Checkmating Christianity: What India Can Learn From Japan
The defining takeaway from the episode of thousands of infant children being sold by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity is that there is no love in the ‘Religion of Love’. Christianity has become a business that primarily deals in the harvest of souls and for that it is willing to do the most reprehensible acts – such as selling new born babies in the manner that pet shops trade in puppies and kittens. There’s a difference though – animals sold in pet shops usually go to good, loving homes. On the other hand, Mother Teresa’s nuns weren’t the least bit bothered that innocent babies could end up in the hands of paedophiles, pimps or abusive foster parents.
The cult of Jesus is a toxic religion that has penetrated the vital organs of the nation state and threatens to weaken it from within. Whether it is nuclear weapons, strengthening the defence forces, strategic rockets or surgical strikes, Christians – whether they are politicians, bureaucrats or journalists – support the US, Pakistani and Chinese positions at the expense of national security.
Christians act against India’s national interests because they take their cue from their churches. This is because Christianity has no noble intentions in India – or for that matter anywhere. Like a parasite, it slowly and relentless destroys its host, as pagan civilisations such as Rome and Greece discovered in the ancient past. The impunity with which Christians attempt to destroy the very society that allows them to grow is aptly illustrated by Pope John Paul II’s call to the church in 1999 to redouble its efforts to convert Indians. “Just as the first millennium saw the cross firmly planted in the soil of Europe, and the second in that of America and Africa, so may the third Christian millennium witness a great harvest of faith on this vast and vital continent,” he told a crowd at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. (1) The irony was that the Pope’s exhortation – which implied the destruction of Hindu India – was made on November 8 which marked Diwali, the most auspicious of Hindu festivals.
One of the little known facts about India’s Partition is that in 1947 the Christians behaved in a very narrow minded manner and openly supported the creation of Pakistan. Just ahead of Partition, Christians in Punjab met with Mohammed Ali Jinnah several times to assure him of their support. (2) Christian leaders also requested the British for the transfer of Gurdaspur to Pakistan after the district was given to India.
When the entire country was aghast at the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar (where the British gunned down over 2,000 unarmed civilians) Indian Christians stood behind the British without the least bit of remorse. (3)
It is not rocket science to guess which side of the fence Indian Christians are on. If it comes to another Partition, they will once again support Indian Muslims. In Kerala, they are part of the alliance which includes the Indian Union Muslim League (formerly the Muslim League, the party of Mohammed Ali Jinnah.) The ideology of the Abrahamics is such that even if they are at each other’s throats across the world, in India they will connive against the Hindus. Having common ancestral roots in Abraham and Moses and a shared monotheistic belief, they are sympathetic to each other against the polytheistic Hindus.
India is looking at a difficult time in the coming years as emboldened Christians provide solid support to their Muslim brothers in the war with their common Hindu enemy. The country’s political and military leadership will have to think long and hard on how to deal with this threat.
Secularism albatross
The rot set in centuries ago when Hindu rulers allowed Christianity to take root in India without studying the nature and intentions of these newcomers. The Syrian Christians, who were expelled by the Shah of Persia for betraying their country, were given sanctuary in Kerala. But such was their gratitude that when the Portuguese and British arrived in India, the Indian Christians quickly sided with the European colonialists against the Hindu kingdoms that had offered them sanctuary. Ironically, it was because the Hindu kingdoms donated land and wealth to the Syrian Christian churches that allowed them to convert Hindus and rapidly increase their community’s numbers. (4) Today Christians are over 20 per cent of Kerala’s population and vote en masse as per the church’s diktats.
Another blunder of the Hindu kingdoms was that when they defeated the colonial powers, no effort was made to convert the Indian Christians. For instance, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, his son Sambhaji and Peshwa Baji Rao I each defeated the Portuguese on successive occasions but religious pluralism being second nature to Indic religions, the Marathas made no effort to bring back to Hinduism the Indians that the Portuguese had converted. The Marathas should have made the Konkan a swamp for Christianity but because they were battling multiple threats (the Turkish Mughals, Britain, Portugal, Deccan Sultanates and the Nizam) they perhaps underestimated the danger the converted Christians would pose to India in the centuries ahead.
