christianity-in-india

"Tipu’s own account corroborates the Diocese’s record stated above on what fate befell the Christians of Mangalore. In the Tarikh-i-Khudadadi, Tipu writes: The port of Kurial [Mangalore] fell into our hands; on which occasion the odious proceedings of the accursed Padres becoming fully known to us, and causing our zeal for the faith to boil over, we instantly directed the Diwan of the Huzoor Kuchery to prepare a list of all houses occupied by the Christians, taking care not to omit a single habitation. The officers of the Kuchery, accordingly, employing the Mutsaddies [civil officers] of Sode, Nagar, Kurial etc. for this purpose, soon prepared and delivered to us a detailed report on the subject. After this, we caused an officer and some soldiers to be stationed in every place inhabited by the Christians, signifying to them, that, at the end of a certain time, they should receive further orders, which they were then to carry into full effect. These men and officers being all arrived at their respective posts, the following orders were transmitted to them, viz. ‘On such a day of the week and the month, and at the hour of the morning prayer, let all the Christians, whatever their number may be, together with their women and children, be made prisoners and dispatched to our presence.’ And on the sealed cover, on superscription, of each of these dispatches, we specified the week and the month on which it was to be opened and read. Accordingly our orders were everywhere opened at the same moment; and at the same hour (namely, that of morning prayer) were the whole of the Christians, male and female, without the exception of a single individual, to the number of sixty thousand, made prisoners and dispatched to our Presence; from whence we caused them, after furnishing them duly with provisions, to be conveyed, under proper guards, to Seringapatam; to the Talukdars of which place we sent orders, directing that (the said Christians) should be divided into Risalas, or corps, of five hundred men, and a person of reputable and upright character placed, as Risaldar, at the head of each. Of these Risalas, four (together with their women and children) were directed to be stationed at each of the following places, where they were duly fed and clothed, and ultimately admitted to the honour of Islamism; and the appellation of Ahmady was bestowed upon the collective body."

"A Roman Catholic French priest, Abbé Jean-Antoine Dubois, who came to India in 1792 and returned to France after thirty-two years, in 1823, also records the travails of the Christians of Canara. He mentions: When the late Tippoo Sultan sought to extend his own religious creed all over his dominions, and make by little and little all the inhabitants in Mysore converts to Islamism, he wished to begin this fanatical undertaking with the native Christians living in his country, at the most odious to him, on the score their religion. In consequence, in the year 1784, he gave secret orders to his officers in the different districts, to make the most diligent inquiries after the places where the Christians were to be found, and to cause the whole of them to be seized on the same day, and conducted under strong escorts to Seringapatam. This order was punctually carried into execution; very few of them escaped and I have it from good authority that the aggregated number of the persons seized in this manner, amounted to more than 60,000. Sometime after their arrival at Seringapatam, Tippoo ordered the whole to undergo the rites of circumcision, and be made converts to Mahometanism. The Christians were put together during the several days after the ceremony lasted . . . after the fall of the late Tippoo Sultan most of these apostates came back to be reconciled to their former religion, saying that their apostasy had only been external, and they always kept in their hearts the true faith in Christ. Almost 2000 of them fell in my way and nearly 20,000 returned to the Mangalore district, from whence they had been carried away, and rebuilt there their former places of worship."

"James Scurry, the British prisoner in Srirangapatna, in his account mentions 30,000 unfortunate Malabar Christians who were marched off to the capital city. He recounts: The sufferings of these poor creatures were most excruciating . . . all who were fit to carry arms were circumcised, and forced into four battalions . . . when recovered [from circumcision], they were armed and drilled and ordered to Mysore, nine miles from the capital, but for what purpose we never could learn. Their daughters were many of them beautiful girls, and Tippoo was determined to have them for his seraglio; but this they refused; and Mysore was invested by his orders, and the four battalions were disarmed and brought prisoners to Seringapatam. This being done, the officers tied their hands behind them . . . their noses, ears, and upper lips were cut off; they were then mounted on asses, their faces towards the tail, and led through Patam [Srirangapatna], with a wretch before them proclaiming their crime. One fell from his beast, and expired on the spot through loss of blood. Such a mangled and bloody scene excited the compassion of numbers, and our hearts were ready to burst at the inhuman sight. It was reported that Tippoo relented in this case, and I rather think it is true as he never gave any further orders respecting their women. The twenty-six that survived were sent to his different arsenals, where, after the lapse of a few years, I saw several of them lingering out a most miserable existence."

