It was the summer of 1982.  VOICE OF INDIA had hardly started its programme of publications.  One fine morning an aged and visibly ailing sannyasi dropped in at my office in New Delhi.  He had travelled all the way from some place (I forget the name) in Andhra Pradesh.  Someone had given him a copy of my booklet, Hindu Society Under Siege, and having read the chapter, �Residue of Christianism�, he had concluded that I was the guy he had been looking for.  He introduced himself as Baba Madhavdas and placed on my table printed copies of a summary of the Niyogi Committee Report in English and Hindi, published by him.  Before I could ask him to take a seat, he shot a question at me, �You must have read the full Report?  What do you think of it?�

I felt small and confessed that although I had seen the full Report soon after it was published; I had not read it even cursorily.  His face fell.  I had disappointed him.  He brightened only when I told him the story of how I had missed reading the full Report till that time, and promised to read it as soon as I could lay my hands on it from a Government shop or some library.  He told me that it was no more available in the Government shops because Christian missionaries had bought all available copies and destroyed them.  Even in libraries, it was rarely available because the same missionaries had seen to it that copies were removed, or borrowed and not returned.

When the Report was published by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1956, I happened to be in the district town of Shahdol in Vindhya Pradesh (then a separate State, now merged in Madhya Pradesh) for filing my nomination papers from that Lok Sabha constituency in the Second General Elections (1956-57) as a Jana Sangh candidate.  Pandit Prem Nath Dogra, President of the Jana Sangh at that time, was also in Shahdol that day.  He was on a lecture tour of Vindhya Pradesh.  We were staying in the same room as guests of a local gentleman.  As we sat and chatted about the shape of things in the country at that time, half-a-dozen Party activists rushed into the room in a state of excitement and placed three volumes on the bed on which Pandit Dogra was sitting.  One of them shouted in a tone of triumph, �Here it is at last.  Christian missionaries have been disrobed (naNgA kar diyA hai).  Now it is for the Party, Panditji, to take it up and make it known to the country at large.�

Pandit Dogra thumbed through the volumes and promised to place it before the Working Committee of his Party at the very next meeting.  Then he handed over the volumes to me and asked me to go through them so that I could tell him in the evening the gist of what they contained. I looked at the title.  It was Report of the Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee Madhya Pradesh, 1956 in 2 Volumes and three Parts, Volume II being divided into Parts A and B. It became famous as the Niyogi Committee Report because its Chairman was Dr. M. Bhawani Shankar Niyogi, a retired Chief Justice of the Nagpur High Court.

I glanced through the Report and was impressed by the evidence marshalled, literary as well as oral.  What struck me as very significant was that the Christian missionary activities in India had been viewed as part of the world-wide missionary operations.  But that was all. I could not find time to read even Volume I of the Report because I was busy otherwise throughout the day.  In the evening Pandit Dogra took away the Report with him as he was going to another place to address a meeting. I was certainly curious to know more about Christian missionaries than I knew at that time.  It was only a few months earlier that a Jesuit priest from Patna had tried and failed to convert me.  The talk I had had with him during a retreat in a Catholic monastery outside Hazaribagh in Bihar, had left a bad taste in the mouth.  The convert I met in the library of St. Xavier�s School at Patna later on had turned me against Christian missions.¹

Years passed and I forgot all about the Niyogi Committee Report.  The struggle to survive after having invited the ire of the, Nehruvian establishment by the opposing Communism, was too grim.  Moreover, I wanted to know much more than I knew about my own SanAtana Dharma and its culture, before I could evaluate Christianity and its missions. I was ready for that task to a certain extent when I wrote that essay in Hindu Society Under Siege in the last quarter of 1981.  But I had yet to learn a lot.

Baba Madhavdas did not tell me why and when he had taken sannyas, and how he had got involved in Hindu resistance to Christian missions.  All I could learn from him was that he had moved all over the tribal areas in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam, starting since a few years before India attained independence in 1947.  He had watched the Christian missionaries and their activities from close quarters, and the knowledge he had acquired about their means and methods was considerable.  And he was very happy that the Niyogi Committee Report had confirmed in so many words all that he had learnt first hand about the missionary apparatus and its operations.  At the same time, he had felt deeply pained that whatever resistance to Christian missionaries he had noticed before independence, had evaporated fast as soon as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru emerged as a colossus after the death of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

He had begged for small amounts of money, bought copies of the Niyogi Committee Report, and presented them to leaders of the Jana Sangh, the Arya Samaj, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Vishva Hindu Parishad when it was formed in 1964, and various rich men known for their sympathy towards Hindu causes.  All that he wanted them to do was to read the Report and mobilize public opinion for persuading the Indian State to stop the flow of massive foreign funds, which Christian missions were using for conversions by means of force, fraud and inducements.  But his appeals had fallen on deaf ears.  Different people had advanced different reasons for their unwillingness or incapacity to do anything in the matter.  As a last resort he had got several thousand copies of a summary of the Report printed in English and Hindi and distributed them widely as he moved along.

He was happy once more when after the passing away of Pandit Nehru and before the rise of Indira Gandhi to supreme power, the Congress Governments of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh had passed Freedom of Religion Acts in 1967 and 1968 enabling the authorities to prevent conversions by means of force, fraud and inducements.  Now citizens who came to know such malafide cases of conversion in these two States could report to the police or move the courts.  But he discovered very soon that the Acts remained dead letters because people who could notice and report such cases were simply not there in the missionary fields.

The Jana Sangh and the Vishva Hindu Parishad had disappointed him in particular.  When he asked the leaders and workers of these organizations to read the Report, they said that they had no time for books because they were active in the field.  But when he requested them to survey the field and report the cases of malafide conversions to the concerned authorities, they had replied that the police was corrupt and the courts too slow to do anything.  At the same time, they had boasted that they were developing and employing some �positive� methods to match the missionary network and beat them at their own game.  He had yet to see these �positive� methods bearing fruit.  Conversions were going on as ever before.

Baba Madhavdas felt totally disheartened when I told him the truth about VOICE OF INDIA, namely, that it had no office of its own, no staff except myself, and very limited funds collected through donations mainly from a few small businessmen with big hearts.  He was, he said, a tired old man, sick in body and disillusioned in mind, and wanted to retire to Vrindavana so that he could die in peace.  He wanted me to do him a favour - take the few hundred copies of the summary he had left with him.  I bought them immediately and included the title in the catalogue we published next.  At the same time, I promised to the Baba that I would read the full Niyogi Committee Report and reprint it as soon as I got sufficient funds.

I read the Report soon after and was overwhelmed by the wealth of material it presented, theoretical as well as empirical.  But funds for reprinting the Report were not available till now.  Meanwhile, I had summarised the Report in my own way in my History of Hindu-Christian Encounters published in 1989.² That summary is being included in the Introduction to the reprint.

The name of this volume which combines the reprint with an introduction has been suggested by Arun Shourie, as in the case of Hindu Temples: What Happened to them.

New Delhi 
25 December, 1997 
 

Footnotes:

¹I have told the story of what I heard and saw in How I Became A Hindu (1982), Third Enlarged Edition, Voice of India, New Delhi, 1993, pp. 46-49.

²A Second Enlarged Edition has been published by Voice of India, New Delhi, in 1996.

Hindus from early seventeenth century Pandits of Tamil Nadu to Arun Shourie in the closing years of the twentieth, have spent no end of ink and breath to demolish the dogma of Christianity and denounce missionary methods.  But it has hardly made any difference to the arrogance of Christian theologians and aggressiveness of Christian missionaries.  That is because the dogma was never meant for discussion.  It is an axiom of logic that that which has not been proved cannot and need not be disproved.  Who has ever proved that the nondescript Jew who is supposed to have been crucified by a Roman governor of Judaea in 33 AD atoned for the sins of all humans for all time to come?  Who has ever proved that those who accept that man as the only saviour will ascend to a heaven of everlasting bliss, and those who do not will bum forever in the blazing fire of hell?  Nor can the proclamation or the promise or the threat be disproved.  High-sounding theological blah blah notwithstanding, the fact remains that the dogma is no more than a subterfuge for forging and wielding an organizational weapon for mounting unprovoked aggression against other people.  It is high time for Hindus to dismiss the dogma of Christianity with the contempt it deserves, and pay attention to the Christian missionary apparatus planted in their midst.

The sole aim of this apparatus is to ruin Hindu society and culture, and take over the Hindu homeland.  It goes on devising strategies for every situation, favourable and unfavourable.  It trains and employs a large number of intellectual criminals ready to prostitute their talents in the service of their paymasters, and adept at dressing up dark designs in high-sounding language.  The fact that every design is advertised as a theology in the Indian context and every criminal euphemized as an Indian theologian, should not hoodwink Hindus about the real intentions of this gangster game.

Hindus are committing a grave mistake in regarding the encounter between Hinduism and Christianity as a dialogue between two religions.  Christianity has never been a religion; its long history tells us that it has always been a predatory imperialism par excellence.  The encounter, therefore, should be viewed as a battle between two totally opposed and mutually exclusive ways of thought and behaviour.  In the language of the Gita (Chapter 16), it is war between daivI (divine) and AsurI (demonic) sampads (propensities).  In the mundane context of history, it can also be described as war between the Vedic and the Biblical traditions.

This is not the place to go into the premises from which the two traditions proceed. I have presented them in some detail elsewhere.¹Here I will indicate briefly the behaviour patterns they promote.

The Vedic tradition advises people to be busy with themselves, that is, their own moral and spiritual improvement.  Several disciplines have been evolved for this purpose tapas (austerity), yoga (meditation), jñAna (reflection), bhakti (devotion), etc.  A seeker can take to (adhikAra) whichever discipline suits his adhAra (stage of moral-spiritual preparation).  There is no uniform prescription for everybody, no coercion or allurement into a belief system, and no regimentation for aggression against others.

The Biblical tradition, on the other hand, teaches people to be busy with others.  One is supposed to have become a superior human being as soon as one confesses the �only true faith�.  Thenceforward one stands qualified to �save� others.  The only training one needs thereafter is how to man a mission or military expedition, how to convert others by all available means including force and fraud, and how to kill or ruin or blacken those who refuse to come round.

The Vedic tradition has given to the world schools of SanAtana Dharma, which have practised peace among their own followers as well as towards the followers of other paths.  On the other hand, the Biblical tradition has spawned criminal cults such as Christianity, Islam, Communism, and Nazism, which have always produced violent conflicts as much within their own camps as with each other and the rest of mankind.

History of Hindu-Christian encounters falls into five distinct phases.  In all of them Christian missionaries stick to their basic dogma of One True God and the Only Saviour which Hindus should accept or be made to accept.  But they keep on changing their methods and verbiage to suit changing circumstances.  To start with, spokesmen for Hinduism offer a stiff resistance to the Christian message as well as missionary methods.  But due to a number of factors, Hindu resistance weakens in subsequent stages and then disappears altogether so that Christianity forges ahead with a sense of triumph.

In the first-phase, which opens with the coming of the Portuguese pirates in the sixteenth century, more particularly the Patron Saint of those pirates, Francis Xavier, Christianity presents itself in its true colours.  Its language is as crude as in its homeland in Europe, and its methods as cruel.  Hindus are helpless and suffer any number of atrocities.  Fortunately for them, this phase does not last for long.  The Portuguese lose power except in Goa and some other small territories.  The other European powers that take over have not much time to spare for Christianity except the French for a brief period in Pondicherry and their other possessions.

The second phase opens with the consolidation of the British conquest after the final defeat of the Marathas in 1813 CE.  The British do not allow Christian missions to use physical methods.  But missionary language continues to be as crude as ever.  Christianity enjoys a brief period of self-confidence particularly in Bengal.  The phase ends with the rise of Hindu reform movements, particularly the clarion call given by Maharshi Dayananda and Swami Vivekananda.  Christianity suffers a serious setback.

The third phase starts with the advent of Mahatma Gandhi and his slogan of sarva-dharma-samabhAva.  Christian missions are thrown on the defensive and forced to change their language.  The foulmouthed miscreants become sweet-tongued vipers.  Now they are out to �share their spiritual riches� with Hindus, reminding us of a beggar in dirty rags promising to donate his wardrobe to wealthy persons.  The phase ended with the Tambram Conference of the International Missionary Council (IMC) in 1938, which decided to reformulate Christian theology in the Indian context.

The fourth phase which commenced with the coming of independence proved a boon for Christianity.  The Christian right to convert Hindus was incorporated in the Constitution.  Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who dominated the scene for 17 long years, promoted every anti-Hindu ideology and movement behind the smokescreen of a counterfeit secularism.  The regimes that followed continued to raise the spectre of �Hindu communalism� as the most frightening phenomenon.  Christian missionaries could now denounce as a Hindu communalist and chauvinist, even as a Hindu Nazi, any one who raised the slightest objection to their means and methods.  All sorts of �secularists� came forward to join the chorus.  New theologies of Fulfilment, Indigenisation, Liberation, and Dialogue were evolved and put into action.  The missionary apparatus multiplied fast and became pervasive.  Christianity had never had it so good in the whole of its history in India.  It now stood recognized as �an ancient Indian religion� with every right to extend its field of operation and expand its flock.  The only rift in the lute was K.M. Panikkar�s book, Asia and Western Dominance, published from London in 1953, the Niyogi Committee Report published by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1956, and Om Prakash Tyagi�s Bill on Freedom of Religion introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 1978.

The fifth phase, which is continuing now, started with the Hindu awakening brought about by the mass conversion of Harijans to Islam at Meenakshipuram in Tamil Nadu, renewed Muslim aggression in many ways, and Pakistan-backed terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir.  The Sangh Parivar which had turned cold towards Hindu causes over the years, was startled by the rout of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 1984 elections to the Lok Sabha, and decided to renew its Hindu character.  The RAmajanmabhUmi Movement was the result.  The Movement was aimed at arresting Islamic aggression.  Christianity or its missions were hardly mentioned.  Nevertheless, it was Christian missions which showed the greatest concern at this new Hindu stir, and started crying �wolf�.  Christian media power in the West raised a storm, saying ad nauseum that Hindus were out to destroy the minorities in India and impose a Nazi regime.  The storm is still raging and no one knows when it will subside, if at all.

The Constitution of independent India adopted in January 1950 made things quite smooth for the Christian missions.  They surged forward with renewed vigour.  Nationalist resistance to what had been viewed as an imperialist incubus during the Struggle for Freedom from British rule, broke down when the very leaders who had frowned upon it started speaking in its favour.  Voices which still remained �recalcitrant� were sought to be silenced by being branded as those of �Hindu communalism�.  Nehruvian Secularism had stolen a march under the smokescreen of Mahatma Gandhi�s sarva-dharma-samabhAva

What was far more favourable to Christian missionaries, was the complete collapse of Hindu resistance which had been pretty strong during the Struggle for Freedom.  Mahatma Gandhi had raised Jesus to the status of a spiritual giant, and Christianity itself to the status of a great religion as good as SanAtana Dharma.  His mindless slogan of sarva-dharma-samabhAva was proving to be an effective smokescreen for Christian missions to steal a march against Hindu religion, society, and culture.  In a letter written to C.D. Deshmukh on 22 June 1952, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said, �Nothing amazes me so much as the perversion of well-known words and phrases in political and other controversies today. I suppose every demagogue does it��² He was blissfully unaware that he himself had become the most despicable demagogue in India�s hoary history when he borrowed the word �secularism� from Western political parlance and made it mean the opposite of what it had meant when it emerged during the European Enlightenment in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Secularism in the modern West had symbolized a humanist and rationalist revolt against the closed creed of Christianity and stood for pluralism such as has characterized Hinduism down the ages.  But Pandit Nehru had perverted the word and turned it into a shield for protecting every closed creed prevailing in India at the dawn of independence in 1947 Islam, Christianity, Communism.  It is significant that the word �secularism� cannot be found anywhere in Pandit Nehru�s pre-independence writings and utterances of which we have a huge heap.  Nor was this word used by any one in the Constituent Assembly debates which exist in cold print.  Even in the Constitution of India it was inserted arbitrarily by Indira Gandhi during the infamous Emergency (1975-77).  It was solely due to Pandit Nehru�s dishonest demagogy that this word became not only the most fashionable but also the most profitable political term for every enemy of India�s indigenous, society and culture.  The first Prime Minister of independent India became the leader of a Muslim-Christian-Communist combine for forcing Hindus and Hinduism first on the defensive and then on a run for shelter.  Now on everything which Hindus held sacred could be questioned, ridiculed, despised and insulted.  At the same time the darkest dogmas of Islam and Christianity were not only placed beyond the pale of discussions but also invested with divinity so that anyone who asked any inconvenient questions about them invited the attention of laws which were made more and more punitive.  It is, therefore, no exaggeration to say that the �architect of modern India� was no more than a combined embodiment of all imperialist ideologies which had flocked to this ancient land in the company of alien invaders Islam, Christianity, White Man�s Burden, and Communism.

Small wonder that the Prime Minister of India should issue the following command to Chief Ministers of all States in his circular letter dated 17 October 1952:

I have sometimes received complaints from Christian missions and missionaries both foreign and Indian, about the differential treatment accorded to them in certain States.  It is said that there is some kind of harassment also occasionally.  Some instances of this kind have come to my notice.  I hope that your Government will take particular care that there is no such discrimination, much less harassment. I know that there is a hangover still of the old prejudice against Christian missions and missionaries.  In the old days many of them except in the far south, where they were indigenous, represented the foreign power and sometimes even acted more or less as its agents. I know also that some of them in the north-east encouraged separatist and disruptive movements.  That phase is over.  If any person, foreigner or Indian, behaves in that way still certainly we should take suitable action.  But remember that Christianity is a religion of large numbers of people in India and that it came to the south of India nearly 2000 years ago.  It is as much a part of the Indian scene. as any other religion.  Our policy of religious neutrality and protection of minorities must not be affected or sullied by discriminatory treatment or harassment.  While Christian missionaries have sometimes behaved objectionably from the political point of view, they have undoubtedly done great service to India in the social field and they continue to give that service.  In the tribal areas many of them have devoted their lives to the tribes there.  I wish that there were Indians who were willing to serve the tribal folk in this way. I know that there are some Indians now who are doing this, but I would like more of them to do so.  It must be remembered that the Christian community, by and large, is poor and is sometimes on the level of the backward or depressed classes.

