Christianity, Evangelism & its geopolitical impact

[member_22733]

Which bloody clown allowed them the right to propagate their religion when the (majority community) Hindus do not proselytize.

Nehru. The right to propagate religion was not there in the original constitution. The Missionaries panicked and met Nehru, who in turn put pressure on Patel to get the right to propagate included in the constitution because the missionaries promised that Nehru ass that "we will live like brothers with Hindus and this right is just a formality."

SanjayC sir, can you provide any reference that documents the above (please also consider xposting that to the Bandit Gawarlal thread).

[member_22733]

A conversion tactic that is new to me was brought to light by my evil 6th coujin's camel herders father who works as a psychiatrists in Indian prisons (hardcore one near Bangalore, Kerala and another in Kochi, WestBengal). Also for those wondering : Indian prison system does provide psychiatrist help to those in need.

So the facts are these:
The wardens posted there were hardcore EJs, who claimed that those who "convert" will be saved. Most of the prison converted and it was run like a purgatory with convicts and under-trials waiting to "be saved". This went on until the warden got transferred to a new prison, rinse repeat. The new warden (Yindoo) was alarmed and brought in professional help to get the convicts out of their "trance".

Now comes the funny part. The initial assessment to call in the big psych docs was done by another batch of "counsellors", who were Yindoos. I happened to know one of them well and chatted with one of them about what happened and also about how they got into this business. Came to know another interesting tidbit:

Psych counselling industry in India is infested with EJs, they have the control of the narrative, the conferences, the certification processes, affiliation orgs etc . The closely related "success counselling" industry is fully populated by EJs. The Yindoo counsellor also lamented that the EJs were directly quoting from Geeta about positive psychology and then claiming that it is all their in "bible" also.

EJs have gone deep within our society ..... truly scary.

[sanjaykumar]

Well that's just like India, nobody gives a damn about the underclasses. Evangelics are free to exploit and abuse them. Inducing conversions from a position of absolute authority is fully abuse.

Most of the responsibility lies with the great mass of the Hindu people. Certainly from where I am Christianism has been viewed historically as the badge of the outcaste, the rogue and the criminal. Right or wrong. Now to associate a frank criminality with Christianism will not win any converts from the genteel Hindus-quite the opposite. Thus this is not common knowledge in India-likely deliberatley censored.

It would be like a Mormon deciding on the virtues of conversion, knowing that US prisons are heavily populated with Black Muslims.

[Dumal]

Prison counseling is also big in 'markets' like Hong Kong, Philippines, etc. Many of the counselors there are from here. Evangelizing in the garb of counseling young people who lost their way in minor crimes, substance abuse, etc., is also prevalent here. A relative I know recently was helped that way into a steady job and married suitably after converting.

[member_29004]

Well that's just like India, nobody gives a damn about the underclasses. Evangelics are free to exploit and abuse them. Inducing conversions from a position of absolute authority is fully abuse.

Most of the responsibility lies with the great mass of the Hindu people. Certainly from where I am Christianism has been viewed historically as the badge of the outcaste, the rogue and the criminal. Right or wrong. Now to associate a frank criminality with Christianism will not win any converts from the genteel Hindus-quite the opposite. Thus this is not common knowledge in India-likely deliberatley censored.

It would be like a Mormon deciding on the virtues of conversion, knowing that US prisons are heavily populated with Black Muslims.

Absolutely true, Christians and Muslims can do many ills, yet lets not try to hide away from our own responsibility

[Pulikeshi]

Indians did not have a word that means the same thing as religion until the word religion was introduced into the vocabulary of indians, after which we started force fitting what we thought might be religion into the definition of religion.

Indians did not have a that word means the same thing as "history" until the word history was introduced to us after which we started force-fitting whatever we thought was likely to be "history" into the definition of history

Those that invented words, are now found lacking of them!
Take my two paise for what it is worth - Rajiv Malhotra, Balagangadhara, etc. are great but...

I've listened to this argumentation that Indians did not have a word of history or religion and mulling about the same.
It is perhaps a true diagnosis, but a defeatist framing of the problem.

Long ago, an American friend was trying to point out that Indians could not pronounce the soft "th" sound -
Soft "th" sound

For a civilization that formally analyzed the human oral cavity and voice box and delivered a language and framework that is still used even by the so called modern scientists - this lack of the soft "th" sound in the India seems like a laugh.

I use this example to point out the absurdity of even arguing the criticism, but what to do onlee we are forced to...

Therefore, I'd pose all our theories thusly - "The West and West Asia did and do not now have Dharma, hence they rely on an abomination called Religion. In order to propagate this concept, they developed another framework called History and therefore they do not have any Itihasa that guides them in their daily activities. Further they are handicapped by not having an eternal path, like Sanathana Dharma, to guide them in their personal journeys and are therefore pursuing ill fitting Universalism. We Hindus need to help them in understanding their limitations and guide them to a better path, one that is more harmonious with nature and respects the Earth and her inhabitants."

This is a beginning of a discourse.. the other is defeatist whining - just my few paisa feedback...

[RamaY]

Hindu civilization did have the concept of "religion". Thousands of "religions" were started by many asuras and were destroyed by Hindu dharma as demanded by a given religion.

Madhu-Kaitabha, Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakasipa, Ravana, Taraka, Mahisha, Naraka, Kamsa all had their own religions and millions more.

Abrahamic religions are nothing new or greater than their predecessors.

[Pulikeshi]

Abrahamic religions are nothing new or greater than their predecessors.

This comment is very disappointing and shows a naive understanding of the forces at play.

[RamaY]

Abrahamic religions are nothing new or greater than their predecessors.

This comment is very disappointing and shows a naive understanding of the forces at play.

When the cat continues to sleep in Secular tamas even a limping rat can be a force to reckon with.

[Pulikeshi]

When the cat continues to sleep in Secular tamas even a limping rat can be a force to reckon with.

Boss there is no point in continuing any name calling.
If you cannot understand what is going on... or understand what I think or not of secularism.
The response that needs to be formulated requires more than knee jerk "kick in the nuts' or just equating Christianity or Islam to ancient villains. You cannot fight belief, you can only fight the actions taken in that belief.

[RamaY]

^ we both are saying the same.

1/ Abrahamism/religion is no new concept.
2/ You can definitely fight & brutally punish actions done in the name of religion.
3/ Tactics of contemporary abrahamics are no horrible than their predecessors
4/ Hind society does have a civilizational memory on how to handle this kind of nonsense.

All that is missing is letting Hinduism do what it does best - vinaasaya cha dushkrutaam!

[chetak]

Trespasser's will be manhandled inside the Church; Polite Notice of a Priest who 'Owns' Arabian sea

02/05/2015

Kollam: The episode of fishermen hailing from Karunagappally, Kollam being attacked in mid-sea by fellow Christian fishermen and being made hostage in a coastal area church has taken a grim turn. The incident took place after the local Christian priestly class placed restrictive sanctions on fishermen from other religious communities from fishing in the area or doing their daily business.

The Hindu fisher youths Prasannan, Sanjayan, Suresh and Baby all hailing from Karunagappilly were attacked and captured. After abducting from mid sea they were hostages in Fathima Mata Church in Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram, and where they were subject to brutalities. They were later rescued by police after hours of negotiation with Church priest!

According to state vice-president of the fishermen’s association NP Radhakrishnan, the fishermen were encircled and besieged by a formidable group of Christian fisher-folk, along with those from the clergy sections as well. Sources have indicated that the marauders included fishermen from Christian community and their priestly class, who overpowered the group that went for deep sea fishing. “They were soon overpowered and held hostage for hours together inside the church.”

As part of a well framed conspiracy to fortify the southern coastal line of Karunagappilly into a Christian fortress, Hindus are being forced to vacate the area. Hindu fishermen are also being prohibited from venturing out into the seas for fishing. It has also been alleged that all these activities are taking place with the blessings of local church authorities and aimed at conversion of the Hindu population into Christianity. The restrictions have been placed from the area starting from the south of Chavara Neendakara Bridge.

“Anyone makes a breach of this proscriptive order is attacked by violent groups and is made hostage. They are subject to numerous tortures thereafter,” say fishermen hailing from the area. The activities are centred around Anchuthengu Church.

State fishermen’s associations have alleged that the government instead of taking sound action is now maintaining a passive stand regarding the matter. Southern coastal Karunagappally is a Christian majority area, where restrictive sanctions have been imposed on fisher-folks of other religions from conducting their daily business.

According to state vice-president of the fishermen’s association NP Radhakrishnan, has also pointed out that the attackers had flouted law openly and challenged society publicly. “These people should be dealt with severely. But servile attitude of government officials and police officers towards Church is an insult to Kerala society. The lax attitude donned by authorities has turned issues in the coastal line quite apprehensive.”

[Pulikeshi]

We are not saying the same thing!

1/ Abrahamism/religion is no new concept.

So in your opinion people who say Indians did not have a word for religion are wrong, since religion is no new concept, it has always existed.

4/ Hind society does have a civilizational memory on how to handle this kind of nonsense.

Perhaps, but by calling it "nonsense," you would have reduced your arguments to one.
EJs and Islam are far more successful than Hinduism today in gathering converts...
they have a successful track record for more than a millennia... more land, wealth and influence...
what have you to show for all this haughtiness?

[SanjayC]

SanjayC sir, can you provide any reference that documents the above (please also consider xposting that to the Bandit Gawarlal thread).

I read that in one of Arun Shourie's books that I have. Will have to check. But that was an eye opening two-pages about the useful idiots (Nehru and there were some more) and how the right to propagate came through despite being over-ruled by the constituent assembly.