"The Imperial Gazetteer Volume XIV states: When in 1784, Tippu succeeded in driving the English out of Kanara, he was determined on both political and religious grounds to convert the native Christians of Kanara to Islam. After taking a secret census, he despatched troops who arrested 60,000 or according to other accounts 30,000 out of 80,000 Christians found. The churches were dismantled and every trace of the Christian religion disappeared. Except infirm women and children, the prisoners were marched under strong military escort to Seringapatam . . . the men were circumcised, the unmarried girls were carried as concubines and many of the married women were badly treated."

"Almost miraculously, the Indian government in New Delhi granted a permit for us to enter Nagaland in late November. This permission was in response to an appeal from a delegation headed by the Reverend Longri Ao and other church leaders from Nagaland. (Assisting them was a gifted young Indian clergyman named Robert Cunville, who was head of the North East India Christian Council and had been invited to be director of youth evangelism for the World Council of Churches; he later joined our Team as an evangelist and has had a wide ministry not only in India but in many other parts of the world as well.) Nevertheless, by the time we got to Bangkok on our way to India, news came of renewed guerrilla activity in the area, with several soldiers killed in an ambush."

"Early the next morning, I answered an insistent knock from two men at my Bangkok hotel door. One was a Nagaland layman, Lhulie Bizo, who happened to be traveling through Bangkok when he heard of our decision; the other was a former American missionary to Nagaland, Neal Jones. They strongly urged me to reverse the decision, pointing out the great harm that would be done to the churches if the meetings were canceled. They challenged me to trust God for the safety of the meetings. Believing that God had sent them, we agreed to continue with the original plans and went on to Calcutta that afternoon to arrange the final details."

"Our purpose in going to India was to preach in Nagaland, an isolated area tucked in the mountainous, jungle-covered northeast corner of India near the Burmese border. The area was home to a dozen separate tribes, each with its own dialect and often with a history of headhunting. Tensions among Nagaland’s tribes, and an armed guerrilla movement bent on independence from India, made it a highly unstable area. During Akbar Abdul-Haqq’s crusade five years before in Nagaland’s largest town (and capital), Kohima, three people had been killed during an assassination attempt against the Indian government’s chief representative."

"On one hand, because of Nagaland’s instability, very few foreigners were granted government permission to visit the area. On the other hand, Nagaland was home to one of the largest concentrations of Christians in India; at the time of our visit, more than half the population of 500,000 were Christians, almost all living in villages. November 1972 marked the hundredth anniversary of the coming of Baptist missionaries to Nagaland, and we were invited to Kohima as part of that celebration."

"In 1972, Billy Graham returned to India. The Hindu on 24th November 1972 published a report that read as follows: The noted American evangelist, Dr. Billy Graham, to-night expressed the hope that his visit to this country would help improve relations between India and the United States. Dr. Graham, who was talking to newsmen at the airport here on his arrival from Kohima, was asked if he was carrying any message from President Nixon for Mrs. Indira Gandhi. “I am sorry, I can’t answer that,” he replied. Dr. Graham, a close friend of Mr. Nixon, is scheduled to meet Mrs. Gandhi on Monday. Dr Graham said the Indian Government had gone out of the way in permitting him to visit Nagaland. “I am grateful for this,” he added. During his stay in the capital, he will also call on the President, Mr. V.V. Giri. Earlier, talking to newsmen at Calcutta airport, Dr Graham said he had talks with Mr Nixon twice before he left for India. “I love India and I want the United States and India to become very close friends. This is necessary because we need each other for our mutual interests,” he said."

"I have shown the admissions of the Jesuit Archbishop of Calcutta and of the Anglican Bishop of Ranchi that, in so far as religion is concerned, the change of faith has practically no meaning for adult men and women amongst aboriginal people. It is to my mind clear from the methods adopted by the Roman Catholic Missionaries that they too know that the theory of freedom of conscience is a sham. They know fully well that, as the historical account of missionary enterprise which I have given abundantly proves, the aboriginal people of this part of India change their faith and accept Christianity in the expectation only of material benefits to be received. True religion has nothing whatever to do with the matter."