 

We permit, by our Constitution, not only freedom of conscience and belief but also proselytism.  Personally I do not like proselytism and it is rather opposed to the old Indian outlook which is, in this matter, one of live and let live.  But I do not want to come in other people�s ways provided they are not objectionable in some other sense.  In particular, I would welcome any form of real social service by anyone, missionary or not.  A question arises, however, how far we should encourage foreigners to come here for purely evangelical work.  Often these foreign countries raise funds on the plea of converting the savage heathens. I do no want anyone to come here who looks upon me as a savage heathen, not that I mind being called a heathen or a pagan by anybody.  But I do not want any foreigner to come who looks down upon us or who speaks about us in their own countries in terms of contempt.  But if any foreigner wants to come here for social service, I would welcome him.³

A footnote to this letter informs us that �On October 1952, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur drew Nehru�s attention to complaints of such treatment of Christian missionaries in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh�.  Had Pandit Nehru been an Indian and a patriot, he would have referred Rajkumari Amrit Kaur to the Chief Ministers of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh before taking up the matter himself.  But being the man he was a coolie carrying the White Man�s Burden an allegation from a mouthpiece of Christian missions was sufficient for him to rush with a reprimand to the Chief Ministers of all States only a week after his ear was poisoned.  There was no complaint regarding maltreatment of Christian missions from the rest of the States, yet he felt called upon to raise a general alarm.  He not only anticipated all possible objections which he thought could be made against missions and missionary activities, he also tried his best to blunt those objections in his usual �if� and �but� way.  The worst part of it all was that he repeated the Big Lie that Christianity was 2000 years old in India as, according to him, it was brought to India by St. Thomas in the first century of the Christian era.  Even when he had told that story to his daughter in April 1932 in one of his schoolboyish essays which now pass as solid history, Christian historians had been debating for years whether a man called St. Thomas was a historical figure or a figment of theological speculation, and whether he ever came to South India.  But Pandit Nehru who fancied himself as a great historian and was hailed as such by all sorts of fools and knaves around the world, had swallowed the story as soon as he heard it and kept on spreading it.

The followers of Mahatma Gandhi were the first to forget what their Master had said repeatedly on the subject of proselytization, namely, that it was �the deadliest poison which ever sapped the fountain of truth�.  Some of them found berths in the new power setup, and fell in line with Pandit Nehru.  Some others who felt frustrated in the new situation for one reason or the other became fascinated by Mao-tse Tung and started seeing the Mahatma reincarnated in Red China.  Constructive workers of the Gandhian movement gave priority to economic programmes and sidelined all social and cultural problems.  A new breed of �Gandhians� became busy -floating Voluntary Agencies and looking forward to being funded by Western Foundations.  Some of these Foundations were avowedly dedicated to promoting only Christian causes.  Small wonder that the �Gandhians� became, in due course, active or passive accomplices of the Christian missions.

The worst crisis, however, overtook those who became known as Hindu leaders in post-independence India.  So long as the Mahatma was alive they had prospered by accusing him of promoting �Muslim and Christian causes� at the cost of �Hindu interests�.  Now that he was no more, they did not really know what to do.  Some of them continued to live in the past, deriving satisfaction from cursing the Mahatma for misleading the country for all time to come.  Others revised their attitude towards him, but they did so more out of convenience than conviction.  Sarva-dharma-samabhAva acquired a new meaning for them also.  Criticism of Christian dogmas became a �negative� approach.  The �positive� approach, they started saying, should match the Christian missionary effort in the fields of education, medicine and social services.  It did not occur to them that Hindu society being poor and bereft of a State of its own, was in no position to run the race.  The �positive� approach thus became, for all practical purposes, an excuse for not facing the problem of Christian subversion at all.

The bright sunshine in which Christian missions started basking can be reported best in the words of a Jesuit missionary.  �The Indian Church,� writes Plattner, �has reason to be glad that the Constitution of the country guarantees her an atmosphere of freedom and equality with other much stronger religious communities.  Under the protection of this guarantee she is able, ever since independence, not only to carry on but to increase and develop her activity as never before without serious hindrance or anxiety.�⁴ The number of foreign missionaries registered an unprecedented increase.  �One must admit,� continues Plattner, �that the number of missionaries who came to India soon after independence had perceptibly increased.  During the war years very few of them ever reached India.  So a kind of surplus was building in Europe with corresponding lack of personnel in India� At the same time the Communists were expelling thousands of missionaries mainly members of the American sects from China.  Some of them were then transferred to India but not all of them could adapt themselves to Indian conditions.�⁵

Far more foreboding than this forward march of the Christian missions, however, was the fact that they were able to take in their stride two serious exposures of their character and activities made during the fifties.  The first jolt they received was from the above-mentioned book by K. M. Panikkar published in 1953.  The second was the publication, in 1956, of the Niyogi Committee�s report on Christian missionary activities in Madhya Pradesh.  The powers that be the Government, the political parties, the national press, and the intellectual elite either protected the missions for one reason or the other or shied away from studying and discussing the exposures publicly for fear of being accused of �Hindu communalism�, the ultimate swearword in the armoury of Nehruvian Secularism.

Thus howsoever serious the flutter which these exposures caused inside missionary dovecotes, the atmosphere outside continued to be favourable for them.  Of course, �narrow minded and fanatical Hindu communalists� provided some pen-pricks off and on.  But they came to nothing in every instance.  �The question was raised in Parliament,� narrates Plattner, �as to whether the right to propagate religion was applicable only to Indian citizens or also to foreigners residing in India, for example, the missionaries.  In March 1954, the Supreme Court of India expressed its opinion that this right was a fundamental one firmly established in the Constitution and thus applied to everyone citizen and non-citizen alike who enjoyed the protection of India�s laws.  With this explanation the missionaries were expressly authorised to spread the faith, thus fulfilling the task entrusted to them by the Church.�⁶

In 1955, a Bill came before India�s Parliament �which if passed would have seriously handicapped the work of Christian missionaries�, because it �provided for a strict system of regulating conversions�.  The issue was conversions brought about by force, fraud or material inducements.  But no less a person than the Prime Minister of India, Pandit Nehru, came to the rescue of Christian missions and persuaded the Parliament to throw out the Bill.  �I fear that this Bill,� said Pandit Nehru, �will not help very much in suppressing evil methods but might very well be the cause of great harassment to a large number of people.  We should deal with those evils on a different plane, in other ways, not in this way which may give rise to other ways of coercion.  Christianity is one of the important religions of India, established here for nearly two thousand years.  We must not do anything which gives rise to any feeling of oppression or suppression in the minds of our Christian friends and fellow-countrymen.�⁷

The signing of the defence pact between the U.S.A. and Pakistan in 1954 had, however, made the Government of India somewhat strict about granting of visas to foreign, particularly American, missionaries.  �The Catholic Bishops of India,� writes Plattner, �found it very difficult to reconcile themselves to this new turn of affairs, which they considered highly unpleasant and unjustifiable.  In March 1955 a delegation under the leadership of Cardinal Gracias of Bombay requested an interview with Prime Minister Nehru and Home Minister Pandit [Govind Ballabh] Pant, who had succeeded Dr, [Kailash Nath] Katju.�⁸ Pandit Nehru, according to the Secretary of the Catholic Bishops� Conference of India, was �sympathetic but pointed out that the problem was political and national, not religious�.  Pandit Pant, on the other hand, gave a practical advice which proved very helpful to Christian missions in the long run.  �He could not understand,� continues Plattner, �why the Catholic Church, which had a long and historic existence in the country, had not succeeded in training Indian priests and professors for seminaries.  The interview helped us to realise that in every sphere we have to recruit locally and train selected candidates for responsible positions.�⁹ The Home Minister of India, it seems, had no objection to the sale of a narcotic provided the vendors were native.  Nor did he see any danger in the spread of a network financed and controlled completely from abroad.  The lesson that the East India Company had subjugated the country by training and employing native mercenaries, had not been learnt.

Another Bill was introduced in the Parliament in 1960 for protecting Scheduled Castes and Tribes �from change of religion forced on them on grounds other than religious convictions�.  It was also thrown out because of resistance from the ruling Congress Party.  �It was rejected,� records Plattner, �after Mr. [B.N.] Datar declared in no uncertain terms that it was unconstitutional and that there were no mass conversions as alleged by the mover.� The Minister went much further.  �They were carrying on,� he said, �Christ�s mission by placing themselves at the service of mankind and such work was one of their greatest contributions to the world.� He credited Christian missionaries with �the uplift of a large number of downtrodden people through their schools and social work.�¹⁰

�This attitude of Nehru and his government,� concluded Plattner, �has inspired the Christians with confidence in the Indian Constitution.�¹¹ Nehru had �remained true to his British upbringing.�¹² Small wonder that the Catholic Bishops� Conference of India became quite optimistic about the future.  �With the Indian Hierarchy well established,� it proclaimed in September 1960, �and the recruitment of the clergy fairly assured, it may be said that the Church in India has reached its maturity and has achieved the first part of its missionary programme.  The time seems to have come to face squarely the Church�s next and more formidable duty: the conversion of the masses of India.�¹³

The Christian missionary orchestra in India after independence has continued to rise from one crescendo to another with the applause of the Nehruvian establishment manned by a brood of self-alienated Hindus spawned by missionary-macaulayite education.  The only rift in the lute has been K.M. Panikkar�s Asia and Western Dominance published in 1953, the Report of the Christian Missionary Activities Committee Madhya Pradesh published in 1956, Om Prakash Tyagi�s Bill on Freedom of Religion introduced in the Lok Sabha in 1978, Arun Shourie�s Missionaries in India published in 1994 and the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Bill introduced in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly by Mangal Prabhat Lodha, M.L.A. on 20 December 1996.  We shall summarise in this chapter what these rifts revealed, and the reactions to them not only from the Christian missionaries but also from the �secular� establishment.

Panikkar�s study was primarily aimed at providing a survey of Western imperialism in Asia from CE 1498 to 1945.  Christian missions came into the picture simply because he found them arrayed always and everywhere alongside Western gunboats, diplomatic pressures, extraterritorial rights and plain gangsterism.  Contemporary records consulted by him could not but cut to size the inflated images of Christian heroes such as Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci.  They were found to be not much more than minions employed by European kings and princes scheming to carve out empires in the East.  Their methods of trying to convert kings and commoners in Asia, said Panikkar, were force or fraud or conspiracy and morally questionable in every instance.  Finding that �missionary activities� which became so prominent a feature of European relations with Asia were connected with Western political supremacy in Asia and synchronised with it�¹ he concluded: �It may indeed be said that the most serious, persistent and planned effort of European nations in the nineteenth century was their missionary activities in India and China, where a large-scale attempt was made to effect a mental and spiritual conquest at supplementing the political authority already enjoyed by Europe.  Though the results were disappointing in the extreme from the missionary point of new, this assault on the spiritual foundations of Asian countries has had far-reaching consequences in the religious and social reorganization of the people��²

What hurt the Christian missionaries most, however, was Panikkar�s observation that �the doctrine of the monopoly of truth and revelation� is alien to the Hindu and Buddhist mind� and that �to them the claim of any sect that it alone represented the truth and other shall be condemned has always seemed unreasonable�.³ He had knocked the bottom out of the missionary enterprise.  No monopoly of truth and revelation, no missions.  It was as simple as that.

Most people in the targeted countries do not know that the first missionaries sent out by the Pope Innocent IV after the Council of Lyons in 1245 CE were spies commissioned to gather information about the strength and resources of the Mongols who had swept over West Asia and were posing a serious threat to Christendom in Europe.  The second mission was that of John de Monte Carvino commissioned by the Pope to visit the court of Kublai Khan at Peking for the, same purpose.  He started to smuggle Christianity in China surreptitiously by buying slaves and baptizing them and building a few churches.  The Pope in Rome felt great joy that the �only true faith� was spreading in China.  But within a few years of Carvino�s death in 1328 the entire edifice built by him collapsed and not a trace of it was left except in his letters to the Pope.⁴

The Christian missionary enterprise in earnest started with the dogged efforts of Don Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), the third son of the King John I of Portugal.  Henry was a militant Christian fired with a bitter hatred for infidels.  He was obsessed with the idea of reaching and converting India, and believed that he had received a command from God for this purpose.  He had at his disposal the immense wealth of the Order of Christ of which he was the Grand Master.⁵ In 1458 Pope Nicholas V issued a Bull granting to the King of Portugal �the right, total and absolute, to invade, conquer, and subject all the countries which are under rule of the enemies of Christ, Saracens or Pagans�� On March 13, 1456 this first Bull was confirmed by a second one by Pope Calixtus III.  Finally, Pope Alexander VI confirmed the Treaty of Tordesilhas signed on June 9, 1494 in terms of which he divided the world, east and west, between Portugal and Spain to conquer and convert.⁶ The kings of Portugal fitted and sent several naval expeditions to India, and King Dom Manoel �assumed for himself the title of �The Lord of the Navigation, Conquest and Commerce of Ethiopia, Persia and India�.�⁷ The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) though founded by a Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, �found a staunch supporter and champion in the Portuguese monarch�.  Henceforward Portugal became the base of the missionary enterprise in Asia.  It is noteworthy that some of the great figures in the history of Christian missionary activities in the East came to adopt Portugal as their second country �with the revival of religious zeal within the Catholic church following the Protestant movement... Francis Xavier, a Spaniard, came out as the Portuguese King�s Inspector of Missions.  Father Vagliano, an Italian recruited in Lisbon forty-two missionaries of whom only six were Portuguese.  To Ricci, another Italian, who completed his education at Coimbra and Goa, Portugal was the spiritual home.�⁸ Small wonder that �with the Portuguese christianization was a state enterprise� and that the Portuguese kings �paid for the entire ecclesiastical establishment in the East�.⁹

The great merit of Panikkar�s book is that it provides a history of missionary activities in every country of South and South-East Asia as well as in the Far East India, China, Japan, Annam, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Laos, Sian (Thailand), Burma, and Indonesia.  We shall take up missionary doings in these countries and the support they received from various Western powers.

India

Christian missionaries had accompanied every Portuguese naval expedition to India after Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in Malabar in 1498.  In 1534, Goa which had been occupied by the Portuguese in 1509 �was made a bishopric with authority extending over the entire Far East�.  Rooting out of Hinduism was a special task assigned to every Portuguese viceroy.  �Hindu temples in Goa were destroyed and their property distributed to religious orders (like the Franciscans) in 1540.� With the arrival of Francis Xavier in Goa in 1542 and the establishment of the College of St. Paul by him, Goa became the centre for training missionaries to be sent out to other countries in Asia. �For the next hundred years entry of missionaries into the Far East was permitted only through Goa.� Under advice from Francis Xavier, the king of Portugal established the Inquisition in Goa.¹⁰ �Intolerance of things Indian became henceforth the characteristic of feature of missionary zeal in India.  Any compromise with Hindu life or religion was avoided e.g. the eating of beef was held to be necessary as it would put the converts altogether out of the pale of Hinduism.� But Portuguese power decayed in the second half of the seventeenth century and Portugal�s interest in missionary work declined even in South India.  �The establishment of the Inquisition in Goa (1561) and the auto da fé (first instance 1563) revolted the conscience of both Hindus and Muslims alike.�¹¹ Even in Goa, the majority of population continued to be non-Christian.  Thus the �attempt of the Portuguese, secular and missionary,� to carry the heathen fort by assault� has failed.¹²

It was now the turn of the Protestant missions to evangelize India by all means short of physical force.  Small Protestant missions had been established in some coastal areas of South India from 1660 onwards.  But the big boost came with the foundation of the Church Missionary Society by the Anglican Church in 1799 and �other sects followed in their wake�.  The Baptist Mission was established at Serampore near Calcutta by William Carey in 1803.  �A violent propaganda campaign was launched by Carey and his associates against Hinduism in Bengal which seemed to them to be in a state of dissolution.  But Hindu orthodoxy reacted vigorously and Lord Minto felt obliged to prohibit such propaganda in Calcutta.� He had in mind the Vellore Mutiny which had outraged the religious sentiments of the sepoys.¹³

Christian missions achieved some small success in Bengal after India was thrown open to missionaries at large in 1813.  But once again, Hindu response in the shape of reform movements was strong, and the missionaries received another severe jolt.  More significant gains were made by the missions in Travancore where the Raja was threatened with deposition when he tried to prevent the conversion of some depressed classes.  �The action opened the eyes of other ruling princes and there were a number of important states where no missionary activity of any kind, including schools, was permitted upto 1947.�¹⁴

