A PROUD INDIAN
By Valmiki Faleiro
Serializing a topic in a newspaper column bears a major handicap. It does not
provide
the writer the liberty to comment on a contemporary subject until the
serialization is
complete. I had to wait until the ‘Goan music’ series was done – and depart
from the
Goa/Goan thread this Sunday – to dwell on something I strongly felt about…
I’ve always been a proud Indian. Perhaps because my father, a doc in the Indian
Army
Medical Corps, christened me with a great Indian name. Later, and more
convincingly,
when I learnt of our ancient civilization’s great traditions. I look and talk
like an Indian
alright. Yet, I was at times asked, in India and the few times abroad, which
country I
hailed from.
I remember this happened in New Delhi in March-1977. I was selected for an
‘Asian
Writers Workshop’ organized by India International Centre, UNESCO (Asia Centre
for
Book Development), Union Ministry of Education and the Authors’ Guild of India.
In a
group of 30 – twenty Indians and ten other Asians – I was asked at cocktails
following
book launches, “Which country do you hail from?”
“I am Indian, from Goa,” I’d proudly say.
I’m not sure I’d do that today. Not after Babri Masjid. Not after the religious
pogrom in
Modi’s Gujarat of 2002, when fetuses were yanked out from expectant mothers and
both
set alight. Not when tribals are chased into forests, their homes and lives
torn asunder,
as presently in Orissa, Karnataka and elsewhere. In the name of god and against
‘forced
conversions’ (to Christianity, a faith that, since the arrival of St. Thomas
the Apostle in
year 52 AD, still accounts for a mere 2% of India.)
I was born into a Catholic family. Even if I cannot honestly call myself
religious. I hold no
brief for obscurant Christian sects alluring people to change faiths with money
or other
inducements – a fact sufficiently documented by third-party observers from the
western
(largely Christian) world.
I could never for a moment brook forcible conversion of a human being – whether
of
faith, culture, or whatever the victim would otherwise like to follow. Informed
Goans, in
particular, will be aware of human misery of such mindless acts. After the Pope
divided
the world into two spheres – Africa and Asia to Portugal and the Americas to
Spain for
spreading Christianity, we know the results. Mercifully, five centuries have
elapsed since
that happened, and our views would at best be academic.
Even if superfluous, the current madness in parts of India begets the question:
why
target Catholics and other long-established Indian churches? Will the
VHP/Bajrang Dal
cite a single instance of Catholic/Indian churches having forced, coerced,
allured or
induced conversions? If at all one hand feels the itch, why scratch the other?
Are
elections so omnipotent that dividing one’s own home country with the politics
of hate is
greater than the gods one pretends to protect?
The issue is not ‘forcible conversions’ (or, for that matter, forcible
‘re-conversions.’)
Whatever their weaknesses in the run up to August 15, 1947, our leaders gave the
nation – ravaged by the sands of time and military history – a fitting
Constitution on Jan
26, 1950. We have laws to deal with forcible conversions. Did the VHP/Bajrang
Dal take
recourse to these?
Unfortunately, no one seems to realise – from LK Advani down to the cretins of
the
Bajrang Dal on the street – that maiming or killing one person, or tearing
apart one
family, will produce ten terrorists of tomorrow. Few kids who’ve survived
seeing his/her
parent or sibling being raped, killed or tossed alive into flames would forget
– or forgive –
the perpetrators. We’re still paying the price for Ayodhya and Gujarat. Payback
time will
come from Orissa and Karnataka much after Advani and current VHP leaders have
completed their life’s journey.
How many Hindus does the BJP/VHP fancy to represent when orchestrating such
hate?
As vain a question as it would be to ask the sick minds that went about
defiling isles of
peace and prayer – like the ‘Rakkondar’ shrine in Cuncolim, the Mahavir statue
in
Molem, and dozens of temples, crosses and masjids in Goa.
I am against bans of any kind. Banning the Bajrang Dal is no answer. As much as
violence will not stop forcible conversions. The answer lies elsewhere. BJP/VHP
leaders
must know it, and perhaps pretend that they do not. One of course cannot be
sure. Of
one thing I am certain about. If asked again, “Which country do you hail from?”
I will
probably say Costa Rica, Cabo Verde, or Caracas! A once proud Indian, I’m now
deeply
ashamed.
PS: It is the same convoluted logic. Earlier this week, someone tried silencing
social
activist Aires Rodrigues and the heritage conservation champion Prajal
Sakhardande by
getting them bloodied black and blue. Where has our sanity flown? (ENDS)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at:
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330
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The above article appeared in the October 19, 2008 edition of the Herald, Goa