"This officer is of opinion that in course of time the Jesuits will convert all the aborigines of all the States in this part of the Agency. If this were to occur and foreign priests were to be given full freedom of entry and residence the result might be virtually a foreign Government of the whole group."

"Describing the position as it is today in Jashpur, the Superintendent gives the population of the State as 193,000, the number of Catholics 50,000 and the Lutherans 4,000. Christians are now to be found in practically all villages of the State (and continuous pressure is being exerted by the Fathers to secure conversion of the remaining part of the population.)"

"Mr. Blakesley made a thorough enquiry in Jashpur and submitted a full report to the Local Government in 1913. He found that the movement towards Christianity in the Jashpur State was in no sense a religious one, it was one actuated in lesser measure by the expectation of social benefits to be obtained, Christians being able to get their children married by the missionaries in the adjoining districts of British India without incurring heavy expenditure, but the real governing causes were political and agrarian………. He found that the missionaries had advanced loans to many of their converts and that the missionaries had a considerable hold on them by means of these loans. He found that the catechists interfered on every possible occasion in the temporal affairs of the Christian converts. ‘These catechists carried complaint to the missionaries, wrote petitions for the converts, accompanied them to the courts, worked out cases for them and generally acted as unrecognised Vakils, the State authorities having no control over them at all’."

"Colonel Murphy went immediately to Udaipur and visited 15 of the villages, his visit being without any previous intimation. He found that the statement that the movement of the people in the Udaipur State towards Christianity was entirely spontaneous and actuated by a knowledge of the benefits to be received was entirely incorrect. The people concerned had no knowledge whatever regarding such benefits and had been actuated by one idea and one idea only, that being the receipt of money from the mission on loan……… He found that the information bad been disseminated throughout this area of the State that loans were to be readily obtained at the mission station at Tapkara on a note of hand without security, all that was required of payers being that they should have their top-knot cut off …… that when one member of a family had taken a loan all the members of that family were shown as would be converts……… Christian schools had been started by catechists who had invaded the State from Jashpur and in one instance a mission teacher had stopped the boys from going to the State school. People questioned made it plain that their only purpose in going to the mission station had been to get money and all said that without this payment of money none would have sought to become Christian."

"On the twenty-ninth of the same month, being the day of S. Pietro Martire, who, they say, was the Founder of the Inquisition against Hereticks, the Inquisitors of Goa made a Festival before their House of the Inquisition which is in the Piazza of the Cathedral and was sometimes the Palace of Sabaio, Prince of Goa, when the Portugals took it, whence it is still call’d la Piazza di Sabaio. After solemn Mass had been sung in the Church of San Dominico, as Vespers had been the day before, in presence of the Inquisitors, who, coming to fetch the Fryers in Procession, repair’d thereunto in Pontificalibus, in the evening, many carreers were run on horse-back by the Portugal Gentry, invited purposely by the Inquisitors; and a day or two after (for this Evening was not sufficient for so many things) there was in the same Piazza a Hunting, or Baiting, of Bulls after the Spanish fashion; but the Beasts, being tame and spiritless, afforded little sport; so that I had not the curiosity to be present at it. This is a new Festival lately instituted by the present Inquisitors, who, I believe, will continue it yearly hereafter."

"In the Evening of every Fryday of Lent there is a Sermon upon the Passion in the Church of Giesu; and so likewise in other Churches, but upon other dayes and hours. At the end of these Sermons certain Tabernacles are open’d, and divers figures, representing some passages of the Passion (according to the subject of the Sermon), are with lighted Tapers shewn to the People; as one day that of the ‘Ecce Homo;’ another day Our Lord with the Cross upon his shoulders; and the last day the Crucifix; and so every day one thing suitable to the purpose. Oftentimes they make these figures move and turn, as they made the Robe fall off from the Ecce Homo and discover the wounded Body; at which sight the devout People utter prodigious Cryes, and the Women force themselves to shriek out; and the Signore, or Gentlewomen, are so zealous that they not onely cry out themselves, but make their Maids do so too and beat them even in the Church if they do not and that very loudly, whether they have a will to it, or no. Strange devotion indeed!"

