Christians at the receiving end of bullying

I HAVE heard from sources in the Bombay Catholic Sabha that Christians have suddenly become a subject of interest to those who govern my state, Maharashtra. This phenomenon is new to my city. I have lived in Mumbai for most of my 95 years without any cause to worry. In fact, there was a sudden euphoria among local believers when our popular Prime Minister invited Christian leaders to meet him at his residence in Delhi. Oswald Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, flew to the Capital in response to the invitation.

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The hotheads who have issued fiats to priests and nuns should spell out cases of alleged conversion. Vague accusations are patently evil.

The Catholic Sabha’s leaders were told by Catholics residing in seven localities of Mumbai that government officials tasked with enumerating members of the Maratha community who wished to avail of reservation (by accepting a lower category, that of Kunbis, who are OBCs) were also questioning the Christians on the dates they were converted and to which caste in the varna system they originally belonged.

Who has instructed them to make such enquiries and why? What have the Christians residing in the city got to do with the Marathas’ demand for reservation in government jobs and admissions to institutes of higher learning? In Mumbai, the Kunbis (farmers), Bhandaris (toddy tappers), Agris (salt panners) and Kolis (fisher folk), who were converted to Christianity by Portuguese occupiers four centuries or more ago, were given Christian names and also surnames of the Portuguese priests who baptised them. Most Catholics in Mumbai today do not know how they got these foreign surnames, but they do know their original Hindu castes.

The same applies to the Goans and Mangaloreans who make up the rest of the local Christian population sporting Portuguese surnames like mine. The local Marathi-speaking Catholics are called East Indians after the East India Company, where many of them sought employment in colonial times. Since the bulk of them belonged to the Kunbi, Bhandari, Agri and Koli communities, the Maharashtra government had categorised them as OBCs two or three decades ago.

Right up to my generation, marriages outside our old Hindu castes were rare despite the fact that our ancestors were converted around four centuries ago. But is the Maharashtra Government asking these questions in order to review or maybe revise history or does it want to extend reservation to those among the East Indians of Mumbai who originally belonged to the Maratha community?

Whatever the reason advanced by the government for making such enquiries, it has resulted in disquiet among those in the community who learnt of these unprovoked questions put to them. There is no Christian equivalent for Manoj Jarange Patil demanding reservation for a politically powerful segment, for the simple reason that there is no such segment among the Christians here.

Another disturbing, in fact alarming, story about Christians being targeted emanates from Assam. The state is ruled by CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, who joined the BJP in 2015 after being given the cold shoulder by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Sangh Parivar enthusiasts in Guwahati approached Catholic schools there and verbally ordered the priests and nuns to stop wearing their cassocks (in the case of priests) and habits (for nuns) as these modes of dress were likely (according to these men) to tempt young Hindu students to convert to Christianity.

I studied in a Jesuit school in Mumbai for eight years. Only one boy, Bulchand Mulchand, a Sindhi speaker, was converted. On conversion, he joined the Jesuits, studied for the priesthood and later became the Principal of St Xavier’s School, where both of us had studied. I was the SP of Pune city when I received an invite for his consecration as a Catholic priest. I attended the ceremony, where his family was present. None of them converted then or at any time thereafter.

Can the state prevent individuals like Bulchand from changing gods? I don’t think so. He was obviously attracted to the spartan monastic life lived by Jesuit priests who taught him in school. Imagine his trauma if the government of the time had used misconceived laws and force to thwart his convictions.

In Porto (Portugal), I met a bunch of Portuguese youngsters, dressed in white saris (girls) and dhoti-kurta (boys). They had embraced Hinduism through ‘Krishna consciousness’. They tried to influence my wife and me to follow suit. I pointed out to them that their ancestors had crossed the seas to arrive in Goa in 1540. The Catholic prelates who accompanied/followed them had converted my Hindu ancestors. Now, they were trying to induce me to do ‘ghar wapsi’! That amused them.

The activities of the VHP and Bajrang Dal, storm troopers of the Parivar, must be known to Assam’s CM. If they have his blessings, it will be difficult for Guwahati’s Catholic schools, which have taught thousands of Assamese boys and girls over the years, to keep functioning.

Were there instances of conversion in Guwahati? The hotheads who have issued fiats to priests and nuns should list those cases with names of those converted, dates of birth and the dates on which the conversion took place. Vague accusations are not only unacceptable but patently evil.

The Catholic Archbishop of Guwahati is reported to have advised priests and nuns in diocesan schools to wear what teachers wear to school. Since the state is not willing to follow Raj Dharma, the Archbishop had to capitulate. Perhaps, he will be forced to consider other alternatives if the tempo of bullying increases.

Attempts by similar elements in Karnataka to force Muslim girls not to wear the hijab to college fizzled out when some girls approached the court. No one can ask Yogi Adityanath not to wear a religious garb while functioning as the CM or tell Pragya Singh Thakur not to don it in Parliament. No one dares to ask Sikhs not to wear the turban or the kara to school. So, why target a peace-loving, disciplined community and force it to bow to unlawful diktats?

A couple of months ago, at a book launch in Goa, I predicted that India was in danger of becoming a ‘saffronised Pakistan’, where Muslims and Christians are targeted like Hindus and Christians in Pakistan. The BJP’s spokesman in Goa took objection to what he called my ‘ideology’. I am happy to assert that bullying the weak and the powerless has never been a part of my ‘ideology’. And it will never be!