[chetak]

SanjayC sir, can you provide any reference that documents the above (please also consider xposting that to the Bandit Gawarlal thread).

I read that in one of Arun Shourie's books that I have. Will have to check. But that was an eye opening two-pages about the useful idiots (Nehru and there were some more) and how the right to propagate came through despite being over-ruled by the constituent assembly.

the british EJs led banditji by edwina's influence. (delicacy forbids the use of the more correct term)

[ShauryaT]

Therefore, I'd pose all our theories thusly - "The West and West Asia did and do not now have Dharma, hence they rely on an abomination called Religion. In order to propagate this concept, they developed another framework called History and therefore they do not have any Itihasa that guides them in their daily activities. Further they are handicapped by not having an eternal path, like Sanathana Dharma, to guide them in their personal journeys and are therefore pursuing ill fitting Universalism. We Hindus need to help them in understanding their limitations and guide them to a better path, one that is more harmonious with nature and respects the Earth and her inhabitants."

Another view/way to express.

The west has invented the word religion, which masquerades the political ambitions of flawed men. It lacks the civilizational experiences, practices and systems that can help it overcome these fundamental flaws, in its ways and means, ends and objectives. These flaws manifest in violent upheavals in their society, where the political winners view becomes the only view that dominates its civilizational memory, to the exclusion of its own past. This political winner's view after vanquishing its previous political dispensations, is termed as history. Christianity being the political winner in the west defines only its own past as history.

In current era, this political domination of christian states and its peoples manifests in the use of old hard tools, such as annihilation of peoples, subjugation through war and violence, along with new tools, means and measures such as concepts of universalism, international agreements, trade and investment and the domination of soft culture and language. In all its presents, its own package of morals, principles and values as the ONLY ones worthy of pursuit.

In all, it is a sophisticated package, which threatens and has dented the civilizational views, systems, ends and objectives of other major civilizations such as those of the Hindu, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic and African having conquered and annihilated many others. Meeting these challenges will require that Aryas recognize and continue to practice their ways and systems called Dharma, where they protect this Dharma, so that Dharma in turn can protect them. Aryas will have to come up with new tools, means and systems first to stop the onslaught of these christian peoples and then spread our ways to them - the way Buddhism, a Dharmic system conquered Asia.

[A_Gupta]

Perhaps, but by calling it "nonsense," you would have reduced your arguments to one.
EJs and Islam are far more successful than Hinduism today in gathering converts...
they have a successful track record for more than a millennia... more land, wealth and influence...
what have you to show for all this haughtiness?

Therefore:

1. What are Sanatana Dharma's competitive advantages in a Darwinian struggle for survival of cultures? (This struggle is not our choice, it is imposed upon us.)

2. How do we play to its strengths?

(One must shore up one's weaknesses only to the extent that those weaknesses are fatal. But to gain ground one must lead with one's strengths.)

[RamaY]

Perhaps, but by calling it "nonsense," you would have reduced your arguments to one.
EJs and Islam are far more successful than Hinduism today in gathering converts...
they have a successful track record for more than a millennia... more land, wealth and influence...
what have you to show for all this haughtiness?

Are Abrahamic faiths "far more" successful after having a successful record for more than a millennia? If so why are they so scared of Hinduism even after millennia?

Who is converting to Abrahamic faiths and why?

[Pulikeshi]

Are Abrahamic faiths "far more" successful after having a successful record for more than a millennia? If so why are they so scared of Hinduism even after millennia?

Who is converting to Abrahamic faiths and why?

They are not scared of the prey in scope - onlee that the chance may miss them...
We are talking past each other - so please - last post on my side on this joust!

[Pulikeshi]

1. What are Sanatana Dharma's competitive advantages in a Darwinian struggle for survival of cultures? (This struggle is not our choice, it is imposed upon us.)

I will not answer your question yet, but a couple of operational things have to be clarified to understand the strengths and weaknesses discussion to follow -

Hinduism has been very good at group assimilation - notice even ghar vapasi is an attempt at re-converting groups. Perhaps because the neo-converts in India uniquely convert in groups, especially under inducement, rather than as individuals. Whereas if the desire is to convert the old-converted - using the example of intellectuals in the West - who have come to Hinduism as they recognize what is missing, then there is a weakness in retaining them (RM calls it U-Turn, I think it is more profound than that...). You could simply create a state diagram with arrows and costs in flow of individuals or groups between these nodes. What I suspect is rather common sense, therefore, we will need different strategies to enable different outcomes...

The key - If Buddhism was the answer to a unified India's global reach, what is the answer now?

2. How do we play to its strengths?

Like I suggested will go into detail over time... but first few unfiltered ideas:

0. Temples back in the control of Hindus!
1. Temples need to become more than just spiritual centers, they need to encourage youth activities, sports festivals, etc.
2. Reeducate the Priests or other interested to provide contemporary lectures on topics that are relevant.
3. Engage the Churches and Mosques, etc. in cooperative activities - take up joint programs to help the downtrodden. Start a dialogue on ideology - ground rules all ideas need to be tolerated even speeches that offend one, and teach the people to respect even the worst ideas, even if one has to intellectually oppose them.
4. Create a space for violence as the last resort, but only proportional to what is presented... for now this could become training in the martial arts in all temples to those that desire to take it up... I know you will have trouble with this one, but without a positive channel for this violence, it will only become lawless and sporadic - I am more keen on regulating it and avoiding it when possible.

[Tuvaluan]

We Hindus need to help them in understanding their limitations and guide them to a better path, one that is more harmonious with nature and respects the Earth and her inhabitants.

None less than the creator of the universe is speaking directly to the christian/muslim crowd if we are to believe their delusional religious mumbo jumbo, so good luck with this tactic --- this has as much chance of succeeding as trying to explain consitutional methods and balance of power to a delusional psychotic who thinks the illuminati and the bilderburg consortium are the driving forces behind humanity. Religious people are essentially psychotic/delusional to a certain extent, and they call it "faith" -- the delusion is the foundation of their existential view of the universe. That is what we are dealing with when it comes to "faith" based religion -- cult like behavior of an enormous number of influential people.

However, this could work in places where people have figured out religion is a load of BS like parts of europe and elsewhere, but these ideas have to sold without any context for better acceptance. connecting the dots can be left to the people who "Get" it...but that's the next stage.

[RajeshA]

1. What are Sanatana Dharma's competitive advantages in a Darwinian struggle for survival of cultures? (This struggle is not our choice, it is imposed upon us.)

Only the mind! But we have lost that advantage in the last couple of centuries! Without mind, there can be no solutions!

[Prem]

1. What are Sanatana Dharma's competitive advantages in a Darwinian struggle for survival of cultures? (This struggle is not our choice, it is imposed upon us.)

Only the mind! But we have lost that advantage in the last couple of centuries! Without mind, there can be no solutions!

We are in better position now than ever in last few hundred years of tears for lost dears .Sanskars always rise up , sooner or latter. Global Battle of spiritual ideas have just begin with spread of Information. We just need to get rich and overload the Information highway. Like Upanishads say,2 types of people exit, Ones who know and Ones who do not and once you know you are changed forever. Faith will always be weak in front of Knowledge/Gyan and this is Indic advantage. Faith Snake is just Rope only. its soul dead inside.

[Cain Marko]

We are not saying the same thing!

1/ Abrahamism/religion is no new concept.

So in your opinion people who say Indians did not have a word for religion are wrong, since religion is no new concept, it has always existed.

Just a nitpick - Religion as a concept has not ALWAYS existed iirc, it is a early medieval word, which did not really exist before the 13th century CE. IOWs, in ancient times, there simply was no typical organized religion or at least there was no term for it. So as far as human history goes, this is a relatively new concept.

[member_22733]

Just searched for google news for the term "Missionary + Nepal". Surprise surprise (NOT), all the news is about the great heroism and survival stories of the bible thumpers.

All their crimes and #soulvulture business seems to have been "white"washed. This is what the inability to set and sustain a narrative looks like. Breaking Christist control over narrative setting and sustenance is the key to true freedom from dogmatic religious control.

[shiv]

I've listened to this argumentation that Indians did not have a word of history or religion and mulling about the same.
It is perhaps a true diagnosis, but a defeatist framing of the problem.
<snip>
Therefore, I'd pose all our theories thusly - "The West and West Asia did and do not now have Dharma, hence they rely on an abomination called Religion. In order to propagate this concept, they developed another framework called History and therefore they do not have any Itihasa that guides them in their daily activities. Further they are handicapped by not having an eternal path, like Sanathana Dharma, to guide them in their personal journeys and are therefore pursuing ill fitting Universalism. We Hindus need to help them in understanding their limitations and guide them to a better path, one that is more harmonious with nature and respects the Earth and her inhabitants."

This is a beginning of a discourse.. the other is defeatist whining - just my few paisa feedback...

I think facts should not be burdened by psychological concepts like "defeatist" etc. Assuming it is "defeatist" the question arises whether the fact should be denied and other facts (or stories made up) to fit in with facts. Sorry - I am digressing into an argument that is easier made in speech, with body language, rather than in writing.

Indians, educated in English, throw around words like "history" and "religion" with little awareness of the implications of force fitting those words into Indian practice. In the military forum I posted something written by a hero of a man - who stated in another conversation that "Indians have no sense of history"

Now many educated Indians - (and at least one Indian America Prof I know in the US) have told me the same thing. The meme that "Indians have no sense of history" has become commonplace from a colonial period observation by the colonizers that Indians have no history. Why? because they lack a sense of history. One needs to understand what is meant by a "sense of history" before one flagellates oneself. But it appears that the depth of digging required for that is not done by most people

[RamaY]

Just a nitpick - Religion as a concept has not ALWAYS existed iirc, it is a early medieval word, which did not really exist before the 13th century CE. IOWs, in ancient times, there simply was no typical organized religion or at least there was no term for it. So as far as human history goes, this is a relatively new concept.

