More on the Orissa nun rape

http://whatinstore.blogspot.com/2008/10/rape-religion-revenge.html

From Straight Drive :
Friday, October 24, 2008

Rape, Religion, Revenge
A 29-year-old nun from the strife-torn Kondhamal district of Orissa had filed an FIR that she was raped by some 40-50 people on August 25 last and the Father of the church, she was working for, was also stripped by the same group. But the local police resfused to act prompt. Rather, the minority Christian community had to bear the brunt, followed by the brutal murder of Swami Laksmanananda Saraswati till they got shelter in the refugee camps.

The infamous incident not only ashamed the state, but the mankind. The international leadership urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop such inhuman acts asap.

The national media stood to the occasion by exposing how the major Hindu extremists were out to destabilise communal harmony, acting against the ethos of their religion -- peace and prosperity. But in the process, what did not come to the notice was that the police had in fact sent the victim for medical examination 28 hours after the alleged rape. (The report has not yet been made public.)

The nun and the elderly Father duo disappeared soon. While the elderly father Thomas Chelan hails from Kerala the 29-year-old nun Agne Barwa is from Sambalpur district of Orissa.

After the Prime Minister Mr Singh was approached by world heavyweights to control the anti-Christian riots, the Centre spent no time in making clear to the Navin Pattnaik-led Orissa government to either control the violence or face action.

Orissa police went to Kerala to seek help from the complainant. Though they failed to find the Father and the nun there, they arrested six of the accused who had fled to Kerala from Kondhamal district after the incident to earn their bread and butter. Police also sent the clothes of the nun for forensic examination to Kolkata to gather evidence of rape.

Later, the duo told the media that they fled Orissa only after they lost faith in the state police and would cooperate only if the case is handed over to the CBI. The Orissa government protested this and deposed before the Supreme Court of India that the state police Crime Branch is competent enough to handle the case. The apex court refused to order for a CBI probe into the case and instructed the complainant to cooperate the state police.

The duo are yet to travel to Orissa and identify the culprits in the TI parade without which police cannot make any progress in the case.

According to 'The Samaja', the largest and most trusted Oriya daily newspaper published from Cuttack, the cultural capital of Orissa, a senior government official who is involved with the investigation of the case said: "The forencsic test report does not have any evidence of rape or forced sex. Report of the medical examination, 28 hours after the alleged rape, also denies any rape or forced sex by more than one person. There were no signs of any injury caused by rape or forced sex in the private parts of the nun. Rather, it was evident that the complainant had indulged in sex with one person with her consent in the previous 24 hours. There was no evidence of she having sex with more than one person. The sperm collected during the examination was of either an old man, elderly person or an eunuch, said the two female doctors who had conducted the test. The test report also says the complainant is not new to having sex."

The senior official further said to the newspaper that the police sent the clothes for forensic examination after the medical examination report failed to point towards any rape or forced sex. However, the duo's reluctance to cooperate the investigating team despite the apex court's instructions, and continued absence from the state since the incident despite number of requests, indicate there is more than what was presumed to be, so far.

Posted by Straight Drive at 4:24 AM

Aerial View of Trivandrum Fort Area

Date:07/10/2008
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100750980200.htm

Government gives away public land

Date:07/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100752210300.htm
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Title deeds distributed to 2,476 landless families

12,800 acres of encroached land recovered: Minister

Thrissur: Title deeds were given to 2,476 landless families in the district at a ‘pattaya mela’ held at the Thekkinkad Maidan, here, on Monday. Speaking after inaugurating the function, Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran said the government was committed to providing land and house for all landless and homeless families within two years. “Surplus and encroached land recovered by the government will be distributed to landless families in a time-bound manner. Till now, the government has recovered 12,800 acres of encroached land. Formalities to acquire and distribute the remaining encroached land will begin on November 15.

“As many as 68,000 people belonging to Scheduled Caste and 22,300 tribal families in the State are landless. Of these, 3,000-odd tribal families have already been given an acre each. Procedures to provide land for the rest have begun. About 1.3 lakh houses will be constructed for members of the Scheduled Caste under various housing projects,” the Minister said.

The Minister condemned the acts of violence against revenue officials engaged in survey and acquisition of encroached land. “Those who create trouble will be dealt with sternly. The acquired resorts and buildings will be used for public purposes,” he said.

Students develop car that runs on solar energy

Date:07/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100750560200.htm
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Students develop car that runs on solar energy
KOCHI: A group of engineering students at Mary Matha Engineering College, Paliyode, Thiruvananthapuram, has come up with what they have described as “a compact vehicle which works with a hub motor, utilising electricity, charged by solar panels.”

The use of electricity makes the innovation eco-friendly as well as noise-free. The battery of the car can be charged with the help of direct sunlight using the solar panels, said a communication from the students.

The innovators are Aristotle Ashok, Unnikrishnan M.A., Saji M.P., Titto B.S., Rahul S.L. and Ajith C.G. with guidance from their instructor Shyam Kumar.

The major feature of the new type car is that the driver’s seat can be rotated 180 degrees and the entire control of the vehicle like steering, accelerator and head lights are connected to the seat so that the concept of reverse driving becomes obsolete. The car can travel at 40 km per hour.

CPM Leader Rapes Children

Date:07/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100752430300.htm
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Kerala - Kozhikode

Rape charge against CPI(M) functionary

Kozhikode: The Koyilandi police have registered multiple cases against a branch secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the district on the charge of raping three minor girls of a local school.

The police said that cases were registered against K.K. Sudhakaran, 55, branch secretary, Cheenacheri, under Section 376 (rape) and Section 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life) of the Indian Penal Code. Three cases had been registered on the basis of complaints filed by the parents of the minor girls. The school girls, aged between 7 and 9 years, were sexually abused while they were participating in a Balasanghom programme of the party on Sunday, according to the complaint. The accused was at large, the police said. — Staff Reporter

Kerala nuns seek protection from priest

Date:07/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100758780300.htm
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Nun seeks protection
Staff Reporter THE HINDU 2008 Oct 7

KOCHI: Sr. Jessy, Mother Superior of the Little Flower Convent, Njarackal, has sought police protection from the vicar of the St. Mary’s Church, Njarackal. She has complained that the vicar and a section of the faithful have been threatening her and nuns of the convent and that the vicar has been attempting to wrest control of the Little Flower High School, Njarackal, by assuming charge of manager despite a government order making her the manager. Talking to mediapersons here on Monday, Sr. Jessy and Sr. Ani James said that Mother General Sr. Edward and Mother Provincial Sr. Vincent Mary were forcibly made to sign some documents last week denouncing their rights on the school they had established.



Date:07/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100754840500.htm
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Kerala - Kochi

Nun seeks protection

KOCHI: Sr. Jessy, Mother Superior of the Little Flower Convent, Njarackal, has sought police protection from the vicar of the St. Mary’s Church, Njarackal.

She has complained that the vicar and a section of the faithful have been threatening her and nuns of the convent and that the vicar has been attempting to wrest control of the Little Flower High School, Njarackal, by assuming charge of manager despite a government order making her the manager.

Talking to mediapersons here on Monday, Sr. Jessy and Sr. Ani James said that Mother General Sr. Edward and Mother Provincial Sr. Vincent Mary were forcibly made to sign some documents last week denouncing their rights on the school they had established.

They complained that a group of the faithful had prevented them from entering a church for the holy mass.

When contacted, the Njarackal police said they had received a complaint but had not registered a case.

Se.Abhaya Case might turn now

Narco-test admitted as evidence in court
BY AMITA VERMA in ASIAN AGE 2008 Oct 7

LUCKNOW Oct. 6: In a landmark decision that could have an impact on several other cases, a district court in Faizabad has admitted a narco-analysis test report as an evidence against the accused.

The Faizabad district court rejected the bail plea of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Anand Sen Yadav after admitting his narco-analysis test report as an evidence against him in the Shashi murder case.

A narco-analysis test was conducted on the Bahujan Samaj Party leader in January 2008 and during the test, he had admitted to having relations with the victim Shashi.

"As per the ruling of the Supreme Court, a narco-analysis test report is not admissible in the court as evidence but in this case the court has acknowledged it as an important piece of evidence," prosecution lawyer Saeed Khan said on telephone on Monday.

Yadav’s lawyer, Awadhesh Yadav, meanwhile said that he would soon move the high court against the district court’s decision to accept the narco-analysis test report as an evidence.

Legal experts in Lucknow feel that if the district court’s decision to admit the narco-analysis report is withheld by higher courts, it could have a bearing on several other cases — most importantly the Aarushi murder case.

