Christian Missioanaries torture Hindu family for not converting

The Fact Finding Committee Report

During the month of April, 2006, it was reported in the press and electronic media that certain activists of Christian community have been carrying out undesirable activities at the holy places of Tirumala Hills and Tirupathi and these acts have been severely hurting and agitating the religious feelings of the multitude of devout Hindus. Therefore, taking into consideration the seriousness of the situation, His Holiness Sri Sri Sri Visweswara Theertha of Pejavar Mutt, Udipi, requested us viz., Sri Justice G. Bikshapathy, Sri Justice K.B. Siddappa, former Judges of Andhra Pradesh High Court, Sri T.S. Rao, former Director General of Police, Andhra Pradesh, Smt. Dr. P. Geervani, former Vice-Chancellor of Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswa Vidyala and Sri Dr. R. Shrihari, Former Vice-Chancellor of Dravidian University, Kuppam, to function as a Fact Finding Committee under the Chairmanship of Sri Justice G.

Bikshapathy to ascertain the factual position as regards the activities of Non-Hindu religious communities in Tirumala and Tirupathi and to furnish a report to His Holiness for considering the steps to be taken to prevent undesirable activities of the Christian and other Non-Hindu Communities.

On an analysis of the information furnished by the members of the public before the
Committee, the following facts emerge.

Activities relating to Propagation and Conversion to Christianity

(i) Members of the Christian Community distributed religious pamphlets and copies of Bible to the students who were returning after writing the EAMCET examinations conducted at various centres inTirupathi in May, 2006. Apart from other persons, who deposed before the Committee, this information was also disclosed by the son of Sri Prabhakara Acharya, Secretary of Vaikhanasa Ashram at Tirumala, who appeared for the EAMCET examinations. This activity of the Christians led to serious tense situation in Tirupathi. It was also revealed to the Committee that large number of women and men, dividing themselves into several groups, distributed Christian religious material at various places including EAMCET centres. Some student organizations protested against these activities. Police had to intervene to maintain law and order.

(ii) On 9th of April, 2006, two Christians by name Balaraju (pastor) and Babu while coming down from Tirumala to Tirupathi in bus bearing No.AP 11Z 1130 distributed pamphlets propagating Christianity to the pilgrims travelling in that bus. One of the passengers by name Sri Arvind of Hyderabad complained the matter to the AV&SO Sri S. Sivananda Kishore, who after enquiry gave a report dated 11.4.2006 to the Vigilance and Security Officer, TTD (Copy of the report is enclosed as Annexure-III). Basing on his report, a case in Crime No.8/2006 (copy of FIR dated 11.04.2006 is enclosed as Annexure-IV) was registered against S. Balaraju and P. Babu, residents of Tirupathi and the police took up investigation.

On the basis of the said complaint, Sri R. Sivananda Kishore (AV&SO, Sector-III, TTD, Tirumala), in his report recommended as follows: "In the light of instant case, the following recommendations may be considered to avoid recurrence of such incidents in future.

1. As per Rule 197 of APCHR and E Act 1987 the population living in Tirumala shall adhere to the norms and shall follow the sentiments of Hindu Religion. As such thorough probe has to be taken up to verify the antecedents of Non-Hindu Employees who are working in TTD as well as Government departments i.e., Police, Fire Services, Commercial Taxes and etc., who are staying in Tirumala. The identified employees and their families shall be shifted from Tirumala.

2. Some of the family members of the TTD employees such as wife, children are practicing Christian ideology and inviting the Pastors to conduct prayers in their houses at Tirumala. The above aspect may be carefully examined and steps taken to prevent the above activities in Tirumala.

3. In the Rule 198 of APCHR & E Act 1987 the following activities shall be prohibited at Tirumala :-

   1. Carrying and possession of Holy books of other religions like BIBLE, QURAN etc.

   2. Any kind of propagation of other than Hindu religion by way of distribution of pamphlets, Literature, Brochures, Stickers, Banners, Flags, including prayers and speeches etc."

