Why The Pope Should
Apologize To India
Vishwas Varghese
Why The Pope Should Apologize To India
The VHP's protest march against the Pope's visit in India this
week, has drawn quite a lot of attention and flak as a misguided
attempt to "create disorder by fascist". The Indian
media has been having a field day with mongering rumors that seek
to undermine and defame the Hindutva oriented organizations. One
has to look beyond all the politically motivated hype and hoopla
and look analytically at what is the logic behind the demand for
the Pope's apology. The rationale behind this demand is cited to
be the Christian Inquisition which took place in Goa, for the
purpose of forcefully converting the Hindus to Christianity. Let
us take a look at some historical facts to see if the Hindutva
minded organizations are truly justified in asking the pope as the
representative of the Catholic church to apologize and atone for
such crimes against Hindus in the past.
Alan Machado-Prabhu has recently written a book about the history
of Goa starting from ancient times, titled Sarasvati's Children: A
History of the Mangalorean Christians. The book describes in
detail the origins of Goa's inhabitants. According to Machado's
account and that of several established historians, some time
around 1000 B.C. an immense number of Vedic people who originally
lived on the banks of the river Sarasvati migrated to this coast.
Their emigration was forced by the drying up of the Sarasvati
River which was the basis for much of the so called Indus Valley
civilization. This civilization has now been termed the
Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization in view of its indelible dependence
on the Sarasvati and Sindhu rivers. Moreover the work of such
accomplished scholars as N.S. Rajaram, David Frawley, N. Jha, S.R.
Rao, etc. has proven that the Sarasvati Sindhu civilization was a
Vedic one. As a consequence the people who were forced to seek
fresh fields and pastures in view of the drying up of Sarasvati,
were none other than Hindus. Large numbers of them followed the
ancient Dakshinapatha, the southern route and came all the way to
Gomantak and to what is now called Goa. Gomantak had no indigenous
population and therefore made an ideal place to settle down for
these scholars.
The new location was a highly successful one because of the
fertile quality of the land. The majority of the emigrants were
highly educated and well versed in the advanced scientific,
artistic and literary traditions of Vedic civilization and
therefore began to be called the Brahmins of the north (Gaud).
Eventually they began to be referred to as the Gaud Sarasvat
Brahmins. They were famous all over India and abroad for their
immense scholarship and learning. Over the centuries Goa was
comparatively undisturbed under the rule of the Mauryas, the
Kadambas and the Chalukya dynasty. But around 1327 AD Goa was
conquered by Mohammed Bin Tughlak and thousands of Hindus were
massacred in cold blood. A number of murderous Muslim rulers such
as Bahamani king Mohammed Shah, Yusuf Adil Shah, etc. held the
state in the grip of terror until the Portugese Christians who
came to foreign lands led by Vasco De Gama in the hope of
converting millions of "Heathens" managed to overcome
them. By the mid 1500s, the Portugese had established a strong
hold on Indian ports and the terror of the Inquisition sanctioned
by the Catholic Church was established and institutionalized in
Goa. The main objective of the Inquisitors was to ensure that all
natives be converted to Christianity whether by the sword, bribery
or blackmail.
Around 1540 the Inquisition was at its peak, thousands of Hindus
were dispossessed, massacred and mutilated if they refused to
convert. Half the property of a person found in possession of
idols went to the Church. According to Machado, "The Church
acquired urban and rural properties on an impressive scale".
An incredible amount of loot and plunder of the immense riches
possessed by the Hindus was shipped off to the Church. Hindus were
forbidden from performing any of their festivals openly. Hindu
were amassed and deliberately forced to participate in grotesque
public performances for the Christian feast days during the very
same days that they used to celebrate Hindu festivals. To this day
these macabre enactments still survive in Goa today as the
Milagres feast dance, the Carnavalo and the Festa de Leques.
In 1542 the most barbaric of these oppressors in the form of
Jesuit priest "Saint" Francis Xavier arrived on the
scene. The incredible hatred and venom that this man nursed
against the Hindus is obvious from his own writings and records.
In 1543 , Xavier sent a Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus
at Rome which outlined his perspective of the Indian people. The
extremely racist and intolerant views of Christian proselytizers
like Xavier pour out of every word in this letter:
"We have in these parts a class of men among the pagans who
are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the
superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and
taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as
can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words of
holy David, "from an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man
deliver me, O Lord." They are liars and cheats to the very
backbone. These are the ignorant people whose blind superstitions
have made the others their slaves, their imposture and tricks, and
this has induced many to leave the worship of the false gods, and
eagerly become Christians. If it were not for the opposition of
the Brahmins, we should have them all embracing the religion of
Jesus Christ.
