A member sent a cutting about the pope wanting to convert Asia...well that the only way as the west is becoming agostic by the day...
Churchs in england are becoming pubs...mosques and recently in Glasgow a South Indian Temple....The purist might argue any building cannot become a temple there are certain agamas to be observed..
Members were posting about Christians in general there are many factions and denominations amongst them as well...
There may be influenced conversion but the earlier ones were the easy way out for those without any means...
I am a stnach hindu was educated in catholic schools because the only good school in Thanjavur made it nosecret that brahmins were given priority....
the only other school was Rajah's....the schools in Thanjavur then were St Antony's, st Peter's, Sacred Heart and later DonBosco Kalyana Sundaram was offlimits for most
The schools did not convert a whole generation of Thanjavur tamils did they?
Its now we have various hindu charities having schools in Thanjavur...
We have had this debate that the christain schools get more state grants than hindu schools in the secular country...
Early hindus who converted converted for the reason they felt they did NOT belong....It is not the religeons fault it is how people interpreted the religeon totheir convenience....
They were coerced with Power...Money...but a lot left in the expectation of greener pastures..May be our people were at fault to let them go...Why did Ambedkar convert with his followers into buddism?
Kind regards
Sri
If I can stop one heart from breaking,I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching,Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin, Into his nest again, I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson
Conversion for money or belief in faith is not an issue. We cannot hold any one.
The real issue is something different. The conversion is happenning by making people feel bad about their culture. The recent nandanar campaign is one for eg.
Coupled with the support from Government and the politicians ( since they are a strong vote bank) an average Hindu feels suffocated with this.
A Christian school can insist that students should not wear a thilak ( inspite of a Government grant for running the school) but a school run by Hindus cannot try to impose something like that. ( we dont want either) The grant will be cut.
A Madadibathi needs to face a trial by media but a father cannot be even arrested. Even arrested his release a 5 page article but the aquital of a swami is third page 4 line news. ( For which the media ran front page articles ) You can say man biting a dog news alone sells and not vice versa.
The situation in kanyakumari will summarise the following. The district is now 50 - 50.
See the recent parlimentary election result.
In Kanyakumari constituency J.Helen Davidson of DMK won by a difference of 65584 votes. She got totally 320161 votes. Pon.Radha Krishnan of BJP Krishnan got 254474 votes. Complete polarisation. AIADMK lost deposit.
Now Tuticorin, Thirunelveli, Thiruvallore, kanchipuram, cuddalore, villupuram and TV Malai are targets.
Moderandi is simple: Create a conflict. make it big. Give caste colour. Feed misinfo like nandanar wall, tamil culture etc. Then convert.
The adheenams , Mutts and simillar Local institutions have taken a low profile now after the Jeayndrar episode.. But RK Mission, Chinmaya, RSS etc who have a stronger back up are active.
It is not education and poverty alone in TN but the mis info which started by dravidian movements is the reason. Intrestingly the people who started are now more Hindu than the avg but the victims are somebody else.
The Catholics are now more vocal against conversion because they are the most affected. ( ie to other christian denomination)
Personally i feel that the new evangelist groups are like some chain link companies and are no issue individually. When the group together and start wielding power, control local politics with votes become a threat.
More than that, History, Culture and Religion are attacked with the support of media.
> The real issue is something different. The conversion is happenning by making people feel bad about their culture. The recent nandanar campaign is one for eg.
appears that issue is not recent. the father of the nation is involved almost a century back
I thought the father of the nation worked for the Upliftment. Not to make feel bad about their culture. You know my appreciation for Periyar on the upliftment work. ( My views on that was hotly contested)
In fact Appar worked for it on 6th century ( avuruithu thinnum) and Ramanujar later.
One clearly needs to make the distinction between institutions and people. The institution might be bad, but that does not make the people bad. For example let us take the recent global economic meltdown. It is clear the Investment Banks (a.k.a Wall Street) went greedy and did things that were quite out of the ordinary. One could even allege some of the top folks were corrupt. But what about the entry level Investment Banker or say a janitor working in these banks? Were they corrupt? They are just doing their duties, minding their own little business, feeding their families, giving out charities, enjoy/suffering life like anyone else, no? There might be even departments that in no way are connected with the Corporate greed or corruption; yet they are all part of the system. We all are whether we want or not.
As far as the brahmins and christian missionaries. Do you remember J.A.Dubois? The missionary who wrote "Hindu Manners Customs and Ceremonies..."? There were designed efforts made to first convert Brahmins first.
What is "Kothu Vangal"? Seriously, I am curious to know this term. In the course of studing different types of arguments and fallacies I know some of the English terms; but I like to understand little bit more about this tamil phrase. I have heard it several times but never pondered deep about it.
It seems to be similar to baiting somebody? Am I correct? Or is it equivalent to creating Straw-man type of argument.
A jewel of a message. Thanks for clear enunciation.Recent Satyam scandal. A knowledge based organisation, with tight MIS, planning, production and project controls, had 10,000 virtual people on payroll and were paid without physical presence or code output. All this done through normal system channels. Even the news reports in the financial sections about top executives of satyam from India and US divesting their shares one year before the scandal broke out did not make sebi or government wiser!
Initial call to bankrupt satyam, fortunately, was not done, as only the employees and small investors will be the losers and not the sharks. Sampath
Kothu Vangal - It is some thing like taking a line out of context and building an argument around it. by picking pick a jasmine from this bunch and then go to a rose in the next bunch and finally come out with a colorful mala.
That is how the great arguments were fought. Like the one the pundit explained yesterday about his student asking on thali afterkanya dan.
we were talking about hindu temples being established through out west on sites of churches. it must be a question of technicality. perhaps that church land is classified as only for religious purposes. so putting up a temple in an existing locality could only be in such a land
Kind regards Sri If I can stop one heart from breaking,I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching,Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin, Into his nest again, I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson