Hinduism and India have been under attack for thousands of years. First it was Islam, then came Christianity (The Myth of Saint Thomas) that have created havoc to the fabric of Hindu society. Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi both opposed it. Swami Vivekananda has given the most heart-rending accounts of the calumnies that Christian missionaries spread about Hinduism and about India. Most common Evangelistic words are "Hindus need to be saved from spiritual darkness," church plantings, rich harvest of converts, idol worshippers and un reached people." They speak openly of "spiritual conflict." Their text often have words like "God's armor," "battle," "weapons," etc. Sir John Woodroffe had predicted in his book, Is India Civilized p. xlviii, that: “ In every way, the coming assault on Hindu civilization will be the greatest which it has ever had to endure in the whole course of its long history.”
The missionary zeal has been to convert Hindus by giving the most lurid accounts in the West to raise money for financing their activities. It costs $145 billion dollars a year to operate global Christianity, records a book on evangelization - Arun Shourie Missionaries in India. According to Professor Gauri Vishwanathan in her book Outside the Fold "religious conversion is probably one of the most unsettling political events in the life of any society." In the Forties, when missionaries were active in China, this denationalization process was summed up in the line, “One more Christian, one less Chinese.” From this perspective, conversion is more than just a Hindu becoming a Christian, it is the transformation of an Indian into an extension of Western culture and influence. Guy Sorman, author of The Genius of India had difficulty accepting mass conversions of children and dying by Mother Teresa, who was indifferent to the religions of India as the missionaries of the past; she believed in numbers. Arun Shourie author of Harvesting Our Souls: Missionaries, their design, their claims asks: "How come our secularists insist that conversion is not the aim of the Church when the Church repeatedly and explicitly declares that the singular aim of all its activities is to convert non-Christians to Christianity? K. M. Panikkar, author of Asia and Western Dominance has written: "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 others shall be condemned has always seemed unreasonable." Swami Vivekananda remarked: " Every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less but also an enemy the more."
Mahatma Gandhi called Christian missionaries, "Vendors of Goods". He said " In Hindu households, the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink". "If I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytizing". "I resent the overtures made to Harijans." "Stop all conversion, it is the deadliest poison that ever sapped the fountain of truth." Poverty doesn't justify conversion. He also considered missionaries as "a clear libel on Indian humanity." The doctrine of racial superiority that the Europeans used to justify their colonial rule is gone, but the attitude of Christian religious superiority continues. Such religious exclusivism is backward and prejudicial, just like racism.
This chapter is in no way anti-Christian but rather anti-conversion. It provides information about the insidious campaign that is taking place to reduce and wipeout Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other Vedic traditions that are followed by large sections of humanity in India and around the world.
The missionary zeal has been to convert Hindus by giving the most lurid accounts in the West to raise money for financing their activities. It costs $145 billion dollars a year to operate global Christianity, records a book on evangelization - Arun Shourie Missionaries in India. According to Professor Gauri Vishwanathan in her book Outside the Fold "religious conversion is probably one of the most unsettling political events in the life of any society." In the Forties, when missionaries were active in China, this denationalization process was summed up in the line, “One more Christian, one less Chinese.” From this perspective, conversion is more than just a Hindu becoming a Christian, it is the transformation of an Indian into an extension of Western culture and influence. Guy Sorman, author of The Genius of India had difficulty accepting mass conversions of children and dying by Mother Teresa, who was indifferent to the religions of India as the missionaries of the past; she believed in numbers. Arun Shourie author of Harvesting Our Souls: Missionaries, their design, their claims asks: "How come our secularists insist that conversion is not the aim of the Church when the Church repeatedly and explicitly declares that the singular aim of all its activities is to convert non-Christians to Christianity? K. M. Panikkar, author of Asia and Western Dominance has written: "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 others shall be condemned has always seemed unreasonable." Swami Vivekananda remarked: " Every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less but also an enemy the more."
Mahatma Gandhi called Christian missionaries, "Vendors of Goods". He said " In Hindu households, the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink". "If I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytizing". "I resent the overtures made to Harijans." "Stop all conversion, it is the deadliest poison that ever sapped the fountain of truth." Poverty doesn't justify conversion. He also considered missionaries as "a clear libel on Indian humanity." The doctrine of racial superiority that the Europeans used to justify their colonial rule is gone, but the attitude of Christian religious superiority continues. Such religious exclusivism is backward and prejudicial, just like racism.
This chapter is in no way anti-Christian but rather anti-conversion. It provides information about the insidious campaign that is taking place to reduce and wipeout Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other Vedic traditions that are followed by large sections of humanity in India and around the world.
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