In the Puranic times "religion" was called Rakshatva/Asuratva. Puranic Asuras did exactly same as Abrahamics - "Claimed thier God is the only God and other gods are false & killed/coerced/colonized non-believers". Unfortunately they didn't have British education to call it "Religion".

[arun]

Christist on Christist violence in Mumbai sees idol desecrated.

Despite claims of Christist Cleric that “there was no religion issue in this case”, reading between the lines it appears that there was quite likely a Christist sectarian religion based angle with one group of Christists thinking they were “more pure” than the other group of Christists who were following “pagan” practice of keeping Idols of Christist personalities Mary and Anthony and decided to do something about it by desecrating the idols.

Note interesting use of terminology by spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Bombay. Are Catholics not Christists?

Anyway US CIRFS cannot pin this one on Modi and Hindu’s.:

Fr. Nigel Barrett, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Bombay, said, "This was a problem that existed within two groups. A Christian group and a Catholic group. There was no religion issue in this case. Some of them broke the casket of the statue and smeared blood on it, and in the event also ended up hurting themselves."

Father B Arputhraj, parish priest of St Anthony Church, said, "There are two statues in the compound. Both facing outwards. One is of St. Anthony and other of Mother Mary. The problem occurred due to a month-old enmity between two groups. They broke the glass of the casket in which St Anthony's statue is and smeared blood on it. They also damaged the statue. The one who did it, his brother was beaten up a month ago by the other group. They are not respected fellows and no one talks to them. He was trying to pick up a quarrel and hence all this happened."

From DNA:

One arrested for vandalising statue in Bhandup church

[chetak]

Dravidian Ideology furthers Church agenda

The beginning of the transformation of the DMK from a sovereign Dravidian party into a Church-reactive, defensive party had begun.

radha@jjamm.net' Radha Rajan
Distortion & Appropriation | 04-05-2015

Twice in the final two years of the previous DMK regime in Tamil Nadu the Church pushed the DMK government into a corner making it look helpless and worse, supposedly drifting away from its ideological moorings. The DMK was accused by Tamil chauvinist splinter parties for not leveraging its status as partner in the UPA government to stop Mahinda Rajapakse from decimating the LTTE to its last man. The Church won its first major political victory in Tamil Nadu politics when the LTTE was presented not merely as the face and voice of the Tamil-speaking people of Sri Lanka, but was made congruent with the idea of Tamil People.

Note: From when it first invented itself two thousand years ago, in the kind of politics that the Church has perfected in every continent that it invaded and conquered, Tamil People is not the same as Tamil-speaking people.

dmkThe idea of Tamil People/Tamil Nation was a natural progression from the seed of anti-Brahminism, and it was the DMK which propagated it in the 1960s as a political idea. It was also the same DMK which had consistently and aggressively voiced Tamil Nadu’s concerns about the political inequities suffered by Sri Lanka’s Tamil-speaking minorities. Yet, by operating through its adherents and Tamil chauvinists from within the smaller fast-mushrooming Dravidian splinter parties like the MDMK, the PMK and the Viduthalai Chiruthai (VC), the Church put the DMK on the back-foot.

The beginning of the transformation of the DMK from a sovereign Dravidian party into a Church-reactive, defensive party had begun; only the DMK was in denial about the role of the Church in the unfolding events.

The Tamil Nadu Bar especially the Madras High Court is unabashedly political. Lawyers of Tamil Nadu’s courts reflecting TN’s polity, are vertically split broadly into the DMK and AIADMK factions while an emerging section can be engaged as rent-a-crowd by any party which wants violence to be let loose in court campuses. A significantly large section of TN’s lawyers had been on strike from 2008 boycotting the courts ostensibly on the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils, but actually in support of the LTTE.

A violent confrontation between striking lawyers and the police compelled the state government to make a choice between the state’s law-enforcing forces and the lawyers who constituted a sizeable Dravidian electoral constituency. Had the state government not done so, the result would have been a demoralized police force which would have refused to act, leading eventually to spiralling violence and total anarchy in the courts and on the streets.

Both cases had imprints of the Church’s hands all over them.

The taming of Jayalalithaa into a submissive Church agent was completed in record time. The Church’s calibrated measures to lead the Brahmin-led AIADMK back to non-Brahmin Dravidian political objectives began when Jayalalithaa arrested the mathadhipathis of the Kanchi matham in November 2004. The Church’s measured steps gathered momentum when Jayalalithaa:

Admitted Vai.Gopalaswamy ‘Vaiko’, the Christian head of the MDMK, whom she had incarcerated previously under NSA for his pro LTTE and seditious speeches, into the AIADMK orbit
Invited five Christian priests, including a Bishop to her Poe’s Garden residence on Christmas day in 2008 for solemn Christian prayers
Made promises galore to TN Christians in her election manifesto for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections
In a complete turnaround from the earlier stated position of her party, declared on the campaign trail in 2009 that she now believed that the secessionist state of Tamil Eelam was the only solution to the civil war in Sri Lanka
Promised the Christian community during her pre-election visit to Kanyakumari that when with the blessings of Jesus Christ and the good wishes of Christians she would win the Assembly Elections in April 2011, she would use state treasury funds to send Christians to Jerusalem on pilgrimage; that she thought no one could deny Christians their right to build churches anywhere they wished; she had already committed her party in 2009 to creating the Christian state of Tamil Eelam

The lateral expansion of Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian politics today in terms of tenets and scope as breakaway heresies from the parent Justice Party bears a startling resemblance to the lateral expansion of Islam and Christianity as breakaway heresies from their parent Judaism. Like the Abrahamic breakaway heresies, TN’s Dravidian parties too were nothing more than organized bodies of extremist/maximalist cult worshippers; and the hate-filled political speeches of the central cult figures like EV Ramaswamy Naicker, CN Annadurai, M. Karunanidhi and now Thol.Tirumavalavan, is passed off as Dravidian ideology.

If we must understand the dynamics of anti-Brahmin/anti-Hindu Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu, we must understand the common features of all break away Abrahamic heresies:

All of them retain the basic genes from the parent; in this case, conquering the world for their jealous god who will not co-exist with other gods
One principle or idea, usually an idea born of hate or confrontation is developed to give them an independent identity
All of them denounce the parent as an imperfect being and offer themselves unabashedly as improved versions of the parent, their predecessor or both
All of them, without exception seek power – social, political and money power
All of them want territory with their respective central cult figures as new gods
Because they all retain the basic genes from the parent and because moving away from one heresy into another poses no ideological/existential dilemma to the new convert, such movement across the Abrahamic spectrum is discouraged with great violence – Catholic to Protestant to Anglican to Orthodox to Pentecostal and other new missions or from Judaism to Christianity, Islam to Christianity or vice versa
Because all Abrahamic ideologies, parent and heretic offspring alike, are about political power and control of territory, Abrahamic ideologies are always about numbers
In the absence of numbers in the early stages of existence, violence and terror are the usual methods for getting the converts and for terrorizing and subjugating the target people and nation
The Periarite groups and parties, the DMK, AIADMK, MDMK, PMK and the Viduthalai Chiruthai all retain anti-Brahminism as their core ideology; this has expanded to include anti-Hindu, anti-Hindu temples, anti-Sanskrit, anti-North India, anti-Hindi and anti-anything as opportunism demands; all of them have demonstrated at one time or the other their ever-preparedness for violence

The anti-Hindu Dravidian politics which developed around the hate-filled cult of ‘Periyar’ EV Ramaswami Naicker’s Self Respect Movement in the erstwhile Madras Presidency is therefore only an Abrahamic heretic clone.

Taking their cue from the creation of the Muslim League in 1906, the Justice Party also known as South Indian Liberal Federation was created in 1916 by powerful non-Brahmin zamindars and non-Brahmin forward castes as a political instrument with a limited objective – to demand more non-Brahmin representation in colonial government and administration. Even though the Justice party was formed to serve non-Brahmin political interests, the founders and early members of the party TM Nair, Sir P Thegaraya Chetty, the Rajas of Bobbili, Ramnad and Panagal were practicing Hindus and did not subscribe to Tamil secessionist theology associated with later Dravidian political cults.

While the Justice Party rejected extremist formulations which would destabilize society in a manner hoped for by the Church, its creation was nevertheless a step in the intended direction. It was the beginning of caste-identity politics which successfully fragmented not only Hindu consciousness but Hindu society too by pitting jaati against jaati besides accepting without question the Church’s missionary propaganda of ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ castes, ‘forward’ and ‘backward’ castes.

The political marginalization of the Brahmins had begun and the Church had every reason to be pleased; the Brahmins were the weakest link in the Hindu chain and pressure had been successfully exerted on the weakest link. The long-term grand plan was to make Hinduism congruent with Brahmins, disempower the Brahmins and hopefully this would weaken Hinduism, and eventually disempower Hindus politically by de-Hinduising the polity. The Church hoped that the fall of South India to Church machinations would knock down the Hindus in the rest of India, segment by segment, from the political arena and from all seats of power.

This may still happen if India’s polity, especially Hindus like Lalu and Mulayam, Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar and deracinated Hindus in the INC and BJP do not see even now the ultimate purpose of religious conversion and the real purpose behind the thousands of crores of foreign money that is pumped every year into the country by western governments and foreign churches.