"In blind cases, whether it is Aarushi case, Kavita Choudhury case or the Shashi case, the narco-analysis report can provide crucial evidence and the accused can be convicted if it is admitted as an evidence," said senior high court lawyer Sandeep Dixit.

It may be recalled that Shashi, a dalit student of a post-graduate college in Faizabad, went missing in October 2007 and her father Yogendra Prasad blamed Yadav — then a minister in the Mayawati government — for his daughter’s abduction and suspected murder.

Though the police failed to recover Shashi’s body, Yadav’s driver Vijay and his friend Seema Azad confessed to their involvement in the abduction and murder of Shashi, reportedly at the behest of the Bahujan Samaj Party leader.

Punishing the Victim

School turns out rape victim
ASIAN AGE Oct 7, 2008

Chandigarh

Oct. 6: Apparently unwilling to share the "stigma", a private school in Panchkula near Chandigarh has turned out a young student who reported that she had been gangraped by four boys last month.

Just 17 years of age, the Class 12 girl was allegedly abducted and raped repeatedly by four youngsters who had been blackmailing her for more than a year. The accused included the son of a Haryana government official, three of his friends and a young girl who aided and abetted in the abduction on September 16.

Now right in the midst of her huge ordeal, which is compounded by the Panchkula police’s failure to arrest most of the accused, the young victim has been "punished" by the authorities in her own school.

However, insisting that the girl’s suspension had nothing to do with the fact that she had been gangraped, the school principal said the action against her has been initiated because she was in the habit of "bunking" her classes.

But then, the headmistress also suggested that it may be "advisable" for the girl to stay away from school.

Out-sourcing Religion

Religious outsourcing goes to the heavens

The Tribune
New Delhi, June 21, 2004
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040622/biz.htm#5
Whoever said only information technology is the golden goose for India is wrong. Religious process outsourcing (RPOs) could certainly be the next big thing.

Believe it or not, but the shortage of priests in the United States, UK and other Western countries and the low cost of conducting these prayers in India has led to outsourcing of prayers here.

Churches in Kerala, gurdwaras in Punjab and temples and ashrams all across the country are receiving ‘bulk orders’ for mass, puja, havan and akhand path.

“The concept isn’t as outlandish as it sounds.

Intercessory prayers — where one person prays for, or on behalf of, someone else, who is religiously ‘challenged’ — is regularly practised by many and even has the approval of the Vatican,” says Fr. Dominique Emmanuel, spokesman of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese.

“Religious outsourcing is not something which has sprung up overnight. It has been happening for quite sometime now but media attention has been drawn towards it because of the debate on outsourcing now,” says Fr. Emmanuel.

“Religious outsourcing is on the rise because of a general decrease in the number of vocations in West, especially of priests and nuns. This is happening since the late ’60s, when new ideas came in Church and many priests left their orders,” he says.

He says in Catholics, priests offer a mass with an intention daily morning. But because of the shortage of priests, Mass cannot be arranged for every intention. Thus most of them are outsourced to India, or for that matter, any other country, which has no shortage of priests and churches, he adds.

The same seems to be the case with pujas and akhand paths in gurdwaras. “Sikhs arrange for a 48-hour recital of Guru Granth Sahib (the holy scripture of Sikhs) for thanksgiving. Paying for the people who would read the holy book as also arrangement for ‘langar’ (food) costs around $ 1,000 (Rs 46,000, nearly) in the US, while here it comes to Rs 5000,” says Sant Mohinder Singh of Dera Mohanpur.

“Also, there is a shortage of trained people who can read the Holy Scripture continuously. So most of the prayers are outsourced by Sikhs to India, he says noting “the NRIs also have emotional attachment with the religious places here. So they prefer that prayers are conducted here.”

Agrees an official from ‘puja.by-choice.com’, an online group, which conducts yagnas and pujas, “the reason why NRIs prefer to get it done from India is to do with genuineness, purity and the fact that it is being performed by ‘true’ Brahmins.” “People like to be connected to the source. Puja and yagnas performed in other countries tend to be more ‘modernised’ and ‘packaged’. West is very expensive, so performing these rituals according to Vedic tradition would be outrageously expensive and out of the reach of most people,” he says.

Moreover, people are realising that prayer knows no boundaries. Ms Renoo Nirula, a clairvoyant, was recently approached by a hospital in Israel to send healing to infants suffering from AIDS and cancer in their neo-natology wing.

About the way prayer outsourcing is done, Father Emmanuel says “there are various orders and most of them have offices worldwide from where the requests come. So it is wrong to say, as has been pointed out in some reports, that priests get paid in dollars for these prayers. Whatever is given goes to the order.” As far as pujas are concerned, those conducted at big ashrams and temples are managed online as ‘puja.by-choice’ official claims, “the process is transparent.” “In the last 14 years we have entertained requests from 26 countries including USA, UK, Australia, Africa and South America,” he says.

“Though majority of the requests for these prayers are made by elderly Indians living abroad, it is interesting to note that during the last five years, those in the age group of 18-35 are requesting for prayers,” he says. — PTI

London Times on 26th December, 1799

The Last Word

We have uniformly rejected all letters and declined all discussion upon the question of when the present century ends, as it is one of the most absurd that can engage the public attention, and we are astonished to find it has been the subject of so much dispute, since it appears plain. The present century will not terminate till January 1, 1801, unless it can be made out that 99 are 100.

It is a silly, childish discussion, and only exposes the want of brains who maintain a contrary opinion to that we have stated.

The Times, 26 December 1799

What caused the Karnataka Violence

Hindustan Times
November 4, 2006 BR Srikanth,
Mangalore, September 17, 2008
First Published: 00:18 IST(17/9/2008)
Last Updated: 00:22 IST(17/9/2008)

Booklet by convert fuels Mangalore unrest

The precipitating cause that led to the attacks on churches and prayer halls in this coastal hub and its adjoining districts was a controversial booklet written by a recent local convert to Christianity which made offensive references to Hindu gods comparing them adversely to ‘the one true god’ of the Christians.

Bajrang Dal sources claimed the booklet, called Satyadarshini (The Truth), written by one Lakshminarayan, had been distributed to parishioners of the New Life Fellowship Trust, part of the Pentecost Mission during the past three weekends. “I joined the worshippers at the church and collected a copy myself,” claimed Sharan Kumar, vice president of the Dakshina Kannada unit.

“No true believer in Jesus Christ would run down other religions,” said pastor Donald Menezes, who heads the local zone of 16 churches, insisting none of them had anything to do with the booklet. “I first learnt about it when some journalists showed it to me,” he told HT.

As this coastal hub, which saw a series of attacks by Hindu mobs on churches and prayer halls for the last three days, remained violence free for the first time on Tuesday, Home Minister V. S. Acharya, who visited the area, declared he would take action against the New Life Fellowship Trust.

“But the Bajrang Dal should not have taken the law into its own hands,” he said. “They could have brought the matter to the government’s notice. We have arrested 53 people for attacks on Christian places of worship.”

Acharya, however, also insisted that Christians were engaging in ‘conversions by deceit’ across the district, a charge Christians denied hotly. “Census figures show that the number of Christians in this district declined between 1992 and 2002,” he noted.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=254ff85e-6701-4595-b0f2-d78e45ff60bf
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times

Dr.C.I.Issac on Kottayam nunneries

The Dreadful Dracula Houses of Kerala- The Catholic Christian Convents of Central Kerala

Posted May 3, 2007

Dr C I Issac
April 23, 2007
Haindava Keralam
Source Link


The Central Kerala, particularly, the Kottayam district is the highest Christian populated [8, 95,000 or 45.83%] area and is the Vatican of India. It is the bastion of Christian vested interests also.A sizable number of priests and nuns works all over India are haling from this particular area. So it is the nuclei of India's Christian conversion programme [India for Christ Programme]. Above all, the contemporary European Church is facing spiritual crisis due to its youths reluctance to ordain as priests and nuns and the Churches of Central Kerala solves that through the export of the same. Through this thumbnail sketch of the present-day Kerala Church, this article is intended to draw the attention of the esteemed readers on the malady of those Christian girls who destined to be as nuns or �bride of the Jesus�, within the four walls of the convents.

For the last two decades the disastrous end of young girls who embraced the nun-hood turned to be a news item in the column of the vernacular newspapers of Kerala. So far a dozen such news catches the headings of the press. Of the first is the pathetic end of 19 year old student cum nun Sr. [Sister] Abhaya of Pius X Convent in the heart of the town, Kottayam. She belongs to a lower middle class Catholic family of Kottayam district. On 1992 March 27th, her body was found in the well of the said convent. Her father Thomas Areekkara and mother Leelamma raised serious doubts about the death of their daughter Beena [changed her name in to Sr. Abhaya after taking the veil]. They categorically say that her daughter has any raison d'être to commit suicide.