However, the biggest damage to Hinduism was caused by the secular governments of post-independence India, especially the Nehru-Gandhi family, which opened the floodgates to Christian missionaries from all over the world, and even presented the nation’s highest civilian award. (5)
Spiritual invasion of Japan
While Hindu kingdoms failed to scrutinise the nature of Christianity, there is Japan’s focussed resistance to Christian invasion and a clear understanding of the cult of Jesus.
Christianity arrived in Japan in 1549 with Francis Xavier (the same Jesuit who tortured and murdered tens of thousands of Indians in the Portuguese Inquisition of Goa and for which the Vatican rewarded him with sainthood). Just as the chaos of the Islamic invasions helped the Portuguese expand in India, similarly Japan, which was experiencing social upheaval, political intrigue and near-constant military conflict in the same period, initially proved to be a happy hunting ground for European soul harvesters.
Will Durant writes in The Story of Civilization (6) that the small community Xavier established grew so rapidly that within a generation after his coming there were 70 Jesuits and 150,000 converts in Japan. “They were so numerous in Nagasaki that they made that trading port a Christian city, and persuaded its local ruler, Omura, to use direct action in spreading the new faith. Within Nagasaki territory, Buddhism was totally suppressed— its priests being persecuted and driven away.”
However, just when it seemed that Japan would go India’s way and become divided and become easy prey for the missionaries, it got lucky. In the late 15th century, the country found a “great unifier” in Toyotomi Hideyoshi who was a preeminent general, samurai and politician.
Hideyoshi was alarmed at the “spiritual invasion” of Japan, and suspecting Christianity of having political designs. He sent a messenger to the Vice-Provincial of the Jesuits in Japan, who presented five peremptory questions:
- Why, and by what authority, he (the Vice-Provincial) and his religieux (members of religious orders) constrained Hideyoshi’s subjects to become Christians?
- Why they induced their disciples and their sectaries to overthrow temples?
- Why they persecuted the Buddhist priests?
- Why they and the other Portuguese ate animals useful to man, such as oxen and cows?
- Why he allowed the merchants of his nation to buy the Japanese and make slaves of them in the Indies?
Not satisfied with the replies, Hideyoshi issued, in 1587, the following edict:
“Having learned from our faithful councillors that foreign religieux have come into our realm, where they preach a law contrary to that of Japan, and that they have even had the audacity to destroy temples dedicated to our (native gods) Kami and Hotoke; although this outrage merits the severest punishment, wishing nevertheless to show them mercy, we order them under pain of death to quit Japan within twenty days. During that space no harm or hurt will come to them. But at the expiration of that term, we order that if any of them be found in our States, they shall be seized and punished as the greatest criminals.”
Hideyoshi’s fears were not entirely ungrounded. “The truth is that Catholic Christianity has always been, and was especially at that time, so intimately connected with the state that her emissaries could not keep from entangling themselves in politics,” writes Lutheran missionary R.B. Peery. (7)
The big eviction
Hideyoshi’s edict considerably cooled the ardour of Christ’s soldiers but the knockout punch was yet to come. That came in the person of Tokugawa Iyeyasu (January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) the founder and first ruler of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which effectively ruled Japan from 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
Will Durant explains how Iyeyasu felt about religion and its place in Japanese society: “Like most statesmen he thought of religion chiefly as an organ of social discipline, and regretted that the variety of human beliefs cancelled half this good by the disorder of hostile creeds. To his completely political mind the traditional faith of the Japanese people — a careless mixture of Shintoism and Buddhism— was an invaluable bond cementing the race into spiritual unity, moral order and patriotic devotion….”
Iyeyasu initially approached Christianity with a lenient eye and refrained from enforcing against it the angry edicts of Hideyoshi. However, “he was disturbed by its intolerance, its bitter denunciation of the native faith as idolatry, and the discord which its passionate dogmatism aroused not only between the converts and the nation, but among the neophytes themselves. Finally his resentment was stirred by the discovery that missionaries sometimes allowed themselves to be used as vanguards for conquerors, and were, here and there, conspiring against the Japanese state”.
The Japanese had got an inkling of Christianity’s ignoble intentions by closely studying their manoeuvres during the period of aggressive European colonialism. The tipping point came in 1596 when a Spanish galleon that approach the Japanese coastline was attacked and looted by Japanese boats. The pilot, Landecho, protested to Hideyoshi’s Minister of Works, Masuda.