The Christian state of Tamil Eelam was critical to Christianizing South Asia and must be seen together with the Church orchestrated upheaval in Nepal and the mischief in Myanmar.

Having created and then deepened previously unknown faultlines in Hindu society, the Church now simply had to wait for natural dynamics to take their course from the point of origin called the Justice Party. It did not have long to wait and three centuries of missionary propaganda about the inherent evil and inequities of varna and jaati vyavastha together with the cancerous spread of the Church in South India yielded bountiful results in the form of EV Ramaswami Naicker.

naicker
Naicker joined the Indian National Congress in 1919 but quit the Congress in 1925 to form the Self Respect Movement. Periyar’s Self Respect Movement was everything that the Church had hoped for. It positioned itself against the Brahmins – the one community the Church feared the most, retained the non-Brahmin identity of the parent but went much beyond it in scope.

The Self Respect Movement was not merely non-Brahmin in its identity but also virulently anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindu. If the Justice Party was a political vehicle like the Muslim League, then the Self Respect Movement was like the Khilafat Committee and had well-defined socio-religious objectives—like the Khilafat Committee, it was not constrained by compulsions of electoral politics to observe social and political niceties.

Periyar’s violent anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindu campaign which entailed defiling and destroying Hindu temples and murtis and abusing Brahmins and Hindu gods in offensive language in public speeches sent shock-waves across the Justice Party besides causing intense revulsion among a section of its leaders. To cut a long story short, in less than a decade, the fortunes of the Justice Party and Self Respect Movement became a zero sum game.

When the Justice Party lost the Provincial elections in 1937, several of its leaders abandoned the party and joined the Self Respect Movement. In 1938 Periyar merged his Self Respect Movement with the Justice Party (just as Jinnah persuaded the Khilafat Committee to merge with the Muslim League around the same time), took control of Justice Party and renamed it Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944.

By 1944 there was little doubt that Periyar EV Ramaswami Naicker was the inevitable manifestation of the cancerous Church in TN politics.

The Justice Party was a creature of European Christian missionary intent, which fanned the flames of anti-Brahminism as a political ideology in the Madras Presidency in the late 19th and early 20th century. The anti-Brahmin political ideology was a natural consequence of the insidious anti-Brahmin and anti-jaati anti-varna campaigns carried out by European Christian missionaries for three centuries in South India. The bizarre Aryan Invasion Theory was a natural progression of the core idea. The Church’s long-term intent was to sow seeds of discord among the different jaatis, break the jaati and varna vyavastha to cut the socio-cultural and religious roots of Hindus, and then step into the void.

Anti-Brahmin political ideology, as it was conceived and executed, became anti-Hindu because of the deadly idea underlying the Aryan Invasion Theory with ‘Periyar’ EV Ramaswamy Naicker’s Dravidar Kazhagam as the most vocal and powerful proponent of the theory. The resulting anti-Hindu trend in TN polity was fertile soil for the politics of Abrahamic Minority-ism which was exactly the direction in which the Church intended for Dravidian politics to travel. The Church did not have to be seen to be planting the tree; it simply had to sow the seed of poison weed and wait for the weed to sprout.

It is doubtful if it ever occurred to Naicker, but Periyar and all Dravidian parties which followed the Dravidar Kazhagam with anti-Brahminism as the only driving force were creatures of the Church. The resulting anti-Hinduism, Tamil Nation for Tamil People all derived only from this point of origin.

What Dravidian Tamil chauvinist parties from 1916 until 2011 claim to be Dravidian ideology rooted in Self Respect is nothing more than Christian missionary agenda for Tamil Nadu.
naicker‘Periyar’ traveled extensively abroad for two years between 1929-1931 through countries as diverse as Russia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, England, France and Germany. Had Naicker been a man of acute political sense or at least an honest man, such extensive travel ought to have shown him the genocidal path that Islam and the Church were traveling, he should have judged his own society and the religious-civilisational roots of his culture by American and European Abrahamic standards.

Instead Naicker chose to retain the Church’s fabrication of the Aryan-Dravidian race theory as the core of his Self-respect Movement and later his Dravidar Kazhagam in what may only be termed swallow-and-vomit intellectualism.

Goa, Kerala and TN were the favorite breeding grounds for European missionaries and facing the kind of challenge they did in India, the missionaries set about the task of understanding societal dynamics in Hindu India.

It did not take them long to understand that it was the organic jaati and varna vyavastha and the formidable moral authority wielded by Sanyasis and Brahmins which did not allow Christian missionaries to penetrate Hindu societies. Moral authority vested in Brahmins and Sanyasis should not be confused with temporal power which was vested in different collectives with different responsibilities.

When Brahmins, both the marginally few who were affluent and the vast majority of whom were economically backward, took to English-education, pursued government employment and became doctors, engineers and judges, their hold over their villages and local communities slackened in two generations resulting in irreversible consequences not only for their community but also for the villages and temples they left behind. Effectively they left the field open for Christian missionaries and anti-Hindu Dravidian ideology to take root.

Brahmana and Sanyasa dharma embodied exemplary values – austerity, self-denial, ahimsa, learning and imparting learning; the accruing moral authority maintained inter-jaati equilibrium and stability in society. Women and elders in every jaati and varna, Brahmins and Sanyasis were acknowledged as knowers of dharma. The Portuguese, having understood the critical and central role of the Brahmins, simply picked up the Sword of Christ and decimated the Brahmins of Goa to the last man, woman and child. Only one choice was given to the Brahmins – convert or die.
di nobli

Without going into excruciating details about the diabolic tactics which Constanzo Beschi, GU Pope, Di Nobili and other charlatans adopted in South India with the sole objective of usurping the moral authority vested in Brahmins and Sanyasis, suffice it to say that while some learnt Sanskrit and Tamil, others pretended to be Brahmins and Sanyasis by sporting the tuft, sacred thread, saffron robes and living a life of bogus austerity.

Realizing that Inquisitions of the Portuguese variety in Goa would almost certainly inflame the non-Brahmin Hindu martial castes against them, Italian and British Christian missionaries knew that they could penetrate Hindu society only by becoming a cancerous cell that lodges itself quietly and unnoticed within the bloodstream of the body it intends to kill.

This cancerous missionary cell, which was manufactured in the sixteenth century in TN was dignified by the Second Vatican Council with the nomenclature ‘enculturation’.

Enculturation is a cancerous cell and is a political weapon in Christian hands in the war to conquer territory.

In our own times, Sonia Gandhi is the best example of ‘enculturation’ of the Constanzo Beschi and Di Nobili kind. When she ‘encultered’ her Christian, Roman Catholic Italian identity in the sari, when she sported the bindi and waved her hand in conscious imitation of her mother-in-law, and when she was planted inside the family and home of India’s Prime Minister, it had already been decided that she would be the cancerous cell within the Indian National Congress and by extension, in the body politic of the Hindu nation. ‘Indian National’ Congress lost its meaning once again as did the INC-led freedom movement supposedly to free the nation from White Christian colonial rule.

Once penetration into society was achieved, the cancer called the local resident missionary began to spread it. It has always been the way of the Church to defame and defile the highest institutions in target communities, create a vacuum, and then step into the resulting unrest and instability to offer its Jesus-cult religion as solution. Taking note of the moral authority wielded by Brahmins in society, the Church trained its guns on Brahmins and Hindu scriptural texts. It crafted the diabolic Aryan Invasion theory which said –

Brahmins were an alien race called Aryans who invaded the country, defeated the native populace or Dravidians and drove them away from North-India to the South
The Vedas are the roots of Hinduism and the Vedas are composed in Sanskrit
Brahmins spoke Sanskrit while the defeated Dravidian race spoke Tamil. Kannada and Telugu, languages in the Dravidasthan as conceived by the Church and Naicker have been placed on the backburner for the present in favour of Tamil. Tamil holds preeminence in Church calculations because Dravidian ‘Tamil’ can be expanded into Tamil People and Tamil Nation.

Persons of the eminence of Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan, not immune to pecuniary and other benefits accruing from Dravidian state patronage have now begun to mouth the preposterous theory that the language of the Saraswati-Indus script is Dravidian.

This poisonous Aryan-Dravidian propaganda inter alia also meant –

Hinduism is only Brahminism (the Romilla Thapar brand of history writing uses this language)
Because the Vedas are the roots of Hinduism and the Vedas are composed in Sanskrit and it is the religion of the alien race which invaded and occupied this land, Tamil-speaking Dravidians are not Hindus
Dravidians are not Tamil-speaking Hindus in South India but are Tamil People (Tamil Inam) with a culture that has nothing to do with Hinduism
Saivism, the religion of the Tamil People of Dravidasthan, is Tamil Saivism and therefore is not Hinduism

The objective was to eat away the umbilical cord binding Tamil Hindus to Hindus in the rest of India and replace it with a sense of anti-Hindu Dravidian Tamil and anti-Hindu, non-Hindu Church ‘Tamil’ ness.

This was the lemon sold to Kashmiri Hindus too in the name of Kashmiriyat. The Kashmiriyat lemon was sold to Kashmiri Hindus by Kashmiri Muslims which said, we Kashmiris are unique and so Kashmiri Hindus have more in common with Kashmiri Muslims than with the Hindus in the rest of India.

This is vintage Christian war strategy: delink the target community from its parent, give it a sense of separateness resulting in alienation, render it defenseless, alone and vulnerable, and then step in for the kill. The political propaganda that Sikhism is not Hinduism, Jainism is not Hinduism is a piece of the same diabolic fabric. Sikhs and Jains who mouth this fiction must look at the tragic fate of Kashmiri Hindus.

