Stephen's College - the Indian Idol

I expected to be rained in with comments on my last post.... .The reason the whole thing came up is because there is nation wide debate here in India ( In Indian TV version of 60 minutes, X factor etc ) about a prestigious College in Delhi , St Stephen's College reserving 40% seats to Christians 10% to Dalit Christians and 10% for sports etc.. and only the remaining 40% to general public on merit basis.So now unfortunately for the general public the cut off percentage of marks is very high like 97% for commerce students and 99% for science students( I cant believe it - how the scoring system is these days -- during our time the topper got 70% marks) Anyway, a prominent speaker in these TV shows is one Mr.Arun Shourie who is well known politician, writer,economist with World Bank, in India 's planning commission etc.. he has written a book on missionaries in India.Shourie says the great preoccupation of Indian Christians and missionaries is to get a great harvest of souls and they have a hatred for Hindus.He speaks of Macaulay- Macaulay's notorious minute instituting English as the medium of instruction in India, says Shourie, ."was laced with utter contempt for India, in particular for Hinduism, for our languages and literature: of course, Macaulay did n6t know any of those languages... his ideas about Hinduism had been formed from the calumny of missionaries .... But the breezy, sweeping damnation-- even a century and a half later, the imperialist swagger takes one's breath away."

Shourie quotes from a recent issue of the Texas-based magazine Gospel for Asia: "The Indian sub-continent with one billion people, is a living example of what happens when Satan rules the entire culture... India is one vast purgatory in which millions of people .... are literally living a cosmic lie! Could Satan have devised a more perfect system for causing misery?"In the central section of the book, "The Division of Labour"-- among the British administrators, missionaries, and European Indologists--.Shouire cites extensively from historical documents to establish that these three groups colluded in essential agreement that "India is a den of ignorance, inequity and falsehood; the principal cause of this state of affairs is Hinduism; Hinduism is kept going by the Brahmins; as the people are in such suffering, and also because Jesus in his parting words has bound us to do so, it is a duty to deliver them to Christianity; for this, it is Hinduism which has to be vanquished."

Is this fair to the missionaries? one asks. What about the numerous schools, colleges, and hospitals the missionaries established in India? Did they have a hidden agenda? Yes, says Shourie quoting from Gandhiji's Collected Works. In Gandhiji's discussions with missionaries, they acknowledged that "the institutions and services are indeed incidental, that the aim is to gather a fuller harvest of converts for the Church." Ironically , Mr.Arun Shourie is an alumni of St,Stephen 's College, which is at the centre of this cauldron of debate..

So if conversion is the motive for these Christian educational Institutions.. why this hulabulla about reservations and a massive protest by the Hindu majority to get a seat in these Institutions!!The Principal of St,Stephen's College rightly stated" it is not about reservations for Christians or Hindus ,,but about Social Justice..an educational institute must be the messenger of such change... the marginalised, the minority have to get justice too.." I rememeber many instances in my early years as a young Ph.D In India going through much discrimination as a Christian... I was ridiculed and criticized for not wanting to bow to instruments during a puja session .. some of those instruments were even broken.. ofcourse now I would have dealt with that differently...but at that time I did bear several injuries as a minority in India..I think Hindus have equal if not more evangelistic zeal than christians... a freedom of religion bill is long awaited in India.Lets hope someone gets Arun Shourie to work and pass that bill.