Masuda asked how it was that the Christian Church had won so many lands to be subject to one man – the Pope. Landecho boasted: “Our kings begin by sending, into the countries they wish to conquer, religieux who induce the people to embrace our religion; and when they have made considerable progress, troops are sent who combine with the new Christians; and then our kings have not much trouble in accomplishing the rest.”
Landecho’s answer confirmed Japan’s worst fears – that Christianity was the battering ram of colonialism. It set in motion events that led to the extirpation of the cult of Jesus from Japan. On January 27, 1614, Iyeyasu issued his famous edict in which he branded the Jesuit missionaries as triple enemies – enemies of the gods, of Japan, and of the Buddhas. The doughty Shogun forbade the practice or preaching of the Christian religion in Japan, and ordered all converts either to depart from the country or to renounce their new beliefs. At this time there were more than one million Christians in Japan.
Many priests evaded the decree, and some of them were arrested. Desiring to avoid bloodshed, Iyeyasu tried the plan of transportation. Three hundred Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Augustinians and native converts were shipped from Nagasaki to Macao. But many priests concealed themselves and were overlooked. The native Christians refused to renounce their faith.
No Christian was executed during the lifetime of Iyeyasu; but after his death the full fury of the bureaucrats was unleashed on the Christians, and a violent and brutal persecution ensued which practically stamped Christianity out of Japan.
Hidetada, the next shogun, pronounced the death sentence upon every foreigner, whether priest or catechist, found in the country. All native converts who refused to renounce their faith were likewise sentenced to death. Converts were wrapped in straw sacks, piled in heaps of living fuel, and then set on fire. Many were burned with fires made from the crosses before which they were accustomed to bow. Some were buried alive.
Over all the empire the most rigid prohibitions of Christianity were posted. The high-sounding text of one of them was as follows: “So long as the sun shall continue to warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan ; and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christians’ god, or the great God of all, if He dare violate this command, shall pay for it with His head.” These prohibitions could still be seen along the highways as late as 1872.
In 1638 the remaining Christians gathered to the number of 37,000 on the peninsula of Shimabara, fortified it, and made a last stand. Iyemitsu, the grandson of Iyeyasu, sent a large armed force to subdue them. When, after a three-month siege, their stronghold was taken, all but one hundred and five of the survivors were massacred in the streets.
It clearly wasn’t easy for the Japanese to kill their own people, even if these new Christians had embraced an alien cult with extra-territorial loyalties, but the danger the colonial powers posed to Japan forced their hand. They were willing to lose a few fingers in order to save the rest of the body. Iyeyasu’s love and concern for Japan is summed up in his last words to his son Hidetada: “Take care of the people. Strive to be virtuous. Never neglect to protect the country.”
Studying Christianity before attacking it
In India, the myth of Vasudeva Kutumbakam (World is One Family) has blinded generations of Hindus to external dangers. They look at Islam and Christianity as merely other forms of worship of the same god, not realising that Islam and Christianity don’t reciprocate that favour. For these two Abrahamic faiths it’s a zero sum game – they cannot co-exist with Hindus and Hinduism must die for them to take over.
Unless Indian nationalists study and understand the nature of Christian theology, Hindus will not be able to effectively demolish the arguments of Christians. Hindus rightly attack Christianity as a narrow faith and correctly describe Christians as having no love for India, but Christians are least bothered by these attacks. Unless Hindus deconstruct Christianity and expose its fragile philosophy to the masses, the missionaries will continue to gain converts.
In this aspect, Japan did not lag behind. The country, which originally had the indigenous Shinto religion, carefully studied every foreign religion before accepting it.
According to R.B. Perry (7), when Buddhism was first brought to Japan it was seen to possess elements of religious power that Shinto did not have, and the people by and by accepted it. When Confucianism was introduced its moral teachings were seen to be lofty and inspiring, and it was given a warm welcome. When Christianity first came many of the daimios took especial pains to examine into it to see if it were likely to benefit their country, with the full intention of accepting it.
Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism have existed here side by side for centuries. There is no great antagonism between them, as there is between Christianity and the ethnic religions. Many of the people are disciples of all three at the same time, taking their theology from Shinto, their soteriology and eschatology from Buddhism, and their moral and economic ideas from Confucianism.
No inconsistency is felt in thus believing all three religions and worshiping at their shrines. Indeed, these three faiths have so commingled, the ideas and practices of one have so filtered into the others, that it is hard now to distinguish the pure teachings of each. In the minds of the masses they are not distinguished in detail. And yet as regards origin, history, and teachings they are separate and distinct faiths.