While the political trajectory of Dravidian anti-Hindu politics is now better understood, what has so far escaped the notice of political observers and commentators is the picture that emerges when we connect the dots. First, the growing numbers of breakaway heresies within the Dravidian fold:

Justice Party 1916 (non-Brahmin zamindars and forward castes)
Self Respect Movement 1925 – Dravidar Kazhagam 1944 (EV Ramaswami Naicker)
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 1949 (CN Annadurai, Karunanidhi)
All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 1972 (MG Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa).

For the moment, all latter-day heresies which followed the AIADMK in quick succession, including Tamil Muslim and Tamil Christian heresies are left out of the reckoning.The new heresy around the cult of MG Ramachandran dealt a near-mortal blow to the hitherto unchallenged heresy, the DMK. From 1972 when the AIADMK (ADMK as it was then called) was formed until today, the DMK and AIADMK have successfully played the Bad cop/Good cop routine with the Hindus of TN.

The rise of the DMK was marked by physical abuse of Brahmins in public spaces:

Cutting off their sacred thread
Dragging Brahmin men by their tufts and in several instances even cutting off their tuft (apocryphal stories about Chanakya and the evil Dhanananda tell us how King Dhanananda gave Chanakya the choice between death and cutting off his Brahminic tuft)
Obscene and vulgar depiction of Brahmin men and even women, their customs, traditions and their way of life in Tamil films
Public calls to make Brahmin women the common property of non-Brahmin men
Increasing shrill calls for seceding from the Indian Union and the beginning of usage of political phrases Tamil People and Tamil Nation which found prompt echo and support in American/Western think tanks and their foreign policy jargon

mgrMGR’s AIADMK departed marginally from what was widely recognized as Dravidian politics in that MGR did not encourage public humiliation and physical abuse of Brahmins. Significantly, he did not depart even minimally from the anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindu Dravidian tenets and policies. Nevertheless, the good cop role assumed by MGR triggered a frenzy of covert political activity by the Church in neighboring Sri Lanka.

Neither the LTTE, nor demands by other splinter Tamil separatist groups for the secessionist state of Tamil Eelam were accidents of history.

Conquest of nations by the sword or by the cancer called religious conversion remains the sole objective of the Church. When the Church’s dream of Dravidasthan comprising the whole of South India fragmented into Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the Church changed tracks and began to work on the notion of Tamil Nation comprising the whole of Tamil Nadu in India and the North and East of Sri Lanka.

The notion of Tamil People had already been sowed by the Church both in India and in Sri Lanka and had taken root. The Church’s most promising offspring, the violence-prone DMK had been well groomed as the vehicle for Tamil People/Tamil Nation in India; it was time to deliver a similar creature in Sri Lanka and the emergence of MG Ramachandran in Tamil Nadu provided the perfect backdrop to unveil the Sri Lankan chapter of the Tamil Nation.

Born in a small town near Kandy in Sri Lanka to immigrant parents from Kerala, MGR’s Sri Lanka connection gave the Tamil Nation idea a personal, emotional edge which ultimately and totally unexpectedly, destroyed the movement, its terrorist vehicle and its sponsors in India; the idea of Tamil Nation itself suffered a serious setback.

At the time of independence, in 1948, a peculiar situation prevailed in Sri Lanka where the politically assertive section both among the Sinhala and Tamil people were Christians, a situation which continues till the present day. This was the result of the almost total control of education and state patronage extended to Christian missionary schools and colleges by all colonial powers – Portuguese, Dutch and then the British.

Church-run schools, which received colonial state patronage and government funds, provided education in English as compared to the education in the vernacular languages in Sinhala and Tamil provided by temples and Buddhist monasteries. English education was mandatory for admission to institutions of higher learning which in turn led to employment in government institutions.

The Church in Sri Lanka, in an extension of its rice-bowl conversion in Africa, made admission to their schools and colleges conditional upon religious conversion to Christianity in what may be termed blackboard conversion. The Church in South India targeted the Tamil Nadar community similarly; thus within the same family those who opted to send their children to missionary schools converted to Christianity and were given alien foreign sounding Christian names.

Not surprisingly, in the early years of the twentieth century, only those Sri Lankans – Sinhala and Tamil who were English-educated were employed by the British administration in government jobs and the same section emerged as frontrunners in the country’s polity too. Bandaranaike, Jayawardene, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Chelvanayakam and even Ranasinghe Premadasa, son of Richard Ranasinghe were all Christians. The Church had never had it so good except that the notion of Tamil People which the Church had sown in society rebounded on the Church in an unexpected turn of events.

While the Church fabricated the Tamil People/Tamil Nation fiction in India vis a vis the Brahmins, its work to plant the cancerous cell in Sri Lanka was made easier because the Tamil language and its culture/people had to be presented as being separate only vis a vis the Sinhala language and its culture/people. The fact that both the Sinhala speaking people and the Tamil speaking people were civilisationally, culturally and religiously bound to Hinduism was pushed to the margins of their collective consciousness; and identity of language was privileged over civilisational identity.
Buddhist clergy in Sri LankaThe Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka, like the non-Brahmins of Tamil Nadu, was a willing customer for Church peddled separatism. The Church’s invidious propaganda about the separateness of Tamil People from the nationhood of Sri Lanka and about Tamil People being a distinct nationality with a right to their own territory not only worked like cancer in the Tamil psyche but also reactively in the Sinhala psyche.

A brief look at Sri Lanka’s demography is in order to understand how and why the Church’s invidious propaganda succeeded in that country.

Sri Lanka’s demography as per language
Sinhala – 74%
Tamil – 12.6%
Tamil of Indian origin – 5.19%[ii]

Religious demography
Buddhism – 70%
Hinduism – 15%
Islam – 7.5%
Christianity – 7.5%

Sinhala speaking people are both Buddhists and Christians; Tamil speaking people are Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Except for a negligible percentage of Moors who are Muslims, the majority of Sri Lanka’s Muslims are Tamil-speaking just as all Sri Lanka’s Buddhists are Sinhala-speaking.

After independence in 1948, in a move to assert the Sinhala identity of the nation and to stem the trend of what the Buddhist clergy thought was disproportionate numbers of Tamil-speaking people (mostly Tamil Christians and negligible numbers of forward caste Tamil Hindus who did not need the Church’s missionary charity for higher education) in government employment, administration and high-end professions including politics, which the Buddhist clergy correctly attributed to Church-run English medium schools and colleges, the Buddhist clergy prevailed upon the Sri Lankan government to nationalize all educational institutions, impart education in the vernacular languages, and accord primacy once again to Pirivenas or educational institutions run by Buddhist monasteries.

Although the move to nationalize Sri Lanka’s education was formalized only in 1961, the trend towards non-missionary Sinhala and Tamil vernacular schools had already begun in the 1930s. But the government move to nationalize education in 1961 dealt a near-mortal blow to Christian evangelization and religious conversion when the most potent instrument for religious conversion, Church-funded and administered missionary schools and colleges were defanged. The front-end of the assembly line which was delivering Sinhala and Tamil Christian political leaders at the other end had been permanently disabled dealing a terrible blow to the Church agenda to control the government.

The Church’s Tamil People/Tamil Nation boomerang turned around and began to fly back at the Church. The Church trained its guns on the Buddhist clergy again, this time by sharpening the division between the Sinhala majority and Tamil minority by taking recourse to extremism in the form of the LTTE. Needless to say, the top leadership of the LTTE was Christian with notional Hindus in the LTTE cadre playing useful idiots to fulfil the Church agenda.

The time had come to give shape to the Sri Lankan vehicle for Tamil separatism to match the rise and growth of the DMK in Tamil Nadu. The measures that the Church took to realize the Christian state of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka and in Tamil Nadu were always well calibrated and in tune with events in both countries. The LTTE burst upon the political scene in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu in 1975; it follows that preparation for the launch must have started at least a few years earlier.

The success of the Church propaganda that the Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu were a separate nationality can be gauged from the fact that while the Buddhist clergy, reacting strongly to Tamil separatism which had reared its head even before independence in 1948, wanted to push the Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka to the margins of national life, it remained sanguine to the fact that every President that the country elected was Christian; Sinhala Christian. The Buddhist clergy was prepared to accommodate an Abrahamic religion into its conception of Sinhala nationalism while refusing to reach out to the civilisationally related Tamil Hindus who constituted 15% of the population.

Pitting brother against brother is classic Abrahamic/Christian war tactics going back to the Old Testament.

Christians who constitute 7.5% of the population were tactically distributed among the 74% Sinhala, 12.6 % Tamil and 5.19% Indian Tamil populace thus giving the Church a powerful leverage among all sections of the language divide.

The Sinhala-Buddhist Tamil-Hindu animosity had very little to do with religion while it had everything to do with language. The Sinhala-Buddhists and Tamil-Hindus alike failed to see the cancerous cell called the Sinhala Christian and Tamil Christian quietly embedded in their respective bloodstreams and who were the sole beneficiary from the internecine war between the Sinhala and Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka.

The rise of MGR and the formation of the AIADMK coincided not only with the rise and emergence of the LTTE in Sri Lanka but also with the rise and emergence of the Sri Lankan communist party, the Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna or the JVP. Considering the role of the Church behind the Maoists of Orissa and Nepal it is tempting to wonder if the Church may not have had a hand in the creation of this new front with cadres drawn equally from among the economically backward Tamil and Sinhala speaking people in its early years. What cannot also be denied is that the Church has always adroitly turned every event, every phenomenon to its advantage.