(iii) It is reported that two Christian women belonging to Chilakuluripet were found in the TTD queue complex and they were caught red-handed on 26.4.2006 distributing religious pamphlets to the pilgrims in the queue and were handed over to the Deputy Superintendent of Police at Tirumala by the pilgrims themselves. The Committee was informed that the Vigilance personnel took into custody these two Christian women and produced them before the DSP, Tirumala. The Committee was told that the Special Officer got released those two women after questioning them and arranged special darshan and gave Prasadam. When the Committee met the Executive Officer on 22.06.2006, Special Officer Sri Dharma Reddy was present and he told the Committee that those two women came from an old age home run by a Christian Mission and they stated that as per the wish of some of the inmates of the old age home who were suffering from AIDS, they came to get Prasadam for distributing it to those inmates, and on that representation of the two women, he permitted them to have darshan after signing the requisite declaration and gave them the Prasadam. No name of the Old Age home was disclosed. It is highly unlikely that a Christian would travel long distance to visit Tirumala to collect Prasadam offered by a Hindu Religious Temple to be given to the inmates of an old age home run by a Christian Mission. It should be noted that the two women did not disclose to the concerned TTD officials before entering the queue complex that they were Christians, and they got into the queue complex without signing the requisite declaration and obtaining permission of the concerned TTD officials.

(iv) Two Christians viz., David (pastor) and Kumar, were found propagating Christianity in Tirumala and they were handed over to police. The police seem to have registered a case and kept them for two days on remand. Those two persons admitted that they committed a mistake. The EO, TTD who stated that the two were indulging in religious propaganda, also confirmed this. However, strangely the Special Officer, Sri Dharma Reddy, stated that they did not indulge in any Christian propaganda. The two Christians were eventually released without taking any action against them. On 21st May 2006, Special Officer Sri Dharma Reddy held press conference in which he stated that no Christian religious propaganda was going on in Tirumala. It is evident that he is not taking a serious view of these objectionable activities of the Christians at the holy place of Tirumala.

Propagation of Christian religion in educational institutions in Tirupathi

(i) Educational institutions at Tirupathi were established on TTD land and with TTD funds. It is brought to the notice of the Committee that in the colleges and hostels at Tirupathi, Christian religious propagation is rampant. The Christian students themselves are acting as propagators. Sri Deva Sangeetham, Principal of S.V. University College is openly indulging in propagating and converting the students to Christianity by making them go to Church, reading Bible and creating disaffection towards Hindu religion. After Sri Deva Sangeetham has taken charge as Principal, the practice of garlanding the portrait of Lord Venkateswara was stopped.

(ii) After Smt. Veena Noble Das took charge as Vice-chancellor of Padmavathi Mahila University, she got removed the photos of Lord Venkateswara and Goddess Padmavathi from all the institutions of the Mahila University and she also got removed the portrait of Lord Venkateswara from her office and discontinued the practice of garlanding the portraits of Lord Venkateswara and Goddess Padmavathi everyday. Instead she kept a portrait of Jesus Christ and the Cross n her office table. She is sending batches of students in the University buses to the church. It is also stated that in the Mahila University, the students are not allowed to have tilak on the forehead now a days and that students putting tilak are being discriminated.

Employment in the TTD

It is brought to the notice of the Committee that only Hindus have to be appointed as employees in the TTD. However the EO stated that for some period this was not followed with the result that some Muslim personnel came to be appointed. He further stated that steps are being taken to shift them to some other places gradually. It is further brought to the notice of the Committee that some employees in the TTD are also professing Christianity and that in the police quarters also congregations and prayers are being conducted regularly. There are about 40 Christian families residing in Tirumala and they are holding religious congregations at their houses on Sundays. It is stated that even in the Annadanam Complex there is one employee viz., Sri Ananda Raju belonging to Christian community, working as superintendent. The EO has stated that he will enquire and take action. It is also stated that one Christian lady is also working in the electrical department. Gopinath, Garden Superintendent also belongs to Christian community.

Non-Hindu Employees of TTD and their activities

It is brought to the notice of the Committee that many people from Christian and Muslim communities were being employed in the TTD and some of the Hindu employees were even converted as Christians and they practice the Christianity. About 40 families in Balaji Colony are Christians. They hold congregations and prayers on Sundays. The Committee is informed that Gopinath who was posted on deputation as Garden Superintendent is a Christian and that he criticizes worshipping Lord Venkateswara saying why should a black stone be decorated with garlands, and that he indulges in criticizing Hindu Religion. Considering the above facts and circumstances, the Committee is of the opinion that the propagation of Christianity with an ulterior motive of conversion is taking place in Tirupathi and Tirumala. Since the EO has categorically has assured the Committee that no such incidents will be allowed to take place, the matter has to be reviewed periodically.