The British Government of India had pretended to be indifferent to Christian missions, particularly after the Revolt of 1857.  But it helped the missions indirectly.  �Legislature protected the right of converts to their share in Hindu joint families, and High Court decisions enabled converts to blackmail their wives to follow them into the fold of their new religion.  The Government also encouraged the missionaries to work among the backward tribes.�¹⁵ Another design which the British evolved to promote Christianization of India was T.B. Macaulay�s educational system introduced in 1835.  �It was the devout hope of Macaulay� and of many others, that the diffusion of new learning among the higher classes would see the dissolution of Hinduism and the widespread acceptance of Christianity.  The missionaries were of the same view, and they entered the education field with enthusiasm, providing schools and colleges in many parts of India where education in the Christian Bible was compulsory for Hindu students.  The middle classes accepted Western education with avidity and willingly studied Christian scriptures, but neither the dissolution of Hindu society so hopefully predicted nor the conversion of the intellectuals so devoutly hoped for showed any sign of materialization.  On the other hand, Hinduism assimilated the new learning, and the effects were soon visible all over India in a revival of a universalistic religion based on the Vedanta.�¹⁶ The Grand Design on which �they had spent so much money and energy had failed�.¹⁷ The rise of Indian nationalism also had an adverse effect on missionary fortunes.  The great leaders of the national movement such as Lokmanya Tilak, Sri Aurobindo and Lala Lajpat Rai were champions of resurgent Hinduism.  �The Christian leaders in India themselves began to feel that too obvious a separation from their countrymen could not benefit them.  Christianity began to show interest in Indian culture�¹⁸

Japan

Francis Xavier�s vision was not confined to India.  He was eying the whole of South East Asia and the Far East, China and Japan in particular.  He had sailed to Malacca in Malaya in 1545 and then to Amboyna in Indonesia.  While he was in Malacca again on his way back from Amboyna, he met a Japanese named Anjiro who was a fugitive from justice of his own country.  �Anjiro gave him glowing accounts of the readiness of the people of Japan to receive the message of Christ.� Xavier trained this Japanese criminal at the College of St. Paul in Goa and then set sail for Japan with him in 1549.  He was encouraged by a provincial feudal lord but opposed by the Buddhist priests.  He travelled to the Capital of Japan, Miyako, in the hope of converting the Emperor of Japan.  But the Emperor refused to see him and he returned disheartened to Goa in 1551. �The opposition of Buddhist monks had dashed his hopes and ignorant as he was of Eastern religions, to him the Buddha was a demon under whose influence the Japanese people were living in monstrous sin.  But he did not give up hope.  He wrote to Ignatius Loyola to send more workers for Japan.�¹⁹

Limited Christian missionary work continued in Japan mainly in the western part of the Island.  Japan at that time was divided into a number of principalities.  �The feudal rulers of that part of Japan were anxious at that time to attract Portuguese vessels to the harbours mainly with the object of strengthening themselves against other feudal Lords.  They realized instinctively the close connection between the foreign powers across the seas and the missionaries who had come to preach the new religion.�²⁰ It was at this time that the great Japanese leader Oda Nobunaga started his career of conquest to unite Japan.  He was being opposed by the powerful Buddhist monasteries.  �The Jesuits saw a chance of interesting him in their mission to the disadvantage of the Buddhist church.  Nobunaga encouraged them and in 1568 he invited the Catholic missionaries to Kyoto and even gave them land on which to build a church.  Under his powerful protection the mission made unexpected progress.�²¹

Hideyoshi who succeeded Nobunaga was also favourably inclined towards the missionaries.  �But he was a keen-eyed observer.  He noticed that the Portuguese had landed artillery to protect the area in which Christians lived.  On a visit to a Portuguese vessel to see Father Coelho, he observed that the ship, though small, was heavily armed.  He was also aware of the interest that the western daimyos were manifesting in the arms and equipment of the Portuguese and of their attempts to strengthen themselves by friendship with foreigners.  Hideyoshi acted with firmness and in 1587 the activities of the missionaries were prohibited throughout the length and breadth of Japan.� By now the Spaniards had conquered the Philippines and were negotiating a commercial treaty with Japan.  �The commander of a Spanish galleon which was driven ashore spoke of Spanish power and recounted to the local daimyo who had salvaged the vessel and claimed the cargo the glories and prowess of the Conquistadores in a boastful manner.  Hideyoshi�s suspicious mind, already aware of Portuguese action in the East, ordered the arrest of all Spaniards in the country and had them crucified in Nagasaki as spies.�²²

The Japanese had collected considerable intelligence about the doings of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Spaniards and the British in the islands of the Pacific.  They had also realized that the converts in Japan sympathised with and looked for support to the foreigners.  So they put down with a strong hand efforts to convert more Japanese to a creed which was heaping abuse on the gods of Japan.� The local Christian community continued to exist as a minor and obscure sect subject to intermittent persecution mainly because of its affiliations with foreigners.  However, in 1614 Iyeasu, the Tokugawa Shogun, made it clear that Christian teachings were no longer to be tolerated and an edict banning the religion was issued that year.�²³ At the same time, the Japanese sent a special spy to the southern regions to report on the activities of the Europeans there.  Information about a Spanish plan to invade Japan reached them in 1622.  Then came the Christian rebellion in Japan in 1637.  �It took a considerable army and a costly campaign to put down the revolt which was said to have received support from the Portuguese.  The reaction of the Shogunate was sharp and decisive the firm policy of eliminating the converts was put into effect and a few years later the country was closed to the Westerners.�²⁴

Japan remained closed to Christian missions till 1889 when the policy was revised under the Meiji Restoration.  The Japanese remained suspicious about Christian missionaries but as the new Constitution included a clause about complete religious toleration.  The doors were opened to foreign missions.  By that time, however, both Shintoism and Buddhism had revived in Japan and Christianity continued to be looked down upon by the mainstream Japanese as an evil sect.  �Finally the educational system in Japan was under national control and Christian teachings were suspected to be in conflict with the tradition of state dominance enjoined by Shintoism.�²⁵

China

It was in China that Christian missions achieved their greatest success as well as met their greatest failure.  Backed by the gangsterism of European powers, particularly Britain and France, the mission�s spread their tentacles far and wide shattered the political, social and cultural fabric of China, and prepared the way for Communist take-over after the Second World War.

There were a large number of Chinese in Malacca when the Portuguese captured this place in 1511. It was from these Chinese that the Portuguese heard of the vast riches of China.  They started sending commercial embassies to China.  But the real purpose of these embassies was to spy and gather intelligence; they were planning invasion and conquest.  A Portuguese embassy under Thomas Pires was sent to Peking and the Chinese Emperor showed readiness to receive it.  But Simon d�Antrade who had accompanied Pires landed a party of Portuguese on the Chinese land and started building a fort.  �The Chinese fleet attacked him and he was driven out.  When news of Simon d�Artrade�s piracies reached Peking, the Chinese Government naturally refused to receive the ambassador who was sent back to Canton where he died in prison in 1523.�²⁶ Francis Xavier had also cast covetous eyes on China after his return from Japan.  �He set out for China.  But waiting for a ship on a little island off the Kwantung coast the indomitable old man died (1552).�²⁷

On the other hand, unofficial trade between the Portuguese and some Chinese on the coastal areas was proving profitable to both parties.  A Portuguese ship helped a Chinese admiral who was chasing pirates, and the Portuguese had given rich presents to the local governor of Chuang Chao and Ningpo.  So the viceroy allowed the Portuguese to establish a trading post on the small deserted promontory of Macao in 1557.²⁸ In 1565 the Jesuits built a residence in Macao and Christian missionaries started arriving.  By now the missionaries had evolved a new policy.  They tried to be of special service to high Chinese officials and use their patronage for propagating Christianity.  Matteo Ricci reached Macao in 1582 and travelled to the Chinese Capital at Peking in 1595 He gained the favour of the Court by presenting chiming clocks, other scientific toys and by showing his skill in mathematics.  At that time a conflict had arisen in China between Buddhism and Confucianism.  Seeing that the Court was inclined towards Confucianism, he sided with this creed.  �He quoted from the Confucian texts in support of the Christian doctrines and tried to show that Confucian doctrines did not conflict with Christianity.�²⁹

The Jesuits who followed Ricci served the Ming Emperors as astrologers and gun manufacturers, which activities brought them patronage but in no way promoted-Christianity.  Adam Schall who had succeeded Ricci in 1630 �was nominated Vice-President of the Imperial Sacrifice, the Superintendent of the imperial Stud and High Honourable Bearer of the Imperial Banquet strange posts for a Christian priest to hold.�³⁰ The mission at Peking was closed after the Ming dynasty was overthrown by the Manchus and Schall was jailed.  He died in 1666.  But another Jesuit, Ferdinand Verbiest, succeeded in winning the favour of the Manchu King, Kang Hsi who needed the Jesuit�s skill for manufacturing cannon for suppressing a rebellion.  The new king permitted the missionaries to preach their religion.  Verbiest appealed to the king of France to send missionaries to China from the newly established (1664) Congregation de Missions Estrangers in Paris, and six French priests left for the Far East in 1685.  One of these French fathers, Gerbillion was �a brilliant linguist who rendered brilliant service to the Chinese Government during the Sino-Russian border disputes which led to the Treaty of Nertchinsk (1689).  As a reward for his ability and tact an �Edict of Tolerance� was issued by the Emperor (1692) which declared that the doctrines taught by the Europeans in charge of Astronomy and the Tribunal of Mathematics, �are not evil� and permitted people �to go to the churches freely to worship God�.�³¹

But the Jesuits had gone too far in compromising the Christian doctrines and rites.  They were practising astrology for the Chinese Court.  �The head of the Jesuit mission as the Honourable Bearer of Dishes at the Imperial Banquet, or as the President of the Rites was not likely to find favour either in Rome or in Paris, and this was the problem that was raised at the Vatican itself, by the Dominicans,�³²The Pope sent to China the Vicar General who gave a decision against the Jesuits.  The Jesuits appealed to the Chinese Emperor for declaring that the Chinese rites were not in conflict with the Christian practices.  The Emperor confirmed the Jesuit position, which was resented by the Pope.  He sent a Legate for further enquiry.  The Legate prohibited the Jesuit practices.  The Emperor sent the Legate to jail where he died in 1710. On the other hand, a Papal Bull was issued against missionaries in China practising any Chinese rites.  �In 1724, the preaching of the Christian religion was officially suppressed and the foreign missionaries, except those employed at the Court, were deported to Canton.  Thus came to an end the grandiose scheme of the Jesuits in China.�³³

Christian missions entered China in a big way with the arrival of Britain, France and the U.S.A. on the scene in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.  Opium trade which was forced on China by the British East India Company led to the opium wars, defeat of China, and acquisition of extraterritorial rights by the various Western powers.  Christian missions gained the right to operate not only in the extra-territorial enclaves but all over China.  They also shared the indemnities exacted from China in the aftermath of various wars.  All sorts of questionable characters became converts to Christianity and sought the protection of imperialist powers.  �Christianity in China was involved with the Taiping rebellion� Protected by foreign authority these converts looked down upon the Chinese and took up an aggressive attitude towards them�� The Christian missionaries created mischief everywhere but were protected by the consuls of foreign powers.³⁴

�But there was not a single province or area during all this time where the common man, as well as the mandarin, did not make it clear that the missionary was an unwelcome intruder� Not a single year passed without violent manifestations in some town or other against missionary activity.  The Boxer rebellion could only be understood against this background.  It was the missionary and the �secondary devil�, the native convert, who were the special objects of the Boxer�s fury.  Indeed the Chinese Christians had to pay dearly for being �secondary devils� suspected to be supporters of foreign aggressors.�³⁵

One particular incident in the history of Christianity in China deserves special notice.  The French had built a cathedral on the site of a Chinese temple in Tientsin.  An orphanage was also established by Catholic nuns.  �These sisters arranged for the payment of a sum for every child brought to the orphanage, that is, in plain words established a kind of purchase system, encouraging the less scrupulous Chinese middlemen to kidnap children� Naturally, the Chinese public was greatly agitated by the procedure.�³⁶ The matter was represented to the Imperial Commissioner who took it up with the French consul.  The consul resisted enquiry by a committee of the Chinese and fired at the mob which had collected outside the orphanage.  The consul was murdered and the Cathedral as well as the orphanage was destroyed.  The French threatened war and were supported by the British, the Americans, the Russians and the Italians.  The situation was saved by the Franco-Prussian war in Europe in which the French were defeated.³⁷

The Boxer war gave an opportunity to the Christian missions to acquire monopoly over education in China.  The Treaty that followed �provided for the suspension of official examinations for five years in towns where foreigners had been molested - a device meant to give a chance to the missionary educated young men and Christians to be employed in service��³⁸ In the next ten years the missionaries established a monopoly over education in China.  Missionary education in turn created spiritual chaos.  Instead of a Chinese renaissance based on Confucianism or Buddhism what followed was a basically antireligious movement - the Chinese New Tide which paved the way for �penetration of revolutionary ideas of Marxism�.  The leader of the New Tide, Chen.  Tu-hsiu, became in due course the founder of the original Communist Party of China.³⁹

Christian hopes in China revived when Sun Yat-sen, a Christian, emerged as the leader of the Chinese Republic after the overthrow of the Manchus in 1911. �But he showed that he was more interested in the greatness and welfare of China than in the promotion of Christianity.  The disappointment which Sun Yat-sen felt at the attitude of the Christian powers of the West and the influence which the October Revolution in Russia exercised on him led him away further and further from the missionaries to whom he had at one time looked for support.  Moreover, the rising tide of nationalism, against unequal treaties and against imperialism, was unfavourable to Christianity The Anti-Christian Federation founded in Shanghai in 1922 asserted that Christianity was an ally of capitalism and imperialism and thus an instrument for oppression of weaker nations.�⁴⁰

Seventy years of sustained missionary effort for Christianizing China had inflicted great damage on Chinese society and culture.  The missionaries had also helped the Western powers in destroying the political system of China.  �Anarchical conditions in China were expected to be favourable to missionary hopes.  Anarchical conditions did come about in Chinese society, but the beneficiaries were others.�⁴¹

Indo-China

Christian missionary intrusion in Indo-China started with the activities of Alexander de Rhodes, a Jesuits who started work among Japanese Christian refugees (1662-27).  But his success was not significant.  His appeal to the Pope for support bore no fruit.  The newly established Mission Estrangers in France (1659), however, provided help.  �Some businessmen in Rouen had established a society for the double purpose of trade and religion.  It was in their ship that Bishop Lambert, selected by Father Alexander de Rhodes for the mission, reached Tongking in the guise of a merchant (1662).  The Trinh monarchs of Tongking however showed no desire to welcome missionary activity� The Dutch soon succeeded in destroying the French factory at Tongking, and the local people remained indifferent to the new religion.  So there was nothing to report for nearly a century.� It was only in 1765 that Pigneau de Behaine of the Mission Estrangers arrived in Cochin China.  The Nguen King of Hue was in exile at this time.  Behaine fitted out an expedition and restored him to his throne.  But Behaine died soon after (1779).  Meanwhile, the Revolution had broken out in France and the mission could expect no help from the mother country.  By the time of the Bourbon restoration in France �the new Emperor of Annam, Minh Mang, had become very hostile to Christian activity.  In 1848 Emperor Tu-Doc declared the religion of Jesus to be a �perverse religion� and ordered ministers of this religion to be thrown into the sea.�⁴²

Tu-Duc�s hostility to Christianity provided an excuse to Napoleon III of France.  He decided to use force.  In a communique published on 14 November 1858, he announced that �ruthless persecutions of our missionaries have brought our warships on more than one than occasion to the coast of the Annamite Kingdom�.  The Spaniards in the Philippines came out in support of the French expedition, �the commander-in-chief emphasizing the necessity �to avenge the insults to our sacred religion and our pious missionaries�.�⁴³

The struggle between Tu-Duc and the French continued for fifteen years.  The Annamite King appealed to China for help and the French suffered a defeat.  But the relief was temporary.  In the end Tu-Duc had to come to terms with France.  He signed a treaty in 1874 ceding Cochin China to France and opening the Red River to French commerce.  �This treaty� brought into existence the political structure of Indo-China with its separate areas of Cochin China, the Empire of Annam, the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Principality of Laos.�⁴⁴

The cultural resistance offered by Buddhism and Confucianism in Cambodia, Laos and Annam proved to be weak and not very widespread.  The missionaries had a field day.  The social system showed signs of breakdown everywhere.  Nor was there a strong national movement in this region till after the First World War.  �When that movement started, the Russian Revolution had already become a major factor in Eastern Asia, and therefore from the beginning the new nationalism of Indo-China had a Marxist bias, which later developed into Communist leadership.�⁴⁵

Slam (Thailand)

Siam was able to resist Western pressures for unequal treaties till 1855 when the changed position in China and the British annexation of a part of Burma persuaded her to negotiate with Britain.  �Sir John Bowring, who negotiated the treaty of 1855, was able to secure the principle of extra-territoriality for British subjects, permission to build churches and exemption of all duty for import of opium.�⁴⁶ France also found pretexts for using strong arm methods and acquired some sort of extraterritorial rights for all her Asian subjects by a treaty signed in 1893.  But rivalry between France and Britain enabled Siam to maintain her independence as a buffer state.  The greatest factor which came to the rescue of Siam, however, was a succession of strong and able kings who introduced reforms and revived native culture.⁴⁷ Missionary activity had but little impact on the people in Siam due to the strength and vitality of the Buddhist Church.  �The monarch of Siam assumed the title of the Defender of the Buddhist Faith in imitation of the British King�s title.  The conservative but generally enlightened policy followed by the monarchy during the critical period between 1870 and 1920 had the effect of getting Siam through the transition without violent tumult and a disorganization of society, so that in the period following the First [World] War she was enabled to recover her natural independence in full by the gradual abolition, through negotiations, of the rights of extraterritoriality which the foreign nations possessed.�⁴⁸

Burma

Burma after its annexation by the British remained a part of India till 1937 so that the rise of Indian nationalism had a strong impact on Burmese nationalism.  Though Buddhism had ceased to be the state religion of Burma after its annexation, its influence amongst the people was not seriously affected.  Nationalist leaders in Burma had to profess to be devout Buddhists to gain popular support.  �An instance of this was the case of Dr. Ba Maw, who was baptized as a Christian in his childhood; when he had become a prominent national figure, he declared that he had returned to the mother (Buddhist) church.�⁴⁹  Missionary activity in Burma was able to affect neither its social structure nor its religion except among the Karens, the backward tribals.  �There was thus considerable missionary sympathy for Karen separatism - a movement which was at one stage a major threat to the cause of Burmese independence.�⁵⁰

Missionary Response to Panikkar

The message that Panikkar had tried to convey to Asians in general and to his own countrymen in particular was that the history of Christianity surveyed by him was a running commentary on the imperialist character of the Christian doctrine.  But the Brown Sahibs who had taken over from the British - the politicians and the intellectual�s elite in India - failed to grasp his message and ignored his monumental study altogether.  On the other hand, the missionaries were up in arms against him.  �To prove his point,� they said, �Panikkar picks and chooses historical facts and then deals with them one-sidedly.� But none of them came out with facts which could redeem or even counterbalance those. presented by Panikkar.  Efforts to explain them away or put another interpretation on them, also remained a poor exercise.  Fr. Jerome D�Souza had jibed, �A very fine narrative Mr. Panikkar, but you must not call it history.�⁵¹ But he or his missionary colleagues never bothered to tell what was that history which Panikkar had not taken into account.  Subsequent Christian writings show that the missionaries have never been able to stop smarting from the hurt caused by Panikkar�s book.  They have also learnt a lesson, namely, that the Christian doctrine has to be salvaged from the history it had created.  By now there is a plethora of Christian literature which bemoans the �colonial handicap� which has stood in the way of Jesus scoring over Rama and Krishna and the Buddha.  And there has been a determined and sustained effort to present to the Indian people what Stanley Jones has named as the �disentangled Christ�.

