[Reader-list] Your views on the book "Satya Darshini" by christian missionaries

[Vikhar Ahmed]

Dear Murali,

Rather than getting into the debate about the contents of the book 'Satya
Darshini', I wanted to raise a few other questions about the veracity of
your information based on my visits to Dakshina Kannada on journalistic
assignments as well as my conversations with local residents and journalists
in the region, members of the New Life Fellowship (the prime accused as the
distributors of this tract) and members of the Bajrang Dal in Mangalore.

I'm surprised that you are raising the issue of this tract after almost a
year since it was in the news. The tract was in the news after the attacks
on the churches in Mangalore in early September last year with members of
the Bajrang Dal distributing this tract to journalists justifying the
attacks on the churches by accusing the Christian community (particularly
the Evangelical group, the New Life Fellowship) of distributing this tract
among non-Christians in the region. The funny thing I found after I spent
some time in the region was that the only people who had a few pages of
'Satya Darshini' with them were the members of the Bajrang Dal. And what I
found even more funny was that the only pages that they had were the ones
that you have used with great scholarly aplomb in your charged rhetoric. I
have a copy of the pages that you have cited here with me. These are the
only ones that are repeatedly photocopied and are in circulation among
members of the Bajrang Dal. If you have a copy of the tract, assuming you
read Kannada, you will see that you will hardly be able to read the text
because it has been photocopied and then photocopied again. Has any one in
the Bajrang Dal read anything else of that book? Does any one in the BD have
any other part of the book? If you do, I would sincerely request you to give
me a copy as I've been keen to write an article about the book.

What I'm trying to say is that, as far as evidence on the field goes, *there
is nothing to validate your charge that Christians and Christian
missionaries have openly printed, published and distributed* this tract. The
New Life Fellowship had come out with a strong denial last year itself. The
Justice Somashekhar Commission is conducting an inquiry in Bangalore on the
attacks on churches that took place in Mangalore last year and do you think
any Christian group, (assuming for a moment that they are rabid
fundamentalists who want to convert everyone to Christianity in the coastal
part of Karnataka) would be stupid and silly enough to distribute such
literature. If you care to go to the region you will see how Hindutva groups
are flourishing in the region and the state is very biased in its behaviour.


Please do verify your facts and get back to me. I will be keen to follow up
any of your statements if there is any truth in them. And as far as
discussing the contents of the book go I will leave that to my dear friend
Anupam. He is a good journalist and sometimes I am surprised at his tenacity
to slug it out on this list and marvel at his stamina but he's always been a
street fighter (in the metaphorical sense).

My sincere regards,

Vikhar.


On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Murali V <murali.chalam at gmail.com> wrote:

> Christians and Christian missionaries in Karnataka openly printed,
> published and distributed deliberately planned obscene and vulgar
> anti-Hindu evangelical literature directed against the Hindu Gods and
> Goddesses in Mangalore, Udupi and Chikmagalur districts.  I am quoting
> below a few extracts from one such evangelical book, Satya Darshini,
> which ought to gladden the heart of the Union Home Secretary and more
> particularly Special Secretary (Internal Security).  This blasphemous
> book is in Kannada language.  This book was printed in Andhra Pradesh
> for large-scale distribution for achieving wholesale conversion in
> Karnataka:
>
> a)    Urvashi - the daughter of Lord Vishnu - is a prostitute.
> Vashitha is the son of this prostitute.  He in turn married his own
> Mother. Such a degraded person is the Guru of the Hindu God Rama,
> (page 48)
>
> b) When Krishna himself is wallowing in darkness of hell, how can he
> enlighten others? Since Krishna himself is a shady character, there is
> a need for us to liberate his misled followers, (page 50)
>
>  c)   It was Brahma himself who kidnapped Sita.  Since Brahma, Vishnu
> and Shiva were themselves the victims of lust, it is a sin to consider
> them as Gods, (page 39)
>
>  d)   When the Trinity of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) are
> consumed by lust and anger, how can they liberate others?   Their
> projection as Gods is nothing but a joke (page 39)
>
> e)    When Vishnu asked BRAHMA to commit a sin, he immediately did so.
>  How can such an ‘evil Brahma’ be a Creator of this Universe? How is
> it possible for both the sinner and the entity, which provoked the sin
> to be gods? (Page 39)
>
> f)    God, please liberate the sinful people of India who are
> worshipping false Gods that believe in the pleasures of illicit
> ‘Vyabichari’ relationships. (Page 39).
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