Christians in India Beware! Your Works of Charity Can Send You to Jail!
What a tragedy! What a situation we are in India today! You can no longer do any of your works of charity and of compassion as you have done all along in the past, since you can be branded as one trying to interfere in someone else’s “freedom of religion” and converting them by force, and find yourself inside the nearest jail. That precisely is what is happening to most of the Christians dedicated to charitable work in this good old country of ours perhaps with the largest number of poor and the helpless people in the whole world.

Today, in this largest democracy in the world, it is only a question of head counting, a question of vote bank politics, one which is calculated on mere numbers, numbers of one’s religion and caste, since everything here now moves forward only on that principle. Values have lost their value, and principles are being simply thrown to the winds. Where the principle of “might is right” seems to be ruling the roost and truth is being systematically pushed to the grey area of all human endeavor. Everything is being looked at differently depending upon from which angle one is looking at. This is a clear case of power going to the wrong hands, to people insufficiently enlightened and unfortunately also wedded wholly to their primordial loyalties, loyalties that could simply obstruct and block the very progress of our country as newly emerging world power.
You may say that it is a new and an internationally accepted phenomenon in the world today. But, what we see in our country now is something far beyond anybody’s comprehension. Even the greatest gift of God to man, the religion, something to know more about his way to his Creator on his journey towards God, is being used without any qualms by the blinded Hindu fundamentalists to hunt down the innocent Christians who try to preach the religion of the self same Creator in India today. It is indeed very sad and even shocking that all attempts are being made to project all Christians in India who try to preach the good news, as the very monsters of forcible conversions from Hinduism to Christianity. It is a subtle game of bluffs and of exaggerations to whip up the feelings and emotions of the members of the majority community in order to undermine all the good work that is being done by the small but committed Christian community for the welfare of the people of this country. Of course it is not the sincere practicing and good Hindu religionists, but the pseudo Hindu-religionists, with their own selfish interests at heart that go round using religion for their selfish goals of accumulating power, position and pelf through every possible money-making means.
The spiritual commitment of Christians to their vocation of charitable work of compassion to the last and the least in the society, naturally comes in the way of such the money grabbing sharks for whom all charitable and service activities, may they be educational institutions, health care institutions, or such other institutions such as the orphanages, the homes for the aged and the helpless that care for the marginalized and the sick, the leprosy patients, the deaf and the dumb which for such selfish sharks are only centres for swindling money and have absolute control over the society as a whole. The benevolent and service oriented Christian institutions block their easy access to the poor and the simple souls in their systematic squeezing of even the last paisa out of them. Such, cunning modern mercenaries stop at nothing in their greed to possess more money more power, and more control over everything under them making them the very “gods” of the modern bewildered and confused men in the ever changing Indian society today. Religion, they regard as the best stick to deal the hardest blow at whomever they think are against them and whose actions they don’t approve. How, otherwise, can anyone explain, in a logical manner, all the attacks against practically all kinds of institutions run by Christians throughout the length and breadth of the country during the last few years, that too only after the business oriented one-track minded saffron brigade began gaining political clout in the country?
The falsely leveled allegations of forced conversions against Christians, is only an intelligently evolved façade for all to see, so that they can hope to go about their systematic diabolic work of demolition of institutions and organizations built down the years with the sweat and the sacrifice of numberless Christians, without anybody raising a single finger of objection against such inhuman and barbaric acts. It is indeed a terrible and demeaning design to destroy the very basic structure of this great land. We can clearly see in it, what St. Paul talks about the invisible power struggle on earth and in the very heavens above - “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”Ephesians 6:12.
A few recent cases of such attacks by the Hindu fundamentalists in Karnataka against such innocent Christians are indeed glaring examples of similar attacks throughout the country. The story of Praveen D’Souza in South Kanara is a classic example of an innocent Christian ending up in jail for trying to be a “good Samaritan” to a run-away 14 year old boy studying in 8th Std, trying to free himself from the tortures of his step-mother. Praveen a poor young Mangalorean Catholic, working as a watchman, who has no idea whatsoever about matters like conversion etc. Praveen just helped the miserable young boy who begged him for some shelter. Mr. Henry Baptist Robey, also a Catholic belonging to St. Rock’s Church in Bangalore, simply loved leprosy patients and liked to embrace even those who are still suffering from the disease. As part of his regular annual celebration of the feast of Pentecost at his residence in HBR Layout, he hosted a lunch for his friends and well-wishers regardless of their religion and also invited the leprosy patients to join them for lunch. About 200 Hindu fundamentalists surrounded his house and got him arrested along with two leprosy patients who were shouting at the top of their voice that they were Hindus. But all the three ended up in Bangalore Central Jail. The third case again is from Mangalore where young orphans from a convent at Kotekar, to the south of Mangalore, were boarding a bus to go home for holidays at Bidar. They were stopped from travelling and handed over to the children’s remand home by the saffron brigade. The nuns had to forfeit not only huge amounts of ticket fare, but also spend sleepless nights worrying about their wards.
There seems to be absolutely no rhyme nor reason for any of these acts, except that the Sangh Parivar activists got some vicarious pleasure out of these senseless deeds of torturing the innocent. We sincerely feel that it is time that men of goodwill in India woke up to the ground realities and raised their voices against these senseless attacks against innocent Christians who are only involved in works of charity out of compassion and love for the last and the least in our society, irrespective of the religious backgrounds of the beneficiaries.
Dr. Sajan K. George

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