Storm in Missionary Circles

The Report which was accompanied by two volumes of documentation raised a storm in missionary circles in India and abroad.  The missions were in no position to dispute the facts presented or contest the conclusions arrived at by the Enquiry Committee.  All they could do was to raise the spectre of �Hindu communalism� and warn against the �danger of Hindu Raj�.  It was said that �members of Hindu Mahasabha had begun to wield considerable influence� in the Government of Madhya Pradesh and that �their aim was to make one Hindu state out of India.�⁹⁵

The fact of missions in India seeking financial and other aids from missions abroad was equated with the Government of India seeking �foreign technical knowledge and the assistance of friends from many European and American countries in the development of the nation-building activities.� The replacement of foreign missionaries was found impossible as the Government of India had �found impossible to replace foreign personnel with Indian personnel.�⁹⁶ It was promised that �in the not distant future the coming of missionaries from abroad into India will be matched by the going out of Indian missionaries from this country.�⁹⁷ The logic was quite in keeping with the way the Church in India had come to look at itself.

If this self-image of the Church as a State within the State looked pretentious to some people, it could be accounted for only by their tendency towards totalitarianism.  �There is a striking contrast,� wrote a leading theologian, M. M. Thomas, �between the democratic idea of the State and the totalitarian idea of the State which is both implicit and explicit in the Recommendations of the Niyogi Report� The philosophy of State underlying the Report and advocated by it is unashamedly totalitarian.  It therefore is a matter of vital concern to every one in this country whether Christian or non-Christian who believes in democracy.�⁹⁸ The test of a state being democratic was that it recognised and honoured �supranational loyalties�.  In support of his proposition Dr. Thomas quoted Mahatma Gandhi who had �recognized truth and non-violence as realities demanding loyalty above the nation,� and President Soekarno of Indonesia who had �stated that Nationalism should be limited by Humanism�.⁹⁹ Thus servility to foreign financiers and controllers of missions in India became transformed into loyalty to universal moral values!  �In deploring this,� concluded Dr. Thomas, �and characterising supranationalism as �extraterritoriality�, the Niyogi Report has shown the kinship of its ideology with totalitarian Facism.�¹⁰⁰

The missions also tried to rally support from some persons of public standing in India.  Dr. Hare Krishna Mahtab, then Governor of Bombay, obliged them readily.  �We should not think,� he said, �of closing our doors to anyone.  If we think in terms of exclusiveness, we shall not make any progress.�¹⁰¹ But they found a hard nut in C. Rajagopalachari.  �It seems,� he wrote to a foreign missionary, �you expect from me an expression of my views on the specific question: What type of missionary workers are wanted in India, rather than on the question whether any missionary workers should come at all to India? I shall respectfully speak my opinion on the latter point. I feel it is not really possible on the ground of logic or on the evidence of miracles to hold that amongst the religions known as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, anyone is nearer the truth than any other.  You will permit me to object to the exclusive claims for Truth made on behalf of any one of these faiths.  If this my first point is granted, the only justification for missionary work is proselytism.  But is it good on the whole for men and women to change from one religion to another? I think it is not desirable to make any effort at proselytism.  I feel that such efforts undermine the present faith of the people, which is good enough for promoting right conduct in them and to deter them from sin. They tend to destroy family and social harmony, which is not a good thing to do.�¹⁰²

Rajagopalachari was repeating the views expressed very often and very forcefully by Mahatma Gandhi.  But the men who ran the Government in New Delhi could not afford to defend the Father of the Nation.  They had to defend their Secularism and Democracy which had come under shadow in the powerful Christian press in India and abroad.  They found the recommendations of the Niyogi Report �in discordance with the fundamental rights of the Constitution� and �the Report was shelved.�¹⁰³

The Government of India�s stand vis-a-vis the Report became clear within two months after its publication.  In September 1956, �a question was raised in the Parliament about an alleged increase in the anti-Indian activities on the part of foreign Christian missionaries.� The Minister of State for Home Affairs, B: N. Datar, came promptly to their defence.  �There is no factual basis,� he said, �for the assumption made in the question, according to the information available with the Government of India.� At the same time he affirmed that �no steps would be taken to check the work of foreign missionaries.�¹⁰⁴

Om Prakash Tyagi was a Janata Party Member of Lok Sabha elected after the Emergency (1975-77) in 1977.  On 2 December 1978, he introduced in the Lok Sabha Bill No. 178 of 1978 under the title THE FREEDOM OF RELIGION BILL, 1978 �to provide for prohibition on conversion from one religion to another by use of force, or inducement or by fraudulent means and for matters incidental there to�.  The Draft of the bill was dated �New Delhi, The 21st November, 1978�.

STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS in the Bill stated as follows:

One of the Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution is the right to profess, practice and propagate religion of one�s choice.

 

Conversion from one religion to another, done by free consent and will, cannot be questioned.  But State protection is required where it is sought to be obtained by threat, undue influence, allurement or wrongful inducement.  The importance of providing this protection to persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is all the more necessary and cannot be ignored.  The policy of the State should be directed to achieve this aim.

The Bill had 8 sections of which the first two dealt with definitions.  The other relevant sections were as under:

3. No person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by deceit or by any fraudulent means nor shall any person abet any such conversion.

 

4. Any person contravening the provision in section 3 shall without prejudice to any civil liability, be punishable with imprisonment of either description which may extend to one year or with fine which may extend to three thousand rupees or both:

Provided that in case the offence is committed in respect of a minor, woman or a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, the punishment shall be imprisonment to the extent of two years and a fine up to five thousand rupees. 

5. An offence under this Act shall be cognisable and shall not be investigated by an officer below the rank of an Inspector of Police.

 

8. The Central Government may make rules for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act.

The Bill followed the pattern of Bills passed by the Congress Governments of Orissa (1967), Madhya Pradesh (1968) and Arunachal Pradesh (1977) following the recommendations of the Niyogi and Rege Committees to the effect that activities of foreign Christian missionaries in these States had to be restrained.  Christian organizations had challenged in the Supreme Court the Orissa and Madhya Pradesh Acts as unconstitutional.  But the Supreme Court had dismissed their appeal in 1977.  Now the same organizations were up in arms once again.¹⁰⁵

The first shot was fired by Mother Teresa in a letter she wrote to Prime Minister Morarji Desai on 25 March 1979.  The text of the letter is not available to us.  But its substance comes out in the reply which Desai wrote to her on 21 April 1979.  She appears to have protested against the Bill as a hurdle in the way of charitable and philanthropic activities of the Christian missions.  She seems to have pointed out at the same time that the Roman Catholics were always engaged in praying, fasts and celebration of sacrifices made in the interests of peace, communal amity and religious freedom.  Desai wrote back, �If charity and philanthropy is not connected with any ulterior motive, they are beneficial.  But charity and conversions cannot go together.  Religion prospers only when charity and philanthropy are undertaken without any motive.  The Bill you have mentioned does not affect adversely the propagation of religion.  In fact, the Bill is an attempt to see that the poor and illiterate may enjoy religious freedom without any fear.  We have to be particularly vigilant about the Scheduled Tribes whose protection is not only guaranteed by the laws of the land but is also enshrined in the Constitution.  It is our duty to preserve every aspect of their way of life along with their religion and ways of worship.  No group belonging to any creed should interfere with their religion and rituals.  Other organizations are also engaged in the philanthropic work which you claim.  But that work can be helpful only when it is done without any ulterior motive.  It is my opinion that you should revise your attitude to O.P. Tyagi�s Bill in the light of what I have stated.�¹⁰⁶

Meanwhile, Morarji Desai had met 36 delegations in Pune on 31 March 1979 and received their memoranda in connection with the Bill.  He explicitly rejected the plea of the Christian delegation that the Bill which provided for prohibition of conversions by force should be withdrawn.  He told Father Valerian D�Souza who was leading the Christian delegation that he saw nothing objectionable in the Bill.  At the same time he gave the assurance that he would study the Bill thoroughly and try to remove the misgivings felt by its opponents.

Another delegation which met him was from the Masur Ashram and the Patit Pavan.  They demanded that the Bill be passed.  Desai assured them that they (his Government) are in favour of the Bill and no one should have the apprehension that the Government would bend before any tactics of pressure.  Kaka Joshi of Masur Ashram congratulated the Prime Minister for the courage he had shown in the matter of conversions.  Joshi said that he was the first Prime Minister to adopt that attitude.¹⁰⁷

Leading newspapers wrote editorials and published articles in support of the Bill.  Two retired High Court Judges issued statements to the same effect.  N. Krishnaswamy, former judge of the Madras High court, declared on 13 April 1979 that �This Bill is timely and Christians are only exposing themselves by opposing it�.  Shiv Nath Katju, former judge of the Allahabad High court, said on 29 April 1979: �The Bill should be passed immediately.  In days to come it will prove beneficial to all minority groups including the Christians.�¹⁰⁸

Various Hindu organizations also passed resolutions endorsing the Bill.  The Hyderabad session of the Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha held on 13 April 1979 appealed to all Sanatana Dharma Sabhas and organizations of Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists to hold meetings in support of the Bill and congratulate Prime Minister Morarji Desai for the firmness shown by him.  The four Shankaracharyas held a joint meeting at Sringeri and passed a resolution in support of the Bill.  Dr. Girdharilal Goswami, President of the Sanatana Dharma Maha Sammelan, issued a statement on 7 May 1979 saying that the Bill was in keeping with the secular policy as well as the Constitution of India, and that it will prove very helpful in stopping the large-scale conversion of Hindus by foreigners who were using material inducements as well as force for this purpose.¹⁰⁹

Tyagi himself issued a statement in Hyderabad on 15 April 1979 stating that the Bill did not prevent anyone from propagating one�s religion nor came in the way of anyone changing one�s religion out of conviction.  If any group opposed such a just measure, he said, it only showed that it was guilty of committing offences specified in the Bill.  The only aim of the Bill, he added, was to protect the large number of socially and educationally poor people in such backward areas as the foreign missionaries had chosen for effecting conversions with the help of money and materials brought from abroad.  He cited the instance of 31,000 bales of cloth which had been imported by missionaries for distribution among the poor people in Madras but which had been sold surreptitiously and the proceeds utilized for other purposes.  The matter was under investigation, he said.¹¹⁰

The Hindu of Madras dated 29 April 1979 published a detailed report of a Press Conference which Tyagi had held in New Delhi on 27 April 1979.  After repeating the points he had made in his statement of 15 April 1979, he said that conversions by force naturally created tension between religious groups, and that such conversions had to be stopped in order to maintain- communal amity and national unity.  He added that it was only after religious tensions were brought to the notice of the Governments in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh that these Governments had felt obliged to enact Acts guaranteeing freedom of religion.  The Supreme Court, he said had judged these Acts as consistent with the Constitution.  His statement was followed by a question and answer session.  In answer to the first question he said that he was prepared to accept any amendment to the Bill provided it did not violate its spirit.  The Prime Minister Morarji Desai was in agreement with the intention of the Bill because he was opposed to conversions.  The second question was whether he would welcome a national debate on the subject.  Tyagi said he would welcome such a debate because he knew that all patriotic and intelligent people were in favour of the Bill, and that only those groups were opposed to it who were against national interests as well as their own long-term interests.  His observation in answer to a third question was that foreign missionaries who were entrenched in backward areas and among backward people were bent upon exploiting the poverty of our people and that the Government could exercise no control on the flow of foreign funds nor supervise use of those funds.  He added that ostensibly these funds were meant for opening schools but were actually used for some other purposes.  The fourth question demanded evidence about the misuse of foreign funds and materials.  Tyagi cited the Niyogi and Rege Committees� reports in this context.  The fifth question asked was why Christians were opposed to the Bill.  Tyagi�s answer was that he knew it for definite that there was a foreign hand at the back of this opposition and that conversions were politically motivated.  The spectre of Hindu Rashtra, he added, had been raised in order to frighten the minorities.  He assured the minorities that there was no ground for their misgivings so far as propagation of religion and genuine conversions were concerned.  The sixth question was regarding the need for concrete steps to remove the fear of the minorities.  Tyagi cited the Acts in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh and wanted to know instances of their being misused.  The fear felt by the minorities had no legs to stand upon.  The seventh and the last question was whether the Bill would not harm the Janata Party by causing division in its ranks.  Tyagi dismissed the question by saying that only power hungry and opportunist elements were talking about the harmful effect of the Bill on the Janata Party, and that the Bill should not be dropped due to fear of a temporary controversy if it was fundamentally a right step in the interest of the nation.¹¹¹

It was, however, true that the Janata Party at this time was riven with sharp controversies, though not on account of Tyagi�s Bill.  It was also true that the Socialist group within the Janata Party led by George Femandez was demanding that the Bill be withdrawn.  The Communist Party of India could not miss the opportunity and raised the matter in the Lok Sabha.  The CPI Member, Bhupesh Gupta, alleged on the floor of the House on 3 May 1979 that there was widespread resentment against the Bill among various communities and that it had actually led to large-scale rioting in Jammu and Kashmir.  He pleaded that the Government should withdraw the Bill.  H.M. Patel, Home Minister in the Janata Party Government, clarified that Tyagi�s Bill was a Private Bill on which the Government had yet to make up its mind.  He added that the Government could not withdraw a Private Bill.  Regarding riots in Kashmir, Patel said that Tyagi�s Bill had nothing to do with them and that they had been caused by the hanging of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan.¹¹²

A few months later the Janata Party split and the Morarji Government had to resign.  Tyagi�s Bill could not even be discussed in the Parliament.  It became infectious.  An opportunity for enacting an all-India legislation against conversions by force, fraudulent means and material inducements was missed.

The Catholic Bishops� Conference of India (CBCI), the highest body of the Catholic Church in India, was celebrating its 50th anniversary in January 1994.  Arun Shourie, the noted scholar-journalist, was invited by the CBCI to give �Hindu assessment of the work of Christian missionaries� in a meeting held at the Ishvani Kendra Seminary at Pune on 5 January 1994.  Many Archbishops, Bishops, senior clergy and Christian scholars from all over India were present.  The meeting lasted for more than two hours.  His lecture was followed by a question and answer session.  Everyone present seemed to be pleased and Arun Shourie was invited to write a paper on his talk so that it could be included in a volume containing the proceedings of anniversary celebration.  He finished the paper pretty soon and sent it to the Secretary of the CBCI.

The CBCI had, however, used the occasion to review the work of the Catholic Church in India.  The discussions were guided by two documents prepared in advance - �Trends and Issues in Evangelization of India Based on the CBCI Survey Reports� and �Paths in India Today: Our Common Search [submitted by] CBCI Commission for Proclamation and Communication Working Group�.  Arun Shourie had received two sets of these documents - one which came to him in New Delhi along with the invitation for his lecture and another when he reached the venue of the meeting at Pune.

As he studied these documents, Arun Shourie felt that the paper he had sent to the CBCI had not done full justice to the subject.  So he delved deeper into the theology of Christianity and its history in India and studied a lot of primary material - the writings and speeches of important British administrators like T.B. Macaulay, Charles Trevelyan and Richard Temple; works of outstanding scholar-missionaries such as Max Muller and Monier-Williams; evidence tendered by leading Christian missionaries in 1853 before a Select Committee of the British Parliament regarding prospects of Christianity in India and the responsibility of the Christian ruling power in that context; report of the Simon Commission published in 1930; reports of the Rege and Niyogi Committees regarding missionary activities in Madhya Bharat and Madhya Pradesh published in 1956, etc.  At the same time he acquired an adequate knowledge of Hindu response to the missionary assault from the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi and the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.  He also discovered that the earlier Hindu response had not only been silenced but actually reversed in the post-independence India so that India�s intellectual elite had started speaking the missionary language vis-à-vis Hinduism with a vengeance in the name of Secularism.  The result of this painstaking research was a whole book - Missionaries in India: Continuities, Changes, Dilemmas - published from New Delhi in 1994.