Exposing the 10 Commandments
Japanese apostate Fukan Fabian (1565-1621) has left one of the best critiques of Christianity. Originally a Buddhist monk, he became a Jesuit and then left the church to return to his Japanese roots. This unique background allowed him to view the ‘kirishitan’ faith in an unprecedented way. His treatise ‘Ha Daiusu’ is a rare case of a direct response to Christian critique of Japanese religions.
Monika Schrimpf, Lecturer, Bayreuth University, Germany, writes that Fukan opposed the universalism of Christian truth claims by advocating a particularistic attitude. He explained the co-existence of Buddhism, Shinto and Confucianism by the particular situation of Japan as “the land of the gods, and, because of the eastward expansion [of Buddhism], the land of the Buddhas”. (8)
The combination of concern for the country and dismissal of universal and exclusivist religious claims is most evident in Fukan’s comment on the Ten Commandments. Here, he counteracts (Italian Jesuit missionary Alexander) Valignano’s statement that the Ten Commandments are profoundly reasonable and just, and therefore they should be accepted by all countries and people.
Against this assertion Fukan argues that the Ten Commandments cannot be accepted in Japan, writes Schrimpf. Because of Shinto mythology, Japan’s political order rests on the worship of kami and Buddhas, whereas its social order depends on the Confucian virtues of filial piety and loyalty towards the secular lord. To him, the first commandment ‘You shall revere God above all other things’ threatens the balance of political, social and religious order in two ways:
It forbids the worship of non-Christian deities, thus preparing the ground for an implementation of foreign customs; and it authorises resistance against secular lords, if this is in accord with God’s will: “According to the first commandment one must not follow the commands of one’s lord or father, if these are against the will of Deus, nor even value one’s life; it includes the encouragement to conquer the country and destroy the Buddhist and the imperial law.” (Ha Daiusu 1970: quotation 441)
Again he argues on the premise that religion ought to serve the country, and that Christianity is not compatible with a peaceful political order. He also questions the exclusivity of the Ten Commandments by stating that they are included in the five precepts for lay Buddhists (not to kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to lie and not to consume intoxicating liquids).
Besides, they do not exceed Confucian moral teachings: There are numerous moralities, but none exceeds the five relationships. Lord and vassal, father and child, husband and wife, older and younger brother, friend and friend, if they fulfill their mutual moral duties, what need could there be for anything else? The duties among lord and vassal are loyalty and benevolence, among father and child filial piety and caring love, among husband and wife their respective obligations, between older and younger brother brotherly love, and faithfulness between friends. (Ha Daiusu 1970: 441)
Reversing the gaze
Although Fukan’s arguments against Christianity are largely based on the idea of national welfare, reason still is the other criterion of evaluation. He criticises inherent contradictions in the idea of an omnipotent, omniscient and merciful God. For example, he comments on the teaching that Jesus was sent by God to atone for the sin of Eve and Adam.
“They say that God appeared on earth 5,000 years after heaven and earth were opened. Was this atonement so late because the distance between heaven and earth is extremely far and it took him some years to come such a long way? Or did he need so long to prepare for the journey? Since there was no atonement for 5,000 years all men all over the world must have fallen into hell, an uncountable number of people. These uncountable people must have dropped into hell like raindrops. Can you really call him, who watched this without mercy for 5,000 years, without making up his mind to create a means to save these people, lord of mercy?” (Ha Daiusu 1970: 438)
In a similar pattern the narrations of the Old Testament are used to question the qualities attributed to God: Why did God create the angels so that some of them would oppose him? (Ha Daiusu 1970: 433)
Why did he create Adam and Eve so they would sin against him? This god must be either cruel or ignorant. (Ha Daiusu 1970: 434)
Fabian’s view was that Christianity’s doctrine made it inherently destabilising for the targeted country. “Even if a man has committed acts of banditry and piracy, if he has killed his father and mother, committed the five abominable crimes (listed in the national codes), even if he has been guilty of other capital crimes, provided that the Fathers, having heard (his confession), forgive him, his crimes are absolved. That is what they claim. This is a truly diabolic doctrine….The Fathers ought to be branded with a red hot iron as supporters of banditry and instigators or rebellion and assassination.” (9)
The genius of the Japanese is they reversed the gaze. What the West and Christianity were doing to Japan, the Japanese paid it back brilliantly – using cold logic.