The emergence of MGR, the return of Indira Gandhi in 1980 as Prime Minister, the rise of the LTTE and the rise of the JVP, proved to be a direct and four-pronged attack against the Sri Lankan government and an indirect attack against the primacy and power of the island’s Buddhist clergy. The Church was the only beneficiary of the three decades long civil war which tore Sri Lanka apart and which was ended with the determined extermination of the LTTE in 2010. Not only is the Church continuing to harvest Tamil souls in Sri Lanka but is also harvesting souls in Tamil Nadu’s refugee camps. The protracted civil war in Sri Lanka provided the Church with a bountiful harvest.

Indians outside Tamil Nadu remember the dismissal of the DMK government by Prime Minister Chandrashekhar in 1991. What is almost totally unknown is that the reviled LTTE was armed and trained by the Tamil Nadu and Indian governments in camps set up in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka where India’s armed forces gave the LTTE full military training including in guerilla warfare.

ltteThe well-armed and trained LTTE cadre was then sent into Sri Lanka as deadly terrorists in a move which many foreign affairs experts believe was intended by Indira Gandhi and MGR acting in tandem to force the Sri Lankan government to the negotiating table and draft an equitable national constitution which would protect and guarantee equal rights for the Tamil speaking minority community.

While MGR who became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in 1977 was playing competing Dravidian politics with the defeated DMK around the core issue of Tamil People/Tamil Nation, for Indira Gandhi, who felt the urgent need to assert her strong-man image, it was more a move to reassert her one-woman regional super power status which the creation of Bangladesh had given her in 1971.

Indira Gandhi and MG Ramachandran may have acted for two entirely different reasons when they set up camps in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India to train, arm and finance the LTTE but they created a Bhasmaasura who turned upon the very people who made the LTTE invincible against the Sri Lankan government in the first place. Indira Gandhi was playing with secessionist fire at home and abroad – she created Bhindranwale and the problem of Khalistan and she created the problem of the LTTE and Tamil Eelam – fires which would soon engulf India, herself and her family.

It was not in the capacity of any state government in TN to militarily arm and train the LTTE without the tacit support and active involvement of the central government. Whoever was advising Indira Gandhi on foreign affairs did not have the nation’s interests in mind, that much is obvious when one retrospectively analyses the events of the critical 1970 and 1980s decade. It is not clear why Indira Gandhi and MGR privileged the LTTE over other Tamil political groups, parties and formations but it was this privileging and the money, arms and training provided to the LTTE which gave the LTTE the brute power and the motive to decimate the leadership and cadre of all other Tamil groups so that it could emerge as the sole representative of the Tamil-speaking people of Sri Lanka.

While the frightening growth of the LTTE gave the Tamil secessionist movement in Sri Lanka a phenomenal impetus, it also caused an equally strong reaction from India and the Sri Lankan government. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi brought to an immediate end all help rendered to the LTTE; it also pushed the Sri Lankan government to equip its own army to deal with the LTTE.

Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the subsequent weakening of the Congress party ushered in the era of coalition politics and the huge returns accruing from participation in government in Delhi and the compulsions of coalition politics not only tamed the two major Dravidian parties into a semblance of nationalism but effectively turned Tamil Nadu away not only from the path of secessionism, but also turned it away from the LTTE.

The Church had to regroup and formulate a new war strategy.

The rise of Brahmin Jayalalithaa within the ranks of the AIADMK and her eventual coronation as General Secretary which shook the very foundations of Dravidian politics, the rise of the BJP in national politics, the fading lure of the idea of secessionist Tamil Eelam and weakening prospects of realizing it even within Tamil Nadu, and the new trend in Indian politics which catapulted both the DMK and the AIADMK to Delhi imposing upon them the primacy of national interests over interests of regional political parties forced the Church to forge new strategies and lay a new road towards its objective of carving the Christian state of Tamil Eelam.

The following trends emerged in Tamil Nadu more or less simultaneously from around the mid 1990s decade and continues till the present:

The Church began to invest in television news channels, schools of journalism and mass communication.
The Church also pushed for creating the department of human rights in Tamil Nadu colleges and universities
Foreign governments, notably the UK and US through DFID and USAID began to fund NGOs in India, primarily Christian NGOs
Foreign Christian funding agencies like World Vision, Action Aid and agencies from Germany, France and the Netherlands began to fund churches and Christian NGOs
Tamil Nadu is the largest recipient of foreign funds
The Church began to fund television soap operas and also financed Tamil films
Christians are entering the Tamil Nadu film industry and the small screen in almost every area – as directors, producers, actors and music directors
Tamil films and television Tamil serials routinely make reference to Tamil People and Tamil Nation
The Church is buying hundreds of acres of land across Tamil Nadu; this is visible even in overcrowded Chennai
Christians are cornering a major chunk of the reservation quota in admission to institutions of higher learning and also in government jobs; there are growing numbers of Christian students in engineering, medical and law colleges and universities
Churches and prayer houses are being built in almost every street in Chennai and close to every Hindu temple, big and small
Churches are coming up even in the holiest of holy Hindu temple towns and they are being allowed by Dravidian parties to come up close to temples
Foreign Christian missionaries from America, Malaysia and South Korea have a free run of the streets in Chennai
Instigating fisher-folk communities is the Church’s latest ploy[iii]

Every penny and paisa that the Church spends, it spends as investment towards realizing its core objective – control of communities leading to control of polity leading ultimately to control of government culminating in bloody or bloodless conquest of territory. The path to this objective is religious conversion; what was achieved solely through enculturation in the 16th and 17th centuries, through the Church’s missionary educational and medical institutions in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries is now being achieved through NGOs, through an aggressive political discourse in religious freedom and human rights which always work only to the Church’s advantage to facilitate penetration, conversion and conquest.

Investing in political parties is the Church’s latest venture in Tamil Nadu. The Church’s investment, besides the time-tested and highly successful strategy of planting Christians in important ruling families through the love angle or as close confidants to politicians, is three-pronged:

Donate liberally and in proportion to expected returns to the two largest Dravidian parties
Besides the generous donations, also get Christians to become members of every big and small political party – DMK, AIADMK, MDMK, PMK, DMDK so that these parties, with an eye on the Christian vote bank are compelled to nominate Christians as office bearers at state and district levels
Start new Tamil extremist parties and create more and more Tamil chauvinist outfits to make shrill noises for Tamil People/Tamil Nation, for the LTTE, against the Sri Lankan government, against the central government, even against judges of the High Court and Supreme Court, for human rights, against law-enforcing agencies like police and army; in effect create enough noise and generate enough heat to provoke uncooperative and weak governments to either use force or hopefully to surrender to extremist demands

The ploy has succeeded because the Church always preys upon vulnerability, ambition, hubris and greed. The state government-central government partnership had yielded phenomenal results for the Christian state of Tamil Eelam but that had ended with Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. Temptations of sharing power in New Delhi had weakened even the verbal call and support for Eelam. The Church’s next move was to weaken the two largest Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu by making them dependant upon smaller parties for survival.

The Church was the only force which foresaw the advantages of weakening national, nationalist and large regional parties. Tamil Nadu politics had been centered around only two poles for close to half a century. A strong DMK and AIADMK were assets to both the Congress and the BJP not only in state elections but also in national elections. The Church saw how regional parties with no support outside of their states could still influence national policies and it applied the rule with great foresight in Tamil Nadu.

As government support for the LTTE ended and the vehicle was destroyed in Sri Lanka, the Church had to keep the idea of Tamil People/Tamil Nation alive in Tamil Nadu. Even as the Church donated liberally to both the DMK and AIADMK, it punished them both by eating into their varied constituencies through the innumerable splinter parties which mushroomed to coincide with waning government support and interest in Tamil Eelam.

The two largest Dravidian parties were themselves made vulnerable to intra-state coalition politics which diminished their value and leverage in New Delhi. Neither the Congress nor the BJP were strong enough to accommodate the baggage which now came along with the DMK and the AIADMK in the form of their state coalition partners.

The Congress and the BJP would now be subject to pressures not only from Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa but also from Vaiko, Thol Thirumavalavan and Ramdoss; not to speak of the good reverend Father Jegath Gaspar Raj, the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam and the Indian Christian Front. Muslims and Christians not only form political parties which are overtly Christian and Muslim but also spread themselves tactically in all important political parties for leverage.

The DMK and AIADMK must both realize that only when Tamil Nadu’s non-Brahmin communities, when coastal villages and communities remain Hindu, their own electoral constituencies will remain with them. If they allow Christian donation to their parties to pressure their policies, if they allow foreign money to continue to come on the scale it is now coming into Tamil Nadu, inevitably, inexorably, they will be weakened because the first rule in any business is that all investments must yield profit.

The Church is not going to invest money into their parties and the state only to have Karunanidhi and family, Jayalalithaa and baggage to enjoy the fruits of power. The Church wants the whole of Tamil Nadu and a large part of Sri Lanka. If the DMK, AIADMK and the BJP do not see this even now, it may well spell their doom. The Congress in Tamil Nadu is recruiting Christians into the party at all levels as leaders and as cadre.

If because the DMK and AIADMK have already been weakened, and if because the BJP in Tamil Nadu is still clueless about what is happening in the state, the Congress resurrects itself, it will resurrect as a Christian party whose Christian content will not be immediately seen or felt. It will either wear an encultured face like it wears now in Delhi and wore in Andhtra Pradesh under Rajasekhar Reddy or it may even opt for a temporary Hindu face.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Hindus can be protected and Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu protected from the predatory Church only if India’s polity, Tamil Nadu’s polity and the Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka wake up to the Church’s agenda for India, Sri Lanka and Asia.

