Er.Rajesh Pathak
“ ….all this aroused a dislike in me for Christian missionaries ”- MK Gandhi
“Those days Christian missionaries would stand near High School and preach their religion, heaping abuses on Hindus and their gods and goddesses. Same days, I heard that one renowned Hindu gentleman converted to Christianity. Talks were doing the round of the city that he had to consume meat of cow and wine to undergo the baptism. He was also made to change his dress, and since then he began to put on hat and European dress. I also heard that this new ‘convert’ has begun to abuse the religion of his ancestors, their way of living and their country. All this aroused a dislike in me for Christian missionaries.” [Mahatma Gandhi in “M.K. Gandhi- An Autobiography ….” P28-29]
One thing missionary has never parted with in its preaching is deception no matter it is concerned with present, or past; with any part of the world, or with India itself. With the advent of British rule in India, they entered the country through popular education initiated from the Church controlled academic institutions, and through the service projects. When needed how could the co-religionists in the power be used, giving the example of this they hobnobbed with the then British govt. and had entire tribal belt of north-east India declared prohibited for everybody outsider other than themselves. So that evangelization of local tribal Hindus could freely be carried out with no hint to anybody. It is because of this we see this far lying region of the country is overwhelmingly populated with Christians today.
Things have got so alarming more predominantly in tribal states of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram that the democratically elected governments, no matter which party they belong, can’t afford to ignore their [missionaries] dictates. More notably, few years back in 2002A.D. they celebrated with great fanfare the century of Christian-rule in the same states, not caring a fig for the secular entity of the nation. Not long ago in one of the Vidhan Sabha elections of the Mizoram state the Church openly displayed place to place the posters advertising the slogan of “Vote for Christ”. The sole purpose behind this was to send the message to people to vote for only that candidate who, above all, owes the loyalty to the Church.
In Orissa also they wanted to have free hand for their kind of activities. But, it was in Swami Laxmananand Saraswati and his various service projects among tribal people that they found the stumbling block between them and the ‘divine’ service of evangelization . Then what, there began one after other 10 attacks , which ended only after successfully eliminating Lakshmananand with his four other disciples [one of them was Sadhvi] on the fateful day of 23rd August, 2008 amidst Janmashtami celebrations at Jaleshapatta in Kandhamal district. The whole incident of assassination was executed under a pre-planned conspiracy hatched in a meeting organized in Brahmanigaon, Daring Badi- the hub center of missionary activities in Kandhamal district. Hindu Jagran Samukshya, Orissa’s prominent Hindu outfit, claimed that in the meeting who participated among others were Christian NGOs, a Christian ex-Member of Parliament and local Padres and Arch Bishops. Those later convicted on 30th September, 2013 by the court in the case were 7 Christians and one Maoist, notably.
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