The dawn of 27th March was a sad day to the students and teachers of BCM college of Kottayam, where Sr. Abhaya was a student, who met disastrous end in the Pius X convent. The Christian police officer who rushed to the spot was given priority to destroy the evidences, instead of collecting evidences related to her suspicious death. No doubt it was with the political blessings from above. Later ups and downs in the investigations are much evident to justify this doubt. The growing economic and political power of Christians [particularly the Church] in Kerala considerably influenced the course of its investigation. The parents of the deceased nun and the philanthropists of Kottayam continued their legal battle to book the culprit, miserably failed. The Christian CBI officer who was in charge of investigation resigned from the office while investigation was in progress. The suspected priest and the mother of the convent who ought to be the prime witness in the case were sent to Vatican by the Church authorities and subsequently they became the citizens of the Papal State. Even though the government of India has a healthy diplomatic relation with Vatican, the investigating agencies miserably failed to extradite them for interrogation.


The story of the disastrous deaths of nuns in the convents of Kerala not ends with the mysterious death of Sr. Abhaya. It was the beginning of a new turn in the history of church sponsored criminalism in Kerala. Subsequently, after two weeks, another nun called Sr. Mercy found dead in a waterless pond in the compound of the convent at Mukkootuthara in the Kottayam district. The all-powerful church hierarchy was able to manipulate the course of investigation from its bud and write-off the death as an accident of drowning. The story of the disastrous death coming out from the convents of Central Kerala is shrouded in mystery and equal or more than that in the 19th century detective novel Dracula of Bram Stocker.


Another scapegoat of the �convent-death� is Sr. Paulcy of the Snehagiri [Hill of Love] Convent of Palai near Kottayam. It was on 17th May 2000. She died of the consumption of poisoned meet food. No other inmates of the convent is affected with food poison, is the paradox to be answered. But the convent authorities had given obituary advertisement in leading vernacular newspaper that Sr. Paulcy [35] died of heart attack. Even though she lost her life in the night of 17th May, the matter was informed to her parents who reside very near to the convent only after eight O�clock in the morning of the next day. Parents of the unfortunate nun raised doubts about the death and the police intervened. The post-mortem report negated the Convent hierarchy's argument of the 'heart attack'. The sister and mother of the deceased nun recollected the story which told her a few weeks back that, a lot of foreign remittance is flowing to the Convent and she happened to see the details of the remittance caused the wrath of the Mother superior of the Convent and she scolded a lot her. [2nd largest circulated daily of Kerala; Matrubhoomi Daily, Kottayam, 25th June 2000]. Any way the story of mysterious deaths of nuns clearly giving some clue that most of the convents in the Central Kerala are not only the abodes nuns but also the seat of mysterious transactions including the violation of the Commandments 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th. [For the details of the quoted Commandments, see Exodus, Chapter XIX, Aphorisms 2,17].


After a couple of months, Sr. Sofi, a 27 year old nun of Velliyappally Valakkattu Convent of Palai became the next victim of Convent Tragedy. Her body found in the well of the convent. As usual police has registered an FIR. But the investigation not yet reached any shore of conclusion. It is quite natural that a prominent leader of Kerala politics and his party is the product of the Catholic Church and he belongs to Palai. So in all the church/priest/nun related criminal offences are always shrouding in obscurity. Hence the unnatural death of Sr. Sofi also got the same destiny.
The story of the destiny of Sr. Anjo has yet another dimension. A 22 year old nun found solace in suicide on 29th December 2003. She was an intelligent and smart girl who opt the path of Bride-ship of the Christ, owing to the compulsion of the family and parents. She was the inmate of SH Convent, Chanjodi near Kottaym. To the Anjo the life in the monotonous convent was boring and she thought about the deliverance. The parents and the Convent authorities insisted her to continue in veil. She lost all hopes of deliverance and finally she fond solace in hanging on the fan. [Feature from Keralasabdham Weekly,- a prominent Malayalam news weekly - 19th January 2003, pp 12, 13]. The tragic death Sr. Ancy, 32, of Bethany Convent of Ranny-Perunnadu was the story of yet another unfortunate who found [it is said] her destiny in the well of the convent. She was a teacher of the school run by the church. Her dead body found in the well in the early morning. But the convent authorities informed the police only after 10�O clock in the morning. This response of the convent authorities was doubtful. The police investigation lost its momentum elsewhere in the deluge of time. Once again the name of one more nun, Sr. Ancy, was also written in the list of Christ�s Brides, which appears, on the walls of paradise. Now the story of unnatural deaths in the convents is not at all news to an ordinary Malayalee. Even though, it is genuine to bring the news of the tragic end of the last but not least nun. On 23rd June 2006 Sr. Lisa of Saint Francis Clarist Convent of Iravuchira, a hamlet near Kottayam, who ends her life in the convent by consuming poison. The relatives and guardians of the deceased Sr. Lisa strongly believe that her decision of ending life is the outcome of the torture and humiliation that met by her from the convent authorities. [Janmabhoomi Daily � a prominent Hindu news paper - Kottayam, 26th June 2006]. The above mentioned are only some identical incidents from a dozen convent tragedies that took place in the recent past. Those politicians who cast their covetous eyes on the vote banks of the Church have no sufficient will to ensure justice to the souls of the ill-fated women who forced to take veil. The parents of the unfortunate Sr. Abhaya's fight for justice not yet produced any fruits. The power seeking politician's interference in the investigation turned down as the stumbling block behind the way to ensure justice to the soul of Sr. Abhaya. The wretched girls who fettered in the convents are hailing from economically poor Christian families of Kerala. The wealth and religion are not travelling together in the practical experience/case of Christianity in the west. The contemporary European Christian experience substantiates this universal truth. The rich European region is now reluctant to contribute priests and nuns to cater the demands of the Church. Now this gap is filled from less prosperous countries of Asia and Africa. The Church in Kerala is booking profit out of the economic backwardness that still exists amongst the Christian families and thus recruits girls from such families as nuns. Usually girls are enrolled in to the bandwagon of nunnery at the tender ages. The compulsions of the parents who are allured by the Church are grazing its lass to the 'heavenly prisons' [convents]. One cannot deny the role of convents schools to motivate young and innocent girls to the �slaughter houses� [convents]. The Syrian Christian community with immense wealth, celebrating their marriage ceremonies with the pomp of �Maha Kumba Melas�, is the real culprit behind the plight of poor girls behind the bars of convents. The seven-digit dowry and celebration turned as a nightmare to the poor Christian families. So the economically weak in the Christian community can�t imagine marriage of their daughters. Kottayam, a small town of 25 lakhs of people and five Cathedrals with Christian economic dominance, has one and a half dozen �five star jewelers� shows the extent of the pompous of richness of Syrian Christians. Now money is a deciding factor in this community. So, economically weak Christians are gearing to compete with the rest through acquiring money. As a result they are compelling their lasses to opt either to nursing or to nunnery. The convent is dam cheap as compared to nursing. So the economically too poor parents are forced to herd their damsels to the convents. Therefore, the Kerala�s Syrian Christian Church is the chief contributor of the 95% of nuns required for the proselytism activities of the Churches in India.

The allegations both moral and material are the universal ghost haunting the Christendom all over the world. One Catholic Priest from India [Kerala] got four months jail term for sexually abusing a twelve year old laity girl in USA. The convicted Rev. Francis X Nelson [38] hailing from Kerala served as the Confidential Secretary Kottar [Tamilnadu] Bishop Leon Tharmaraj. [The New Indian Express, Kochi, 28 March 2003]. Broklyn [USA] Diocese Bishop has forced to transfer 42 files related to sexual abuses involved by twenty five Catholic priests to the authorities during the trial of the Rev. Nelson's case. [Janmabhoomi Daily, Kochi, 28 March 2003]. The Vatican recently confessed that priests and nuns under the Roman Catholic Church in several countries including India and Italy involving in sexual relations. La Republica daily of Italy reports that priests and nuns involved rape, conception and abortion are frequently reported from various regions. [Janmabhoomi Daily, Kochi, 22 March 2001]. Priests involvements in murder and other subversive activate are increasing at a high rate.


It is believed that the Catholic Priests and Nuns are chronic bachelors and chronic spinsters respectively who practices Bramachariay/Sanyasaa Ashram/life of hermit are using high calorie fat food is one among several reasons of the increase of sexual appetite. This is the main reason for the sex related crimes also. If the church is interested to maintain the purity of the concept of hermit life amongst its soldiers of proselytism, it is better to follow Hindu practices of vegetarianism and yoga. Otherwise papal effort to maintain hermitage in the Church order will be a futile effort.