The starting point of Shourie�s review of Christianity was his grasp of the hoary Indian traditions which the Christian missionaries had chosen to calumniate and erase so that their own creed could be imposed on the people of this country.  �The traditions of India,� he wrote, �were rich as can be.  They had attained insights of the first water� And they were inclusive.  A person devoted to a tree was not traduced as an �animist�, a person devoted to a bull or an elephant, or a lion or a snake or even the lowly mouse was not laughed away.  The objects of his devotion were received with reverence - they became parts of a pantheon... Nor was this artifice.  The inclusiveness flowed from deep conviction, from what had been experienced at the deepest� But no one could impede reform by an appeal to �fundamentals�, for these, fundamentals made the individual�s own experience the ultimate referent.  That everything should reform and transform, the tradition regarded as natural.  Differences were harmonised through discourse��¹¹³

�But all this,� he continued, �the missionaries traduced.  The inclusiveness they condemned as a sinister stratagem to swallow up other religions.  The efflorescence of different speculations they condemned as cacophony.  The openness and tentativeness they condemned as intellectual flabbiness.  The inner directed search they condemned as morbid self-denial.  The offering of many ways they condemned as unsettled mush.  The many gods they condemned as chaos.  What had become the norm for Islam was made the norm for Christianity: freedom of speech meant the freedom to discover its glories� Asymmetry was the principle as in the case of Islam; conversion was held to be and acted upon as something that was an essential principle of Christianity; but when a person like Swami Shraddhananda argued in favour of taking back into the Hindu fold the converts who wanted to return, they were condemned as persons who were inventing a practice for which there was no warrant in Hinduism.�¹¹⁴

Why do the missionaries speak as they do?  Why do they fail to understand the richness of Indian traditions and appreciate its various dimensions?  Shourie answers the question after reproducing a dialogue between Mahatma Gandhi and Professor Krzenski, a Professor of Philosophy from Poland, who maintained that Christianity was the only true religion.  �For the position that Krzenski was articulating,� observes Shourie, �is the standard position, it is the ineluctable position that every adherent of a revelatory, millenniast religion must take.  The premises of such religions - of Christianity, of Islam, of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism - are that there is One Truth, that it has been revealed to One Man� that it has been enshrined by him or on his behalf in One Book� that the text is very difficult to grasp and therefore one must submit to and be guided by One (external, overarching) Agency... Now, as the Millennium shall come only when, but immediately when all accept the Revelation, it is the duty of the Agency� to see that everyone sees The Light.  If, even after The Light has been shown to a person he refuses to subscribe to it, he must be put out of harm�s way.  For in that circumstance the man is not only harming himself, he is coming in the way of the Mandate of God, of Allah�s Will, or as in Marxism, History... What must be done also follow inevitably from those premises: the Church must convert, Lenin and Mao must export the Revolution, Khomeini must export the Revelation.  These are inescapable responsibilities.�¹¹⁵

Coming to Christianity, Shourie continues, �Conversions have therefore been going on for 2000 years� An incredibly vast organization has been built up and incredibly huge resources are expanded to save souls.  It costs �145 billion dollars to operate global Christianity�, records a book on evangelization.  The Church commands four million full time Christian workers, it runs 13000 major libraries, it published 22000 periodicals, it publishes four billion tracts a year, it operates 1800 Christian Radio and TV stations.  It runs 1500 universities, and 930 research centres.  It has a quarter of a million foreign missionaries, and over four hundred institutions to train them.  And these are figures from a book published in 1989 - since then there has been the surge in Eastern Europe and Russia.�¹¹⁶

India has been a major target for Christian missions since the Portuguese pirates reached its shores.  Shourie quotes from the Mission Handbook: North American Ministries Overseas published in 1986.  �Today,� it says, �the most fruitful ministries are carried by more than 100,000 pastors, evangelists and preachers.  Full time Indian missionaries from organized societies increased from 420 in 1973 to 2941 societies in 1983.  These missionaries have seen remarkable growth in northern India in places such as Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Sikkim.  In Western India, Christian workers estimate that two new worship groups are formed every week through indigenous missionary effort.  The Indian Evangelist Team has set a goal of 2,000 new churches by the year 2000.  In Tamil Nadu, the Indian Church Growth Mission hopes to plant 1,000 churches in unreached villages.�¹¹⁷

The missions have stopped at nothing in what one of their own theologians describes as the �game of numbers�.  Shourie continues, �There are volumes upon volumes that document the way the Church has spread by violence - in North and South America.  The sudden jumps in the number of adherents during famines and other privations, testify to the use to which such times were put��¹¹⁸He mentions a chapter, �Spiritual Advantages of Famine and Cholera�, in a Catholic publication, India and Its Missions, brought out in 1823.  The chapter carries a report from the Archbishop of Pondicherry to his superiors in Europe.  This high dignitary of the Catholic Church exults, �The famine has wrought miracles.  The catechumenates are filling, baptismal water flows in streams, and starving little tots fly in masses to heaven� A hospital is a readymade congregation.  There is no need to go into the highways and hedges and �compel them to come in�.  They send each other.�¹¹⁹

The best part of Shourie�s study, however, dwells - and dwells at length on the �Division of Labour� between British administrators and Christian missionaries, and between the two of them and the Indologists.  These three groups might have differed among themselves about the means and methods to be employed.  �But in fact none of the three groups had any difference over the ultimate objectives - the conversion of the heathens to Christianity; and the extension and perpetuation of British rule� All eventually came to agree on the following:

1. India is a den of ignorance, iniquity and falsehood;

2. The principal cause of this state of affairs in Hinduism;

3. Hinduism is kept going by the Brahmins;

 

4. As the people are in such suffering and also because Jesus in his parting words has bound us to do so, it is a duty to deliver them to Christianity;

 

5. For this it is that �the walls of the mighty fortress of Brahminism� are to be �encircled, undermined and finally stormed by the soldiers of the Cross�;

 

6. To do so the most effective weapon will of course be the enlargement, consolidation and indefinite prolongation of British rule;

 

7. For the Government to exert directly to spread Christianity will ignite resentment among the natives, so, it should maintain a position of neutrality;

 

8. Its contribution will none the less be decisive; to take just the Government schools, their emphasis on the English language itself will open students to Christianity, their imparting modern notions of science and geography will by itself undermine and eventually finish Hinduism - for it is not a religion that can stand a �moment�s scrutiny�� Hindu notions of time, space, geography, history� are bound to be not just shown up but utterly destroyed with the first wafts of western learning;

 

9. The work of the missionaries will in turn help in the consolidation and perpetuation of British rule; not just the converts but all those who have been weaned on western learning and values will seek the perpetuation of that rule for their own interest;

 

10. The work of the scholars - of missionary scholars and scholar-missionaries will expose the roots of Brahminism and thereby uproot everything that has flowed from it.

 

11. In the natural course, the missionaries will be focussing particularly on the outcastes and the tribals.  Hindu society - such as it is - will be rent asunder;

 

12. The work of the scholars will have a similar effect... it will widen the earth-faults in Hinduism and thus prepare the way for Christianity; it will convert the fissures between the people into earth-faults and thus perpetuate British rule.

�Having been brought up on books which made British conquest of India to have been an accident, if not something which the Indians dragged the unwilling British to accomplish, I myself would have been inclined to view a listing of this kind as an ex post construction, as reading design into events which happened spontaneously and quite independently of one another.  One look at the writings of the principal scholars, of the chief administrators and most of all at the writings and memoranda of missionaries and missionary societies is enough to dispel that presupposition.�¹²⁰

Shourie devotes several chapters to verbatism citations of strategies suggested by some leading administrators, missionaries and scholars.  He concludes, �In a word, the work of the Church was not done by the missionaries alone, the religiously �neutral� administrators did a good bit of it.  Correspondingly, the work of the Empire was not done by administrators alone, the missionaries did a good bit of it.  And that contribution was acknowledged by ruler after ruler.� He quotes Lord Palmerston, Lord Halifax, Lord Reay and Sir Macworth Young about the missionaries being �an additional source of strength to the Empire�.¹²¹

In a chapter, �Creating -Vacuums, filling them�, which carries more citations from the same sources, Shourie observes, �Several things strike one as one reads the writings and speeches of those days.  First of course there is the candour: political power is what induced it - there was no reason to be circumlocutory, there was no fear that any one of consequence would take offence as no one else was of much consequence.  The second thing is that in spite of the incessant frequency and explicitness with which all concerned spelled out their objectives and stratagems, these are no where in our collective consciousness.�¹²²

That leads him to raising a very pertinent question: �I hope the reader will not just read through the examples but will also ask why it is that such material is not placed before our students.  After all it is not difficult to come by, and, as the reader will agree after going through it, it has the most direct bearing on our denationalization.  Yet, even though he may have considerable interest in our current problems, even though he may have been following closely the public discourse on such problems, in all probability the reader would not have come across the material.  Why is this so?�¹²³

His answer to the question is as follows:

In large part no doubt because of the thoroughness with which the colonial design came to be carried out.  Macaulay�s design to create �a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect�.  Sir Charles� reading his prognosis, written in 1838: �Familiarly acquainted with us by means of our literature, the Indian youth almost ceases to regard us as foreigners.  They speak of our great men as we do. Educated in the same way, interested in the same objects, engaged in the same pursuits with ourselves, they become more English than Hindus��

 

But there is an even more potent cause for the near total erasure of such material from our public discourse and our instruction.  And that is the form of �secularism� which we have practised these forty-five years: a �secularism� in which double-standards have been the norm, one in which everything that may remove the dross by which our national identity has been covered has become anathema.¹²⁴

The last section of Shourie�s book is mostly an analysis of the two CBCI documents which show that though adjustments in language and methods have been made after India became independent, missionary goals remain the same.  The questions that were put to him at the end of his lecture at Pune remind us of the questions which Mahatma Gandhi had faced and answered.  The questions were the same because the mind which had asked them has remained unchanged.  But spokesman after spokesman on behalf of Christianity assured Shourie that the Church had changed and its old record should not be held against it.  Shourie laid down five tests in this context:

First, we will know the Church has truly changed when it undertakes and disseminates an honest accounting of the calumnies it heaped on India and Hinduism�

 

The second thing to look for would be the extent to which the Church acquaints Christians in India as well as the groups it is aiming at with the results of scholarly work on two central claims of the Church - that the Bible is the revealed word of God, that it is wholly free from error, and that the Church, in particular the Pope in infallible�

 

Similarly, developments in various sciences have caused a sea-shift in what is sustainable and what is not in regard to creation, evolution, the division between man and other forms of life, between mind and matter.  The third bit of litmus would therefore be what is the extent to which the Church in India is disseminating information amongst its flock and its target groups about the consequence these developments have for its basic premises?

 

The fourth bit of litmus would be the extent to which the Church overcomes its present tremulous anxieties regarding dialogue and the opening up to other faiths.  And that would happen only when what is today just a grudging acknowledgement that salvation is possible through other faiths becomes an acceptance, when the current condescension and grudging admission� give way to a wholehearted acceptance of the fact that reality is indeed multilayered, that there are many ways of perceiving it, that each must assess for himself by an inner-directed search which is liable to be the most effective for him or her at that time�

 

Finally, of course there is the question of conversions.  In view of the fact, now proclaimed by the Church, that salvation is possible in each religion, what is the ground for converting people to Christianity, particularly by the sorts of means which we saw are in use in the North-East to this day?  The litmus test of the new ecumenism would therefore be the extent to which the Church brings its traditional zeal for saving souls through conversion in line with this new acknowledgement.¹²⁵

 No. 993

FROM

Dr. M. B. Niyogi, M.A., LL.M., LL.D. (Hon.), Kt., C.I.E.,  
Chairman, Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee, Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur,

To

Shri K. B. L. Seth, I.C.S., 
Chief Secretary to Government, Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur.

SIR,

I forward herewith the report of the Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee appointed by the Government of Madhya Pradesh, by Resolution No. 318-716-V-Con., dated the 14th April, 1954, to enquire into the activities of the Christian Missionaries in Madhya Pradesh, and other matters.

2. The particulars of the process of the enquiry are fully set forth in the opening part of the Report.  The Committee are presenting their report containing their conclusions on facts as contemplated in the Terms of Reference, as also their Recommendations.  The Committee are unanimous as to their recommendations on the question.

3. There has been, indeed, a delay which may appear inordinate in the preparation of the Report, but this was unavoidable for the reasons that the members could not devote their full time to the task on account of their usual preoccupations with their professional work and that considerable time was taken up with the visits of the Committee to some of the most interior and almost inaccessible rural areas inhabited mostly by Tribals who form the chief target of Missionary activity.  To study the question from the historical point of view many books had to be referred to and as some of the books were not readily available they had to be obtained from the open market.

4. At the concluding stages of its labours judgment was delivered by the Nagpur High Court in the petition filed by Shri G. X. Francis under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.  In discussing the petition their Lordships considered the powers of State Governments in appointing such Committees, the extent to which such Committees can enquire into facts, the extent of religious liberty guaranteed in our Constitution and the extent to which State Governments car, restrict or regulate the activities of religious bodies.  Independently of this judgment the Committee had come to almost the same conclusions, and the suggestions made therein fully considered by them.  It may be stated that throughout their deliberations the Committee were guided solely by the necessity to maintain intact the solidarity and security of the country, to prevent disruption of society and culture, and to emphasise the essential secular character of the Constitution.  If they have drawn attention to certain disruptive tendencies inherent in, or incidental to, the exercise of certain liberties in matters of religion, they have done so not with a view to curtailing individual rights and freedom, but to the exercise thereof in a manner consistent with public order, morality and health.  After all, the goodwill of the majority community in any country is the greatest and the safest guarantee for the fulfilment of Constitutional obligations, even more than law courts or executive authorities. The Committee have noted with great satisfaction that amongst a large section of Christian people there is a realization of this basic factor. The Committee hope that their recommendations will lead to further searching of the heart. They have touched upon some highly controversial matters and would, therefore, request Government to elicit public opinion before taking any action.

5. I take this opportunity to tendering for myself and on behalf of the Committee, heart-felt thanks to all those, including the Missionaries, who gave to the Committee the benefit of their knowledge of facts, and their views, by personally appearing before the Committee or by sending their memoranda in response to the Questionnaire issued to them.  The public spirit, which prompted them to accord their ready and willing co-operation, merits high appreciation.  Acknowledgment of indebtedness is also due to those in the Committee�s office, who rendered valuable assistance in various ways, as also to the Member-Secretary of the Committee, who rendered considerable help to the Chairman in drafting the report and last but not the least to those who assisted in the enquiry in the role of amicus curiæ.

In another part we pro se to give the history of Christian Missions in old Madhya Pradesh and also in the Merged States.  In this Chapter it is intended to detail the circumstances which led the Government to appoint this Fact-finding Committee.  Our source of information has been the various files made available to us by Government.  As the immediate cause which ultimately led to our appointment was the activities of some Mission organizations in the recently Merged States of Raigarh, Udaipur, Jashpur and Surguja, it will be useful to describe the principal or toot causes of whatever trouble was reported in the integrated States soon after their merger on 1st January, 1948.  Even in the old Madhya Pradesh the Government, was not unfamiliar with the problem of Missionary activities amongst aboriginals, because many of our districts contained a large number of Adiwasi population and Government had been carrying out, welfare measures for them for a good length of time.  It is reported that about 18 per cent of the total population of Madhya Pradesh prior to Integration consisted of aboriginals and that the Integration of the States added nearly 28 lakhs to the population of Madhya Pradesh, out of whom about 53 per cent were aboriginals.  According to official reports the integration of Chhattisgarh States was carried out smoothly and was hailed with joy by all sections of the community including the aboriginals.  When the then Premier toured the Integrated States, attempts were made by Christian and other Uraons of Jashpur State to create-some trouble, but it never presented a formidable problem.

2. The chief cause of unrest could be located against the following background :-

(a) Oppression and misgovernment which existed prior to Integration: In other parts of this Report a detailed reference to the various forms of oppression practised on the Adiwasis by the Malguzars, the Zamindars and the ex-Rulers will be found.

(b) The expectations of the people of the Integrated States of immediate improvement in their moral and material conditions as a result of Integration were pitched so high that almost inevitably they were bound to be disappointed to some extent.  Improvement of conditions in a specially backward area has necessarily to be a gradual process, which was not recognized.

(c) Almost from the very beginning interested parties, including Christian Missionaries, began to intermeddle and create dissatisfaction by exploiting the situation.  These interested parties were firstly the Rajas and their supporters and hirelings and also politicians of the neighbouring States, who wished to secure integration of some of the former States in their area despite history, geography and economy.  An end was put to the activities of such persons by the decision of the Union Ministry of States in May 1948, but according to Government reports the activities of Missionaries continued further though surreptitiously.

(d) The reports which the Government of Madhya Pradesh had obtained from the former States in respect of the activities of Missionaries show that their role in the past had not been healthy, their methods not savoury.  Two or three times there were rebellions in the States and even the Political Department, which was in the hands of the European Christians, was compelled to put restrictions on the entry of Missionaries and their movement in the former States.  Details of the Acts passed by the former States of Surguja, Udaipur and Raigarh regulating conversion and restricting the movement, etc., of Missionaries will be found elsewhere in this Report. On the integration of the States, Missionaries became afraid of losing their influence. So they started an agitation, playing on the religious feelings of the primitive Christian converts, representing the Madhya Pradesh Government as consisting of infidels and so on. Some of the articles published in Missionary papers, such as �Nishkalank� �Adiwasi� and �Jharkhand� were hardly distinguishable from the writings in Muslim papers advocating Pakistan, before, before the 15th of August 1947.  The Missionaries launched a special attack on the opening of schools by Madhya Pradesh Government under the Backward Area Welfare Scheme.  The then Commissioner of Chhattisgarh Division, contacted the Father Superior of the Roman Catholics at Jashpurnagar in February 1948 and explained to him the secular nature the Indian Union and the freedom of religion and worship which every citizen enjoyed in it.  He pointed out that there was no hindrance to Missionaries carrying on their religious activity in a lawful manner, but if the leaders of the Missions mixed up religion with politics and appealed to the religions fanaticism of the easily gullible Adiwasis they could not naturally claim the sanctity and consideration which attaches to religious organisations.  He further explained that having once suffered grievously from the communalistic policies of some persons, India could not afford to have another such movement in its very heart.  The Catholic Father Superior gave the Commissioner an undertaking that the Mission would confine itself only to religion and not dabble in politics at all.  The following letter written by Father Vermiere of the Jashpur Roman Catholic Mission may be quoted in extenso, to show the attitude of the Missionaries including foreigners, at the time of the Integration of the States :-

�We need help very much as we are so deep in debt and have to face worse times with a new Government so much against the Christians.

