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Christian Persecution in India The RealStory
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/christian_persecution_in_india.htm
We have heard about what the Christians in India have called the persecutions againstthem. However, there is much more to this story than we often hear, and there arecertainly two sides to it. The following is a first-hand investigative article that relateswhat has really been going on with the Christians in India, much of which has been keptfrom the public. This shows the duplicity in the Christian activities in India. This article,by Francois Gautier, is reprinted from the "Annual Research Journal, 2001" publishedby the Institute for Rewriting Indian [and World] History.
WILL HINDUISM SURVIVE THE PRESENT CHRISTIAN OFFENSIVE?By Francois Gautier 
When Prime Minister Vajpayee was in the US in September (2000) , the NationalAssociation of Asian Christians in the US (whom nobody had heard about before), paid$ 50,000 to the New York Times to publish "an Open Letter to the Honorable Atal BihariVajpayee, prime minister of India."While "warmly welcoming the PM," The NAAC expressed deep concern about the"persecution" of Christians in India by "extremist" (meaning Hindu) groups mentioningas examples "the priest, missionaries and church workers who have been murdered,"the nuns "raped," and the potential enacting of conversion laws, which would make"genuine" conversions illegal. The letter concluded by saying "that Christians in Indiatoday live in fear."The whole affair was an embarrassment (as it was intended to be) to Mr. Vajpayee andthe Indian delegation, which had come to prod American businessmen to invest in India,a peaceful, pro-Western and democratic country.I am born a Christian and I have had a strong Catholic education. I do believe thatChrist was an incarnation of Pure Love and that His Presence still radiates in the world.I also believe there are human beings who sincerely try to incarnate the ideals of Jesusand that you can find today in India a few missionaries (such as Father Ceyrac, aFrench Jesuit, who works mostly with lepers in Tamil Nadu) who are incarnations of thatLove, tending tirelessly to people, without trying to convert them.
 
But I have also lived for more than 30 years in India, I am married to an Indian, I havetravelled the length and breadth of this country and I have evolved a love and anunderstanding of India, which few other foreign correspondents have because they arenever posted long enough to start getting a real feeling of this vast and often bafflingcountry (nobody can claim to fully understand India). And this is what I have to sayabout the "persecution" of Christians in India.Firstly, it is necessary to bring about a little bit of a historical flashback, which very fewforeign correspondents (and unfortunately also Indian journalists) care to do, whichwould make for a more balanced view of the problem.If ever there was persecution, it was of the Hindus at the hands of Christians, who wereactually welcomed in this country, as they have been welcomed in no other place on thisplanet. Indeed, the first Christian community of the world, that of the Syrian Christians,was established in Kerala in the first century. They were able to live in peace andpractice their religion freely, even imbibing some of the local Hindu customs, therebybreaking the Syrian Church in two.When Vasco de Gama landed in Kerala in 1498, he was generously received by theZamorin, the Hindu king of Calicut, who granted him the right to establish warehousesfor commerce. But once again, Hindu tolerance was exploited and the Portuguesewanted more and more. In 1510, Alfonso de Albuquerque seized Goa, where he starteda reign of terror, burning "heretics," crucifying Brahmins, using false theories to forciblyconvert the lower castes, razing temples to build churches upon them and encouraginghis soldiers to take Indian mistresses.Indeed, the Portuguese perpetrated here some of the worst atrocities ever committed inAsia by Christianity upon another religion. Ultimately, the Portuguese had to be kickedout of India, when all other colonisers had already left.British missionaries in India were always supporters of colonialism. They encouraged itand their whole structure was based on "the good Western civilized world being broughtto the Pagans." Because, in the words of Claudius Buchanan, a chaplain attached to theEast India Company, "Neither truth, nor honesty, honour, gratitude, nor charity, is to befound in the breast of a Hindoo!" What a comment about a nation that gave the worldthe Vedas at a time when Europeans were still grappling in their caves!And it is in this way that the British allowed entire chunks of territories in the East, wherelived tribals, whose poverty and simplicity made them easy prey to be converted toChristianity. By doing so, the Christian missionaries cut a people from their roots andtradition, made them look westwards towards a culture and a way of life which was nottheirs.And the result is there today for everyone to see: it is in these eastern states, some of which are 90 per cent Christian, that one finds the biggest drug problems (and crime) inIndia. It should also be said that many of the eastern separatist movements have beencovertly encouraged by Christian missionaries on the ground that "tribals were therebefore the 'Aryan Hindus' invaded India and imposed Hinduism upon them."
 