Let us return to Kerala scenario. In September 2001 St. Alphonsa Church at Kolayad near Kannur was ransacked by some [the discontented laity] people. Those who are lamenting of Sanga Parivar attack on churches in other states followed lukewarm attitude towards this attack. This was happened so, because of the frustration that brewing inside the church. Fr. Job Chittilappally, a 71 year old padre of St. Varaprasada Matha Church, near Chalakudi in Trichur district found dead with stab injuries in August 2004. The Church has shown no enthusiasm in booking the culprit, is noteworthy. Earlier for petty problems nuns and priests along with laity display their might in the street. But in this case there were no such road shows. All these are the signs of the ever-deteriorating morale space of the Church and Christianity all over.
So here comes the question of social justice. The ill-fated girls who destined to the hellish suffering within the four walls of convents have the right to live. The government and constitution has moral and legal right to ensure the right of life of them. So the practice of recruiting girls to the convents before the growth of �wisdom teeth� must go. The recruitment to the profession of nunnery at the tender age is not different from girl-foeticide. So it must be treated as criminal act and those who involve, with out considering the social status of person, must brought before the law. If criminal laws are not sufficient to deal with, it should make further laws to book the culprits.

CATHOLIC CLERGY DECREASING

Catholic nuns and monks decline

The Vatican has reported a further dramatic fall in the number of Roman Catholic monks and nuns worldwide.
Newly published statistics showed that the number of men and women belonging to religious orders fell by 10% to just under a million between 2005 and 2006.
During the pontificate of the late Pope John Paul II, the number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by a quarter.
The downward trend accelerated despite a steady increase in the membership of the Catholic Church to more than 1.1bn.
However, correspondents say even this failed to keep pace with the overall increase in world population.
Dramatic fall
On the back page of its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican published on Monday new statistics revealing that between 2005 and 2006 the number "members of the consecrated life" fell by just under 10%.
The number of members, predominantly women, some engaged only in constant prayer, others working as teachers, health workers and missionaries, fell 94,790 to 945,210.
Of the total, 753,400 members were women, while 191,810 were men, including 136,171 priests and 532 permanent deacons.
The figures were published next to a report of Pope Benedict XVI's meeting with nuns, monks and priests from many countries gathered in St Peter's Basilica in Rome last weekend.
The BBC's David Willey in the Italian capital says the accelerating downward trend must have caused concern to the Pope.
The Roman Catholic Church has an aging and diminishing number of parish and diocesan clergy and this latest fall is quite dramatic, our correspondent says.
The number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by about a quarter during the reign of Pope John Paul, and this further drop shows that new recruits are failing to replace those nuns who die, or decide to abandon their vows, he adds.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7227629.stm
Published: 2008/02/05 01:52:07 GMT
© BBC MMVIII

About an earlier Oissa nun rape

http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/feb/18varsha.htm

As I sit to write, the screaming, front-page headline of The Asian Age catches my eye: RABRI CASTE ASIDE BY BJP. I'm not surprised by the presentation or the pun; I know the paper's agenda. My attention has shifted to a tiny item: "Medical report says nun was not raped." I sneer...

In Orissa, a 35-year-old nun had alleged that she'd been gangraped by some men -- disguised as women -- on February 3. While waiting to catch a bus, she had accepted a lift from the "women", and after the vehicle left Baripada, they had gagged and blindfolded her and then raped her in the vehicle. The nun registered an FIR in which she also stated that her colleagues had convinced her to file charges. (I got these details from the masthead news of the same paper of February 6.)

I'm deliberately vague in my recounting. For instance, I say "vehicle" because the report by Our Correspondents In Bhubaneshwar And Baripada cited "their car," while today's PTI report says "a moving taxi." Ditto, "some men": ToI cited three men, TAA enumerated two, and PTI sets "a person." Then, ToI stated that *after* the rape, "She managed to escape from the car when it was nearing Baisinga..." Our Correspondents: "the miscreants gagged her mouth and tied her eyes with a piece of cloth and took her to Boisinga and raped her inside the car."

Short of travelling to the boonies (which this elitist wasn't about to do), I had no way of ascertaining the fine points. But the raggedness of the reports reeked -- as they say, God is in the details... Actually, ToI had oh-so-fairly devoted one line to a police officer: "Different sources have already testified that the nun travelled in a bus and not in a car on that evening." However, since the perpetually browbeaten were involved, that wasn't important...

Next thing we knew, the Church authorities had prohibited a fresh medical examination of the injured party. And the medics resolved that the rape hadn't occurred at all: Dr N K Mohanty of the SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack, has submitted that the injuries on the nun's person "might have been self-inflicted."

But this is all *after* the "rape" caused "widespread resentment." After Father Roy declared that he suspected the involvement of "communal forces." After the Catholic Church Association observed a protest day. After the local Christians appealed to the collector for protection. After the Congress' Girija Vyas toasted the Parivar for spreading "a feeling of insecurity among all women." And after the minorities felt suitably insecure and unsafe. Similar deceptions -- by perpetrators and by the Press -- have led to fatuous declarations from Hindus now ashamed of being Hindu...

Strange but true: On the day the nun was "raped" in Baripada, two nuns belonging to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity were threatened by unidentified men during their visit to the Kandivili-Lokhandwala complex in Mumbai. Stranger but truer: The good Archbishop waited eight whole days before demanding police protection and informing the Press about the attack...

The ToI of February 13 moaned: "The local people told the police that they could not understand why those men treated the nuns in that manner. The nuns came to Vile Parle every week and distributed free medicines to the people, they said." And so it took the opportunity to tabulate a series of Hindu atrocities -- in Calcutta, Hyderabad, Orissa -- and concluded by quoting Madhavrao Scindia: "the attacks on Christian missionaries across the country were part of 'grand designs of the fundamentalist forces' to divide the majority and the minority communities. He said that the BJP had always played the communal card to create a rift between the majority and the minorities..."

Having established the BJP's guilt on the front page, the hallowed newspaper -- lovingly tended to by Ms Dina Vakil -- carried another report inside: "While the three men who attacked the driver of a mobile dispensary run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity at a slum in Kandivili (East) on February 3 are still at large, the police suspect that the attack may have been organised by local doctors. [DCP] Shelar reiterated that the two nuns running the mobile dispensary were not attacked."

In case you're wondering why I'm splitting hairs, let me assure you that the impetus has zero to do with the dubious actions of missionaries. I was goaded by a report on a discourse by the former director of Intelligence Bureau, M K Narayanan ("who is considered an ace thinker in his field"), on the role of intelligence in national security. When a person of Mr Narayanan's stature talks on the subject, I bloody well should listen. And the first line that jumped out at me was: "a substantial proportion of a sleuth's daily input is based on newspaper reports..."

My insides crumbled. A neon light flashed. And technicoloured letters danced a mocking whirligig before assembling to spell: NOW YOU KNOW WHY THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS INDIAN INTELLIGENCE.

The newspaper -- ToI, of course -- continued self-congratulatingly: "[Narayanan] told a questionnaire [sic] that newspaper reports formed a good part of a raw material [sic] on which intelligence was based and developed. He recommended wider reading of newspapers not only by intelligence functionaries but other sections of officials as well." I quietly died.

So beat me up, but I believed, or at least prayed, that media reports would be the very last items to influence spooks. As has become embarrassingly obvious over the last five years, the purpose of the Press is as removed from factual reportage as Clinton is from regret. Adults who draw salaries for simply gathering data aren't able to establish even the details noted in an FIR! Did Our Correspondents and Our Bureau even go to the same police station to copy what the nun had charged? In my book, that's called haraam ki kamaai. And these are the worthies on whom India's Intelligence Bureau depends. Oh god.

OK, so you may say that the papers got some facts wrong but that their intentions were entirely noble. Then, how do you explain the case of the absent report on the American missionary who was neither an American nor a missionary? Bet you haven't heard this one...

On February 2, the Associated Press put out a report that an American missionary, Dr John Sylvester, had been forced to close down his Allahabad-based school and clinic and take sanctuary in the Baptist Seminary after being attacked by Hindu fundies. The item was naturally picked up by our Presswalas.

Unfortunately, Dr Sylvester instantly sent a protest letter to the news agency, declaring that he was a native Indian living in his ancestral home, that he was the executive director of Steward's Trust, that there exists no such seminary in Allahabad, that he never met any AP correspondent, that he never ran a clinic, and that he was not even a priest!