 

�Rev. Father Rector has probably acquainted you with what I wrote some time ago.  Things have riot much improved, although aye are rather on good terms with the local authorities.  Even so it is no more is before.  As more than one of the new or old officials points out, the men sent this side are too inferior, and cannot compare with, for instance, the late Dean.  Next those employed do riot seem to have half the powers necessary.  Things have continually to be referred higher tip, (which means most of the time no answer to the letters) and petitions, are delayed for five or six months.  What I say is the common complaint all over Jashpur from officials no less thin from the common people.  Moreover it seems to be a common complaint all over the Province, that this is the way.

 

�We should, e.g., settle about the transition from Patna syllabus to that of Nagpur.  But the new Inspectors have still to come.  They are always coming, but never arrive.  The best and probably the most sympathetic, to whom I wrote a personal letter, and is practically for us the head, would come in April, they in May; lately he informed me that he would come this month.  July is over and there is no trace of him.  They have been wasting the month of May and part of June on Adult Education, good in itself but much of a farce as it was conducted.  Hindu propaganda with open attempts to draw the Christians into the Hindu fold, occupied a large part of the programme.  In the end the Christians refused to go, on account of that propaganda and the Education came to an end.  Meanwhile the Inspectors have no time for any other work than that.

 

�The Bishop wishes me to discuss with them the question of our attempted High School at Ginabahar, but cannot do this with such fellows who come as makeshifts, till they can get away.

 

�You may have read lately in the Herald some-very spirited answers purported to come from Jashpur Christian students, against the vile slander by one who came with a large retinue to spy our Institutions at Gholeng and Ginabahar.  He dares call himself a member of the much esteemed Servants of India Society.  He and his colleague have nearly wrecked the nascent Mission of the Norbertine Fathers in Mandla, District Jubbulpore. They were sent here by the Prime Minister, but if they hope to ruin this Mission, they are very much mistaken.  Our Catholics are too advanced to he taken in. or frightened by such slanderers.  Protest meetings against their vile report continue to be held, chiefly to wreck their treacherous machinations.  As one of the two, is a sort of Minister for the uplift of the backward people, he has a considerable Government budget to dispose of.  Their aim is more to prevent us front converting, than to care for the uplift of those they used to keep them in bondage.  Just now they are starting 40 new schools for these backward Adibasis.  The third I hear of, is in a village where we possess a school since 30 years.  But knowing that many pagan children come to our schools and that we had sent a petition for a building to enlarge that school, they surreptitiously try and draw aw the pagan children from us.  But we are ready for them. Today my men are gone there to attend a big panchayat to draw tip a protest, and get all the pagans to refuse withdrawing their children from us. I am giving you all this for the sake of those in the community interested in Jashpur affairs.�

In a subsequent visit to the then Premier at Nagpur, Father Vermiere was confronted with this letter and lie then gave an undertaking in writing that he would have no objection to schools being established by Government in the States.

3. Let us turn our attention to the activities of the Missionaries in the Merged States of Surguja and Udaipur during the months following their Integration.  It has already been mentioned that the former Rulers of these States had consistently stopped the infiltration of Missionaries in their territories and with the full knowledge and consent of the then Political Department Anti conversion Acts were passed.  In spite of these Acts individual Missionaries, specially Rev. Stanislus Tigga, a Roman Catholic Priest with his headquarters in Ranchi, kept on visiting these areas surreptitiously and carried on propaganda in the garb of religion.  The strip of land comprising Surguja, Korea, Jashpur, Udaipur, Changbhakar and some other small.  States of Orissa is surrounded by Bihar and Orissa States and is inhabited by a very large percentage of aboriginals.  The tract is full of forests and mineral resources.  Foreign Missionaries from Belgium and Germany had established themselves in Bihar and Orissa and also in Jashpur in 1834 and had succeeded in converting a very large number of people to Christianity.  In order to consolidate and enhance their prestige, and possibly to afford scope for alien interests in this tract, the Missionaries were reported to be carrying on propaganda for the isolation of the Aboriginals from other sections of the community and the movement of Jharkhand was thus started.  This movement was approved by the Aboriginals, local Christians and Muslims and the Missionaries sought to keep it under their influence by excluding all the nationalists elements from this movement.  The demand for Adiwasisthan was accentuated along with the one for Pakistan in 1938.  The Muslim League is reported to have donated Rs. one lakh for propaganda work.  With the advent of political independence in India, the agitation for Adiwasisthan was intensified, with a view to forming a sort of corridor joining East Bengal with Hyderabad, which could be used for a pincer movement against India in the event of a war between India and Pakistan.  The Christian community, supported by the Missionaries of the Ranchi district, organised themselves into a �Raiyat Warg�, ostensibly to do social work, but in reality to propagate the Adiwasi movement.  To counteract the isolationist doctrine of this organization of Christians, the non-Christians formed a Praja Mandal.  Although there was a tussle between these two organizations which continued till the integration of the States with Madhya Pradesh, they joined bands on learning that Surguja and Jashpur States were being merged with Madhya Pradesh and started a pro-Bihar agitation.  At the prospect of the integration of the States with Madhya Pradesh Mr. Jaipal Singh, member of the Constituent Assembly and President of the All-India Adiwasi Association, who is also commonly described as the father of the Jharkhand movement, protested in November 1947 against the merger of Surguja and Jashpur with Madhya Pradesh and accused the Bihar Government with failure to serve the people by not insisting on the integration of those States with Bihar.  After having seen the then Premier of Bihar at Ranchi, Shri Jaipal Singh convened a conference of All-India Adiwasi Maha Sabha, on 14th January of 1948.  This pro-Bihar agitation, which was originally started at the instance of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Missionaries of Ranchi in Bihar district, soon obtained the support of other Christians, non-Christians, aboriginals and members of the Bihar Congress party and it was also reported that the then Hon�ble Premier of Bihar and the Hon�ble Revenue Minister had sympathy with this cause.  Accordingly a party consisting of some Bihar Congressmen, Rev. Lakra, the head of the Lutheran Mission and a Jamidar visited Surguja in the second week of January 1948 to mobilise public opinion in favour of the integration of those States with Bihar. Two members of this party, however, informed the District Superintendent of Police, Surguja, that they were not fully agreeable to the views of the remaining members and further brought to the District Superintendent of Police�s notice that there was a conspiracy between Pakistan and some American and German Missionaries to instigate the aboriginals to take possession of their own land, commonly known as Jharkhand.  In Kharsaon and Sarikela States of Orissa there was violence necessitating the use of force to suppress it.  At the All-India Adiwasis� conference on 14th January, of 1948, called by Mr. Jaipal Singh, speeches after speeches were made narrating the disadvantages and worries associated with the merger of the States with Madhya Pradesh and the benefits accruing from their amalgamation with Bihar.  Two Christians and a non-Christian were appointed propagandists to carry on pro-Bihar agitation.  The Praja Mandal which consisted mostly of non-Christians and which was lacking in funds refused to support the pro-Bihar propaganda and in a meeting held at Bargaon (Jashpur) on 20th January, 1948 it was unanimously resolved to agree to the integration of Surguja and Jashpur with Madhya Pradesh.

4. The activities of the Missionaries in the Jashpur area from January 1948 to the, end of May when the Union Ministry of States decided finally the question of merger of Surguja and Jashpur with Madhya Pradesh may be narrated.  According to official reports these activities, though ostensibly carried on by Indian Christians, were in fact sponsored by Missionaries to secure a-strong foothold in the hitherto forbidden territories of Udaipur and Surguja.

January 1948.-The agitation for the inclusion of Jashpur, Udaipur, Surguja and Changbhakar States in the Bihar Province was continued and prominent persons of Ranchi visited Jashpur. Rev. J. Lakra, the head of German Lutheran Mission, carried on propaganda for a separate Jharkhand Province, which would be administered by Christians, who predominated in the area concerned.  Three meetings of Christians were held in the Jashpur State for the purpose of carrying on this propaganda.

February 1948.- Three more meetings were held in Jashpur sub-division in connection with the Christian agitation in favour of amalgamation with Bihar.  Speakers pointed out that inclusion in the Central Provinces would mean economic and social retardation and the evaporation of their dream of Jharkhand.  At a meeting at Ichkelah (Jashpur) on 13th February it was announced that an Adiwasi fund for defending the interests of Adiwasis had been started. Rev. J. Lakra was suspected of dissuading Christians from participating in Mahatma Gandhi�s Ashes Immersion Ceremony observed at Jashpur on 12th February.  Julias Tigga, Secretary Adiwasi Sabha, Ranchi, visited Jashpur and Ambikapur about the 14th of February and was warned by the District Magistrate, Surguja, for indulging in objectionable activities.  On 21st February 1948, Bowfus Lakra, a parliamentary Secretary of Bihar and Joseph Tigga, Pleader of Ranchi, addressed a small meeting at the prominent Roman Catholic Mission Centre of Ginabahar in which, although opposition to the formation of Jharkhand was voiced, it was stated that people should be allowed to decide whether they should be associated with Madhya Pradesh or Bihar.  These intense political activities of the Christians under the leadership of foreign Missionaries created a sense of apprehension and consequently the non-Christian organization called the Praja Mandal mobilized their resources to counteract this movement.  A few meetings were called and addressed by this party on or about the 23rd of February.  Rev. J. Lakra called a session of the All-India Adiwasi Maha Sabha at Ranchi on the 26th of February and delegates from Orissa, Chhattisgarh States and Bihar attended it. Mr. Jaipal Singh, who was elected President of the Maha Sabha criticized the Bihar Government for splitting the tribal people and emphasised that the salvation of the Adiwasis lay in the creation of a separate province including the States of Chhattisgarh.  He proposed to raise and send 1,000 volunteers for propaganda purposes.

March 1948.-A meeting was organised by the Lutheran Christians at Bargaon in Jashpur to further the propaganda of merger with Bihar.  There was propaganda on the border villages of Surguja district by Christian Missionaries of Palamau and Ranchi.

5. It was during this time that the then Premier of Madhya Pradesh undertook a tour of those areas and it was reported that a good deal of misapprehension regarding Government�s policy, etc., was removed and that open and extensive activities of the Missionaries through Indian Christian Fathers and Preachers were subdued, and Police officials reported that thenceforth the agitation was carried on in a surreptitious, manners In October 1948 a Gaonthia of Surguja was detained under the Public Safety Act for objectionable Activities and a search of his house revealed him in possession of letters which showed that he was an active worker of the Jharkhand movement, on behalf of the Missionaries and that the agitation was still being carried on for the creation of a separate Adiwasi Province.  The Gaonthia was ultimately released on his giving a written undertaking that he would not take part in any subversive activities.

6. In the neighbouring State of Udaipur activities were mostly confined to Rev. S. Tigga.  The laws which were in force in the former Merged States were continued on integration and consequently the Anti-conversion Act had also been continued.  The Anti-conversion Act of Udaipur had been promulgated on 9th July 1946-nearly an year and a half after the, Ruler of the State was installed in December 1944.  But to put a check on the unfair activities of the Roman Catholic Priests the then Political Agent had passed an order on 28th February 1941 [D.O. No. G-59-CR/37 (III)] permitting the entry of Roman Catholic Priests only on the following conditions:-

(1) Priests could be allowed to enter the State when called to the bed-side of a dying or dangerously ill person.  The Priest concerned must in such cases personally give information of his visits at the Police Station nearest to the route by which he travelled.

 

(2) Priests may be permitted to enter the State once every quarter to celebrate Mass at some village near the border.  Previous permission for this should be obtained from the Superintendent of the State on each occasion.  The Priests should not tour in the State but their parishioners should come to them at the place which was selected for the celebration of Mass.

 

(3) A Priest should not stay more than 48 hours in the State on any occasion unless unavoidably delayed by circumstances over which he has no control, provided firstly that in such a case he informed in writing the Officer-in-charge of a Police Station nearest to his route when leaving the State, giving particulars of the obstacle which caused the delay and secondly that no visit was extended to more than 96 hours without previous sanction of the Superintendent of the State.  Priests should not do any religious propaganda or proselytization while in the State.

 

(4) Only Ordained Priests and not lay Preachers from outside should be allowed to enter the State.

7. After Integration Rev. S. Tigga, a Roman Catholic Missionary thwarted these restrictions add visited the State several times up to the month of May 1948.  He was warned against doing so by the Sub-Divisional Officer, but he did not pay any attention to it.  Ultimately the Sub-Divisional Officer ordered his prosecution under section 188, Indian Penal Code for disobeying those restrictions and Rev. Tigga was sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 20.  Although he was in possession of the requisite amount he refused to pay the fine and had to be imprisoned for four days in consequence to suffer imprisonment which had been ordered in default of the payment of the fine.  This sudden �invasion� of areas in Udaipur State by Roman Catholic Missionaries created a sharp reaction in the mind of the local people and they represented to the Government as well as the district authorities against encouraging the Missionaries to establish their centres in the Udaipur State and thereby to prevent mass conversions of Uraons.  Government apprehended an imminent danger of breach of the peace and disturbance of public tranquility and it also felt that Communist bodies functioning in areas outside Madhya Pradesh on the immediate borders of Surguja, Udaipur and Jashpur States might take advantage of the situation and create trouble, similar to the one which was then raging in the neighbouring States. Accordingly an order, under section 144, Criminal Procedure Code was passed restricting the entry of Christian Missionaries in the Udaipur Sub-Division except for purposes of religious work.  The order was on the lines of the restrictions mentioned in paragraph 6 above and remained in force for nearly a year from 27th January 1949.  It is reported that about 20 to 25 persons were arrested for defiance of this-order.  Throughout the year 1949 the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ranchi and some Roman Catholic leaders of Nagpur made repeated efforts to seek the permission of the State Government to establish centres in the Udaipur Sub-Division.  The restrictions which were imposed in the former State Regime were still in force and Government had information with them to show that Christian Missionaries in the Udaipur State were indulging in political activities of an objectionable kind, really reminiscent of the two nation theory which had awful consequences in the history of India.  Considering that such dangerous activities could not be tolerated by any responsible Government, they were not prepared to remove the restrictions, altogether.  In view of the political bias with which Christian Missionaries had carried on proselytism during the last half a century in the merged territories and in view of their active support of the dangerous Jharkhand movement.  Government considered it necessary to put down the activities which led to fissiparous tendencies.  In a conference held by the Hon�ble the Premier on 29th March, 1949 with three Roman Catholic leaders (Major Bernard, M.L.A., Shri G. X. Francis and Major A. F. W da Costa) the policy of the State Government was fully and carefully explained and it was pointed out that India being a secular State, there was perfect freedom of thought and religion, but difficulties cropped up only when religious organisations mixed this up with politics.  At this conference it was pointed out by the Government spokesman that several non-Christians had represented to Government about the activities of the Missionaries in the Integrated States, in particular about religious instruction being imparted in their schools.  This had become necessary because ever since the opening of schools by the Tribal Welfare Department, Roman Catholic Missionaries had carried on persistent propaganda against such schools and had represented this to the State Government also.  Although Father Vermeire had intimated that he had no objection to Government starting schools in Jashpur side by side with the Mission schools, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ranchi kept on representing that this should not be done.  It was, therefore, pointed out at the conference that the duty of Government being to provide non-sectarian educational instruction for the people, no legitimate objection could be taken against it.  On the question of restrictions imposed on the entry of-Christian Priests in Udaipur State, the official point of view was pointed out and it was explained how the situation had developed on account of the mingling of religion with politics.  The leaders present were told that the policy of Government towards matters of religion was one of allowing complete freedom of conscience and worship to all and there was not the slightest intention to have a different policy in Udaipur or other States.  The gentlemen present were requested to remove any misconception from the minds of the people and to tell them that Government would not interfere in their peaceful religious pursuit so long as they did not mix up politics with religion.  Major da Costa on behalf of the Catholics assured Government of the loyalty of Catholics and informed that Catholics had no connection whatsoever with the Jharkhand movement.  The three leaders present assured the Premier of their unflinching loyalty to Government and of their determination to co-operate and help Government in every possible manner and they requested that the question of allowing reliable Christian Priests to reside in Udaipur might be favourably considered by Government after making due enquiries about their bonafides and Government promised to examine the suggestion.  Shri Francis informed the Premier that he would take an early opportunity of visiting Udaipur and Jashpur to tell the people of the policy of Government and to remove all misconceptions.  In accordance with this promise Shri Francis undertook a tour of the newly integrated States of Udaipur and Jashpur between 20th and 25th April, 1949.  It appears that the representations made by Shri Francis and other Roman Catholic leaders of Nagpur to the Government of Madhya Pradesh were at the instance of the Roman Catholic Mission working in the Jashpur area.  After the conference of these leaders with the Premier on 29th March, 1949 details were apparently reported to the then Roman Catholic Bishop of Ranchi, who on 18th April, 1949 came to Nagpur and gave a written pledge on his behalf as well as on behalf of his Priests, undertaking to give all due obedience and respect to the lawfully constituted Government of India, and the lawfully constituted Government of Madhya Pradesh and also stated that while carefully abstaining from participating in political affairs it was his desire and purpose that his influence in so far as may be possible in such matters shall be so exerted in loyal co-operation-with Government.  In view of this undertaking Rt. Rev. O�Sevrin, Bishop of Ranchi, requested Government to allow without further delay his Priests to reside in Udaipur without whose presence the Catholics were effectively prevented from practising their religion in a normal way. As regards the apprehension that the Priests might meddle in politics the Bishop assured the Government that as far as his Priests were concerned they would not do so and that they had not done so in the past.  He stated that although soon after Integration he was approached more than once by Bihar Congressmen and other supporters of the Jharkhand movement to lend his support to the movement towards amalgamation with Bihar he had refused to co-operate.  On account of this he had incurred the hostility, not only of the Lutherans in Jashpur, but of Catholics in Ranchi.  In this letter the Bishop stated, �If we, Catholic Priests, had chosen to urge them on in the direction of joining the Jharkhand movement the situation in Jashpur and Udaipur would have been much worse than it is now, considering at very close to one-fourth of the population of Jashpur is Catholic�. This is a significant admission of the control exercised by Roman Catholic Priests in matters outside religion and of the existence of a state of political agitation in the newly merged States of Jashpur, Udaipur and Surguja, soon after Integration.  Along with his request to allow Catholic Priests to reside in Udaipur State, the Bishop levelled charges against petty local officials and also non-officials.  It was also stated that patent discrimination which was officially adopted by the Central Provinces Government against Christian aboriginals in denying them scholarships and other concessions was much resented by the Catholics.  The following are some of the reported grievances of Catholics in Jashpur voiced by the Bishop of Ranchi:-

(1) There have been several cases of Catholic candidates for Government posts being asked as a condition for employment to give Christianity and become Hindus.  Although the letter admitted that this allegation was made on what is �being whispered about�, the Government was asked to remedy the situation.