Notes:
The writer has used the word Church generically to mean not only churches of all denominations, including Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Lutheran, Adventist, Pentecostal and New Life, New Mission but also Christian NGOs, Christian funding agencies, White Christian governments and countries which legitimize and use evangelization and militant Christian missionary objectives as instruments of foreign policy in countries of Asia, especially India, China, Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia; the generic Church also includes the United Nations with a charter that enforces Christian ‘liberal’ political principles as the universal socio-political ideal which will be enforced coercively by any one of the arms of the generic Church, including military intervention.

[ii] Indian Tamil people are indentured labour from the erstwhile Madras presidency forcibly transported to Sri Lanka to work in British owned tea-estates.

[iii] South of Cuddalore, every fishing hamlet along Tamil Nadu’s vast coastline is almost 100% Christian. The Church wants fisher-folk to be given the status of Scheduled Tribes where even Christian converts are eligible for reservation quota; and that is why the Church is not asking for Scheduled Caste status. The Church is playing a covert role in getting Tamil Nadu’s fishermen to regularly intrude into Sri Lankan waters, not only to pressure the state government and New Delhi to confront the Sri Lankan government, but also to provoke the Sri Lankan government into using force to deal with trespassing fishermen. The idea is to vitiate Tamil Nadu/India-Sri Lanka relations.

radha@jjamm.net'
Radha Rajan
Radha Rajan is a Chennai-based political analyst. She is also author and animal activist.

[A_Gupta]

4. Create a space for violence as the last resort, but only proportional to what is presented... for now this could become training in the martial arts in all temples to those that desire to take it up... I know you will have trouble with this one, but without a positive channel for this violence, it will only become lawless and sporadic - I am more keen on regulating it and avoiding it when possible.

I have no problem with martial arts practice. Just like the West is despiritualizing and appropriating Hatha Yoga, the West did the same with the martial arts of Asia. Kung Fu is just the kinetic form of the same effort that the static posture is in Yoga, in my opinion. By all means, revive the martial arts with the emphasis on its yogic aspects. I am all for it.

I also think that a people who are physically self-confident are less likely to be actually violent, save the few bullies that get produced every now and then. Those bullies need to be muzzled. I think mob violence will also show a decrease if individual Hindus feel more physically self-confident. As they say, only the strong can be gentle.

If all that can be done, I am all for it.

I'll say the third time - I am all for it.

What am I not for? This random "let's kick them in the nuts" kind of nonsense. This, btw, I realized, is a red herring, and I'm not going to argue with those who hold that opinion. I realize that they do not have the ability to execute anyway, it is all hot air. Life is too short to argue with them, and please understand, not expressing my opposition does not mean I endorse them.

[RamaY]

A_Guptaji,

Today's training in "martial arts" is preparation for tomorrows "let's kick them in the nuts"!

You may ask "Isn't show/capability of strength a deterrent from adventurous enemies?". I show you Pakistan; it dreams, wants, and engages in war with much powerful/capable India. Only a kick in the nuts changes the behavior of 'em Pakis in and out.

[panduranghari]

The political marginalization of the Brahmins had begun and the Church had every reason to be pleased; the Brahmins were the weakest link in the Hindu chain and pressure had been successfully exerted on the weakest link.

Can anyone explain 'how' and 'when' did Brahmins become the weakest link in the Hindu Chain? I remember listening to Prof. Kapil Kapoor stating the 3 schools of Indic thoughts - Jaina School, Bauddha School and Brahman School. Brahman school which did not mean Brahmins but 'ब्रह्मन्'. Is this claim of marginalization of Brahmins related to ब्रह्मन् school?

[svenkat]

via@@HariHaraBhakta
Marriage, sex and contraception- A woman's tale of a Catholic church's preparatory course

When I decided to get married, the first reaction of my parents was that I should attend the Marriage Preparatory Course for Catholics. This course is supposedly mandatory for every Catholic who is about to get married and most Catholics in South India/throughout the country apparently go through this course, though some do it online.

The Catholic Church believes that this particular course is the solution to all family troubles, though anybody who undergoes this training can clearly see that it is a far cry from a proper counselling process.

My Church would not agree to conduct the ceremony without a certificate for this course, and with extreme reluctance, I decided to attend this three-day programme.

The moment we reached the training venue, our phones were snatched away. The organizers warned: ‘You should not connect with anyone in these three days and you are not allowed to go outside the compound’. I failed to understand why a Marriage Counselling course would demand anyone to be disconnected from the rest of the world.

The program itself was grueling. Fourteen hours of “classes” from dawn to around 9 pm each day, without a break. Our “teachers” included priests, a medical doctor, and men and women whose only qualifications were described as “married for 15 years”, “married for 20 years” and so on.

The content of the programme is the most shocking part. During one lengthy session, I was flabbergasted to hear from a priest that the primary aim of marriage is reproduction. At the end of this session, a couple with six children pressed the same point further. The mother of the kids tried to persuade us to have many children.

This woman, who was a highly qualified professional with dual degrees, told the participants, “When my husband initially asked me to resign my highly paid job to look after my kids I was hurt. But after my resignation I had three more kids, which makes me the happiest mom in the world. I assure you all that kids make a woman perfect, not a career.”

When the woman was asked if this was the only aim women should have (some of the fellow participants clapped), she said she was happy that she gave up all her dreams of a career and studies, and dedicated her life to bring up seven children.

A woman’s decision to give up her career for her family is a personal choice. But to preach or advocate that as the sole aspiration for a married woman, I thought was simply unacceptable.

Another important topic the programme covered was sex and sexuality. They were completely convinced that sex without the intention to produce children was the most terrible sin, one that God would never forgive.

According to Catholic beliefs that were explained at the programme, every sexual act should be performed with the intention to conceive. Before beginning his session, one of the teachers wrote this on the blackboard: “Sperm is meant to enter the female body. You must not block it or let it spill out.”

The church traditionally considers the usage of all contraceptive measures, including condoms, wrong. There were three sessions on the spiritual hazards of contraceptive usage, in which “teachers” repeatedly tried to persuade those attending to consider children as a gift from God, sex was for reproduction and not pleasure, and that preventing sperm from reaching the uterus was equal to murder.

They encouraged “natural” contraception, which was to have sex around the menstrual cycle. They even gave us a booklet where we could mark our period.

The Catholic Church’s stand on divorce has drawn criticism in the past but continues to remain harsh even after the Supreme Court’s recent intervention asking for a relaxation of this stand.

The position closest to divorce is the nullification of a marriage. A Catholic is allowed by church to take a divorce only if one of the partners is mentally ill or impotent, and he or she hides it before the marriage. Without nullification from the church, a person is not allowed to remarry as per Catholic tradition.

Some of the “teachers” said that young people should just be happy with whoever their parents have chosen for them. “Don’t think that you will get a better person, because God did this for you,” we were told.

Another “teacher” said: “After a couple is married, in no situation does the Church accept a divorce request. Whatever happens, even it is life threatening to live with your partner, you should live with him or her. You must not separate just because you want to be comfortable and happy.”

One day was subtly allotted exclusively for women - to tell them how to take care of their husbands and children. A woman can resign or take long leave from her job to look after the children. She should be patient, forgiving, loving, be regular with prayers, etc.

Even though there were men present – a few attended as couples – it was pretty clear that it was meant for the women participants. The verdict was that women and their lives are just meant for conceiving and bringing up children.

Unsurprisingly, those who seemed to agree with the overall tone and tenor of what was discussed were mostly the male participants.

As a devout Catholic, I have grown up hearing these strictures. I have friends who have gone for such courses, while some were similar to mine. Other Churches conduct a toned down version, perhaps more in sync with reality.

I remember reading Friar Peter Daly, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C, on natural family- planning. The priest in an article in response to Pope Francis' call for input for the Synod of Bishops on family issues says, ‘The teaching of the magisterium on contraception does not seem to take into account the reality of most people's lives’.

He writes: ‘Most couples in our parish, like couples in most parishes in the developed world, are certainly using artificial contraception. …. I stress that it is good for five reasons: It is natural. It works. It is mutual. It is respectful of women. And it is open to life.’

In a poll commissioned by the US Spanish broadcast TV network Univision, 78% of 12,000 respondents worldwide supported the use of artificial birth control and were against the Church’s stand.

There are priests like Friar Daly and then there are such studies, but have things changed across the world?

Over the years, many have argued that the Church's refusal to change its views on contraception has led to its waning power in Europe and America.

[member_27991]

I was doing some research on The great Sanskrit Scholar Pandita Ramabai of Pune who had directly translated the Hebrew bible in to Marathi language. She has been unsurprisingly written about on the Christianity.com website. It is appalling the way this website describes Hindu people. Couldn't read beyond a few lines. Such mindless hatred.

http://www.christianity.com/church/chur ... 30514.html


excerpt -
Salvation a Free Gift
In Calcutta Ramabai first heard about Christ. She discovered that salvation is a free gift from God, not a reward earned by pilgrimages and payments. But Ramabai thought a Christian had to adopt European customs. Since she did not like European food or clothes, she joined a cult that mixed Christian and Hindu ideas. She escaped this only after a missionary explained that Christianity allows great freedom. She could eat and dress in the Hindu tradition. Meanwhile, her brother died. Ramabai married, but her husband died, too, of cholera. She was left with a baby daughter, whom she named Manoramabai, "Heart's joy."