How do I know all this? I know because the hallowed ToI's man in UP checked (for more dirt, I presume). But that's not how *I* know. Meaning, I couldn't have read it if a pal flying in from Lucknow hadn't carried the city special. You see, reports of Hindu atrocities on minorities make headlines nationwide. But any repudiation of the same is merely local news -- leaving the rest of the country to nurture the fraud. Don't ask me why Bombay didn't publish the negation datelined Lucknow -- especially since half of the ToI has been datelined Dangs since about four months. I'm sure the editor's intentions were entirely noble.

On January 11, something called Tunku Varadarajan wrote about the Gujarat uproar in the New York Times op-ed: "On Christmas Day a school run by Christians was burned down by arsonists... This happened a month after a Roman Catholic priest was murdered and religious fanatics vowed to turn an entire district into a 'Christian-free zone.' In keeping with this promise, a chapel was set on fire. Elsewhere, armed men broke into a Catholic convent and assaulted two nuns inside, and another Catholic priest was shot dead."

Excellent! In light of United Christian Forum for Human Rights coordinator Father Cedric Prakash complaining that "It is a question of sentiments and hurt feelings, not just loss of property," and that "there is a section of people which felt that the incidents were not serious enough considering that NOBODY HAD DIED," from where did NYT's scuzzball get the murders of two padres...?

Which, of course, brings us to the murder of Graham Staines and his two young sons... The ToI carried a heart-wrenching piece quoting widow Gladys Staines: "I believe God allowed the incident to happen... Perhaps He has done it with a purpose. [Staines] never converted anybody; he only devoted his life to the service of the poor and downtrodden."

Which is bollocks. Rashtradeep, a vernacular paper of Cuttack, has written that Rev Staines did convert Santhals in and around Manoharpur. That during the third week of January, Staines, along with 10 other preachers, including Australian Gilbert Venj, and two lecturers from Cuttack, Subhankar Ghosh and Rajendra Swain, conducted village meetings, showed films on Christ -- all mobilised towards the conversion effort. That the "jungle camps" were used for betrothals, Bible-preaching and baptism. That 56 families were converted on January 22 -- the day he was killed.

The article raises several other issues: Despite Dara Singh's having several warrants against him, why hadn't he been apprehended? If he belonged to the Bajrang Dal, wouldn't the ruling party have terminated him? Who/what protected him in this traditional Congress stronghold? Why was there no police deployment during this year's camp? Why did the police reach the spot 9 hours after the incident? Why didn't the mob attack any other Christian? There are too many questions left unanswered. Details... details...

The ToI reported: "The police and district authorities said that according to available evidence, the killings were the handiwork of the Bajrang Dal. They identified the main culprit as one Dara Singh... who has been 'spreading hatred' in the area against people of other religions." I see. But do you see? The riots-related testimonies of Bombay's police are automatically garbage -- since they are lackeys of the BJP-Sena government. But Orissa's...

As things stand, not a politico, not a journo has a shred of evidence about where Dara Singh is, or which org he belonged to, or who had masterminded Staines' killing... All they have are: agenda, prejudice and theory.

Like I have mine: Staines wasn't a Roman Catholic. Non-RC evangelists, like those from the Bible Belt, are particularly ruthless about reaching their century-end conversion goals. It's known that in India, evangelists are swiftly converting RCs to Protestant denominations -- and the Church fears that. The Vatican has proved itself to be a scheming, political institution -- right up to Vietnam, and the murder of Pope John Paul I. Political institutions do what they must to keep their dominions intact. The ghastly murder of Staines kills four birds: It sets back competing proselytisation; it gains sympathy for Christianity; it damages the present government; and it discredits the Hindutva movement...

Perhaps, the president of the party which rules Orissa can shed Her Divine Light on the case. Or maybe Vincent George can. Or Oscar Fernandes. Or Margaret Alva. Or P J Kurien...

Tailpiece: On Sunday, a dispensary run by Catholics was ransacked by unidentified persons in Dakor, Gujarat. The police believe it to be a case of robbery. The Salesian Sisters insist it's an attempt to terrorise missionaries working for Dalits. Considering the Bombay incident, let's not rule out a new breed of terrorists -- Medics!

[Feb 18,1999
Varsha Bhosle
God is in the details...]

World Council of Churches on Conversion

'Many feel conversion is not the church's business'

The World of Council of Churches, a liberal Christian organisation that has in recent decades opposed wars particularly, in South Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of the most influential church organisations in the world.
Recently it led a conference held in Toulouse, France, which, with Roman Catholics and many branches of Protestant groups, discussed the issues related to conversion and service.

Hans Ucko, a Swedish theologian who heads the WCC's program for inter-religious dialogue, has always believed conversion has a place in society. But he is also among many Christian leaders who look at conversion through critical eyes. He spoke to rediff India Abroad Managing Editor (Features) Arthur J Pais.

The World Council of Churches has been looking at the issue of conversions for quite some time and you have looked at the issue of conversions in India. Share your thoughts with us on the issue.

I am a convert. I grew up in a non-religious Jewish family in a university town called Lund in Sweden. I grew up without a religion but embraced Christianity in my twenties. But I have never been interested in converting people. I believe it is more important for us to bear witness to Christ by our action of caring for people without any ulterior motives and by our exemplary living.

Conversion is sought by some people in my faith but it is also feared by some. To be able to convert someone is high up on the priority list for some; for others, say, a Hindu, it is a day of grief when someone converts. People may start wondering why a family member is changing religions. They wonder if they did something wrong to make a son or a daughter change the religion.

Even in the case of someone who is changing the religion due to deep conviction, there will be some grief and confusion. I am not saying there should not be conversions. But we ought to keep in mind the consequences.

Those who want others to convert will also not easily stomach when anyone leaves their faith for another faith.

The World Council of Churches maintains that conversion has become a threat and tension for religious diversity and harmony. We need to understand that conversions take place in different socio-economic-political contexts for different reasons. It can happen due to dissatisfaction with one's religion, life-changing experiences, but also through the use of force and aggression� While some conversions may be genuine and spiritual, some others may not.

There are also Christian theologians who feel the conversion of others is not any more the business of the church, given the history of forced baptism and mission enterprises in the accounts of colonial and other subjugations of people of other faiths. They are seeking to formulate the mission of the church not in seeking converts but in converting our world to become a world, where justice reigns and human dignity is a commandment.

They prefer talking about Missio Dei, the mission of God, to which the church as well as people of other religious traditions may be called to participate.

Those who rightly quote the right to change religion and the right to persuade others to change often forget that the United Nations declarations also talk about the right to maintain one's religion or belief: No one shall be coerced to change his or her religion or belief. The right to religious freedom is actually limited by other human rights. In addition, one person's religious freedom may be limited by the religious freedom of another. Thus one interesting field for exploration is the interaction between the freedom to propagate religion on the one hand and the freedom to practice one's religion without interference on the other.

What is the key issue that haunts people opposed to conversion?

I call it an issue of aid-evangelism. It is a recurrent theme. The relief work following the earthquake in Gujarat led to suspicions that Christians and Muslims got less help than Hindus. The relief work carried out by some missionaries in India and elsewhere in Asia got a bad name because the relief workers were also looking for converts.

At the Millennium Peace Conference in August 2000 in New York, I was part of a small group addressing the particular issue of conversion in India. We agreed upon an 'Informal Working Understanding � Freedom from Coercion in Religion.' And we agreed that the free and generous preaching of the Christian Gospel is welcome in India. But we also condemned proselytism; we particularly rejected the exploitation of the issue of poverty in religious outreach and missionary work.

While we agreed that giving of aid to those in need is a primary commandment of all our religious and spiritual traditions, we also resolved that this act of justice should never be tied to compulsory conversion. We have committed ourselves to a continuing dialogue in the spirit of inter-religious harmony, mutual respect, and the cooperative common effort to build a better world.

In this way, we will discover trust in one another [and ensure] that any altruistic work will not be a means for conversion.

Twelve years ago you were one of the prominent Christians involved in a workshop on Hindu-Christian relations held in Madurai. The discussions are still reverberating.

I would like to highlight one part of the document:� On the issue of conversion, the document stated that any 'form of manipulation or enticement to win over others to one's own faith community is immoral and irreligious. So also to use religion to gain economic political or any other form of favour and advantage is equally immoral and irreligious.'

The document, although more than 10 years old, would merit another reading and seen as a basis for an ongoing conversation, not only because it is a good piece of work but because it is the situation in India especially in states such as Gujarat that in many way have sparked off the many-faceted WCC interest in this issue.

