India (MNN) — Christmas Day celebrations in Uttar Pradesh, India, have been taking center stage in the news.
Todd Nettleton is a spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs USA. According to him, here’s why: “There has been a significant push over the last couple of weeks to reconvert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism. They are particularly focusing on Christmas Day, promising large-scale re-conversion ceremonies.”
He references a series of leaflets distributed by members of the Hindu Nationalist Party. They were seeking donations for converting Christians and Muslims to Hinduism. “Among radical Hindus in India, this is a big fundraising push right now. They are raising money to facilitate this, raising to either offer to converts to get them to come back to Hinduism, or to support (what we might call) ‘Hindu missionaries.'” The pamphlets noted that it costs Rupees 2 lakh to convert a Christian and Rupees 5 lakh to convert a Muslim.
While some greeted the news warmly, police spotted the potential for trouble and banned the event, says Nettleton. “In some cases, the police are saying, ‘We are not going to allow this conversion/re-conversion ceremony. Nobody can be forced to change their religion.’ So, as we head into this Christmas season, there’s really a lot of potential for animosity.”
In fact, Bajrang Dal members in the area promised to hit the streets in protest if the police did not allow the ceremony. The group claims they’ve identified Muslims and Christians they’ll be targeting, arguing that Christians and Muslims happen to be descendants of converted Hindus. Therefore, a Hindu conversion would only be coming back to the fold.
The problem is: it’s causing so much ruckus that the government, in an effort to restore calm, suggested that perhaps all states should have anti-conversion laws. Nettleton disagrees. “That would potentially affect Christians, perhaps more than Hindus. The anti-conversion laws are typically used against Christian workers or missionaries who are spreading the Gospel, encouraging people to change from Hinduism or from Islam to follow Jesus Christ.”
Meanwhile, the Christian community has sought for additional security for their churches in the city. Early reports last week showed at least one group of Christmas carolers attacked and beaten. You might be thinking, ‘That’s one incident in a really big country.’ Nettleton counters, saying attacks on Christians and churches are so frequent during the Advent Season that it’s a daily occurrence.
Yet the Christmas story is highly relevant in the community. For the believer, it’s about the truth of what’s yet to come. “Christmas is a fabulous opportunity to share the story of Jesus Christ coming to earth. The purpose of His coming to earth was to purchase our salvation, so we can pray for those efforts to share that story during the Christmas season and [pray] that there will be a lot of fruit for the work that our Christian brothers and sisters are doing.”
As Christmas Day nears, Nettleton asks that we also pray “for safety for Christians who are there. Pray that they will be strengthened in their faith and protected by God.”
In India before 6000 CE my ancestors belonging to Saraswat Brahmin clan lived in Kashmir named after the 6000 CE Ashram (school) of Rishi (Guru or teacher) Kashyap called Kashyap Mir. In 9th century it was invaded by Islamist invaders who gave 2 choices to my ancestors who they considered to be infidels praying to graven images: Men and boys get either beheaded or circumcised and become Muslim. Women and female children had only one choice. They were divided up between the invaders as sex slaves. They destroyed their temples and holy deities and build Mosques in their place.
Those ancestors who escaped this genocide with their holy deities had an exodus to Gomantak area (now Goa).about 1500 miles to South to west-coast of India. There they re-built their temples and prospered by their hard work, learning and business acumen by becoming traders, farmers and teachers.
In 15th century Goa was invaded by Christian inquisitionists from Portugal who considered my ancestors to be pagans worshipping graven images and gave them 2 choices. They become Christian or they put them through Inquisition, by tying them on a rack water wheel, repeatedly beating them with iron rods, turning the water wheel till they submerged in water, partially drowning them till they either converted to Christianity or they died. They also cut up their children and forced them to eat their children’s flesh and stabbed the women in their privates with a sword if they refused conversion.
Alternatively their soldiers took their women for sex slaves and made them Christian. The Catholic Bishops wrote regular reports to the Archdiocese in Lisbon on this genocide, History Prof. Priolkar researched Lisbon Archdicese and wrote a book about his findings that support the reports by my ancestors.
Now the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Congress) is spreading the Hindu Gospel of Bhagwan Krishna from Hindu Scripture Bhagwad Geeta (Divine Song) and accepting those former Hindus (converted by force to Islam and Christianity) who want to return to their permanent home of Hinduism. If the Christians consider Christians converting Hindus as Missionaries and it is their right to convert Hindus to Christianity in what logic do they consider that Hindus don’t have a right to convert former Hindus back to Hinduism, and to call those that do it as radicals.
So again those of my ancestors who escaped with their deities had an exodus to 300 miles South of Goa to what is now coastal western Karnatak and Kerala states.