should be no point in their stand to propagate their religion when we had no problem with our religion.
In India and abroad, such confrontations are going on. Under the guise of secularism, we are being targeted regularly with threats of religious propaganda.
One of my relatives was having a fascination about Christianity. This was because his relatives, though Brahmins by birth, had converted into Christianity en bloc perhaps to have material benefits, as the head of the family was a lecturer in a Christian controlled college. He was not educated, but, quite fond of conversing in English. His English was very bad, but he would never mind about his so-called butler English! He used to go to Church wearing tie and would sit along with those ‘Iyer Christians’ as they were affectionately called. But, his presence was disliked and was asked to sit somewhere. His father was a prohit and could not tolerate his son’s behaviors. As he was not admitted to Christianity by his relatives who had themselves converted into that religion, he lost his cool and became somewhat insane. His love of Christianity was purely on account of his wrong notion that one would be bestowed with material benefits simply by converting to Christianity. His case might be rare, but, the attitudes of some had been affected by effective propaganda.
One more incident: One Sastrigal was admitted to a Christian hospital for some operations. He was approached by the senior surgeon who is a Christian that the entire cost of operations would be free, if he embraced Christianity! On hearing these sermons, Sastrigal was shaken and had lost his peace of mind. He got himself discharged and said that he would rather die than to have an operation. Because of this, he had refused to get himself operated elsewhere!
The main plank under which the propagandists had based their attacks against Hindu religion, was the castes systems prevailing and practiced in Hinduisms and more so the un-touch abilities amongst upper castes. One should not fail to know that converted Christians had never mixed with other Christians, as there are Brahmin Christians, Nadar Christians, Anglo-Indian Christians, Dalit Christians etc. and the same seclusions are prevailing in other religions as well.
But, the Hinduisms are being singled out for the caste systems, though the same are gradually being eradicated and there will be casteless society in Hinduisms in days to come.
It is an open secret that huge funds are being flooded from abroad for proselytizing. If we view their aggressive activities to covert non-Hindus into Christianity, such propaganda could be termed as Religious Terrorisms. Gandhi had once said that while he had great faith in Christianity, he hated ‘Churchianity’ - thereby criticizing religious propagandas and conversions.
Even Mahatma Gandhi was not spared by such missionaries. As the missionaries had thought that if Gandhi could be converted into Christianity, then majority of Hindus would automatically convert themselves into Christianity and hence, Gandhi was inundated with many such committed missionaries. As Gandhi was a real Mahatma, nothing as wished by those Christian zealots had happened.
These details will be dealt with in our coming issues. (To Be Continued.)
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