The Indian theologian M M Thomas said once that a convert to Christianity should remain in solidarity with his original community. But more often the convert learned consciously or unconsciously to denigrate the faith or religion of origin or to allow a polarisation between the religion one had left and the religion one had entered.

What else is worrying Indian churches apart from the sporadic attacks on them by Hindu religious groups?

Many churches in India were worried by the attempts to legislate against conversion. They felt themselves to be the victims of what para-church groups, often with foreign funds, were involved in. Their evangelisation campaigns and crusades antagonised many Hindus, who either did not want to or could not distinguish which church proselytised and which church abstained from aggressive evangelism. Some churches are afraid the schools, orphanages and hospitals they run could be considered instruments for conversion and banned by law.

But I also believe the mass-conversions of Dalits were not necessarily the direct act of evangelism. Dalits were from the beginning not targeted objectives for conversion. The mission of the church focused historically on individuals, on high-caste Hindus. Dalits came by themselves and understood conversion as their leader [Dr Bhim Rao] Ambedkar understood it -- a movement towards social acceptance. Their conversions rock the boat and challenge the community and the society.

What kind of distinction is there between what is called 'bearing Christian witness' and improper proselytism?

The former is rather called true witness or true evangelism, which a report drawn up in 1956 under the auspices of the World Council of Churches describes as an essential mission and a responsibility of every Christian and every church. That means doing service and even offering knowledge of Christ. Improper proselytism represents a corruption or deformation of true witness. Improper proselytism may, according to the same report, take the form of activities offering material or social advantages with a view to gaining new members for a church or exerting improper pressure on people in distress or in need; it may even entail the use of violence or brainwashing; more generally, it is not compatible with respect for the freedom of thought, conscience and religion of others.

Bearing witness to Christ means Christians always respects the freedom of those to whom it is addressed; it never exploits their weakness or their poverty; it never offers material or social benefits resulting from a change of confession; it excludes all methods of compulsion, including the uncritical use of mass media. In our churches, we stress that Christians bearing witness to their faith do not denigrate the faith of others. Witnessing Christians do not spread prejudices about other Christians. They do not distort their own spiritual convictions to attract others.

Can one be a convert without endorsing conversion?

I would like to paraphrase a Swedish stand-up comedian, who said about the prayer, 'And lead us not into temptation�,' 'thank you very much, you don't have to lead me, I can very well walk myself into temptation.' Applying it to conversion, I don't think I need to be converted by someone, I can convert myself. In fact, I did so over 30 years ago.

The problem with conversion is the arrogance of those who think they have a right to convert others and particularly so when they refer to UN declarations as a support. Claiming the right to seek out the other for conversion is nothing else but turning the other into an object for my design. It is meeting the other as an object, not interested in the encounter and where it might take us.

There will always be people who, for various reasons, will want to break out and look for other pastures. One cannot erect walls high enough to prevent them from leaving. The wall isn't built that will hinder their flight. It is better to let them leave without clipping their wings. We live in a world where encounters and dialogues will lead some to seek other ways than the ones just travelled. This is the right that UN declarations talk about and this is the right of and in each of our religious traditions

URL for this article:
http://www.rediff.com///news/2007/dec/13inter1.htm

December 13, 2007 | 23:12 IST On REDIFF

A new viewpoint on Orissa violence

Local factors led to Kandhamal violence

Ram Madhav
Ram Madhav is a former spokesperson for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

For days, one TV Channel ran visuals of how Christians have been targeted for violence in Orissa's Kandhamal district. Several other so-called national channels too joined the chorus sufficient enough for Mombattiwalas (candlelight activists) to plunge into the ring and declare that 'entire Orissa', if not 'entire India', is in the grip of violence unleashed against 'innocent minorities' by 'Hindu nationalists'.

As a senior leader pointed out to me after a heated TV debate, we have created a funny nomenclature in our country: if you are a Hindu and defend your faith, you are a 'Hindu nationalist', a pejorative reminiscent of Nazi Nationalism. But if you are a Hindu and use your lung power to loudly attack Hinduism and Hindus for crimes they never committed, then you are a great 'secularist'. Both these stereotypes are a creation of our perverted political discourse.

Thus every incident of the nature of the Kandhamal one will immediately be dragged into this Hindu Nationalist�Secularist arena and the endless blame-game continues.

We don't realise that in the process we are not only destroying the image of our nation but actually perpetrating such violence by not looking dispassionately into the real reasons behind each and every single incident.

Violence in the name of religion in any form should be opposed by all. It is unfortunate that we had to end 2007 with one such violent situation in a district of Orissa. But we must not ignore the fact that Kandhamal is for that matter many such incidents have been a localised incident; not a phenomenon as the Candlelight-walas would want us to believe. It is neither pan-Orissa nor pan-Indian.

'Many feel conversion is not the church's business'

The trouble in Kandhamal started on December 23 when some Christians at Brahmanigoan village wanted to erect a Christmas gate in front of a Hindu place of worship. This was resented by the local Hindus who questioned the motive of the Christians in insisting on building a second gate near a Hindu place of worship while one gate was already erected at a place where it is done every year on the eve of Christmas. This led to the initial clashes. Since Christians were more in number in the said village the Hindus were at the receiving end.

As the news of clashes reached Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a selfless Hindu seer � working for the socio-economic development of the local people for over four decades -- he set out for Brahmanigoan on December 24. His car was attacked by a violent Christian mob in which the seer himself and two of his followers sustained serious injuries.

Swamiji, 82 years old, has been relentlessly working for the uplift of the people in the district -- more than 75 per cent of whom are below the poverty line and illiterate -- since 1967. He has opened schools and hostels, hospitals and temples to serve mainly the tribals and the down-trodden.

It was this attack that led to further clashes in the district, as the seer is highly respected and has innumerable supporters in the district. Four days of clashes resulted in both sides suffering in various ways -- many houses were burnt, properties destroyed and physical attacks taking place.

What made things worse in Kandhamal was the open collaboration between the Christian groups and Naxals. Among those arrested in connection with the burning down of villages inhabited by Hindus (Brahmanigaon, Jhinjiriguda, Katingia, and Godapur) were 47 Maoists. Some 20 guns have been recovered by the security forces from them.

The Kandhamal violence is essentially a localised one, as many such incidents in the country have been. It is the local factors that play a predominant role. Animosities were brewing no doubt. But again the reasons were immediate. There has been a feud between the Kondh tribals and largely Christian Pana Scheduled Caste people. The Panas, under the leadership of the local Congress Rajya Sabha member Radhakanta Naik, who is said to be a convert, have been demanding inclusion of their caste in the Scheduled Tribe category as they too speak the same Kui language that the ST Kondhs speak.

Christian group demands CBI probe into violence

This argument was rejected by the state government as well as by the courts. But the agitation in favour of the demand continues under Naik's leadership, fuelling resentment among the Kondhs who remained largely unaffected by conversion activity of the Christian missionaries.

However, if there is any one aspect that is pan-Indian in all the incidents related to Hindu-Christian clashes it is religious conversions. Even in Kandhamal district, one of the major factors fuelling tensions is the conversion campaign of the evangelical groups. It is noteworthy that in a state like Orissa which enacted anti-conversion laws as back as in 1967, the Christian population in Kandhamal district alone has grown from 6 per cent in 1970 to 27 per cent in 2001.

The 'aggression' shown by the new age evangelical groups mostly in predominantly tribal areas in states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat etc has become a major contributor of religious strife. We can't overlook the fact that in the entire country Christmas was celebrated with a lot of gaiety with millions -- a lot of Hindus included -- thronging churches. Hindus, at the core of their belief, are 'omnitheists'. For a Christian or a Muslim there is 'one god', but for a Hindu there is 'only god'. For him god is omnipresent, the entire creation is divine manifestation only.

Religious conversion is an anti-thesis to this belief. There was a time when at the end of the British Raj the mainstream missionaries in India had decided to focus more on humanitarian and developmental activity than conversions. Many still adhere to that concept, confining themselves to running schools, hospitals etc and serving humanity at the time of need.

However, for the growing breed of 'aggressive' evangelicals, numbers are very important. 'Harvesting souls' is god's work for them. Means don't matter. In a very interesting article in Christian Science Monitor (April 1, 2005) Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi and a renowned intellectual was quoted as saying: 'Aggressive and unprincipled missionary work that exploits the distress and ignorance of marginalised groups ... can constitute a catalyst to localised violence, particularly when they are brought into confrontation with other creeds'.