"There also took place in this year the destruction of the Hindu temples which existed in these territories of Your Majesty, of which none remains, for the priests of St. Francis also razed out of memory all those which existed in Bardez."

"On March the first there was also another Procession in Goa of the Disciplinanti, which I went not to see; the like is made every Fryday during all Lent, and therefore I shall not stay to describe it. I believe there is no City in the world where there are more Processions than in Goa all the year long; and the reason is because the Religious Orders are numerous, and much more than the City needs; they are also of great authority and very rich, and the People, being naturally idle and addicted to Shews, neglecting other Cares of more weight and perhaps more profitable to the Publick, readily employ themselves in these matters; which, however good as sacred ceremonies and parts of divine worship, yet in such a City as this which borders upon Enemies and is the Metropolis of a Kingdom lying in the midst of Barbarians and so alwayes at Warr, and where nothing else should be minded but Arms and Fleets, seem according to worldly Policy unprofitable and too frequent, as also so great a number of Religious and Ecclesiastical persons is burdensome to the State and prejudicial to the Militia."

"Minguel Vaz, was so much favoured by the king, and a man of such quick despatch and se-much in a hurry that, having left India in January of 1545, he was back in Goa once again in October of 1546. He commenced to destroy Hindu temples and to suppress idolatry in accordance with the amplest provisions and powers which he had brought, and provoked against himself the odium of the Hindus to such an extent that they gave him poison, of which he came to die at Chaul as generously as he had lived. There were in India men who had the temerity to impute his death to the jealousy of Bishop D. Joao de Albuquerque and wrote’ to Portugal to that effect."

"In this land of Goa and of the whole of India there are innumerable ancient edifices of the gentiles and in a little neighbouring island that is called Divari, the Portuguese in order to build the land (town) of Goa, have destroyed an ancient temple called a pagoda which was built with wonderful skill, with ancient figures of a certain black stone worked with very great perfection, of which some are standing, ruined and spoilt, but which these Portuguese hold in no esteem. Should I have in hand any (figure) thus ruined, I shall send it to Your Highness that Your Highness may see how in ancient times sculpture was appreciated every- where ."

"I order that no Hindu temple be erected in any of the territories of my King, the lord of these parts, and that Hindu temples which already have been erected be not repaired without my special permission, contravention of which will entail the penalty of such temples being destroyed and their value applied towards the expenses of pious works."

"Sunday, 25 December. Christmas Day. In the morning, after having prayed in the Carmelite Church, I went to the Cathedral, where I hoped to hear a good sermon, and to see the Viceroy in his splendour and all the fine folk of Goa; but I was much surprised at finding hardly anyone in the streets and no worshippers in the church of Saye [Cathedral], or scarcely any priests to celebrate High Mass. After twelve O’clock I returned to the church and found the doors shut. I went to the Augustinians, the Paulists, the Dominicans, and the Franciscans, without getting my sermon; so I rang the bell at some convents to ask the porter when and where there was a preacher. They all informed me very rudely that there were no sermons that day, and that I had no business to ring their bell, at a time when the priests were at rest. I was, therefore, obliged to apologize to these good brother-porters and to ask them to excuse me, as I was a stranger and did not know the habits of the Indian-Portuguese. I returned, scandalized at not finding any service or sermon, and not even a church open for prayer on Christmas Day in this large city of Goa, formerly so flourishing and celebrated for its divine worship and the propagation of our Holy Faith. When I returned to the Carmelite Fathers, I did not fail to express my astonishment at this to the Father Superior, who, being French, knew well with what solemnities and crowds of worshippers we celebrate Christmas in our churches in France. He laughed at hearing my complaints of the want of devotion I had found that day in Goa; and told me that I must not be surprised, as it was the custom of the Portuguese. They sat up on the night of Christmas Eve for the Midnight Mass, and considered that God owed them a day’s rest after this effort, and therefore passed Christmas Day in repose or in feasting in their houses – laity as well as priests – which was the reason why so few people were in the streets and the churches were shut. He also told me that high-born ladies, if they were zealous and pious, and wished to hear Mass on that day, had an altar raised in their bedrooms and brought in a priest to say Mass at the foot of their beds. They stay in bed all day, in case of an indisposition which they feared might result from the hard work they had undergone in keeping awake in order to attend Midnight Mass. In this state they received visits from relations and friends, who came to pass the day in feasting with the doors shut. ‘What!’ I exclaimed to this Father, “are these the Christians who treat all other Christian nations as heretics and ignorant, compared to themselves. I should not be surprised if they celebrate in the same way the greatest festivals of our Church, or if they reform to the same extent the beautiful customs and practices which we employ to encourage devotion in our churches in Europe. No, I am no longer surprised to see them living in this fashion, as they will not recognize the authority, the bulls, nor the bishops coming from His Holiness, because forsooth the King of Portugal did not send them, nor ratify their missions.”"

