A big controversy has been going on in the Bangalore Press involving Christian minorities, particularly the Catholics. Even the Karnataka Government has tried to side with the communal Hindus to throttle minority rights. As the Bangalore move is part of the all-India game to systematically subdue and suppress the minorities, we thought it is time to present the case before the Dalits and other persecuted minorities.
The controversy is about the country’s most prestigious medical college – St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, and the use of Kannada in church services. These simple non-issues are blown up and unnecessary heat is generated as part of the communal Hindu game of divide and rule. After the CPM-led Governments in West Bengal and Tripura tried to curb the Christian Institutions working for the liberation of tribals in 1980, we now have the Karnataka effort to interfere in minority rights. While communally run highly mismanaged, rag-tag medical colleges charging high capitation fees and admitting students from outside India with hardly any facilities, are given affiliation, the more than a decade-old St. John’s Medical College, a showpiece of Bangalore, is denied this right. The communal Hindus who control the State Government, the Bangalore University and also the Press are trying to give the college a bad name. The only silver lining in the darkness created by these communal elements is the strong support the St. John’s Medical College received from the State’s highest-circulated English daily, Deccan Herald, whose young, progressive editor, Hari Kumar, in an editorial fully upheld the College’s case for affiliation.
The power these communal Hindus wield is so much that they forced the Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor and also the Director of Medical Education, a scheduled caste, to join this howl. As the Press is in the hands of communal Hindus in Karnataka, they have seen to it that truth does not leak out to the public. The case of the St. John’s Medical College is one such. What may come as a surprise is that even some “Leftists” joined hands with communal Hindus, unable to get over their caste character. It is quite possible that the St. John’s Medical College has some minus points, but why select only this college for such a harsh treatment? Why national and international academic circles have praised it so much, which the communal Hindus fail to appreciate? What is the motive behind all this noise? There is one short-range and another long-range objective. The short-range aim of the communal Hindus, who are always an envious lot is that they are very jealous that the Christians have managed to keep the St. John’s Medical College so trim, so disciplined and achieved national and international distinction while similar institutions run by them are stinking with corruption and communalism. Turned into hotbed of politics. The communal Hindus in the state Government and University wanted their boys and girls to get seats in it. They also wanted to pack their agents on its teaching and non-teaching staff. And ultimately swallow the institution. The St. John’s like all other institutions run by the Christians has been resisting these efforts at infiltration. And naturally, this has led to lot of heart-burning, though ultimately the communalists are bound to lose and truth shall triumph.
The one favourite charge of the communal Hindus is that the St. John’s is getting “foreign money”. The college authorities have themselves admitted this and said whatever they got came through the Reserve Bank and with the full knowledge of the Government. Here, one point – Christians, Muslims and Buddhists belong to international religions – unlike Hindus, whose religion is confined to only a major part of India, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists living in different parts of the world would like to help their less fortunate comrades living in India, which is deliberately kept poor by the communal Hindus. Their international co-religionists have every right to sympathise with their suffering counterparts and help them in every possible way. The communal Hindus have also collected funds from US and elsewhere. Hare Krishna, Rajneesh, Mahesh Yogi joints are bringing millions of dollars to save the dying Hinduism. Why not a word of complaint against such flow of foreign money? The Constitution specifically provides for protection of minority rights and Christians.
Muslims and Buddhists need not bother about the communal Hindu complaint of foreign money. The long-range objective behind the pinpricks to St John’s is to cut the minorities to size. What they feel is if they succeed at one place they can gradually extend it to other areas. The communal Hindus tried to throttle the Christians during the RSS-controlled Janata party regime through the mischievous Freedom of Religion Bill. But national sanity asserted itself, and the Bill fell – and with it the Janata crashed under the weight of the HSS.
The other Bangalore bid to interfere with the Christians is the communal Hindus’ demand to use Kannada in Catholic Church services. Kannada-speaking Catholics have been demanding Church services in the local tongue though, Tamilians said to constitute about 80% of the Catholic population. The language controversy between Kannada and Tamil Catholics turned violent, and the poor Tamil-speaking Archbishop, Dr. P Arokiaswamy, was even beaten-up Kannada Christians have every right to fight for their rights. Therefore, we don’t want to enter into this controversy. But what is intriguing is the big support they received from the press, public and even the government. Hindu high caste Kannada writers also entered the fray. They even offered to picket the churches. But these writers ought to know what language is used in Hindu temple services. Is it Kannada? Or Sanskrit, which even Brahmins do not understand? These writers will do well to first set right their own house before preaching others. Kannada must be used in Hindu temples. If the majority community does this, then only it will get a right to advice the minorities. “The communal Hindus are out to finish the minorities. All sorts of efforts are being made to throttle them. They are interfering in the Aligarh Muslim University affairs as well. At Kanyakumari, the RSS-sponsored Vivekananda Rock Memorial has harmed the interests of local fishermen. The RSS and its agents have raised a demand to ban conversion while they are freely indulging in converting tribals, Christians and Muslims. There is also a move to stop flow of foreign money to Muslims and Christians. Political representation is denied to them.
St. John’s Medical College is selected as a test case. The communal Hindus might have got the courage to interfere with Christians because a section of the Church has started compromising with Hindu values without understanding the Hindu mind. “Indianising” does not mean “Hinduising” but a section of the Church tried to Hinduise their rituals. And the communal Hindus took advantage of this goodness and tried to shake Christians as a whole. We would urge the Church authorities to stop appeasing the communal Hindus at least now after learning bitter lessons from the Freedom of Religion Bill and the St. John’s affair. Christian authorities should also stop dealing at the State-level but take up the issue directly with the Prime Minister. The Pope himself should summon the Ambassador to Italy and administer a stem warning. Apart from this, Ambassadors in Delhi hailing from Christian countries should be briefed about the victimisation of minorities in India and they in turn should be asked to take up the matter at the appropriate level. The St. John’s, which is an international institution, should be treated as an international issue and dealt appropriately. Then only the communal Hindus, who depend so much upon Christian countries and their money will come to their senses. India does not belong to Hindus only.
If the Christians yield, they will have to suffer many more cuts. And the communal Hindus can be really merciless. They are angry with the Christians because they fully realize the danger to Hinduism by the Christian help and support to the liberation struggle of untouchables and tribals. In the Eastern region of India, the tribals are fully liberated, almost 100% literate, economically sound and yet militant solely because of the work done by the Christian missionaries. The Jharkhand demand for a tribal state is voiced by militant tribes who became Christians. The Christian service to untouchables and tribals is now part of Indian history. The communal Hindus who revel in Christian baiting find it a status symbol to send their children to convents run by Christians. The very same people prefer to get admitted to Christian hospitals because they know the risk to their lives in hospitals run by the government. During the Andhra cyclone when the communal Hindus refused to touch the bodies of the dead fearing that it may be that of untouchables, it was Mother Theresa who did the commendable job of relief. We can go on reeling out facts and figures to narrate the Christian service in literacy drive, preservation of tribal culture, historical research, and several other fields. What the Brahmins describe as their “sacred books” would have been lost but for Max Muller and other German and English Christian scholars who translated it and printed it and made it available to Brahmins themselves. The untouchables, tribals, OBCs, should take note of this. They have made use of the Hindu weaker sections to attack the minorities. In communal and caste riots, it is the low castes who are used to kill Dalits and Muslims. The OBCs in particular should stop playing into the hands of these communal Hindus. The conscious lot among Dalits should educate other comrades and see that the communal Hindus do not set one against the other. Minorities are our best friends in distress. We would rather join them, and identify our common enemy – and fight it to bring a good name to the country.