Scouts and Guides

In the queue complex number of Scouts and Guides are deployed to regulate the pilgrims. It is understood that details of the religion of the persons who are so engaged is not verified and that some of them belong to non-Hindu communities. The Committee also observed that the Scouts and Guides are allowed into the main temple and to have Darshan. The Executive Officer has informed the Committee that he would take appropriate measures to prevent non-Hindus being deployed as Scouts and Guides in Tirumala.

Hawkers and Shopkeepers

It is brought to the notice of the Committee that there are number of hawkers who belong to Muslim community. Two instances are given. Shop Nos. 192 and 72 in the Shopping Complex are run by Sri Jamal Khadar and Maithri. When this is brought to the notice of EO he assured the Committee that he will look into the matter and take appropriate action. It is also further brought to the notice of the Committee that unauthorized hawkers are taken out of Tirumala by midnight and left in interior Bakrapeta forest area. Even in this process also, mainly Hindus are targeted and Muslims are rarely touched. Opposite to Lepakshi Emporium, there are about 50 Nepali shopkeepers who are Christians and they also offer prayers on Sundays, reading Bible and other Christian religious material in Tirumala. About 40 Muslim shopkeepers also are there in Tirumala. They offer Namaz on Fridays in Tirumala. There are also some Muslim hawkers mostly from Kadiri (Ananthapur District).

Contract Workers

The Committee is informed by the Executive Officer that on account of prohibition of recruitment in a number of departments like Health & Sanitation, Kalyanakatta, Roads and Buildings etc., workers are being engaged in those departments through contractors. Some of the contract workers so employed are Christians and Muslims and there is no check to see that only Hindus are engaged and to prevent non-Hindus being so engaged. . In this connection, TTD also stated that they did not verify the religion particulars of the contract labourers and also scouts and guides. The EO has assured that he will take necessary steps in this regard.

Dress Code and putting tilakam

Even though the EO has stated that dress code and tilakam were prescribed for the employees, these were not being strictly implemented. The Committee impressed upon the EO to implement it these strictly.

Other Illegal Activities in Tirumala

(i) The Committee is informed that various illegal activities both at Tirumala and Tirupathi are going on, such as sale and consumption of liquor, sale and consumption of meat, flesh trade, gambling etc.

(ii) It is also brought to the notice of the Committee that cow slaughter is also going on in down hill at Tirupathi near D.R. Mahal and that the meat is being transported to Tirumala clandestinely.

(iii) It is further brought to the notice of the Committee that TTD Kalyana Mandapam at Nagalapuram is being used by the Christians for their prayer congregations and for performance of Christian marriages. Near Sree Rama and Siva Temple in Tirupathi, Christian prayers and propagation of religion are taking place intercepting the Hindu devotees visiting the temples and persuade them to join Christianity.

(iv) It is also brought to the notice of the Committee that the newly constituted Specified Authority in place of the Board of Trustees, (the term of which has expired) is being headed by Sri D. Rosaiah, I.A.S. who is said to be a Christian.

(v) The Tourism Department is going to take up erection and operation of Rope Way from Tirupathi to Tirumala. It is also learnt that the Tourism Department plans to establish Multiplexes, Food Courts and other Entertainment and Recreational Spots on Tirumala Hills. The Committee feels that in order to facilitate the activities of Tourism Department on the hills, the area of TTD is restricted to two hills covering an area of 27.5 sq.kms.

Judgment

The EO was handed over a copy of the Judgment of a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court reported in 1997(2) ALD Page 59 (DB) - Tallapakam Koppu Raghavan Vs State of A .P. (Copy of the Judgment is enclosed as Annexure-V). The Division Bench has observed in that Judgment as follows:-

"Although there is no documentation available as the origin is lost in antiquity, there is no attempt made before us to question the ownership of the Lord Venkateswara of Seven Hills. This being true and a real concept the Board of Trustees, the Committee or the Executive Officer are only administrators of the property of Lord Venkateswara. They can have no right of ownership in themselves and they cannot thus decide to do anything against the interest of the right of the owner i.e., in the instant case, Lord Venkateswara. Once the ownership is resolved and the right to administer is deemed to vest as provided under Article 26 of the Constitution of India in the plurality of the devotees and regulated by the provisions of the Act and Rules framed thereunder, no administrator, whether appointed under the Act or otherwise can take liberty to destroy the sanctity and Holiness of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams and domain, as we have already held, extends to all the Seven Hills called 'Tirumala'."