Deconstruction of Christianity continues
The startling – and admirable – thing about Japan’s deconstruction of Christianity is its persistence and continuity over hundreds of years. The Japanese continually examined, evaluated and critiqued the Middle Eastern/European import (in contrast to the way Indians have parroted the myth of Vasudeva Kutumbakam), always arriving at the conclusion that Christianity was not only unsuited to the Japanese way of life but also that it was a dangerous and immoral faith.
Aizawa Seishisai (July 5, 1781 – August 27, 1863) was a Japanese nationalist thinker who wrote the iconic ‘Shinron’ (New Theses). He theorises that the Western nations had become powerful because they used religion to enforce conformity of the masses, and therefore Japan must take up its own state religion.
Seishisai explains how European and Middle Eastern powers used Christianity (and its sister faith Islam) as tools of conquest: “In eras past, their only means of maintaining obedience among their vast hordes was to lure with promises of booty and intimidate with displays of force. As a result those hordes lacked integration and permanence. But now the religions of Islam and Christianity have provided Western leaders with these two elements and more. Today, each barbarian tribe while maintaining its own territory, allies itself with all others to convert the entire world to their religion. This is indeed a far cry from the past.” (10)
He agrees wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed by his countrymen like Iyeyasu and Hideyoshi 200 years ago. “The only nation besides our own that is not yet befouled by either Islam or Christianity is the Manchu Ching empire. Countries such as Korea or Annam (modern Vietnam) have also done an admirable job of maintaining their independence by remaining unconverted to those occult religions.” (11)
Another Japanese who was a lifelong advocate of the “Expel the Barbarians” movement was statesman and diplomat Komura Jutaro, who was sent to study law at Harvard Law School in 1875. When an American named Alpheus Hardy said he prayed that the work of a convert named Niijima Jo (who had founded a university named Doshisha University to educate Japanese according to Christian principles) would be a success, Komura shot back: “Prayer will do no good. A plan like that will never succeed in Japan.” (12)
“Japanese culture and history will interfere. You Americans think of Japan the same way you do the Philippines and Hawaii. In places like that, Christian evangelisation may penetrate deeply, but Japan has a strong civilisation of its own, one that stands apart from Christian civilisation and has its own traditions. We Japanese will learn Western technology, but we will never easily give in to the Christian culture attached to it. That’s why Niijima’s enterprise will not have the success you are hoping for.”
Japanese citizens: Loyal to Japan
Unlike India, fortune had favoured Japan in several ways. Firstly, its geographical distance from the Christian and Muslim heartlands and its island status made invasion difficult for the barbarians. Secondly, a succession of leaders played a big role in making Japan a swamp for Christianity. However, it was the Japanese national character that was the main line of defence that prevented the missionaries from make inroads.
American writer Lafcadio Hearn, who lived in the country from 1890 to 1904, paints a broad canvas that shows the ordinary people’s stubborn resistance to foreign corruption and temptation. “Two natives sold some ground to a Romish missionary. He obtained it only after great difficulty, and after having been roughly refused by many very poor citizens, although the price offered was quite big. The papers published with high praise the names of those who refused, among others, that of my former landlord who ironically offered his ground at 10,000 yen per square foot.” (13)
Then the papers turned their attention to the sellers – one was a doctor, the other a photographer. “They were put into print as worse than beasts. The papers traced up their private history. The doctor had been a fraud – married a widow for money and swindled her.” The photographer was revealed to be living in penury and was also tasting the bitterness of life. The impression thus gained was that only degenerate people would sell land to Christian missionaries.
Hearn narrates how even little children resisted the missionaries. “The missionary started in, of course, by giving money to children. Some children refused it with scorn. The papers published their names. And a merchant, reading the same in some distant city, sent to one of the children – a little girl – a pretty silk handkerchief, and a letter full of commendations and of good advice.”
On one occasion, when Christian students refused to show respect at a Shinto temple, they were not kindly treated by the other students. (14)
Hearn, who a former Catholic, witnessed the mischief Christians were causing in Japan. Missionary activity had the potential to create social discord, eventually leading up to violent conflict. “I see the missionaries are still telling the people they are savages and idolaters, etc and have been making a row at Bakkan and other places.” (15)
Having witnessed the diabolic activities of the missionaries, Hearn offers a simple solution: “Personally, of course, I think the missionaries ought to be put on a small ship, and the ship scuttled at a reasonable distance of one thousand miles from shore.”