"“‘ Around the territories of the neighbours of Goa, there exist in that island temples in which statues of the enemy of the Cross are worshipped and every year their festivals are celebrated. These are attended by many Christians, both Europeans and natives, which is very wrong in that it promotes idolatry. “It will be service to God if these temples in the island of Goa are destroyed and in their stead churches with saints are erected, and it is ordered that whosoever desires to live in this island and have house and lands.there should become a Christian, and if he does not wish to be one should go out of the island. I assure Your Majesty that there would then be no individual who did not turn to the faith of Our Lord Christ, because if exiled from, this island he will have no means of livelihood."

"Since my principal aim in regard to matters relating to these parts, which I have in mind oftener than any other, is that our Lord should be served and His faith increased, to me it appears good that from the mainlands of Bardez and Salsete which Idalcio presented to me should be abolished all vestiges of idolatry which therein exist and that efforts should be made to effect the conversion of the Hindus living therein."

"Since the goal of the conversion of infidels was the most important incentive that led the King our Lord to conquer these parts of India, once the island of Goa was conquered and its inhabitants at peace and accepting to be his vassals, the king sought to bring his holy intention to execution. He was informed that many inhabitants of the island were already Christians, but that the rest remained strong in their pagan faith. This was because they had been allowed to perform their rites and ceremonies to the idols they adore. The king therefore ordered that these idols be destroyed and that none would exist in the island of Goa and within its boundaries, and that in the lands under his dominion no pagan worship would be allowed. The purpose was that with this rigour of mercy (rigor de misericordia) they would forget their pagan cult and be converted to our holy faith, as already many had accepted and continue to accept conversion. In the fulfilment of this holy decision in the year [fifteen] forty the above mentioned idols were broken and destroyed."

"It would be a service to God to destroy these temples, just in this island of Goa, and to replace them by churches with saints. Anyone who wishes to live in this island should become a Christian, and in that case may retain his lands and houses just as he has them at present; but, if he is unwilling, let him leave the islands…It may be that these people will not become good Christians, but their children will be…and so God will be served…"

"“Until 1560 in Salsete there existed but one church and mission house in the fort of Rachol. In the course of less than 50 years a major part of the inhabitants of that province had embraced Christianity and 28 parishes had been established. It is known how such rapid and extensive conversions took place : some by fear of physical force; others from moral cowardice ; many because they could not overcome the love for the country of their birth from which they would otherwise be expelled ; not a few to avoid the loss of their properties and interests ; some with their eyes on lucrative jobs—and almost none from conviction. The conviction, the faith, these would come later....’’"

"In this land of Goa and the whole of India there are numerous ancient edifices of the pagans. In a small island nearby called Divari, the Portuguese in order to build the land of Goa have destroyed an ancient temple called Pagoda, which was built with a marvellous artifice, with ancient figures of a certain black stone worked with the greatest perfection, of which some still remain standing in ruins and damaged because the Portuguese do not hold them in any esteem. If I could obtain one of these sculptures thus ruined, I would have sent it to your lordship, so that you may judge in what great esteem sculpture was held in antiquity."