The Sacred Seven Hills

The Committee is of the considered opinion that restricting the area of TTD to only 21 KMs covering 2 hills, runs counter to the ancient texts and age old traditions and practices of the temple and that the Hindus always considered Sri Venkateswara as Lord of the Seven Hills and lakhs of devotees climb the Seven Hills with utmost devotion and reverence bare footed chanting the names of Lord Venkateswara. The Committee further feels that opening the Seven Hills to the Tourism Department will destroy the sanctity, serenity and spirituality of the Seven Hills and will seriously hurt the feelings of the Hindus throughout the Country and the World.

Funds of The TTD

It is brought to the notice of the Committee that previously Hindu Dharma Parirakshana Samithi was organizing various activities like Harikathas, devotional lectures and concerts in religious music and dance by eminent artists. Now, the name Hindu has been removed and a Dharma Prachara Parishad is in its place which is hardly conducting any religious discourses by eminent Hindu spiritual leaders and is not conducting any religious cultural activities by prominent artists. The members of the public further expressed that eminent Hindu spiritual leaders should be invited to give discourses regularly at important places through out the country and even abroad. They are of the further opinion that contributions of the devotees running into Hundreds of Crores should be utilized only for Hindu Religious and Dharmic activities and various service activities in the name of Lord Venkateswara only. The funds should not be diverted to other activities.

The Committee was informed that the Devasthanam has donated considerable land to a Muslim organization for construction of Mosque which has seriously hurt and agitated Hindus and arousing their religious sentiments. Several persons have expressed that more than 35,000 temples in the State are not having any means for performing daily poojas and donating for other religions is wholly unwarranted.

Constitution of TTD Board and Committee

It is the general view of the public that TTD Board and its Committees should comprise of eminent devout Hindus who have contributed to the development of the Hindu faith and spirituality and Government of the day should take the advice of the Hindu Dharmacharyas and Hindu Spiritual Leaders in making such appointments.

சா’தீ’யம்…கிறிஸ்தவ பாதிரியார்களையும் விட்டுவைக்கவில்லையே…

Velankanni: Death in the churchyard!

It was a watery death for hundreds of pilgrims thronging the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health, the famous Catholic pilgrim centre in Velankanni in coastal south India [ Images ], on the Sunday after Christmas.

"We are still pulling out bodies from the beach. It would have been celebration at this time of the year in our church. But sadly, our shrine has suddenly turned out to be a burial ground," says Father P Xavier, rector of the shrine.

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Every year some 20 million pilgrims flock to the shrine from all over India and abroad. Many offer candles in the shape of affected organs, and most return with stories of miraculous healing of their ailment.

Hundreds return with small organ replicas in gold and silver to thank the Mother for healing them. Offerings, addressed to the shrine, are also occasionally thrown into the sea in sealed bottles or hollow bamboo.

December 26, Sunday. 9.30am.

It was meant to be a day of celebration. It was the beginning of the holiday season, and thousands, including the sick and the infirm, had come to pray at the shrine.

The Tamil mass in the shrine was over and the Malayalam mass had begun. Hundreds of Malayalis from neighouring Kerala [ Images ] were attending mass and tragedy struck.

Those on the shore scurried for cover from the wall of water. But the force of the waves blew most of them away. Though the waves receded in the same lightening speed that it had come, hundreds were caught in the swirling waters and pulled back into the sea.

But the killer tsunami crashed into the beach, the shrine's compound and nearby villages and hundreds of shops, homes and pilgrims were washed away into the sea.

The otherwise busy shrine on the seashore now wears a deserted look.

The compound wall of the church collapsed under the force of the waves. The seawater did not enter the shrine because it is on a higher plane compared to the beach.

But the waves took way hundreds of pilgrims who were on the beach.

The water gushed into the main road and arterial lanes leading to the shrine, inundating several shops and houses.

"We have no idea how many people died. But I have been leading rescue teams all day and night. We have extricated more than 300 bodies," says Father Xavier.

Rescue teams led by church authorities and the Nagapattinam district administration continue to scour for bodies in the sand and rocks strewn all over the place.