External link: A new breed of missionary

These 'aggressive' activities of their fellow pastors and fathers have aggrieved� many Christian leaders too. This is what the Christian Science Monitor article says on those activities:

After the tsunami, the US National Council of Churches issued a statement warning against the practice by "New Missionaries" of mixing evangelism and aid. "Often lacking sophistication about the lure of gifts and money, and wanting to be generous with their resources, they easily fall prey to the charge of using unethical means to evangelize. This creates a backlash," the February statement read.

"You get this guy out of Texas who has no idea of the local culture, he is out to win souls, and he comes with a lot of money," says Bob Alter, former Presbyterian pastor born and raised in the Indian mountain town of Mussoorie, and former superintendent of a missionary institution, the Woodstock School.

The problem with these newer churches, Mr. Alter says, is the tone of their message. "You have Baptists using the Diwali festival [the Hindu festival of lights], but they come to 'spread the light to those in darkness.' That is mighty offensive stuff, when you're out to tear down another religion."

It even quoted one Bishop Chacko, head of the Roman Catholic diocese in Meghnagar in Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh who said, 'Even the older Protestant churches are unhappy with the evangelicals. It is said that they are irresponsible. Consequences don't matter to them. They put the fire and then they leave it to burn.'

Whether it is Kandhamal in Orissa or Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh or Dangs in Gujarat, the only pan-Indian question is the evangelical activities of 'aggressive conversion campaign'.

If we argue that conversion is a right, then re-conversion too is a right. In this melee of conversions and re-conversions violence and strife will become the order of the day.

Let every religion enjoy complete religious freedom to preach, practice and propagate. But as our apex court categorically stated, 'Propagate' does not and should not include 'Conversion'. Let us put an end to the institutionalised activity of conversions by church agents and instead allow citizens freedom of personal choice without fear or favour.

Christian Science Monitor on New Missionaries

from the April 01, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0401/p01s04-wosc.html

A NEW BREED OF MISSIONARY
A drive for conversions, not development, is stirring violent animosity in India.

By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

JHABUA, INDIA - Biju Verghese believes the end of the world is coming. This faith makes his work urgent: Convert as many Indians to Christianity as possible. Or, as he puts it, "reach the unreached at any cost."

Mr. Verghese is a new breed of missionary, tied not to the mainline Protestant or Catholic churches that came with European colonizers but to expansionist evangelical movements in the US, Britain, and Australia. These newer Christians are now the most active here, swiftly winning over Indians like Verghese who in turn devote themselves to expanding the church's reach, village by village.

Aside from an attraction to the Christian message, some converts welcome the chance to free themselves from a low-caste status within Hinduism. Some may adopt Christianity by simply adding it to their existing beliefs. To others, conversions are a positive statement that you can choose your religious identity rather than have it fixed at birth.

But the success of recent Christian missionaries and their methods of quick conversions have brought tensions with other religions, including some Christians who fear that certain evangelicals are contributing to a volatile - and at times violent - religious atmosphere. The new missionaries put an emphasis on speed, compelled sometimes by church quotas and a belief in the approach of the world's end.

"Aggressive and unprincipled missionary work that exploits the distress and ignorance of marginalized groups ... can constitute a catalyst to localized violence, particularly when they are brought into confrontation with other" creeds, says Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi.

Nationwide, India has a growing reputation for intolerance toward its religious minorities. The US Committee on International Religious Freedom listed India with 10 other nations of "particular concern" - a legacy of the months-long riots in Gujarat state, when nearly 1,000 Muslims were murdered by their Hindu neighbors.

Colonial legacyReligions on the Indian subcontinent have jostled with each other for millenniums. Invaders spread Hinduism and Islam through conquest, followed by British Christians who hoped to create "brown Englishmen." The Christian zeal for conversions ebbed in India after a nearly successful Indian rebellion in 1857 and a theological trend toward good works, such as improving education and healthcare.

Some evangelical Christian groups in India are continuing in that tradition. The Evangelical Hospital Association, for instance, has taken over the management of many of the hospitals of Northern India that were built by mainstream Christian churches during the British colonial period. Graham Staines, an evangelical missionary, was famous for his work with lepers in the state of Orissa, before he was murdered in 1999 by Hindu mobs. His wife, Gladys Staines, this week accepted India's highest award for public service, for continuing this work.

Yet many of today's missionaries are returning to practices of proselytizing that were long ago abandoned by the mainline missionaries because they were seen as offensive.

"The church [during British rule] sought actively to communicate the values of the Renaissance with its Christian message," says Mr. Sahni. "And while conversion was a significant fact of the British period, the schools and other institutions set up by the missionaries were not primarily driven by the objective of conversion."

In recent years, however, conversion activity has grown more intense, driven by the evangelical Christians funded from abroad, and Hindu nationalists. Both are targeting the same groups: impoverished Dalits, formerly known as "untouchables," and adivasis, or tribal citizens, who have long practiced a religion predating Hinduism.

Nationwide, adivasis number nearly 67 million, or 8 percent of the nation's population. But here in the district of Jhabua, they are more than 80 percent of the population. Adivasis are also among India's poorest citizens, earning perhaps $4 per capita per month.

Amid Jhabua's rolling hills and low huts of mud stand Christian churches built 100 years ago.

But the conversion work that some call "aggressive" takes place outside the traditional places of worship. Evangelical and Pentacostal missionaries go village to village, holding prayer meetings in homes or preaching outdoors to all the villagers together.

Speaking in tongues, miraclesThese events often mix emotional messages of personal salvation, speaking in tongues, shaking in trances, and miraculous healings. Some people come for the spectacle; others take advantage of free food. After these performances, whole families, neighborhoods, and even villages are sometimes converted. The missionary leaders move on to the next village, leaving behind money - but sometimes little other support - for new church constructions and pastor salaries .

Verghese is pastor of the Beersheba Church of God in Jhabua. He shows a recent video CD, produced by Indian Evangelical Team (IET) leader P.G. Varghis, which makes it clear that conversion, not development, is the priority.

For Verghese and others who believe the Apocalypse could come at any moment, there is little time to carry out the kind of slow, development-oriented missionary work that mainstream churches focus on.

In the video, Mr. Varghis proudly mentions that the IET's 1,775 missionaries "planted" 2,000 churches in India in just five years, and planned to reach a goal of 7,777 churches by the year 2010.

In recent years, North India has been a key region of focus by informal networks of Christian evangelical groups in the West, with some churches drawing up quotas for new churches built, gospel literature handed out, and new missionaries trained.

"Christians are being killed," Varghis admitted in the video, "But we are dedicated to build North India for Christ."

A call for dollars
The video, which is narrated in English and is apparently aimed at a Western audience, makes an emotional appeal for funds, noting that it costs $3,000 to $6,000 to build a church, a cost that is far beyond the means of the mainly tribal population that IET hopes to convert.

The differing approaches also came to light during recent tsunami relief efforts. A host of small Christian groups headed to India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka to distribute humanitarian aid along with Christian literature. Many faith-based aid groups, from the International Committee of the Red Cross to the American Jewish Foundation, avoid handing out such religious materials because of the potential to offend those who are of different faiths.

After the tsunami, the US National Council of Churches issued a statement warning against the practice by "New Missionaries" of mixing evangelism and aid. "Often lacking sophistication about the lure of gifts and money, and wanting to be generous with their resources, they easily fall prey to the charge of using unethical means to evangelize. This creates a backlash," the February statement read.

"You get this guy out of Texas who has no idea of the local culture, he is out to win souls, and he comes with a lot of money," says Bob Alter, former Presbyterian pastor born and raised in the Indian mountain town of Mussoorie, and former superintendent of a missionary institution, the Woodstock School.

The problem with these newer churches, Mr. Alter says, is the tone of their message. "You have Baptists using the Diwali festival [the Hindu festival of lights], but they come to 'spread the light to those in darkness.' That is mighty offensive stuff, when you're out to tear down another religion."

Anti-Christian violence in India, while rare, can be brutal. Mr. Staines was burned alive with his two young sons, when a mob, led by Hindu activist Dara Singh, set fire to his car in January 1999. Later that year, Hindu activists attacked and raped Roman Catholic nuns in several states, including Orissa, Kerala, and Madhya Pradesh.

Christian missionaries in Gujarat have also faced numerous attacks, in a state where the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has taken the ethos of Hindutva (or Hinduness) to extremes. The US State Dept recently denied a visa to the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, to visit the US.

Discomfort among other Christians
In this charged atmosphere, mainstream Christian churches have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the tactics used by their more assertive brethren.

"Even the older Protestant churches are unhappy with the evangelicals," says Bishop Chacko, head of the Roman Catholic diocese in Meghnagar in Jhabua district. "It is said that they are irresponsible. Consequences don't matter to them. They put the fire and then they leave it to burn."