"As regards the first duty, viz., conversion of unbelievers, in these parts of India this does not commonly occur as a result of sermons and doctrine, but is effected by other just means, such as, obstructing the idolatrous practices of the unbelievers and meting out just punishment therefor, refusing them favours which can justly be refused, and offering them to those who are newly converted, and honouring, assisting and protecting the latter in order that others might thereby get converted. The Father of Novices should try his best to see that none of these means is left unavailed of and thus help the conversion of unbelievers. Since almost all of these means have already been approved by the sessions of Concilio Provincial in Goa and in the measures promulgated by the king of Portugal and his viceroys of India in favour of Christianity, the Father of Novices should strive to be thoroughly versed in all these things and try hard to see that all comply therewith and implement them, inasmuch as experience has shown, that many are thus converted."

"In 1534 Goa was made a bishopric with authority extending over the entire Far East. Special instructions were issued to the Portuguese Viceroy to root out the infidels. Hindu temples in Goa were destroyed and their property distributed to religious orders (like the Franciscans) in 1540 . The Inquisition was established in 1560."

"Since idolatry is so great an offence against God, as is manifest to all , it is just that Your Majesty should not permit it within your territories, and an order should be promulgated in Goa to the effect that in the whole island there should not be any temple public or secret, contravention whereof should entail grave penalities ; that no oiticial should make idols in any torm, neither of stone, nor of wood, nor of copper nor of any other metal; that no Hindu festival should be publicly celebrated in the whole island ; that Brahmin preachers from the mainland should not gather in the houses of the Hindus ; and that persons who are in charge of St. Paul’s should have the power to search the houses of the Brahmins and other Hindus, in case there exists a presumption or suspicion of the existence of idols there. ... If Our Lord defend the lands of Salsete and Bardez, which he caused Idalc&io (Adilshah) to give to Your Majesty, as it will please Him to do on account of your piety, it will be just and proper that in His interest and that of Your Majesty, you should, for commendation and honour of God, remove all traces of idolatry which exist therein and work for the conversion of these adjoining lands."

"On the 28th of June of 1541 in his own dwelling at Goa, ...they were informed by the same Controller of Finances, that a few days earlier they were told that they should, with free will, be prepared to give and donate the income of the lands belonging to the temples and situated in this island, since these temples were entirely destroyed and there was no chance of their ever being built again and as previously they did not use this income fruitfully but spent all of it towards the same temples and its Gurous (ministers), dancing girls, brahmins, blacksmiths, carpenters, washermen, barbers, shoemakers, painters and other servants of the aforesaid temples...”, it was resolved that the income should in future be applied towards and donated to the chapels built in this island, and also to defray the expenses of the confraternity of the converts to the faith."

"In testimony before the NCM, Nayak notes that “Christian missionaries in the area” are converting tribals with means that are “ clearly questionable and even illegal”. ” He asserts, “They have been using a curious mix of blind faith and allurements to entice the innocent tribals into the Christian fold.” ...Nayak notes that converted tribals under the influence of preachers desecrated Hindu idols at least fifteen times in the three years preceding the Dangs violence. Converted tribals have also abused Hindu idols as “devils” and urinated on them. According to Nayak, “The ire against Christians in the area has been rising for past few years and has reached a boil now because of the provocative activities of the Christians, under the influence of their preachers”."

"The veteran Gandhians reveal that while the VHP and its affiliates have no worthwhile presence in Dangs, the church has imported as many as five hundred missionaries in recent years to speed up conversions. They charge that “during the last five years, nearly two dozen idols of Lord Shiva and Hanuman, revered by all tribals, have been desecrated or broken. The ancient beliefs of the tribals have been mocked at openly and every effort has been done to browbeat and harass them into submission.” Tribal resentment, they say, has long been simmering, and merely came to a boil on December 25 when Christians began stoning a Hindu Jagran Manch rally... A scrutiny of the concerted response to the Gujarat events is equally enlightening. The nation-wide chorus of condemnation against the VHP, despite contradictory reports by the local press, was a shade too organised. The Congress conducted the orchestra skilfully, playing up Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Dangs by alluding to her alleged reluctance to identify with “her community.”"