Heartrending scenes could be seen in the coastal villages around the shrine as rescue teams pulled out the bodies.

A large number of bodies are yet to be unidentified.

The church authorities have now begun digging mass graves to bury the pilgrims.

Caste Dispute Church Function Stopped

கீழ்விஷாரம்: சொந்த மண்ணில் திம்மிகளாக வாழ மறுத்த தமிழ் இந்துக்களின் போராட்டம்

ஆசிரியர் குழு

13 Nov 2009 |

சாதிகள் வக்கிரமடைந்தது எப்படி?

ஜடாயு

20 May 2010 |  அச்சிட

The weeks-long Hindu Christian riots in Kandhamal District of Orissa and similar incidents in Karnataka are not unlikely to be repeated in Andhra Pradesh very soon. In Orissa and Karnataka the riots are precipitated by the intensive, aggressive, extensive activities of hundreds of missionary organisations with thousands of fulltime, well-paid propagandists and agents. In Kandhamal District, alone there are 350 missionary organisations funded from all quarters of the world. They are engaging lots and lots of unemployed people, to inveigle poor and uneducated Hindus into Christianity by monetary rewards, given in installments related to the number of people that these full-time marketers of Christianity are able to convert. Aiding them are the fifth columns of a number of NGOs with enticing names, all funded by Christian missions from abroad? The fact that in Kandhamal District alone the Christian population has increased from 6 percent in 1970 to 27 percent in 2001, despite an Act enacted by Orissa Legislature in 1967 to prevent conversion shows the intensity of the multinational conversion, [MNC] enterprises marketing and financial clout.

In Karnataka, it is plain blasphemy, openly and aggressively indulged in by an MNC enterprise that has led to the Hindu-Christian strife. In Andhra Pradesh, strife is building up and will burst with great fury in not too distant a time. In Village after Village, different denominations of Christians are planting churches, recruiting converts as pastors, paying them handsomely, they are also engaging thousands of unemployed Hindu youth for propagating Christianity and gaining converts. These are being rewarded in installments. Just as the total compensation of company employees is having a fixed and varying components, fixed amount and varying amount related to the number of converts they are able to bring into Christianity. 

A look at the Table below shows the fantastically numerous places of worship or prayers of Muslims and Christians district-wise in our State it would be seen based upon Christian population is 1.44% as per the census of 2001, there is one place of worship for seven Christians and one place of worship for 39 Muslims and one place of worship for 341 Hindus.

Existing No. of Temples, Mosques and Churches in as on 31st March 2005.
(Revenue and Endowment Board of Andhra Pradesh)

Hideaway Communalism in The Indian Express

The letters that follow were exchanged between us and the Madras Indian Express resident editor K.V. Ramanathan in June 1990. Up to this time we had firmly believed that our essay on the myth of St. Thomas, written in reply to C.A. Simon's article, would receive due consideration at the Indian Express and would appear in some appropriate form in the newspaper. When this did not happen even three months after submission and when a query sent to the assistant editor C.P. Seshadri 1 was ignored, we sent a registered letter to K.V. Ramanathan on June 1st:

Enclosed is a copy of the article on the St. Thomas myth which I sent by registered post on March 9th to Mr. Seshadri. A query concerning its publication was sent later and never replied to.

This article has been accepted by a respected publisher and will appear in a few months time as a book entitled Saint Thomas: The Man, the Church and the Mylapore Shiva Temple. 2

I am currently expanding the material, and on page four of the revised script will add the footnote, "This article was written in reply to C.A. Simon's 'In Memory of a Slain Saint' which appeared in the Express Weekend of 30 December 1989. It has not been published to date nor has the Indian Expressresident editor at Madras replied to the author's queries."

It is not my wish to be unfair to you or the newspaper, and your comments or advice concerning the above note are welcome.

On the other hand, if you do intend to publish the article, or rather a summary of it as the full text cannot appear in a newspaper, then the same should be indicated to me within the next two weeks as I have a deadline to meet.

After months of silence, this letter elicited a response from the Indian Express. K.V. Ramanathan replied to it on June 11th:

Your letter dated the 1st of June.