The trouble is that the latest archaeological and linguistic discoveries point to the factthat there NEVER was an Aryan invasion of India --it just was an invention of the Britishand the missionaries to serve their purpose. Aryanism is a synonym of Vedic culture.Secondly, Christianity has always striven on the myth of persecution, which in turn bred"martyrs" and saints, indispensable to the propagation of Christianity. But it is littleknown, for instance, that the first "saints" of Christianity, "martyred" in Rome, a highlyrefined civilization which had evolved a remarkable system of gods and goddesses,derived from Hindu mythology via the Greeks, were actually killed (a normal practice inthose days) while bullying peaceful Romans to embrace the "true" religion, in the sameway that later Christian missionaries will browbeat "heathen" Hindus, adoring manygods into believing that Jesus was the only "true" god.Now to come to the recent cases of persecution of Christians in India at the hands of Hindu groups. I have personally investigated quite a few, amongst them the rape of thefour nuns in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, nearly two years ago. This rape is still quoted asan example of the "atrocities" committed by Hindus on Christians.Yet, when I interviewed the four innocent nuns, they themselves admitted, along withGeorge Anatil, the bishop of Indore, that it had nothing to do with religion: It was thedoing of a gang of Bhil tribals, known to perpetrate this kind of hateful acts on their ownwomen. Today, the Indian press, the Christian hierarchy and the politicians, continue toinclude the Jhabua rape in the list of atrocities against Christians.Or take the burning of churches in Andhra Pradesh a few months ago, which wassupposed to have been committed by the "fanatic" RSS. It was proved later that it wasactually the handiwork of Indian Muslims, at the behest of the ISI to foment hatredbetween Christians and Hindus. Yet the Indian press, which went berserk at the time of the burnings, mostly kept quiet when the true nature of the perpetrators was revealed.Finally, even if Dara Singh does belong to the Bajrang Dal, it is doubtful if the hundredother accused do. What is more probable, is that like in many other "backward" places,it is a case of converted tribals versus non-converted tribals, of pent-up jealousies, of old village-feuds and land disputes. It is also an outcome of what -- it should be said --are the aggressive methods of the Pentecost and Seventh Day Adventist missionaries,known for their muscular ways of conversion.Thirdly, conversions in India by Christian missionaries of low caste Hindus and tribalsare sometimes nothing short of fraudulent and shameful acts. American missionariesare investing huge amounts of money in India, which come from donation-drives in theUnited States where gullible Americans think the dollars they are giving go towardsuplifting "poor and uneducated" Indians.It is common in Kerala, for instance, particularly in the poor coastal districts, to have"miracle boxes" put in local churches. The gullible villager writes out a paper mentioninghis wish such as a fishing boat, a loan for a pucca house, fees for the son's schooling.And lo, a few weeks later the miracle happens! And of course the whole family converts,
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satyamev jayate

Francois Gautier - Indophile or Hindutva-phile, Terrorphobe or Islamophobe ??? Mustafa Khan in his article "Pramod Muthalik: Stalwart of sangh parivar coming home to roost!" wrote "Muthalik is called the Togadia of Karnataka or the south. In appearance he could still beguile a naïve person like Francois Gautier as herbivorous and toothless and even gumless oldie." http://commonalty.blogspot.com/2009/0... Francois Gautier is far from "naïve". He pops up now and then, with amazing regularity, to defend the indefensible human rights violations and atrocities of the Hindutva brigade / extreme-right Hindu fundamentalist groups / Sangh Parivar radicals. He has joined hands with the extreme right to rewrite Indian history from the Hindutva perspective, presenting outright lies, calumnies, false allegations and Hindutva propaganda as undisputable facts. His stand on issues is best summarized at http://shivamvij.com/2006/06/11/franc... He claims to be objective, speaking from a neutral standpoint... whereas, in truth, he is a stooge of the Sangh Parivar, european by birth, but saffron appeaser by choice and profession. ... which is why you will find his name and his articles prominently displayed on all websites belonging to the above mentioned hate-mongering radical groups who engage in whipping up communal hatred, disharmony and violence. Just click on any of the following links to have a good sample: http://www.sanghparivar.org/search/no... http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/cate... http://en.wordpress.com/tag/francois-... In Wikipedia pages, the name of Francois Gautier is prominently displayed alongside other Hindutva proponents like Koenraad Elst, Sita Ram Goel, K.S. Lal, Harsh Narain, Arun Shourie and Ram Swarup. Here are a few more endorsements of Francois Gautier from very varied sources: http://hsctruthout.stopfundinghate.or... Francois Gautier: A darling of the Sangh parivar, this conservative French journalist (he writes for Le Figaro) has made some of the boldest statements which defend Hindutva and Hinduism's most regressive and oppressive institutions. For example, he argues that the main (if not the only) reason why Dalits and Adivasis are against "mainstream Hindu society" is because there has been a "vilification of the caste system" by the British (http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/oct/18.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%... He is a staunch supporter of Hindu human rights movements and has written many books on Hinduism, Indian politics and Hindutva. He is a supporter of the Sangh Parivar, and blindly ascribes to their viewpoint. He claims to be a supporter of Human Rights - while it is true that he has advocated human rights when the victims are Hindus, he turns a Nelson's eye to other Human Rights Violations, especially when the perpetrators belong to the Sangh Parivar. At www.fact-india.com, which claims to be the mouthpiece for ALL victims of human rights violations, no mention is made of the gross human rights violations during the December 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the violence unleashed against the Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat massacres, the targetting of the minority community in Mumbai by the right-wing Hindutva groups, the pogrom launched by the Hindutva fundamentalist groups on the hapless Christians in Orissa in December 2007 and worse still in August 2008 based on unproved allegations, the breaking into Churches in Mangalore in 2008 on trumped-up allegations. Living in India, it is impossible that Francois Gautier is unaware of these violations, but it proves that he is a sympathizer of the cause of the right-wing Hindutva fanatics. http://www.francoisgautier.com/ He was awarded the journalism prize (Natchiketa award of excellence in journalism) in 2003 by the then Prime minister of India Sri Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Pragna Puraskar by Pragna Bharathi Hyderabad. (Please note the political affiliations of the eminent persons / organizations who gave Francois Gautier the awards) http://www.francoisgautier.com/review... "Meet Francois Gautier, South India correspondent of Le Figaro, who blames Jawaharlal Nehru for the ills haunting India and supports Murali Manohar Joshi's attempts to re-write Indian history" (K.G. Suresh, Asian Age). A very pertinent comment by Jayadevan on Francois Gautier's views on conversions. http://satyameva-jayate.org/2005/12/3... Francois Gautier is one of those white men who periodically end up in India holding out the torch of enlightenment to us ignorant blacks, and his prescription for our ills. I have been reading his writings for the enjoyment of his convoluted logic and unbridled anti-semitism and virulent hatred of the Mahommedans. The Last Crusade? A long time back, I even remember him trying to cobble together a Grand Alliance against the Beast

reply02 / 11 / 2009
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