"The Portuguese power became ruthless the more it got itself established in India. Royal Charters were issued from time to time making invidious distinctions between Christians and non-Christians and subjecting the latter to untold disabilities. In 1559 an enactment was passed debarring all Hindus from holding any public office. In the same year another law was enacted confiscating the properties of non-Christian orphans if they refused to be converted to Christianity. Yet another law ordered destruction of Hindu temples and images and prohibited all non-Christian religious festivals. In 1560 all the Brahmans and goldsmiths were ordered to accept Christianity otherwise they were to be turned out of Goa. By a law passed in 1567 the Hindus were prohibited from performing their important religious ceremonies such as investiture of sacred thread, marriage ceremonies and even cremation rites. Hindu religious books were proscribed. All non-Christians above the age of 15 were forced to attend the preaching of Christian religion. Hindu temples were destroyed and in their place churches were built. In 1575 another law was passed by which the Hindu nationals were debarred from their civic right of renting state land. People of Goa were prohibited to use their native language by an order of 1684 and were allowed three years to learn the Portuguese language under pain of being proceeded against under law of the land."

"At least from 1540 onwards, and in the island of Goa before that year, all the Hindu idols had been annihilated or had disappeared, all the temples had been destroyed and their sites and building materials were in most cases utilised to erect new Christian churches and chapels. Various vice regal and Church council decrees banished the Hindu priests from the Portuguese territories; the public practice of Hindu rites including marriage rites, was banned; the state took upon itself the task of bringing up the Hindu orphan children; the Hindus were denied certain employments, while the Christians were preferred; it was ensured that the Hindus would not harass those who became Christians, and on the contrary, the Hindus were obliged to assemble periodically in churches to listen to preaching or to the refutation of their religion."

"All the Hindu temples be destroyed, not leaving a single one on any of the islands."

"Whereas all those who came out here were soldiers, who went about conquering lands and enslaving people, these same soldiers began to baptize the said people whom they enslaved without any respect and reverence for the sacrament, and without any catechizing or indoctrination. And since the inhabitants of these countries are very miserable, poor and cowardly, some were baptized through fear, others through worldly gain, and others for filthy and disgusting reasons which I need not mention…Many people come in order to be baptized, and I ask them why they want to become Christians. Some reply because the lord of the land tyrannizes and oppresses them, and others reply that they must become Christians because they have nothing to eat. I then make them a little speech, explaining briefly what it means to be a Christian and why they should become one, for which purpose they must come for fifteen or twenty days to the church for instruction in the Christian faith, after which I will baptize them. They usually answer that they will become Christians if I baptize them there and then. Otherwise they will go away and not return, and this in fact is what they do."

"You will be rendering great service to God if from this island you send to Portugal a Hindu individual Krishna by name, a great servant of yours, who is here sunk in heathenism but has come very near to Christ as I have spoken many times to him, and gives no excuse other than that in Portugal after seeing Your Majesty he will convert himself to Christianity. Your Majesty should order that the poor mendicants who are known as Jogis should not enter this island from the mainland, because they bring flowers used in worship and other relics of their temples and devils with which they restore the heathenism of local people. In this island of Goa a friar has placed some crosses in the Hindu temples and the Hindus say that others come and tell them that they are already Christians and the latter would not speak with them any longer. ‘Sir, there is a great temple in this island of Divar which has much freestone and a large part of it is already destroyed. We pray Your Majesty to make a gift of it to this monastery."

"From the artifacts discovered by archeologists at San Thome, one can infer that the temple should have existed elsewhere and most probably it existed at San Thome beach . . . because remnants of the old temple were discovered at San Thome beach. In 1923 when archeologists conducted excavations at San Thome cathedral they discovered inscriptions and statues. The inscriptions indicated a temple. [. . .] Saint Arunagiri Nathar also mentions that Kapaleeswara temple existed by the side of the beach. . . . Hence, in conclusion, one can state that the old Kapaleeswara temple was destroyed by Portuguese in the fifteenth century and was built in its present place by Nattu Nayiniappa Muthaliar and son in the sixteenth century."

"The identification of the tomb discovered by the Portuguese as that of St Thomas has been thoroughly repudiated even by those scholars who are sympathetic to the Thomas legend. For example, Jesuit archeologist Fr H. Heras writes: 'Some early Portuguese writers have kept the details of the original account, and these details are quite enough for disclosing the untruthfulness of the discovery'. Another Christian scholar, T.K. Joseph, states with regard to the burial place of Thomas: 'I am fully convinced that it has never been in Mylapore. I have stated that many times'."