I find that Express Weekend carried on 13th of January a letter from you commenting on Mr. C.A. Simon's "In Memory of a Slain Saint". We have also published letters from Swami Tapasyananda 3 and Mr. Ved Prakash on the same subject. It is not as if, therefore, the Indian Express refused to give space to your point of view. The availability of space being a severe constraint, Express Weekend finds it very difficult indeed to publish long articles. You yourself concede in the last paragraph of your letter that the full text of your article cannot appear in a newspaper. We believe that having published your letter there is really no need for us to publish a summary of your article also.

Now it is a fact of newspaper publishing that the editor has the prerogative of rejecting material that he does not wish to publish, and this right is strictly exercised in India where the editor usually seeks to mold public opinion rather than inform it. But given the reputation of the Indian Express as a fair-minded newspaper, we decided to do some plain speaking to this editor who equated a letter to the editor with a grossly misleading front page article and would thus absolve himself of further responsibility to the public. Opening our reply with the verses of Jnanasambandar and Arunagirinathar quoted by Swami Tapasyananda—who rightly maintained that the Christian ecclesiastics contention can be proved to be fraudulent with this single evidence—we wrote on June 25th:

As you have bothered to reply to me with your letter of June 11th, I have asked Voice of India to alter the footnote 4 in my essay on St. Thomas and the Kapaleeswara Temple. But I do not know where the book is in the press and you may be too late with your sorry letter of rejection.

Your contention that I have had opportunity to have my say in a letter to the editor of the Express Weekend published on January 13th, is not acceptable. I need hardly tell you that a front page article presented as true history in a trusted newspaper is not refuted simply because a reader writes to the editor. Moreover the important last paragraph of my letter was cut out, which caused Swami Jyotirmayananda to write a letter which carried a serious mistake in meaning, which in turn caused Mr. Ved Prakash to write a correction. Those last two letters and the confusion caused by them would not have been made had the Express Weekend not deliberately tried to suppress the truth about the original Kapaleeswara Temple and the St. Thomas Church.

I am aware that you have a shortage of space in the Indian Express. That is exactly why my essay has been written as it is. Any sub-editor can pick out the material wanted and summarise it without distorting my point of view or conclusions. You may not consider this point of view to be of any value, but it is supported by over forty references named in the article itself.

Aside from poor Marco Polo, where are Mr. C.A. Simon's references? And was his article only a point of view too? And why are you hiding this Mr. Simon so that nobody can write him an opinion? 5

I note that you did not lack any space in the Indian Express when he decided to tell his lies about the Hindus. It may be the truth that the Roman Catholic Church can buy the space she needs from you. I of course cannot. I can only write letters to the editor.

Mr. Harry Miller stated in his column of January 29th that St. Thomas came to India. You did not lack space for this point of view but you also did not publish the letters refuting it. At least two letters were sent to you and him with supporting material. Again on April 23rd you carried an item about a cross planted in Kerala by St. Thomas, and again at least one letter was sent to you pointing out that this was not possible. This letter, too, was not published.

So the truth of the matter is that you do indeed have space to promote this ancient lie about St. Thomas coming to India to get killed by the wicked Hindus and especially the very wicked Brahmins, but that you have no space at all in your newspaper when somebody tries to unmask the fable (except for the three letters already referred to).

Swami Tapasyananda did not get a letter published in the Express Weekend as you have stated, but he has written his own article in The Vedanta Kesari. 6 What he says cannot be ignored. And what Dr. R. Nagaswamy said in The Hindu on April 30th cannot be ignored either. Both are respected authorities in their respective fields.

Your letter of the 11th is disappointing for me. I did believe that I would eventually get fair treatment at the Indian Express. But this aside, what is really distressing is that it appears that you not only connive at this vicious lie being published in your paper to malign the Hindus, but that you actively support it by suppressing the truth no matter how often or in what form it is presented to you.

The resident editor K.V. Ramanathan was not the only one at the Indian Express to hear from us. We had also sent letters to the Madras assistant editor C.P. Seshadri and to the editor-in-chief Arun Shourie at New Delhi. To C.P. Seshadri we wrote in part:

When Mr. Shourie can expose the sordid history of Muslim iconoclasm, why is the same Christian history always covered up in your newspaper? After all, Muslims borrowed their violent ideology from the Christians and Jews. Aurangzeb is nobody in comparison to St. Francis Xavier when it comes to temple-breaking and bloodshed. Yet Muslims today must bear public criticism for their past while the Christians get off free. Why is that?