Peery, the Lutheran, agrees Christianity has problems. (16) “A second principle inherent in the very nature of Christianity which hinders its progress in heathen lands is its exclusiveness. Our religion is among the most intolerant in its attitude toward other faiths. We believe and teach that ‘there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved’, than the name of Christ. While acknowledging that other religions contain grains of truth, we must affirm that, as religious systems, they are false. Christ sent forth His apostles to make disciples of all, winning them to the Christian faith. And the aim of the church today is, not to cultivate brotherly love and communion with other religions, but rather to exterminate them and make Christians of all. She can brook no rival. Her adherents must give their allegiance to her alone.
“Christianity not only claims to be the only religion, but she can offer no hope to those outside of her pale. While the Bible does not demand that I teach the Japanese that their ancestors are surely lost, it certainly gives me no ground for assuring them of their salvation. We all revere our forefathers, but none so much as the Oriental. He pays periodical visits to the tombs of his ancestors; he worships his father and commemorates the day of his death by mourning. A heaven from which his ancestors are excluded has little attractions for him. Often does the Shintoist say, ‘I would rather be in hell with my ancestors than in heaven without them’.”
What India can learn from Japan
Japan and India are the last two dharmic nations in the world. While Japan has avoided being sucked into Christianity’s digestive tract, Indic religions are losing members to the Abrahamic aggressor.
For the sake of everyone in India (not just Hindus), Hinduism must remain the dominant religion. This is because if Islam and Christianity become the majority, India will turn into Pakistan. If Hindus lose control of India, the country will descend into civil war because Muslims and Christians will be fighting for the balkanised bits.
While explosive Muslim population growth is on some people’s radar, Christianity is like hypertension – a sneaky killer. It is the bigger danger of the two because in the past it has allied with the Western powers to destabilise the country. It was the church in Kerala which was the conduit for funnelling CIA cash to Indira Gandhi in order to destabilise the democratically elected communist government. (17) Worldwide, the CIA has used Christian padres for spying, gun running and supplying narcotics. Christian citizens are the easiest way to penetrate India’s corridors of power because in their churches ordinary Christians are told every Sunday that the US and Europe are their benefactors plus protectors from the hated polytheistic Hindus.
Knowledge of Christianity inspired the Japanese to develop the potent concept of kokutai (“what is essential to a nation”). It was because the Japanese collective leadership, including generals, diplomats and statesmen, studied Christian theology and doctrine and communicated it to the citizens that the armed expulsion of Westerners gained widespread support. Information on Western affairs and world conditions decisively altered Japan’s Confucian conceptions of civilisation and barbarism, and this in turn enabled the Japanese to redefine their nation’s relationship with the world.
In order to check the Christian menace, India should take the following measures:
- Ban Christians from having contact with the Vatican and other foreign churches. There is no excuse for Indian Christians to have extra-territorial loyalties, whether temporal or religious. The umbilical cord needs to be cut and the church Indianised. This model is practised in China and has worked well there.
- Ban the entry of all foreign missionaries and expel those operating in India.
- Stop all foreign donations to Indian churches.
- Make all churches (as well as temples and mosques) fly the Indian flag. The message needs to be sent out that no matter who your god is, your first loyalty is towards India.
- Make conversion from Hinduism a criminal offense. Those caught for proselytising activities should each receive 20 years imprisonment, plus their church must be razed and all property seized.
- Abuse of Hindu gods and sacred texts must be punishable with a 10 year jail term.
- The parts of the Christian Bible that call for genocide and conversion should be declared hate speech and expurgated.
- An Indian version of the Bible should be printed after the text is screened by a Board of Religious Harmony.
- The church clergy along with their flock must sing the Indian national anthem at the end of every congregation.
- Church properties that were ‘donated’ by Hindu temples and kingdoms under colonial pressure must be returned. Separate tribunals must be set up for speedy disposal of cases and the verdicts must be treated as final, not qualifying for appeal.
Endgame
One of the problem with Indians, especially Hindus, is they tend to say, “But what will the world say?” This is due to lack of confidence, and can be attributed to either two centuries of colonial rule or India’s secular-leftist education.