[sanjaykumar]

She discovered that salvation is a free gift from God, not a reward earned by pilgrimages and payments


Well that lets Christianism out. What with Lourdes and every other reliquary, payment for indulgences etc.

It is wonderful that Christianism is in flux-can never really pin it down. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ch ... mage_sites.

All that we ask is a little consistency in the spokesmen for this cult. Logic and proportion can be dispensed with as optional.

[KJo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandita_Ramabai

It was there that an association was formed to fund her school for child widows. By April 1889 she had started a home-cum-school in Bombay, which she named as Sharda Sadan. This was the first home for widows in Maharashtra- the only other home was in Bengal, started by a Mr. Sen, As Ramabai was a Christian and the school was funded by missionaries, local citizens viewed it with extreme caution and wariness. She brought in Sharada, a young Indian lady, after whom the Sadan was named while she was pregnant. But as Sharada refused Pandita's urge to take up Christianity, Ramabai drove her out 11 days after her delivery which was strongly criticised. Sharada fell ill and eventually died. Ramabai moved to Poona, name changed to Mukti Sadan.

Just converting to Xtianity turns one into a crazed Evanjihadi.

[vishvak]

Superb article by Radha Rajan above. We need more of such articles, also on lines of who all are working for China (Maoists of all types), for Arab/Paki front on the western land border (jihadis of all types).

That we are not even talking about it is very alarming in the first place.

[member_19686]

Is there a Gloriavale Commune in Southern Tamil Nadu?
Gloriavale Christian Community (GCC) is a Christian commune in New Zealand which calls itself as a Church.
IndiaFacts Staff @indiafactsorg
Persecution & Proselytisation | 07-05-2015

Goriavale Christian Community (GCC) is a Christian commune in New Zealand which calls itself as a Church. Its members are supposed to live a life based on Biblical principles. Nearly 80 families live in a farm-like setting in Western New Zealand. Their website (also archive) mentions ‘that 35 babies are born a year, keeping the population young’.

GCC is headed by Neville Cooper. Of particular interest is the lifestyle it practices and the nature of education the children who grow up in its commune receive (website, archive). More details about it, its motto, practices can be found at its website . A rare video peek into the commune can be viewed here.

GCC has been in the news lately, that is, in May 2015. And, not for good reasons. Some of these news items can be found here, here and here, and make for pretty startling revelations. In short, there has been significant focus from the New Zealand mainstream media on this Cult for alleged abuses inside the commune. Some families are reported to be leaving the community, feeling disenchanted by its cloistered and regimented nature, coupled with social practices too far removed from those of a modern society.

A few lines from such stories caught our attention:

‘Seven Sharp (the TV programme) has confirmed that Gloriavale is starting a second branch in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Gloriavale leader, Neville Cooper, known in the community as Hopeful Christian,and other senior Gloriavale leaders have travelled to Tamil Nadu and have acquired a piece of land says Seven Sharp reporter Jehan Casinader.’ [Emphasis Added]

Or, more interestingly, this one:

‘They brought some Indian parents and children to their site on the West Coast (Editor’s note: to the Gloriavale commune in New Zealand). Those people then returned to India. And they returned with some young women from the Gloriavale community on the West Coast and they’ve started a new branch over there,’ Casinader reported.[Emphasis added]

So, this group from New Zealand brings Indian (likely Tamil) parents and children to NZ. They ‘return’ back to India (Tamil Nadu, going by the news reports) with New Zealand women from the commune.Which raises intriguing questions: what is the connection between New Zealand and Tamil Nadu? More importantly, where in Tamil Nadu? Did GCC actually purchase land in TN? If yes, how?

Such questions emanated from the watchful tweets by @vij_sri—for example this tweet which formed the basis for further research by the IndiaFacts team.

To begin with, like most Evangelical operations in India, Gloriavale Christian Community utilizes the FCRA route to send money to NGOs.

In particular, GCC has sent the following amounts to Dohnavur Fellowship (Reg. No. 076030011), Dohnavur, Thirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, since 2007 (amounts in lakhs of INR):

Year Amount (in lakhs ₹)
2007 6.5
2008 9.35
2009 11.7
2010 14.6
2011 5.5
2012 12.6
2013 17.5
Total 77.5
Now, Dohnavur Fellowship is an Evangelical Organization founded by an Irish Missionary, Amy Carmichael in 1901. She lived there for close to fifty years. Her work is supposed to have included ‘rescuing’ Devadasis from Hindu temples. In 1905, she wrote a classic book entitled ‘Things as They Are: Mission Work in Southern India’ which can be accessed here. It provides not only a good summary on the Missionary modus operandi at the turn of that century, but also offers a peek into the lifestyle of the Hindu society back then.

Interestingly, GCC had sent these amounts to Dohnavur Fellowship for ‘orphan welfare’ and ‘towards agriculture’.

In 2011-12, GCC sent Rs.15 lakh to Smile Help Charitable Trust (Reg. No. 10260339), located ironically, in Temple Street, Vijayawada-520008. It is pertinent to note that GCC had not sent any money to any other NGO in Andhra Pradesh. It is also pertinent to note the following extract from GCC (website, archive)

‘Contact with Indian Christians in the state of Andrah Pradesh led us to support and extend a Christian school near Hanuman Junction, and later to buy land in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

We are working there now with a congregation of dedicated Indian Christians to build a community according to the same Biblical principlesthat we have in New Zealand. As we began in New Zealand, so it is now in India.’

Note: Hanuman Junction is a famous road junction near Vijayawada.

The IndiaFacts team tried to trace the reason why GCC sent this small sum to SHCT, Vijayawada.

In 2012-13, a new FCRA-NGO was founded by the name of Christian Church Community (CCC), located at 1/184/2, Pattangadu, Thiruviruthanpulli PO, Cheranmaahadevivia, Tirunelveli District 627414 (Reg. No. 076030358). Upon inception, it received Rs.1.45 and Rs.1.40 Crores from GCC, New Zealand during 2012-13 and 2013-14 respectively.

More importantly, CCC did not receive any remittance from any other foreign or Indian (FCRA-registered) entity. This goes to show that CCC is an exclusive franchisee of GCC. Who owns CCC is not known in the public domain. Whether any New Zealand citizen is part of the Executive Committee of CCC is not known. FCRA does not, in routine circumstances, permit foreign citizens to be part of a FCRA-NGO’s Governing Board (see Q. 43 of this FAQ).

Interestingly, CCC’s FC6 returns mention that these remittances (amounting to a total of Rs. 2.95 Crore) were for the purposes of ‘Maintenance of Christian farm school community’. Furthermore, GCC (website, archive) mentions one of its addresses as: ‘Christian Church Community. Thiruviruthanpulli Post Office, Cheranmahadevi (via), Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu 627 414, INDIA’.

Our research also led us to discover a few factoids:

(1) Thiruviruthanpulli is about 20 km from Dohnavur

(2) At current prices for farmland in that region, a sum of Rs. 2 crore could fetch around 40-50 acres.

(3) By all accounts, the Cheranmahadevi region is one of the most beautiful parts of Tamil Nadu.

Summary

To recap what we have seen so far:

New Zealand mainstream media stories on Gloriavale Commune being under scrutiny and people from there visiting Tamil Nadu.
Gloriavale mentioning on its website about a commune being established in Tamil Nadu with assistance from its contacts in Andhra Pradesh.
Gloriavale’s remittances to Dohnavur Fellowship and to the newly established Christian Church Community. In particular, the large sums have been remitted to CCC.
Observations

Typically, when a FCRA-NGO purchases land, it states the fact explicitly in its FC6 return. IndiaFacts had reported on the quantum of money spent by FCRA-NGOs for land purchase in our earlier series exposing evangelical funding via the FCRA route. However, CCC does not mention purchase of any land in its returns. This is worth pondering over.

Needless to say, we do not have evidence from Indian news sources to verify whether the Gloriavale Christian Community, New Zealand has established a commune near Cheranmahadevi, Thirunelveli district, although a very recent news article in New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times (3 May, 2015) mentions so.

Readers, who can provide evidence and/or can verify whether a GCC commune has indeed been established at Cheranmahadevi, can leave the information in the comments section of this report.

Additional References:

A very good introduction to Gloriavale community can be foundhere.
A recent interview with Gloriavale’s founder ishere.
This 2006 news itemhere describes the eviction of an Indian student, Mr. Venkata Siva Rayavarapu from the Gloriavale Christian Commune, New Zealand. He had apparently joined it to gain experience in farming.
A commentary on the recent events at Gloriavale can be foundhere.

http://indiafacts.co.in/is-there-a-glor ... amil-nadu/

[A_Gupta]

This is both a weak and a strong religion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/world ... faith.html
"After Ebola Outbreak, Liberian Churches Confront Crisis of Faith"

Like many people here, church leaders often denied that Ebola, a disease new to West Africa, was real. At an emergency meeting last July, the Liberia Council of Churches, the country’s main group for Christians, described Ebola as divine punishment for acts of homosexuality and government corruption.

Shocked by the skyrocketing number of deaths, religious leaders later began leading efforts to stop practices that could transmit the virus. Now that the epidemic has passed, many church leaders are trying to repair the damage left behind.

Across Monrovia, churches have been responding by holding special prayers, revivals and workshops, all with the common purpose of refastening ties frayed by Ebola, a disease that made many fear and doubt those closest to them.

I know some Hindu leaders mimic this (e.g., "Nepal earthquake was caused by eating beef").

[RamaY]

^ Don't know about that but a BRF member tried to propagate the revelation that "Beef consumption increases one's brain size".