And to Arun Shourie we wrote in part:

It seems clear from a number of articles published and from the letters of protest or criticism sent to the Madras editor and suppressed (of which I have knowledge—obviously many more letters were received by the editor), that the editor responsible for the material published in the Express Weekend has consistently pursued a policy of promoting Roman Catholic doctrine at the expense of historical truth.... The manipulation of history and the suppression of facts is a major issue in this country.... Christians, Muslims and Communists know how to write history and then how to rewrite it to suit their current ideological needs. When the Indian Express covertly supports one of these parties—in this case the Roman Catholics—in rewriting Indian history, the affair becomes a matter of grave concern to everybody.... The Roman Catholic Church is the richest, largest and most sophisticated private publisher in India and the world. But this is not enough for them. They need the name of a fair-minded and respected daily to give their lies ... credibility—and unfortunately for the people of Madras they have found this in the Indian Express.

Arun Shourie had written about historical evidence and those who conceal it in "Hideaway Communalism" in the Indian Express on 5 February 1989. In the context of the myth of St. Thomas, his questions could be directed at journalists and he could be defining the self-interest of Roman Catholic bishops. He asks, "Will we shed our evasions and concealments? Will we at last learn to speak and face the whole truth?... To see that these leaders are not interested in facts, not in religion ... but in power, in their personal power, and in that alone? That for them religion is but an instrument, an instrument which is so attractive because the cost of wielding it falls on others, on their followers, and not on them?"

In an earlier paragraph he could be writing about the editors of our national English language dailies when he says, "That is the significant thing; they have known [the evidence] and their impulse has been to conceal and bury rather than ascertain the truth."

Arun Shourie lost his job at the Indian Express because he told the truth. 7 And, what he wrote in 1989 in "Hideaway Communalism" is as true today (June 1994) at the Indian Express as when we quoted it in the first edition of this book in February 1991. C.P. Seshadri remains at his table vetting letters to the editor and S. Sapru, reportedly an economist, is the present resident editor. On 1 January 1994 they gave a prominent place to the following letter from S. Chandrasekaran of Cheyyar:

The Bible says, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, behold, Wise Men from the East came to Jerusalem saying where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him. They saw the young child ... and fell down and worshipped Him ... they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense and myrrh.' (St. Matthew 2:1-11.)

Western scholars argue that the Wise Men were Persian Magi, the members of a priestly class or the magicians. However, they cite no evidence, probably not knowing that the more appropriate country in the East from where they proceeded to Bethlehem should be India.

The Wise Men were definitely the brilliant astronomers of India.

Among the eastern countries only in India Wise Men were found with astronomical talents. Also, the availability of gifts presented by the Wise Men to infant Jesus is abundant in India and not Persia.

The last but not the least proof is that in corresponding to the onward march of Wise Men from India to Judea, within not less than half a century, St. Thomas a disciple of Jesus Christ, made a downward march from Judea, superseded Persia and reached India to sow the seed of Christianity.

The Wise Men who went to Bethlehem to see Jesus were in all probability Indians and not Persians or any others. Is there anything to counter this possibility?

This letter was obviously a plant, i.e., the covert dissemination of an idea, usually placed in a newspaper with the connivance of the editor. It was written by a mischief-maker or clever Christian propagandist-s. Chandrasekaran would prove to be a shameless negationist as well—and we replied to it that same day, as did K.V. Ramakrishna Rao. As our letters are long and repetitious of arguments already presented in this book, only the edited versions which appeared in the Indian Express on January 4th are reproduced here. We wrote:

Dr. Chandrasekaran may be right in his proposition that the three Wise men who went to Palestine to offer gifts to the infant Jesus were Indians (I.E. Jan. 1). But the onus lies on him to provide proofs for his thesis and not pretend that it stands proved until somebody comes along and refutes it.

Citing the legend of St. Thomas as a "last but not least proof" for the Wise Men's journey west, is unacceptable because there is no proof that St. Thomas came to India.

Dr. Chandrasekaran's letter, which is obviously a plant, is apparently part of the effort to establish this anti-Hindu fable as history.

And K.V. Ramakrishna Rao wrote:

One can't divine Dr. Chandrasekaran's purpose in writing the letter. It contains nothing but unhistorical legends and myths.

