Thou shall be banished

Staines was of Australian origin and spent most of his life in the service of leprosy patients, something that his Australia-born widow is pursuing even now with equal courage. The violence against Staines was conspired by one Dara Singh, who has nebulous links with RSS progeny like the VHP and Bajarang Dal. Enough evidence exists of his relations with the ideology of Hindutva; he has indicated his desire to work for the Shiv Sena, another political outfit working for the establishment of `Hindu Rashtra’.

Christianity has been in India from AD 52 and despite the activities of missionaries for the last nineteen and a half centuries and British rule for close to two centuries, Christian population as per the 1991 census stands at 2.32 per cent. Missionaries have been coming to India for centuries and many local people have also taken to missionary work.

Whatever be the limitations of their work, it inspired Swami Vivekananda to start the Ramakrishna Mission. Many other such activities have been modeled on the charity work done by Christian missions. It is not only in the name of religion that Christians have come and settled here. The contribution of Annie Besant and Sister Nivedita to Indian society can never be forgotten. People like Mother Teresa, despite many flaws in their approach and ideology, have established their commitment to the community, irrespective of national boundaries, beyond any shade of doubt.

Today there are enough Mahendra Singhs carving important slots for themselves in Fiji and enough Swaraj Pauls and Hindujas managing their financial empires from foreign lands. To match them, there are Mahesh Yogis and scores of ashrams scattered all over the world. Even the RSS affiliate, the VHP, has spread its wings in different countries.

The call of the RSS is unconstitutional. It is another matter that the RSS does not adhere to the values of the Indian Constitution. Immediately after being nominated as RSS chief, Sudarshan had said that the Constitution should be scrapped and a new one based on Hindu scriptures be brought in. The missionaries of foreign origin working in India are well within the parameters prescribed by the Constitution. The charge that foreign funds are not routed through the Home Ministry is meant to create an illusion of illegality. Already, these funds are routed through the Home Ministry and are subject to the audit rules of this land.

The demand to severe links with the Vatican and create a state-sponsored church like the one in China is an infringement of our social ethos. The RSS has a strong urge to borrow authoritarian values, be they the ones imposed by Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Fascist Italy or the norms in China which do not permit individual freedom, where the state dictates the life of the individual and the society.

The RSS fears of Islamisation and now the Christianisation of Indiabelong to the world of make believe. They serve the purpose of the consolidation of the Hindu vote bank and the politics of Hindu Rashtra.

— The writer is a professor at IIT, Mumbai