 

(2) The Catholics are not enrolled as Home Guards and are not given other posts.

 

(3) Many Catholics at the request of Congress leaders at Raigarh had collected a fair sum of money for Gandhi Memorial Fund.  They were severely rebuked by some officials.

 

(4) The attitude of some leaders of the Backward Area Welfare Sabha was against the Roman Catholics.

 

(5) The whole policy of the Adiwasi Sudhar Sabha was one of sheer waste of money and conducive to breach of peace.

 

(6) Government schools should not be opened where Roman Catholic schools already exist.

8. In his report of the tour undertaken in April, 1949 Shri G. X. Francis voiced almost the same grievances which had already been put forward by the Bishop of Ranchi in his communication dated 18th April, 1949.

9. Enquiries were ordered by Government into the allegations made by the Bishop of Ranchi and Shri Francis and it was reported by the authorities that in spite of the denial by the Bishop of the part played by the Jashpur Roman Catholics in the Jharkhand political movement definite evidence existed to prove that the Roman Catholic Mission authorities at Ranchi had made common cause with other elements and were taking active part in this movement.  The vehement opposition of the Roman Catholic Bishop to the Backward Areas Welfare Scheme was explained by the blow given to the proselytising activities of the Roman Catholics through their schools by the Backward Areas Welfare Scheme.  Government however could not take an immediate decision to permit the Priests to reside in Udaipur because of the strong feelings of a considerable section of the people there against such action and therefore it was considered desirable to await the Constitution which was then being drafted by the Constituent Assembly.

10. The efforts of the Christian Association of which Shri G. X. Francis is the Chairman and of the Bishop of Ranchi to secure cancellation of the orders in respect of the residence of the Priests in Udaipur State continued unabated till the promulgation of the Constitution in January, 1950.  Besides, written individual representations of Shri Francis and other Catholic leaders, the demand was raised in some of the All-India conferences of this body.  On the other hand, non-Christian bodies kept on representing to Government against relaxing the ban.

Missionary organisations are so wide-spread in this country that they seem to constitute �a State within the State�.  The Roman Catholic Church is a highly centralised organisation, Spread over all the world with power concentrated in the Pope, who, in the words of Pope Leo XIII (in the encyclical letter, dated June 20, 1894) �holds upon this earth the place of God Almighty�.  Hence he is crowned with a Triple Crown as King of Heaven and of the Earth and of the Lower Regions.

2. As regards the Protestants, they were divided into various national churches which sent out Missionaries as limbs of �National Imperialisms� (World Politics in Modern Civilization by Barnes. page 273).  They are numerous and on the whole the number of denominations is not decreasing but increasing (page 21, Elements of Ecumenism).  Hence in their case, centralisation was necessary to fight on two fronts, viz., religious nationalism of the country which they assail and Communism which they want to defend themselves against.  With all this effort on centralisation, the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church of the Byzantine tradition and the oriental National Churches described as the Monophysites, the Unitarian Churches of England and America have refused to enter the fellowship of World Council of Churches with its headquarters at Geneva and on the other hand it has to meet .violent and growing opposition from the International Council of Christian Churches and another fundamentalist group, viz., the World Evangelical Fellowship (pages 18 to 20, The Elements of Ecumenism).

3. The Evangelical arm of the World Council of Churches is the International Missionary Council.  The National Christian Council of India, which was formerly known as the National Missionary Council, came to be organised in 1914 as the result of the First World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910 and is affiliated to the International Missionary Council which has its offices in London and New York.  It is a constituent member of the International Missionary Council.  It is established on the acceptance of the principle that the Church is central in the Christian enterprise, that the local congregation is basic to its life and witness and that evangelism is its primary task.  Among its various functions are � 

(1) to consult the International Missionary Council regarding such matters as call for consideration or action.

(2) to communicate and co-operate with the National Christian Councils of other countries which are members of the International Missionary Council and with other similar bodies in matters affecting the Christian enterprise as a whole.

4. In India there are Regional Christian Councils in 14 places, viz., Andhra, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, Hyderabad, Karnatak, Keral, Tamil-Nad, Mid-India, North-West India, Santhal, United Provinces and Utkal.

5. The foreign personnel in India now numbers 4,877, an excess of 500 on the returns for 1951.  The increased personnel has occurred in the smaller Missions, most of which do not yet have any organised churches associated with them. (Compiler�s Introduction, Christian Hand-Book, of India 1954-SS).

6. In Madhya Pradesh, there are Indian personnel 251 and foreign 402 (page 210 ibid).

7. The institutions which are conducted by the Protestant Missions can be divided under five heads as follows:-

(i) Economic, 
(ii) Educational, 
(iii) Evangelistic, 
(iv) Medical, 
(v) Philanthropic and General.

Under (i) Economic, fall the following.-

(a) agricultural settlements, 
(b) co-operative societies, 
(c) printing presses, 
(d) literature distributing centres, 
(e) miscellaneous industries.

Under (ii) Educational-

(a) colleges, 
(b) high schools, 
(c) middle schools, 
(d) teachers� training institutions, 
(e) industrial schools, 
(f) schools for Missionaries� children.

Under (iii) Evangelistic-

(a) theological colleges and seminaries, 
(b) pastoral and evangelistic workers training institutions, 
(c) Bible correspondence course, 
(d) Christian Ashrams.

Under (iv) Medical-

(a) hospitals, 
(b) dispensaries, 
(c) leprosy institutions, 
(d) tuberculosis sanatorium; and

Under (v) Philanthropic and General-

(a) homes for the blind and deaf, etc. 
(b) homes for women, 
(c) homes for converts, 
(d) orphanages, 
(e) social and welfare organisations, 
(h) Missionary homes of rest, 
(g) Christian retreat and study centres.

A statement giving particulars about Protestant Christian Missions operating in Madhya Pradesh and the institutions conducted by the several Missions is to be found in Appendix 3. 
 

The present aims and objects of Missionary activity in some parts of Madhya Pradesh can best be understood against the background of history.  The advent of Christianity in India is shrouded in myth and tradition.  Tradition assigns the origin of the most ancient Christian community in India, called the Syrian Christians to the preaching of St. Thomas, the Apostle.

2. The spread of the Christianity in India may be considered under four definite periods, viz.

(1) The Syrian Period. 
(2) The Roman Catholic Period under Portuguese domination. 
(3) The Protestant Period under British domination. 
(4) The Modern Period.

3. Long, before Christ there had been commerce between Europe and India not only by caravans. which took the land route through Persia, but also by ships down the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf.  In fact, the foreign trade of India is as old as her history.  Relics found in Sumeria and Egypt point to a traffic between these countries and India as far back as 3000 B.C. Commerce between India and Babylon by the Persian Gulf flourished from 700 to 480 B. C. Rome in her halcyon days depended upon India for spices and perfumes as well as silks, brocades, muslins and cloth of gold.  The Parthian wars were fought by Rome largely to keep open the trade route to India.  Even in later times Europe looked upon the Hindus as experts in every line of manufacture, woodwork, ivory-work, metal-work, bleaching, dying, tanning, soap-making, glass blowing, gun powder, fire works, cement, etc. (Page 479, Story of Civilization by Durant).

4. St. Thomas Christians (or followers of the Church of the East) in small numbers began to visit Malbar frequently for trade purposes, and some of them settled there.  During the Decian and Diocletian persecutions many Christians living in the Eastern Province of the Roman Empire fled to Persia and joined the Church in that Country.  Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople (A.D. 428-431) who denied the hypostatic union and maintained the existence of the two distinct natures in Christ, was condemned and deposed for �heresy� at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. His followers, the Nestorians, were persecuted with such vigour that they were forced to leave the Empire and by the time of Justinian (A.D. 527) it was difficult to find a church within the whole Roman Empire hat shared the views of Nestorians.  The exiled, Nestorians joined the Church in Persia.

5. Between the Fifth and the Ninth centuries Nestorian expansion was phenomenal.  The Nestorian traders brought to Malabar several colonies of Christians from Persian lands during this period.  These colonists had their own priests and deacons and a bishop from Persia.  As the years rolled on these early colonies adapted themselves to the ways of the Hindus and learnt to maintain their racial purity.  Even to this day the Syrian Christians claim that their community has remained unadulterated by proselytism.

6. The first Latin Christian Missionary who is known to have visited India was John de Monte Corvino, afterwards Archbishop of Cambale in Cathay.  Sent out by Pope Nicholas IV as a Missionary to China, he on his way to China halted in India about the year 1291.  He remained in the country for thirteen months, and baptised in different places about one hundred people.  The next Latin Missionary of whom we find mention is a French Dominican Friar named Jordanus.  About the year 1323 or earlier with other Friars, both Dominican and Franciscan, he found his way to the Bombay coast where it is said his companions were put to death by Muslims.  This was the period when Christianity was unable to stand against the overwhelming forces of Islam.

7. By the close of the Thirteenth century these European, Missionaries were able to create a chain of Christian colonies on the Western coast of India, between Thana (Bombay) and Quilon (Travancore).  Stimulated by the fear of Muslims, particularly Mongols, Rome, got reconciled to many things which it did not like, and a Christian unity was established.  In the early years of the Fourteenth century a complete Persian hierarchy was created with a Metropolitan whose scat was at a town south of the Caspian sea and whose jurisdiction extended over Persia, India, Ethiopia and Central Asia.

8. The Missionary work of Western Christendom began with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1498.  This should be considered the beginning of the aggressive Missionary Era of the Catholic Church in India.  In 1498 Vasco da Gama anchored off Calicut, but on that occasion he had no, intercourse with Christians.  When he visited India a second time in 1502, he was surprised to find a Christian community on the western coast of India.  These Christians welcomed him and applied to him for assistance against their Muslim neighbours.  Large numbers of monks were sent to India with the Portuguese fleets, and Goa soon became the centre of a vigorous missionary enterprise.  By now the Portuguese strategy of establishing the Protectorate of the King of Portugal over the Christians of the Malabar coast had become successful. 
  

9. Although in the sphere of trade and commerce the Portuguese on the West coast made very substantial progress, no great success was at first achieved in their missionary endeavours.  The King of Portugal, dissatisfied with the small progress made, applied to Ignatius Loyola to send the entire Jesuit Order to India.  The motto of Portuguese adventure in India was �the service of God and our own advantage�, and King Manuel was determined to use all available resources to achieve this object.  Loyola could not grant the request; but in 1541 Francis Xavier, the greatest of all Jesuits, was sent to the East, and the day of his arrival may well be called the birthday of Roman Catholic Missions in India.  He only spent about four and a half years in the country, but in that brief space of time he is said to have baptised about 60,000 people, nearly all from the fisherman castes, living on the South-West and South-East coasts of India.  They poured en masse into the Church.

10. This mass movement work of the Jesuits was in fact an appeal to material interests.  The Fishermen of the South-East coast were constantly raided by pirates.  One of their fellow countrymen, living in Goa who had become Christian, persuaded them to apply for help to the Portuguese Viceroy.  So a deputation was sent to Goa, and the Viceroy agreed to deliver them from their enemies on condition that the whole caste became Christian and subjects of the King of Portugal.  The bargain wag ratified by the baptism of all the delegates then and there.  A fleet was sent, the pirates were dispersed, and the whole caste was baptised in a few weeks.

11. The impatient Xavier, still dissatisfied with the result of his labour wrote to the King of Portugal that the only hope of increasing the number of Christians was by the use of the secular power of the State.  As a result of this note, the King issued orders that in Goa and other Portuguese settlements, �all idols shall be sought out and destroyed, and severe penalties shall be laid upon all such as shall dare to make an idol or shall shelter or hide a Brahmin�. (Page 54 History of Missions Richter).  He also ordered that special privileges should be granted to Christians in order that the natives may be inclined to submit themselves to the yoke of Christianity. (P. 54-ibid).

12. In 1514 Pope Leo X granted to the Kings of Portugal the right of patronage over Churches and of nomination to all the Benefices which they would establish.  In 1534 all trading stations from Bombay to Nagapatnam where the Portuguese flag was floating, soon became Catholic centres with resident Chaplains.  Along the coast Franciscans had baptised some 20,000 Paravas (Fishermen) even before Xavier landed in India.  Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, was made an Episcopal See.  Now successive waves of invasions of India by Catholic Missionaries from the West were started; besides the Jesuits in (1542) the Dominicans (in 1548), the Augustinians (in 1572) also arrived in India with the active support of the Portuguese Kings.  By the middle of 1577 a Christian centre was formed in Bengal by bands of Portuguese adventurers and an Augustinian Father and their slaves.  Thus the Portuguese continued their work of �winning Indians for Christ their Lord� with the mighty sword in one hand and the crucifix in the other.

13. In 1872 the Augustinians distributed their missionaries in Basein, Bengal and other parts.  The Jesuits had been making determined efforts to reform the Syrian Church in accordance with Roman ideas and to bring it into subjection to the Pope.  In 1594 a Jesuit Mission started from Goa to the court of Akbar the Mughal and they got his permission to establish Christian centres in Agra, Delhi and Lahore. The Catholic writers say that in 1600, after a century of Mission work the Church had gathered about 2,70,000 converts in India.

14. A new departure was made at the beginning of the seventeenth century by another great Jesuit Missionary.  He was an Italian of noble birth, of great intellectual ability and devotion.  He came to Madura, capital of a Hindu Kingdom, outside the jurisdiction of the Portuguese Viceroy.  His name was Robert De Nobili.  He saw that the policy of Xavier and other Catholic Fathers who were making mass conversions of lower castes by using the secular power of the State was disastrous.  He clearly saw that unless the Higher classes were won for Christ the Church was not going to drive her roots into the soil of India.  So he at once threw over the policy of Xavier and struck out a line of his own.

15. Nobili appeared in Madura clad in the saffron robes of a Sadhu with sandal paste on his forehead and the sacred thread on his body from which hung a cross and took his abode in the Brahmin quarters.  He thus attracted a large number of people.  He gave out that he was a Brahmin from Rome.  He showed documentary evidence to prove that he belonged to a clan of the parent stock that had migrated from ancient Aryavart and assured the members of the high castes that by becoming a Christian one did not renounce one�s caste, nobility or usage. (Pages 65-70 Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan).  He learnt Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit, and took up the Brahman style of living.  He wrote in Sanskrit a Christian Sandhyavandanam for Brahmin converts.  He declared that he was bringing a message which had been taught in India by Indian ascetics of yore and that he was only restoring to Hindus one of their lost sacred books, namely the 5th Veda, called Yeshurveda.  It passed for a genuine work until the Protestant Missionaries exposed the fraud about the year 1840. (History of Missions, Richter, Page 57).  In five years, from 1607 to 1611, he baptised 87 Brahmins.  These conversions, then so marvellous, drew upon De Nobili the eyes of friend and foe alike.  A big controversy raged among the Roman Catholic missionaries the world over for a considerable length of time.  Much of the opposition could be explained by wounded pride on the Portuguese side.  In 1623 Pope Gregory XV gave a bull in favour of De Nobili, declaring thus: We allow the present and future converts to wear the (Brahmin) thread and the tuft of hair as distinctive marks of race, social rank and office, to use sandal wood as ornament and to take ablutions as a matter of hygiene.  This Brahman Sanyasi of the �Roman Gotra�, Father De Nobili, worked for 40 years and died at the ripe age of 89 in 1656.  It is said that he had converted about a lakh of persons but they all melted away after his death.

By 1700 India had 6,00,000 of Catholics.

16. The Catholic expansion continued.  The French Jesuits, who had their headquarters in Pondicherry from 1700, passed it on to the Paris Foreign Mission Society in 1776.  At Calcutta a Catholic chapel was erected in 1700.  The Italian Capuchins penetrated into Tibet in 1713.  Thus, a network of Roman Catholic Missions was spread all over India, from Tibet to Cape Comorin and from Punjab to Assam.  Within two hundred years after the Portuguese landed in India, it is claimed the Catholic Church had 9,58,000 adherents in India (Catholic Directory, 1950).