As there is so great a variety of color among men, and the Indians
being black themselves, consider their own color the best, they
believe that their gods are black. On this account the great
majority of their idols are as black as black can be, and moreover
are generally so rubbed over with oil as to smell detestably, and
seem to be as dirty as they are ugly and horrible to look
at."
Xavier would become an increasingly frustrated and embittered man
as he discovered the obstinate stubbornness with which the Hindus
refused to be forced to convert to Christianity. His frustration
is evident in a Letter on the Missions sent in 1949 to St.
Ignatius de Loyola, of the Catholic Church. In it as usual he
displays his ample hatred for the "idolaters" as he
calls the Hindus, but his most vitriolic animosity is reserved for
the Brahmins who were the primary defenders of Hinduism. By this
time Xavier has apparently become aware of the fact that it is the
Brahmins who are the final line of defense in keeping the Hindu
followers together. His inability to suppress them leads to his
sweeping generalization that the entire race of Indians is
"barbaric" in this letter:
"May the grace and charity of our Lord Christ always be with
us! Amen.
My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the
many letters from this place which have lately been sent to Rome
will inform you how prosperously the affairs of religion go on in
these parts, through your prayers and the good bounty of God. But
there seem to be certain things which I ought myself to speak
about to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to
these parts of the world which are so distant from Rome. In the
first place, the whole race of the Indians, as far as I have been
able to see, is very barbarous; and it does not like to listen to
anything that is not agreeable to its own manners and customs,
which, as I say, are barbarous. It troubles itself very little to
learn anything about divine things and things which concern
salvation. Most of the Indians are of vicious disposition, and are
adverse to virtue. Their instability, levity, and inconstancy of
mind are incredible; they have hardly any honesty, so inveterate
are their habits of sin and cheating. We have hard work here, both
in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the
heathen. And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this
account you should take great care of us and help us continually
by your prayers to God.
You know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who
neither have any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it
a strange and intolerable thing to be told to give up their habits
of sin, which have now gained all the force of nature by long
possession. The experience which I have of these countries makes
me think that I can affirm with truth, that there is no prospect
of perpetuating our Society out here by means of the natives
themselves, and that the Christian religion will hardly survive us
who are now in the country; so that it is quite necessary that
continual supplies of ours should be sent out from Europe."
One is amazed at Xavier's Christian definition of barbarism.
Apparently anyone who does not recognize Jesus Christ as his
savior qualifies for this title. It would have been fascinating to
know what the victims of this undisguised genocidal aggression
thought of their tormentors. Indeed "barbarism" is too
mild a word to aptly describes the horrific aggression that was
perpetrated on the Goans for the sake of Christ!
In Machado's book the chapter on the Inquisition is aptly headed:
Horrendum Ac Tremendum Spectaculem. Machado relates how the
historian Fryer describes one of the instances of the Christian
aggression - "In the principal market was raised an Engine of
great height, at top like a Gibbet, with a Pulley for the Strapado
which unhinges a Man's joints, a cruel Torture." Even
Fryrer's (1675) brief reference to the Inquisition barely does
justice to the fearful dread it brought to the people living in
Portuguese territories. Of all the organizations the Portuguese
took to her overseas territories it was the Inquisition that
stalked the land, menacing and seeking all it might devour".
Portugese records themselves show that the Inquisition burned at
the stake 57 alive and 64 in effigy, 105 of them being men and 16
women. Others sentenced to various cruel punishments totaled 4,046
of whom 3,034 were men. The people who were converted but still
continued occasionally and secretly to perform Hindu rituals were
treated even more harshly. Even this low number represented by the
perpetrators themselves is enough to provide us a clue to how many
were truly subjected to the horrors. There can be no doubt that
thousands if not millions perished at the hands of the Christian
Sword which would not tolerate non believers in the path of the
Church.
Many of the orders dictated by the Portugese administration
demonstrate the depth of oppression against their victims. Mr.
Kanchan Gupta, the editor of BJP Today had researched and
presented these records in his brilliant article on Rediff
magazine, earlier this year. Some of the historical records that
Mr. Gupta unearthed, clearly demonstrated the unabashedly
oppressive nature of the Christian regime which had ruthlessly
usurped Goa.
