Gandhiji, was extremely articulate in opposing conversion activities of Christian Missionaries in India and questioned their motives in establishing educational institutions and other services. Today, as we remember Mother Teresa, on her 110th birth-day, (26th August, 1910), an Albanian by birth, who at the tender age of 12 seemed to have had the god’s beckoning to serve him. Then at the age of 18, she joined Sisters of Loreto, Loreto Abbey, at Rathfarnham, Ireland. Envisioned to become a Missionary, she learnt English language.
With her entry into our Indian soil in the year 1929, she taught English, while at Loreto Convent school in Calcutta, took her religious vows in 1937, where she had chosen this name Teresa. She was shaken by two incidents one, the Bengal Famine (1943), the Direct-Action Day, 1946, the Muslim-Hindu Violence. It was in the year 1948, she began her Missionary work, by adopting Indian Citizenship, undergoing training at a hospital at Patna, to take care of the ill and look after their needs. In 1949, with the help of younger women she began and expanded, community service in furtherance.
Clad in her white saree with blue border, which became her symbolic attire, in the year 1950, Teresa received Vatican permission for the diocesan congregation, which would become the Missionaries of Charity. In her words, it would care for “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone”.
A devout Catholic, a favoured child of the God and the Vatican, the understanding was to take the under-privileged, homeless into her care, give them food, clothing, shelter, medical care and when the time came the change of religion was done silently, secretly with the help of the serving Nuns. She worked tirelessly, relentlessly, to achieve this hidden agenda.
As believed in Christianity, there are two stipulations to be anointed for sainthood. One being at least the person to be anointed should have performed two miracles. This miracle theory is often brushed aside for want of authenticity as it is only for public consumption. The second reason should be the Number of Conversions done.
A recipient of the coveted Nobel Prize in 1979, she was beatified in 2003 which, is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person’s entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name. Canonized (Canonization) is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public cult and entering his or her name in the canon, or authorized list, of that communion’s recognized saints in 2016.
It is notable to say, how Mother Teresa was averse to the Freedom of Religion bill which had come to the parliament for floor test. This irked her so much that, if the bill gets passed then the change in religion can be done only out of free will and by stealth or force, conversion will not be allowed. Everyone saw a new side of Mother Teresa when she wrote a letter to the then, Prime Minister, Sri. Morarji R. Desai, opposing vehemently.
This created a ruckus, heated controversy between her and the Prime Minister despite him having assured the Christian delegations that, their right to propagate their religion will not be taken away. There was so much uproar all over the country, that the politicians for fear of losing Christian votes, stalled the bill from being passed.
Religion is a highly emotive and highly politicised subject in India. It involves controversies that the Head of State should best avoid. That is why Jawaharlal Nehru objected to Dr Rajendra Prasad making an ostentatious public ceremony of inaugurating the reconstructed Somnath Temple. He knew that “the restoration of the idol would be a point of honour and sentiment with the Hindu public”.
The measure followed hard on the heels of the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, which sought to make conversion through “force”, “fraud” or “inducement” a criminal offence. The punishment was a year’s imprisonment and a Rs 3,000 fine which would be doubled if the convert was a woman, a member of the Scheduled Caste or Tribe or a minor.
The rub, according to Christians, was the interpretation of force, fraud and inducement. According to the Bill, force included “threat of divine displeasure”. Fraud included “misrepresentation”. Inducement could be an “offer of any gift or gratification.” Distribution of religious books and articles could also be interpreted as inducement. While “divine displeasure” is part of the theology of most religions in one form or the other, its improper use is covered by Section 508 of the Indian Penal Code.
For someone with strong religious beliefs, anything preached by another is a theological misrepresentation. What was disturbing was that, the move synchronised with attacks on Christian missions in Bihar and the destruction of churches in Arunachal Pradesh. Mother Teresa, a crusader for conversion then, was refused permission to travel to Arunachal.
It was felt by many, leading up to Canonization, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity pushed-thrust conversion on its patients. It is true to say that, any father would not agree to his child being baptised, but it was the practice, when the child was close to death, on the pretext of administering some medicine, they used to sprinkle water on his head in some secret way and pronounce the words of Baptism. Same treatment was meted out to older patients too.
Shoddy treatment of children and elders told a different story altogether. The nuns were made to clean the pus, faeces, maggots, day in day out, which was no easy task and it was a living hell for them. Years old medicines were administered, Aspirin for all ailments and the soiled children were tied up and had to stay that way.
With her sole aim, being conversion, her frugal living, along with the nuns who assisted her too, with the funds pouring in, they were all diverted for the betterment of the catholic churches and fill up the Vatican coffers. She was an exceptional Catholic, indeed, much of the resources of her Organization was spent on religious activities, such as training of nuns, novices, Brothers and Priests and in the upkeep of establishments’ which were exclusively nunneries and Brothers’ houses.
Christianity professes resurrections of sins and sinners, Mother Teresa always said in her interviews, this pain is beautiful, the world learns so much from it. She said that poverty and suffering are gifts from God. As a true Catholic she believed that, Abortions were the greatest destroyer of world peace, so were contraceptives. If these words to be true then, Why Mother Teresa didn’t stop with only serving the mankind? Why did she convert people from other religion to Christianity, taking advantage of their poverty-stricken conditions, homelessness, ailments? Because there was a hidden agenda behind the façade isn’t it? CONVERSION.
