The Growth of Monotheist Religions in the context of India
Christianity is a religion which wants death to be related to the wholeness or good that it brings. The religion itself is based on the fact that Jesus died on the cross and therefore the loss of him is because of the sins of man. To perpetuate the misery, all the edifices that Christianity has brought into this world is based on some one getting martyred for the cause. The idea is to perpetuate a feeling that is sympathetic to the cause.
We are not sure if St Peter and his remains are martyred under the St Peters Basilica in Vatican, same can be said about the lie perpetuated as St Thomas being interred in St Thomas Mount, Chennai. The idea behind the St Thomas being Martyred, does not go in grain with the fact, that no where in the written documents have there been a case of a human being martyred for espousing a cause in India. There is no history of the Christian Missionaries sent across by the Portuguese, The Spaniards or the British, French or the Danish having been received hostile. If they had, we would have some records of them having a tough time when they landed in India. Where does this story of St Thomas come from? , there is no evidence in any of the works (Christian or Non Christian) except for anecdotal evidence of the same. Anecdotes does not make them an event that took place. It is not even conjectural when it comes to the perpetuation of lies in the name of religion.
If seen from a evangelical perspective, it becomes clear, the idea is to sell a idea that was already present, something that has been there and the new evangelicals are repackaging it. And so is the Aryan invasion theory, this was also perpetuated continually so that it would provide the evangelicals a place for them to represent their new colonies. Once you are considered European, being a bretheren, it is easier to sell the idea across. When the Aryan invasion theory did not work, they switched to the Dravidans as having been opressed by foreigners and Chrisitanity is the force that would protect them. The idea was also to enforce the idea of them being superior and therefore the moral right to rule them over and to bring about economic and social emancipation to the masses. This seems to have worked as we see that the Christian denominations are more among the Fishermen folk along the coasts as well as the tribals of the North East of India.
One of the arguments for the progress (Material and Educational) of the Chrisitan community in India as an example of the beneficial effects of the evangelicals, of improving more than 2.4 percent of the Indian population (Rough percentage of Christians in India). But the other way to look at it, is the economic incentive given to them to convert would have moved them on the social ladder. To get the resources you need to move up the ladder, to get schooling, basic services, it is needed to convert to the religion of choice. This added to the fact that it was largely skewed in their favour before independence, most of the transformation happened when the resources were in the hands of the community that favoured one over the other. Given a level playing field, there would have not been much of a difference and as we all know resources targeted can atleast have the desired effect. Add to this the fact, the feeling of superiority because of religion as well as the language you attend your masses in, that is a heady concoction.The other argument is having brought together the down trodden, the lowest of low of society into a common denominator with quality. Well this does not sound that well, as we can clearly see in the Matrimonial Columns of any newspaper,does not say Christian, it says specifically Mudaliar Christian, Pillai Chrisitan, CSI Christian. The difference exists and not as claimed to the contrary.The various denominations within the Christian faith adds to the complexity of the various groups.
Some of the ways the evangelicals work is to enforce a sense of who is a better god and this works effective in among tribal populations. The idea is to bring medicine to the tribals and in the name of God treat them.One of the ways to do it is to have a medicine in front of a cross and one among the other gods and serving it to a sick to let them know as to who cures them. This is done with placebo calcium tablets versus say a paracetemol that helps them to recover from fever being an antipyretic.The effect is played out to perfection in similar moulds and you have a perfect way to convince somebody of the impotency of a God vs something else.
Money is power, to ensure that the flow of money is continuos into India, we see the evangelical organizations raising funds in the US. Since much of the money is based on the number of converts, India becomes a great place to peddle the wares. One of the ways, having talked to one of them, found that they buy a large tract of land and start a colony with a Church, the large tract is made into small plots and anybody converting to is provided a pieve of land and should visit the Church every sunday. This works great too, many do sign up for it and I also know of someone, who did this as the incentive was good enough for his to convert for convenience. There is a lock in period of say ten years, once they are done, you can dispose of the piece of lot and go laughing to the bank. The number though counts for the evangelicals, and they claim to have so many in their fold. The fact is though, it generates jobs , a bell ringer, a father at the Church all with Foreign Direct Investments. THe ultimate goal is to convert the billion heathens into God Fearing, Christians of their ilk and get salvation by getting rid of 1/6th of the population, towards salvation.
Many a times it is of importance to note that as a religion, the Christian faith though talks a lot about love, is but a religion built on feeling of guilt. It is obvious and a fact that the feeling of guilt, makes the person feeling the guilt to provide concessions in the way he sways over things that are material and spiritual. Every one is considered a sinner, a sinner that needs to report on their sins, the repurcussions for not doing so built on the fact that they are to rot in hell. The Government and Church being closely built this would have provided for a hand and the glove in maintaining order. When it did not work as was the case with witches or those practicing pagan beliefs, "death" by burning. Intimidation for not falling in line was effectively and ruthlessly applied by the Romans, when they embraced Christianity to the present day.
Evangelical work in India is a moot point of discussion, it is to be noted that India remains a bastion against the monotheist religions like ISlam and Christianity. Wherever the concept of Money and Military power could be exercised, these religions made sure that the population was swayed by the sword or economic incentives or pure genocide of the local populations. There are many cases in history that would vouch for this fact in Islamic or Christian literature (This is important from the fact that it is not written by the losing party or those slaughtered , but chest thumping by the victorious armies). Their success has been limited in Inda unlike the poor Africans, the Islanders, the North Eastern Indians or the decimated populations of the Americas (Where they were helped by Old World diseases). The reason most probably was that the Indian population has taken the onslaught of the Islamic marauders and the armies were far better than what they faced among the Africans and Americans. Once they ran over them, it was systematic murder of people - the cultural elite of the occupied nations and replacement of their traditional pagan religious places, with Churches and Mosques. This was systematic, because that was one of the effective ways the religions was built.
Visibility was important, Mecca had to be in a location where there was a pagan temple,so are many of the replacement temples that were converted to Churches in many parts of Europe. The destruction of old religious edifices to replace them with Christian/Islamic symbols is systematic and have been done over many hundreds of years. The Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore, presently is about a kilometre from the shore, this temple was destroyed by the Portuguese and the present day Santhome Basilica most probably sits on that spot. The temple is mentioned in many documents dating back to the 7th century AD , however, the present temple looks newer and most probably redone by the Vijayanagar Dynasties.
People tend to continue to congregate in older institutions. These institutions change their faces and replace the older ones. What is in a name? they continue their traditions with newer names, but the embodiment of the new faces are the old faith.
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