However, the “world” will do nothing and say nothing. The likes of the US and Europe don’t care besides they are struggling with their own issues. The Middle East, South America and Asia simply don’t care a rat’s tail about India’s internal matters. The only ones rearing their heads and shouting down each other in TV studios – you guessed it – is the Indian media. A couple of income tax raids, and they won’t be causing any trouble.
For precedence, take a cue from the Chinese. They are ethnically cleansing their cities of the troublesome Uighur Muslim minority and have virtually banned the practise of Islam. Ramadan fasting is illegal in China and Chinese mosques must fly the Chinese flag – which ironically is a hammer-and-sickle communist flag. Similar curbs have been placed on the Christians. Chinese Catholics are not allowed to have any contacts with the Pope. But has any country ever handed a protest letter to a Chinese embassy? Will any foreign leader dare to raise the topic before the Chinese President? It is money that greases the world economic engine and that’s all the world cares about. Nobody is willing to be a martyr over some desert delusion the West has long since thrown into the dustbin. Western governments now only use Christianity as a tool for neo-colonial purposes. If India acts decisively like China (and stops being the country that seeks a pat on the back from everyone) then nobody is going to question why India wants its Christians to be loyal citizens.
As the British Foreign Office noted in 1936 (when the Japanese were clamping down on Protestant missionary movements), “Christianity is in its essence a non-national religion, and many of its tenets (not generally acted on) resemble those of communism. I expect that in their minds the Japanese have two objections to it (i) It may be communistic and (ii) it is certainly not nationalistic. Although they may tolerate the religion, it is doubtful if they will continue to tolerate its foreign exponents, and I quite understand that they are suspected of being spies, if only because they are so well placed to become spies. All the missions can do is to hang on in the places where are tolerated and wait for the national temper to change.” (18)
During the 10-year period from 2004 to 2014, the Congress government controlled by Sonia Gandhi gave Christianity a massive momentum in India. Having tasted blood, Christians are now being forced to live as normal citizens under the Narendra Modi government. This is intolerable to Christians because they believe they are the chosen people of god who has given them mastery over all lands. This is why they are crying intolerance and creating fake news of church vandalism and martyrdom. This will continue to be their pattern of behaviour in future because they want chaos in India. Only if there is chaos – and poverty – will the church gain converts. The Christian clergy knows that if India becomes wealthy again, the country will become a swamp for Christianity just like Europe became a graveyard for churches once it became the world’s richest region.
“Expecting bad men not to do bad actions is foolishness. It’s to ask the impossible,” said Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Therefore, expecting Christians to be fair and treat Hindus as Hindus treat them would be foolishness.
The rollback of Christianity’s conversion ecosystem is vital to save Hinduism.
SOURCES
- The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/nov/08/millennium.uk
- Union of Catholic Asian News, https://www.ucanews.com/story-archive/?post_name=/2003/08/29/christians-role-in-establishing-pakistan-nation-highlighted-on-radio&post_id=22987
- Daily Pioneer, https://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/agenda/opinion/church-mahatma-and-the-missionary-position.html
- http://chroniclesofmalabar.blogspot.com/2012/05/syrian-church-of-malabar-under-british.html
- Globe and News, https://globalnews.ca/news/4331469/mother-teresa-bharat-ratna-missionaries-of-charity-trafficking/
- Will Durant, Story of Civilisation, Vol 1, Chapter XXVIII, https://archive.org/details/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete
- B. Peery, The Gist of Japan, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.157292
- Monika Schrimpf, Lecturer, Bayreuth University, Germany, ‘The Pro- and Anti-Christian Writings of Fukan Fabian (1565-1621)’ http://japanese-religions.jp/publications/assets/JR33_a_Schrimpf.pdf
- China and the Christian Impact, Jacques Gernet, pages 169-170.
- Anti-Foreignerism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan: The New Theses of 1825, page 110
- Anti-Foreignerism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan: The New Theses of 1825, page 13
- Shiba Ryotaro, Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 1, page 198
- Japanese Letters, https://ia802205.us.archive.org/10/items/japaneseletters00heargoog/japaneseletters00heargoog.pdf
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- Japanese Letters, page 147
- B. Perry, The Gist of Japan, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.157292
- P Gurus, Role of Vatican, Catholic Church in Indian Politics, https://www.pgurus.com/role-of-vatican-catholic-church-in-indian-politics/
- Minute by J. Thyne Henderson, March 16, 1936, The Cross and the Rising Sun by A. Hamish Ion
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