In Jhabua, distrust of the Christian community led some Hindus to falsely assume Christian foul play in the murder of a 10-year-old Hindu girl named Sujata.

Her body was found Jan. 11, 2004, in the basement bathroom of the Roman Catholic Church's Mission School in Jhabua, where nearly 2,500 students - most of them Hindus - attend. It was immediately apparent that the girl had been raped.

Police suspicion quickly turned toward the Catholic priests themselves, and several priests were held in police custody for 46 hours without being charged and without food or water, although no charges were ever placed.

Hindu activists mobilized
Two days later, after news of the murder began to circulate in local papers, Hindu activists began a campaign of agitation. One Hindu sadhu, or ascetic monk, planted himself in front of the church gates in protest. Thousands of Hindus joined him, some coming from neighboring towns and from as far away as Gujarat state.

Ram Shankar Chanchal Trivedi, a local schoolteacher and member of a Hindu nationalist organization called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps), says the brutality of the murder, and the appearance of Christian culpability, got local Hindus upset.

"She was a little girl who was brutally murdered, and people became emotional and aggressive; they couldn't tolerate it," says Mr. Trivedi sitting on a bed in simple middle-class home. He sighs. "People used to live happily here, but since the political leaders started taking advantage of the murder, it became a political issue."

Now that police have arrested a young drifter - a Hindu from Indore - who admitted to killing Sujata, Trivedi says that the Jhabua riots are a closed matter. But the tensions between the Hindu and Christian communities remain.

The biggest problem, he says, is the new wave of Christian conversions, which offends many Hindus.

" Adivasis are Hindus," Trivedi says, using the Hindi word for tribal. "Tribal people are illiterate, they don't know about religion. So Hindu people object because they are bothering tribal people who can't defend themselves. The tribals can be tempted by money, they should not be exploited."

He pauses. "It will become dangerous if conversion activity continues. It can be a big issue unless other churches don't make it clear to these people that conversion must stop."

For the Rev. Mahipul Bhuriya, a parish priest and a member of a major local tribe, the Bhils, there is danger from both the Hindu right and from the Christian evangelicals.

"I have been drawing a line between good churches that serve and bad churches that are only interested in conversion," says Father Bhuriya. "I tell people, 'I belong to a church that does not breed hatred,' and my Hindu friends are beginning to understand."

In his small Jhabua apartment, Verghese says that violence will not deter him from doing what he sees as God's work.

He adds that RSS activists burned 25 houses in the town of Ali Rajpur in retaliation for the murder of Sujata, and 14 members of his church have been jailed, blamed for the shooting death of an RSS activist.

Far from being terrorized, Verghese says his followers have been strengthened by the riots.

"There is some fear, yes, but the believers have more fear of the Word of God," he says, bouncing his 4-year-old daughter Praisey on his knee.

"There are some people who know very well that the moment Christian missionaries leave, their social development will stop. All the best schools, the best hospitals, are run by missionaries," he says, referring to schools like the Catholic Mission School, built by older, mainstream churches.

"But there are also people who know very well that when the adivasis are better educated and have better lives, they cannot be exploited anymore," Verghese says. "And that is the main reason for the violence against Christians."

Hindu nationalist outreach
Many Christians agree that the Hindu reaction against Christian missionaries is more deeply rooted in economics than in religion.

Historically, higher-caste Hindus treated tribesmen as inferior, and reinforced this in their economic relations. Most tribal people were unable to own their own land, so they farmed land owned by Hindus. As illiterate sharecroppers, tribesmen were kept subservient. As worshipers of ancestors and animals, tribal people were seen as backward.

But in recent years, the RSS and other Hindu nationalist groups have begun to reach out to adivasis, partly to prevent their conversion to other faiths, and partly to expand their political bases.

Now, RSS activists distribute Hindu idols in tribal villages and teach adivasis how to worship during Hindu festivals such as Ganpati, the festival of Ganesh. Similarly, the RSS's political ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has begun heavy recruitment of adivasis, an effort seen as crucial in winning state elections in Madhya Pradesh in December 2003.

Heavyweight political players like Narendra Modi of neighboring Gujarat state campaigned in Jhabua district, promising that a state BJP government would use Gujarat as a "Hindutva model" for its rule in Madhya Pradesh. BJP supporters say that he was referring to Modi's strong economic record.

Critics saw something darker, the use of Hindu mobs to attack religiou1s minorities, as occurred in the Gujarat riots of 2002.

Ajai Sahni says there is no short-term solution to the problem, as long as religious identity is a major tool for mobilizing Indian voters at election time, and as long as every major party uses religious fears and prejudices to organize their support.

"One measure that is needed, however, is a very harsh law to punish those who engage in communal violence," says Mr. Sahni. "Such a law has long been overdue in India."

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Sins of the Fathers

Needless to say, things were quieter and slower when we were young. Information [news, in those days] travelled slowly, if at all. ‘Shocking’ events and ‘startling’ developments were unknown. Life was more peaceful; but then, others have made that observation about those times, earlier. The annual Bihar floods used to be seen at the cinema theatre in the nearby town, many months after the event; and often, after drought had replaced the floods. Now, it is second by second beaming. Remember the Mullaperiyar coverage in Malayalam channels.
Though those great times of blissful tranquillity are gone, we of those times are still around, in our late fifties or later. We have been tackling the changes around us in lifestyles and attitudes by laboriously transforming and painfully adapting ourselves. Some of us are still in paid employment and have to perforce learn new things to survive.
But the TV, Mobile phone and Net revolutions of the past decade or so are emotionally too much even for veterans-in-submission like us. We do not get to read newspapers [because we have to watch the TV News as if performing a pious vow], to receive letters through the post [it is all either Emails or SMS], to meet our relatives at their homes at any time [all are busy meeting job targets or watching TV serials] or to talk to our children and grandchildren except through the phones. We face all these bravely and in wordless anguish. But there are certain things yet that hurt us very badly indeed. Call them value-systems modifications or whatever. Humane-ness’ leaving humanity is sad at any age or time.
Do good to all everywhere - used to be taught to us as children. You see someone hurt or in trouble in your neighbourhood, school, or on the way; you were supposed to stop, enquire and help. No longer so, it seems.
You try to help any child or teenaged girl at home or on the streets now; chances are that your name and face might later be flashed at the world as a suspected or accused in a sex scandal. You listen as a good neighbour or colleague to some wife in marital trouble; you are accorded the same treatment by the current society as a home-wrecker. You cannot even a crack an impotent’s middle-aged joke in your office, if there is some woman in the vicinity. The Harassment Committee might get a new Case. Count yourself doomed for disgrace if you feel like helping to train some raw female recruit of your daughter’s age, in the office.
And daughters in law! In our days, it was okay for the husband to once in a while, lift his hand against the shrewish wife. Women were like children, to be protected; and disciplined for being mischievous or obstreperous. You used to make up for it subsequently in ways passionate. Today however, if your son is infuriated into so much as shouting at his wife, he goes to jail; and you accompany him into the cells as the cruel in laws and conspirators or abettors.
Out on the streets, women police constables dress up [as loose women?] and wait at the bus stops. Smile at them in an elderly way – if you see someone without a smile, you give him/her one of yours - and the police whistle blares out. Your family and neighbours then get to watch from their drawing rooms, your being produced in Court the next day for indecent behaviour in public.
An old friend from the village rings you up and asks you to put up his grandchild [on some short Course in town], with you for a few weeks. You are only honoured to be asked and agree immediately. Son comes home in the evening and you tell him about it. Both son and daughter in law emit unspoken resentment. Son asks you to first check if the boy takes drugs or is involved in some militancy. Daughter in law hints at possibilities of the boy’s being in some rape case and being wanted by the police. You meekly ask them whether nobody can be good anymore, and whether everyone in the world has to be so necessarily evil. Is black the only hue in the universe now?
These might be an old man’s irritating whining about modern things. Yet, one cannot but help feeling that this generation of our boys and girls have turned into inhuman machines after imbibing the fighting spirit of their computer games. If anyone or anything is not quick enough to deliver for them, they go into paroxysms of rage. Cynicism is the normal outlook; trust and compassion is suspect and deviant. Only their computers, mobile phones and TV screens are to be trusted. Siblings and parents are aliens. It is almost as if they do not have humans at all in their closed world.
It is not a free-er world that they create with their individuality, though. It is a world of exploitation. Look at the new-gen businesses. Employment is exploitation and management is bullying there.
It might be that the sins of the fathers are being visited upon the sons! Fortunately, we do not have much longer to live.