"Archeological studies by the Government of India confirm that the Portuguese built the church on the ruins of a Hindu temple. They have recovered an inscription of Rajendra Chola, the Imperial Chola who was devoted to the Vedic religion. A 1967 report of the Archaeological Survey of India on the recovery of the eleventh-century inscription of Rajendra Chola from San Thome Church in Madras states that the inscription mentions the Chola king as favored by Lakshmi, 'who grants him victory and prosperity'."

"“Colonel Murphy went immediately to Udaipur and visited 15 of the villages, his visit being without any previous intimation. He found that the statement that the movement of the people in the Udaipur State towards Christianity was entirely spontaneous and actuated by a knowledge of the benefits to be received was entirely incorrect. The people concerned had no knowledge whatever regarding such benefits and had been actuated by one idea and one idea only, that being the receipt of money from the mission on loan……… He found that the information bad been disseminated throughout this area of the State that loans were to be readily obtained at the mission station at Tapkara on a note of hand without security, all that was required of payers being that they should have their top-knot cut off …… that when one member of a family had taken a loan all the members of that family were shown as would be converts……… Christian schools had been started by catechists who had invaded the State from Jashpur and in one instance a mission teacher had stopped the boys from going to the State school. People questioned made it plain that their only purpose in going to the mission station had been to get money and all said that without this payment of money none would have sought to become Christian.”"

"Secularism in the modern West had symbolized a humanist and rationalist revolt against the closed creed of Christianity and stood for pluralism such as has characterized Hinduism down the ages. But Pandit Nehru had perverted the word and turned it into a shield for protecting every closed creed prevailing in India at the dawn of independence in 1947 Islam, Christianity, Communism."

"“Mr. Blakesley made a thorough enquiry in Jashpur and submitted a full report to the Local Government in 1913. He found that the movement towards Christianity in the Jashpur State was in no sense a religious one, it was one actuated in lesser measure by the expectation of social benefits to be obtained, Christians being able to get their children married by the missionaries in the adjoining districts of British India without incurring heavy expenditure, but the real governing causes were political and agrarian………. He found that the missionaries had advanced loans to many of their converts and that the missionaries had a considerable hold on them by means of these loans. He found that the catechists interfered on every possible occasion in the temporal affairs of the Christian converts. ‘These catechists carried complaint to the missionaries, wrote petitions for the converts, accompanied them to the courts, worked out cases for them and generally acted as unrecognised Vakils, the State authorities having no control over them at all’.”"

"It is, therefore, no exaggeration to say that the “architect of modern India” was no more than a combined embodiment of all imperialist ideologies which had flocked to this ancient land in the company of alien invaders Islam, Christianity, White Man’s Burden, and Communism."

"The Constitution of independent India adopted in January 1950 made things quite smooth for the Christian missions. They surged forward with renewed vigour. Nationalist resistance to what had been viewed as an imperialist incubus during the Struggle for Freedom from British rule, broke down when the very leaders who had frowned upon it started speaking in its favour. Voices which still remained ‘recalcitrant’ were sought to be silenced by being branded as those of ‘Hindu communalism’. Nehruvian Secularism had stolen a march under the smokescreen of Mahatma Gandhi’s sarva-dharma-samabhAva"

"The Christian missionary orchestra in India after independence has continued to rise from one crescendo to another with the applause of the Nehruvian establishment manned by a brood of self-alienated Hindus spawned by missionary-macaulayite education. The only rift in the lute has been K.M. Panikkar’s Asia and Western Dominance published in 1953, the Report of the Christian Missionary Activities Committee Madhya Pradesh published in 1956, Om Prakash Tyagi’s Bill on Freedom of Religion introduced in the Lok Sabha in 1978, Arun Shourie’s Missionaries in India published in 1994 and the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Bill introduced in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly by Mangal Prabhat Lodha, M.L.A. on 20 December 1996."

"“Describing the position as it is today in Jashpur, the Superintendent gives the population of the State as 193,000, the number of Catholics 50,000 and the Lutherans 4,000. Christians are now to be found in practically all villages of the State (and continuous pressure is being exerted by the Fathers to secure conversion of the remaining part of the population.)”"

"The name of this volume which combines the reprint with an introduction has been suggested by Arun Shourie, as in the case of Hindu Temples: What Happened to them."