23. The growth of the Protestant Church during the period of British Raj in India was due mainly to the great patronage and support the Church was getting from the Government of India.  Instances of Land grants and financial aid to build Churches, missionary centres, hospitals, educational institutions etc., are numerous.  All Cathedrals entrusted to the Bishoprics under the Ecclesiastical establishments were built from State funds.  Not only in cities and towns and in military stations in British India, but in almost every Indian State we can find big Churches and Missionary buildings erected almost entirely with Government aid.  To protect the Christian converts and their inheritance in British India, Act XXI of 1850 was passed, as the then prevailing customary law stood as an impediment to conversion of Hindus to other religions.  All the concessions given to missions in about 350 major Anglican centres need not he mentioned in detail in our Report.

24. In the Residency area of every State there stand to this day huge churches and other mission buildings for the construction of which lands and nearly all funds were contributed by the Ruler or Chief of that State at the instance of the English Residents or Political Agents.  This kind of patronage from a non-Christian country for evangelism within its territory is unique in the history of nations.

25. The progress of Christianity up to the end of the first decade of this century was described by Sir Bamfylds Fuller (who like Sir Andrew Fraser had been a C. P. Officer before he went to Bengal as Governor) in these words: Christianity has been offered to classes that have remained outside the pale of Hinduism, hill tribes and the lower strata of the cooly population��� Among the higher and better educated classes evangelism has been less successful��� It is surprising that Christianity has not spread more rapidly.  For a century it has not only been preached in the streets but has been taught in numerous schools and colleges; it has behind it the presage of the ruling race; and yet probably there are less than 2½, million native Christians in India, if we deduct those who owe their conversion to Nestorian Missions or to the Portuguese (pages 210, 364 Empire of India, 1913).

26. The number of Missionary Societies considerably increased about the middle of last century and they used to hold conferences in various centres in India viz.  Calcutta in 1855, Benaras in 1857, Ootacamund in 1858, Lahore in 1862, Allahabad in 1872 and Bangalore in 1879.  During that period there was a tendency on the part of all the Missions to focus their activity particularly on the aborigines.  They achieved unexpectedly great success among the Kols as in 1851 the number was only 31 it rose in 1861 to 2,400, in 1871 to 20,727 and in 1881 to the large figure of 44,024.  In view of this success with the Kols the Missionaries pressed their work among other tribes as they realised that there was a movement on the part of the aborigines to raise themselves in the social level by adopting Hindu manners and customs, which would be taken advantage of to gather them into the Christian Church and thus �save them from the rapid onward march of Hinduism�. (Richter: History of Christian Mission pages 214-215).

27. For the purpose of understanding the vigorous and highly intensified Missionary activity concentrated in Surguja district after the merger of the States in 1947, it is necessary to cast a glance at the origin of Missionary enterprise at Ranchi, which can be gathered from the History of Chhota Nagpur.  As far back as 1845 the Deputy Commissioner Mr. Hanington invited four German Missionaries from Calcutta and their work began with some orphan children who had been handed over to them during famine.  The number of converts to Christianity began to swell and the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Mission began to extend its activities around Ranchi.  The Gossner Mission operates in the territory formerly comprised in Jashpur, Surguja, Udaipur and Raigarh States. It has still its headquarters at Ranchi.  Later on in 1885 they were joined by the Roman Catholic Mission.

28. Before 1948 the diocese of Ranchi included the territory which consisted of eight feudatory states, seven in the diocese of Ranchi and one in the diocese of Nagpur.  Mission work was strictly forbidden in all those States.  In 1907 however a great movement of conversion took place in Jashpur State, but for nine years the Missionaries could not even erect a shed to live in.  By and by five Mission stations were erected.  Another movement of conversions took place in 1935 in Udaipur State.  Till 1941 no priest or catechist was allowed to enter she State.  From 1941 to 1949 the priest was allowed to go from outside the State to visit persons dangerously ill and four times a year to say mass.  But he was prohibited from staying more than 48 hours in the State.  With the integration and merger of the States in 1948 and the promulgation of the Constitution in 1950 full freedom was conceded to the Missionary activities.  The diocese of Raigarh and Ambikapur was erected on the 13th of December, 1951 by being cut off from the diocese now Arch-Diocese of Ranchi.  The diocese still forms part of the Ranchi Mission (1954 Catholic Directory page 264).

29. The work of these Missions was much facilitated by the economic and social problems which arose as a result of the permanent settlement made by Lord Cornwallis in 1793.  As stated b E. De Meulder S. J. the Christian Mission could provide the aborigines with schools, colleges, hostels, hospitals and co-operatives of various sorts, but they could not give them lands, �for these belonged to the foreign sponsored permanent settlement of Rajahs and Jamindars or to the �Laissez faire�, �liberal�, zamindari regime inaugurated by Lord Cornwallis whose fatal signature meant the death of the ancient village republics� (page 1 Tribal India Speaks by E. De Meulder S. J.). Up to that time the custom was to regard the aboriginal as owner of the land in the forest, which he reclaimed it and the Zamindars were only farmers of revenue.  The cultivators had to render certain feudal services in return for the lands which they held.

30. In fact most of the Zamindars and Rajahs were tax collectors, never owners of the land, in the previous regimes, but after the permanent Settlement they claimed ownership in about the same way that the ancestors of British Landlordism had done at the time of the Reformation in England. (Page 63 Tribal India Speaks).  The disputes between them and the Zamindars arose when the number of the aborigines embraced Christianity.  In introducing the Bhuinhari Bill in the Bengal Council on November 16, 1868 Mr. M. H. Dampier, I.C.S. quoted the following remarks of Col. Dalton:

��the Kols who embraced Christianity imbibed more independent notions, and in several instances successfully asserted their rights.  From this the belief unfortunately spread through the district that when the Kols go to the Court as Christians they are more uniformly successful than those who have not changed their religion.  It was stated in the report on the Census of India 1911 Volume V., page 220: �Another attraction is the hope of obtaining assistance from the missionaries in their difficulties and protection against the coercion of the landlords��� it must not be imagined that the Christian Missionaries held out such offers as inducement to the aboriginals to enroll themselves in the Christian ranks but the knowledge that the Missionaries do not regard their duties as confined to cure souls but also see to the welfare of their flock and the agrarian legislation which is the Magna Charta of the aboriginal was largely due to the influence of the Missionaries�. (Legend of the Kols by S. Haldar pages 8-9).

In the Settlement Report of 1901-10 Mr. John Reid remarked that the aboriginal converts were backed by the moral support and some times by the financial support of the European Missionaries (page 16 ibid).

31. As said by Lord Northbrook in his preface to Chhota Nagpur by Bradley Birt, the aboriginal tribes of India afforded a promising field for the Missions; and accordingly, the Belgian Jesuit Mission entered the field in 1885 and has since then been collecting a large following.  The Catholic Jesuit Missionaries also tried to exploit the agrarian grievances of the aboriginals and as is evident from the Commissioner�s report to Government in 1890 wherein he stated that Mr. Renny, the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi �condemns the action of the Jesuit priests in very strong language, charging them with encouraging the discontent and laying at their doors the responsibility for disturbances which might have led to serious consequences� (page 18: Legend of the Kols).  It is well-known that in 1895 there was an uprising of aboriginals led by a German Mission convert by name Birsa who styled himself as the brother of Jesus, and it had to be suppressed with military aid.

32. There was a similar rebellion in 1910 in the Bastar State which was attributed to the activity of a Missionary by name Mr. Ward.  In the report, dated the 12th July 1910, the officer in charge of the expeditionary force in Bastar State stated that Mr. Ward was the most dangerous man in the State.  Mr. Ward was transferred to some place outside Bastar, but even from there be wrote secret letters to the Christians in Bastar instigating them to agitate for his retransfer to Bastar and in a search of the houses of certain Christians �treasonable and seditious correspondence was found�.  Mr. J. May, Diwan of the State, wrote to the Mission authorities at Raipur to say that on enquiry he was satisfied that he and the Christians were instrumental in causing great deal of disloyalty and discontent.  Mr. Ward subsequently was sent back to America.

33. In 1936-37, there was an unauthorised attempt made by the Jesuit Missionaries to enter into the Udaipur State for Missionary enterprise.  It was found on enquiry by the Agent to the Governor-General that they used their station at Tapkara outside Udaipur State which was a forbidden area for proselytising the subjects of Udaipur, by making loans to people to attract converts and opening Mission schools in Udaipur State without permission and the abstraction of 120 boys and girls from Udaipur for education in the Mission centre at Tapkara, and the Government of India warned the Jesuit Mission that any further development of Missionary enterprise in the Udaipur State should be avoided.  The Mission was also asked to maintain a register showing in the case of each new convert, his name, his father�s name and other particulars including any kind of material benefit given to the converts at the time of their conversion (Col. Meek�s Report).

34. In 1948, Rev. Lakra, the head of the Lutheran Mission at Ranchi, attended the Conference of the World Council of Churches held at Amsterdam.  Mr. Dulles from America was also present there.  As a result of the money received from the United Lutheran Church in America amounting to 8,000 dollars and Rs. 90,000 in 1953 there were conversions in the Surguja district on a mass scale (Gharbandhu, November 1952, page 13, and Gharbandhu, November 1953, pages 15 and 16).  The Mission also obtained from America Rs. 67,500 to make good the deficit in its expenditure (Gharbandhu, December 1953, pages 4 to 7).  It is clear that in the keen competition that arose between the various Missions it was found necessary to advance Rs. 30 to some of the converts as an inducement to change their religion. (Gharbandhu, December 1952, pages 2 to 5).  In 1954, the Lutheran National Missionary Society requested for a grant of a large amount for engaging the services of the Uraon personnel needed for mass conversion work and through the good offices of Dr. F. A. Schiotz, Chairman of the Luther an World Federation Commission of World Missions, and Dr. C. W. Oberdorfer, the Federation President of India, they secured a grant of 1,500 dollars on the basis of �Partnership in Obedience�. (The National Missionary Intelligencer, April 1954, page 5).  There was practically an invasion in the Surguja State of Missionary enterprise backed by substantial finance and personnel with the result that there were more than 5,000 conversions.

35. At this stage it may be necessary to see how the Missionaries penetrated into the Eastern States of Madhya Pradesh. In 1893, Sir Andrew Fraser who was then Commissioner of Chhattisgarh gave authority without reference to the local Government for acquisition of land for Mission purposes in the Bastar State when it was under the Government management.  The developments which occurred thereon have already been stated above.

36. In 1894 an application made by the Missionaries for the acquisitions of land in the Kawardha State was rejected by the Local Government on the principal that when a State is under the administration of the Government the alienation of land for Mission purposes should be refused in view of the fiduciary position of the Government.  Towards the beginning of the 10th century the German Lutheran Mission opened two stations in the Gangpur State without the permission of the Ruler and without reference to the Local Government.  Inspite of the Chief�s protest the political authority did not take any action and one of the Missionaries openly preached disobedience to the Chief�s orders in the matter of begar, although rendering of such services was due from the rent-free holders only.  The Missionaries generally made promises to the ryots that they would secure their freedom from various petty demands from the Darbar.  As this introduced the principle of insubordination one Missionary was removed from the State under the orders of the Commissioner of Chhota Nagpur who acted then as Political Officer.  Later a European Diwan found that the Christians were getting quite out of hand and he dealt firmly with the position.  He formed the opinion that the majority of the people who joined the Missions did so in the expectation of some material advantage and not for any spiritual benefit.

37. About the same time the Roman Catholic Mission also entered Jashpur.  How the rulers of the State were treated by the Government is clear from the letter dated 10th June 1923 from the Roman Catholic Arch Bishop of Calcutta to the Political Agent at Raipur, in which occurs the following sentence:-

�In Gangpur the Rajah-under pressure of the Government of Bengal, within whose Jurisdiction Gangpur then was -gave me a perpetual lease at the usual rent, of an extensive plot of Taur land at Kesaramal in 1907; and since then the Chief quite willingly this time has granted me leases of two more plots, one at Hamirpur and one at Gaibera.  In Jashpur so far we have had only verbal grants.�

The Arch Bishop desired the Political Agent to give him a set of perpetual leases but he was disappointed.  The circumstances in which the Rajah of Jashpur came to be deposed are highly significant, to show the influence which the Missionaries exercised on the Government of the day.  In 1906 the German Lutheran Mission applied for the issue of a license to permit entry of Indian preachers into this State.  The Rajah was reluctant to grant the permission for the entry of the preachers but was prevailed upon by the Political Agent, Mr. Laurie to withdraw his opposition.  Mr. Brett the new Political Agent found that about 30,000 people and 15,000 were claimed, respectively, by the Roman Catholics and the Lutheran Mission as enquirers and they were all of the Uraon tribe.  He reported to Government that the Chief had accepted the agreement mentioned above under pressure from the Political Agent, but the Central Provinces Government held that the Chief could not be given general permission to forbid all Missionaries and preachers from entering the State.  But at the same time it warned the Missionary Societies that they could not expect any support from Government against the Chief if their preachers encourage the subjects to resist his lawful demands.  But on account of continuous conflict between the Chief and the Missionaries the Political Agent, Mr. Blakesley made a thorough enquiry and submitted a full report to the Local Government in 1913.  He pointed out that the movement towards Christianity in the Jashpur State was in no sense a religious one, and that the Missionaries had acquired a considerable hold on the people by means of loans.  He also showed that under the guise of religious proselytism political propaganda had been spread throughout the State.  His recommendation was that the Chief should be permitted to exclude the Jesuit Missionaries and their catechists but the Government declined to accept his recommendations.  Mr. Blakesley�s statement as to the nature of the religious proselytism was later amply borne out by an admission made by the Arch Bishop of Calcutta to Mr. Napier, the Commissioner of Chhattisgarh in 1912.  The Arch Bishop said to Mr. Napier, that putting aside all cant he did not suppose that the majority of the aboriginal Christians in the State had much feeling either way in the matter of religion and that they embraced Christianity in the hope that material benefit would result to themselves.  The trouble arose in 1922 in Jashpur when a Society by name �the Unity Samaj� came to be formed by the Lutherans of Ranchi, and there was a report of a dangerous movement amongst Missions� preachers in the State.  The Roman Catholic Arch Bishop of Calcutta, wrote to the Political Agent sending an account by one of his priests that Lutheran preachers had been fomenting trouble that would lead to a rebellion which in fact did ensue and resulted in the deposition of the Rajah of Jashpur.

It was to avoid such trouble that the Conversion Act 1936 came to be enacted by the Raigarh Darbar.

38. Let us now turn to the steps taken by Government to afford protection to the aborigines.  The Government of India Act of 1870 conferred upon the Governor-General in Council the power to approve and sanction laws and regulations made by local Government for the administration of certain special areas to which previously the Secretary of State in Council had applied the Act.  In 1874 the Indian Legislature passed the scheduled Districts Act XIV of 1874 whereby the Local Government was empowered to declare in respect of the tracts specified in the Act what enactments were or were not in force therein.  It was in pursuance of this that the Central Provinces Government passed the Land Alienation Act in 1916.  The Government of India Act of 1919 under section 52-A (2) empowered the Governor-General in Council to declare the territories occupied by the aborigines to be a backward tract.  The Statutory Commission of 1928 grouped the backward tracts into two large categories one as wholly excluded areas and the other as partially excluded areas.  It was found that the aboriginal people such as the Gonds had taken part in political movements, viz., non-co-operation movement of 1920-21, the Nagpur Flag Satyagarh of 1923 and the Forest Satyagraha of 1930. (Page 49 the Aboriginal Problem in the Balaghat District).  In the annual report intended for submission to the British Parliament the aspect of forest Satyagraha, was particularly stressed to show that the violation of the Forest Laws enabled the agitators to achieve a substantial measure of success in fostering unrest among the tribes. (India in 1930-31 page 554).  When the proposals of the Statutory Commission came up before the Parliament Col. Wedgwood said that he had received �An infinity of letters from India�, urging that the tribes should be allowed to be looked after by the Indians but in his opinion the educated Indians wanted �to get them in as cheap labour�. Adverting to the African parallel he expressed his conviction that the best hope for backward tribes everywhere lay in the Christian Missionaries. (Ghurye-The Aborigines page 134).  It is well known that a list was finally prepared and embodied in the Government of India (excluded and partially excluded areas) Order 1936 in accordance with sections 91 and 92 of the Government of India Act of 1935.  The distinction between the two was that the Governor was required to exercise his functions in regard to the excluded areas in his own discretion and in regard to the partially excluded areas he was to seek the advice of the Ministers.

39. As a result of the Statutory exclusion of these tribes they had been treated as if they were the close preserve for Missionary enterprise.  Reviewing the problem as a whole the real inroad on tribal solidarity was made by the introduction of the British rule which destroyed the authority of the tribal elders, and their traditional panchayat systems.  Even Dr. Hutton who contributed Chapter XII to O�Malley�s Modern India and the West stated that the establishment of the British Rule in India, far from being of immediate benefit to the primitive tribes did most of them much more harm than good. (Page 173 Ghurye the Aborigines).  The Forest Conservancy Laws, the excise Policy and laws, tyranny of petty officers, forced labour and rapacious money-lender have all contributed to the disruption of the tribal solidarity, and that has given an opportunity for the enterprise of the Missionaries.

40. Dr. Elwin wrote in 1944 bringing into prominence the evil effects of excluding the tribal areas from the general administration of the country and pointing out that in practice all it appeared to have achieved had been to give encouragement to proselytising Missions for exploitation of these people so remote from the scrutiny of public opinion.  Speaking about the Mandla district he says:

�In Mandla the situation has grown serious for here the Fathers of the Apostolic prefecture Jabalpur are proselytising on an unprecedented scale and on the method that would have been considered disgraceful in the middle ages.�

Further he says:

 

�The Missionaries usurp many of the functions of Government officials, try to interfere in the work of the courts and business of the local officials and give the Gonds the impression that they are the real Sirkar and the Fathers finally have an extensive money-lending business and this is one of the most effective means of bringing aboriginals under their control and forcing them into the Church.�

41. Reviewing the whole question in the light of its history one is driven to the conclusion that they established a State within the State.