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Christian Missionaries
At Work In India
Anil Kumar

From: "K.R. Anil Kumar"
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 6:58 AM
Subject: PA-via_Positive_Atheism_Index

Dear Mr. Cliff Walker,

Your web site is one of my favorite. Especially, I enjoy reading articles in sections "Thoughts about thinking" and "Historical writings".

Let me tell you how I happened to visit your web site. I am from India. I was born into a Hindu family. I consider myself a Hindu and this does not have anything to do with belief in god. Generally I do not bother about religion or god, because in normal day to day life I do not require them.

However, in recent years in India there is a controversy going on regarding religious conversions by Christian missionaries. This is heightened in the aftermath of the murder of an Australian missionary and his children allegedly by a Hindu. Naturally, I used to discuss and debate with my friends about the propriety of such conversions. During one such debate, one of my Christian friends told, in support of conversions, that if not for Christian missionaries all Indians would have died of Leprosy.

Though this was just an opinion, I was surprised and shocked. I decided to learn more about the two parties involved in this matter: (1) my ancestors, i.e., the people of pre-British India and (2) the Christians in general, and Christian missionaries in particular. A search in the Internet for the second category led me to your web site. However, as I mentioned in the beginning, now I spend more time reading articles in "Thoughts about thinking" and "Historical writings" than on Christianity.

Finally I would like to comment on what you have written in the section "The Philosophy of Positive Atheism"

I do not know in what sense Mr. Nehru and his contemporaries used the word "secular". But, many people in India, including political leaders, religious heads (of course, except Christian and Muslim religious heads), and those who pretend to be intellectuals, define the word "secular" to mean "recognition of all religions" rather than its definition given in many dictionaries which is exactly opposite. Because of this, almost all political organizations, and the governments formed by them from time to time, go out of their way to support religious organizations. I would like to say that, in practice, Indian government is not secular. For example, they give subsidies to religious pilgrimages by Muslims and Hindus using the tax payers' money.

Thank you for maintaining such a good web site.

With warm regards
Anil Kumar

From: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To: "K.R. Anil Kumar"
Subject: Re: PA-via_Positive_Atheism_Index
Date: Sunday, July 08, 2001 7:09 AM

I thank you for further clarification as to the situation in India. I will post this and provide a link to it from the India Index. I have been invited to visit the Atheist Centre in February, but I'm not sure if I can go (money; health). If I do go, I know I will be welcomed with the hospitality that is given only by people from India. In fact, I just returned from dining out, at an Indian restaurant near my home, and was reminded of that hospitality. A market near my home recently closed, which was run by Indians, and I always got the same unique hospitality whenever I stopped by. I used to live in Mexico, and have always been impressed by the style of hospitality and respect that distinguishes Mexican culture. I can say this about many nationalities, but the Mexican, Indian, and Lebanese cultures have always held a special place in my heart. Perhaps I will be able to visit all three countries eventually.

We get varied stories about India's government, and I am beginning to think that the government is probably as multi-faceted as the people themselves. I do know that Gandhi is said to have tried to be all things to all people. Gora opposed this tendency, criticizing those who called themselves atheists but then went to religious ceremonies in order to please their friends or family. I differ from Gora in that I appreciate how hard it is to be an atheist in some parts of the world and in some situations, so I do not criticize those who think it is best to keep their atheism a secret or to go along with certain ceremonies. Although I do not urge others to become atheists, neither do I keep my atheism a secret -- and I often pay dearly for making this admission.

Although I do not have the source citation, Nehru is quoted as having said:

Nehru was no friend of organized religion, nor did he tolerate the religious teachings which kept people passive, "satisfied to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance." I am not entirely sure if Nehru was an atheist, but have heard from several sources that he was. Perhaps you know the answer to this question. If not, I ought to change that sentence in the "Introduction."

I think Nehru and the others probably wanted India's first government to be unaffiliated, though that does not necessarily abolish government funding of various religious causes. This is the big argument in the United States today, and has been for about 50 years, since the beginning of the Cold War. However, what one or the other founding figure wanted is not necessarily the same as what ended up in the Constitution, and the Constitution is not always obeyed. In the United States, our Constitution has never been obeyed in its entirety, and a few of its tenets may as well have never been written down, because they have, for the most part, never been obeyed by more than a handful of elected servants.

Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
Five years of service to
     people with no reason to believe

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