On April 2, 1560, Viceroy D Constantine de Braganca issued orders
instructing that Brahmins should be thrown out of Goa and other
areas under Portuguese control. They were given al of one month to
dispose of all possessions. Anyone found violating the order would
have their properties seized.
On February 7, 1575, Governor Antonio Morez Barreto declared that
the estates of Brahmins whose "presence was prejudicial to
Christianity" would be confiscated and used for
"providing clothes to the New Christians".
In 1585, The Third Concilio Provincial which was a gathering of
bishops and other Christian leaders adopted a resolution
declaring, 'His Majesty the king has on occasion ordered the
viceroys and governors of India that there should be no Brahmins
in his lands, and that they should be banished therefrom together
with the physicians and other infidels who are prejudicial to
Christianity. As the orders of His Majesty in this regard have not
been executed, great impediments in the way of conversion and the
community of New Christians have followed and continue to follow.
From now onwards at certain times in each year the archbishop
should obtain information regarding Brahmins, physicians and any
other infidels who might be prejudicial to conversion to
Christianity, and in consultation with the Christian priests,
prepare a roll of their names which should be signed by him. This
should be presented to the viceroy or the governor in order that
the latter might issue orders for banishing them from the lands of
the king, as His Majesty has ordered...'
On January 31, 1620, the Portugese declared that '...no Hindu, of
whatever nationality or status he may be, can or shall perform
marriages in this city of Goa, nor in the islands or adjacent
territories of His Majesty, under pain of a fine of 1000 Xerafins.'
The Third Concilio Provincial also demanded a ban on the
traditional thread ceremony and the ban was imposed by the Sword.
The Brahmins who tried to evade such prejudicial dictates by going
outside Portuguese territory for the ceremony were prevented from
doing so by the ominously threatening order that said 'I hereby
order that no Hindu subject proceed beyond the borders of the
state to celebrate the thread ceremony...' Orders prohibiting
Hindu women from wearing Bindi on their foreheads along with an
order allowing the Christian clergy the right to baptize all
orphans are blatant proofs of the violent suppression of religious
rights by the Christian Church in Goa.
Such then is the history of Christian persecution in Goa. And yet
the cruelest of these proselytizers from the past are supposed to
be treated as 'Saints" by the very nation that was victimized
by them! Stating the facts about the past tyranny of the Church in
India, quickly becomes an "earth shattering" conspiracy
by the "fascist" Hindu extremists. The signs of India's
humiliation and oppression at the hands of her Christian
aggressors is present everywhere in the nomenclature of
innumerable roads, buildings and educational institutions named
after the very criminals who sought to annihilate all traces of
India's vast and ancient repertoire of advanced knowledge.
Is asking the Pope to apologize for such a vast range of heinous
crimes unjustified? Saint Francis Xavier, the missionary who was
responsible for the death of thousands of innocent Hindus of Goa
was canonized and is cited today as one of the foremost Saints of
the Catholic Church. A quick search of the catholic Encyclopedia
yields us this information about him.
"It is truly a matter of wonder that one man in the short
space of ten years (6 May, 1542 - 2 December, 1552) could have
visited so many countries, traversed so many seas, preached the
Gospel to so many nations, and converted so many infidels. The
incomparable apostolic zeal which animated him, and the stupendous
miracles which God wrought through him, explain this marvel, which
has no equal elsewhere. St. Francis Xavier is considered the
greatest missionary since the time of the Apostles, and the zeal
he displayed, the wonderful miracles he performed, and the great
number of souls he brought to the light of true Faith, entitle him
to this distinction. He was canonized with St. Ignatius in 1622,
although on account of the death of Gregory XV, the Bull of
canonization was not published until the following year. The body
of the saint is still enshrined at Goa in the church which
formerly belonged to the Society. In 1614 by order of Claudius
Acquaviva, General of the Society of Jesus, the right arm was
severed at the elbow and conveyed to Rome, where the present altar
was erected to receive it in the church of the Gesu. "
Even today the body of the "Saint" in Goa is said to be
in a "marvelous" state of preservation as proof of his
miraculous character.
With Saints like Francis Xavier epitomizing the nature of
Christian kindness in India, is it any wonder that the
proselytizing nature of the Church is increasingly condemned and
denounced by civilized human beings all over the world? The souls
of the thousands of Indians that suffered genocide at the hands of
the religious fanaticism which was institutionalized by the
Catholic Church, would hardly find succor in any apology by the
Pope.
But at the very least it would have been a some small form of
retribution for the sins committed by the forces he represents.
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