As the Christian era that we follow is itself unscientific, purely based on religious dogma, now historians have started using the notations B.C.E. and C.E. (Before Common Era and Common Era). The alleged visit of St. Thomas to India is another myth floated by vested Christian missionaries.

If Chandrasekaran's purpose for writing the letter couldn't be exactly divined, neither could the purpose of the Indian Express for publishing it. As we had started work on the revision of this book and were interested in understanding Indian Express editorial policy, we sent a letter to the resident editor S. Sapru, with a copy to C.P. Seshadri, on January 3rd:

I am working on a new edition of my book The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple, which is being reorganised and expanded. Letters and articles currently appearing in the Indian Expresswill be included in it under appropriate headings.

If you or Mr. Seshadri wish to explain to a concerned public your editorial policy regarding the selection and publication of Letters to the Editor, I would be happy to consider including your statement in the new edition.

I have been critical of your policies in the past and remain critical of them today (especially when you publish untruthful or provocative items and then refuse to publish rejoinders), nevertheless, I am taking this opportunity to say that I do think the Indian Express is the best of the English-language papers being published in the country today.

This letter was a mistake. Though we were sincere and had sent it in good faith, it is as much the nature of newspaper editors to exploit the trust of their readers as it is the nature of missionaries to exploit the trust of the helpless and weak, and we had unwittingly invited these editors to exploit not only their readers but their readers' children. Sapru and Seshadri replied to our letter by publishing a four-colour three-column feature on St. Thomas and related Christian historical items on their children's page on February 18th. The material was attributed to the 1992 edition of the Limca Book of Records and read:

FIRST TO PREACH CHRISTIANITY: Apostle St. Thomas (Thomas Didaemus) arrived in India in 52 A.D. by the northwestern route and preached Christianity until his death. He was the first to preach Christianity in India.

OLDEST CHURCH IN EXISTENCE: St. Thomas is believed to have established a small church at Mylapore in Madras in 52 A.D. where he was killed. Today's Santhome Church reportedly stands near the earlier site.

FIRST CHRISTIAN COLONY: In 345 A.D. Thomas Cana, a Syrian merchant, came to Travancore and established a Christian colony.

FIRST JESUIT MISSIONARY: Saint Francis .i.Xavier;Xavier, a Spanish national who landed at Goa was the first Jesuit missionary. He established the first Christian colony in Goa in 1542.

FIRST JEWISH COLONY: In 68 A.D. 10,000 Jewish refugees emigrated from Jerusalem to the Malabar coast after the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem ...

The list continues with First Bishop and First Cardinal but we have reproduced the relevant items. Not one of them is historically true except for the reference to Thomas of Cana—which is also not proved. St. Thomas did not come to India and St. Francis Xavier did not establish the first Christian colony in Goa. When a history professor saw this article in the Indian Express he remarked, "The Limca Book of Records is the Coca-Cola Book of Lies—Limca being a trademark of Coca-Cola."

We did not respond to this feature. By taking the St. Thomas controversy to the children's page, the Indian Express had effectively put an end to any further debate. They had done this for exactly the same reason that The Hindu had done so earlier (as will be seen in the next chapter). First, nobody can take issue with articles that appear on the children's page; and second, the editors were showing their contempt for our position and ridiculing the plea that we had made in the first edition of this book-that the true history of old Mylapore be studied by unbiased professionals and recorded for our children.

But if the Indian Express did not hear from us again on the subject of St. Thomas, they too did not refrain from further promoting the legend at a given opportunity. On April 25th another feature on St. Thomas appeared above a large photo of some Kerala-style tiled roofs with loud-speakers attached to the eaves. It was by Samson Aseervatham of Nagercoil who wrote:

For a church it is tiny. But it has a "halo' of its own as it is considered the oldest church in the East. The 45 ft. by 10 ft. church was erected by St. Thomas, one of the twelve followers of Christ, at Thiruvithancodu.

The Apostle is said to have landed in A.D. 52 at Kodungallur on the west coast of South India.

St. Thomas raised seven and a "half' churches on the west coast before his departure to Mylapore, Madras. The Thiruvithancodu church, which has the original base and structure intact, is considered as being "half" because of its size.

The other seven churches are in Kerala: Malayankara, Parur, Palayur, Gokamangalam, Niranam, Chayel and Kurakonikollam. Of this, only the Niranam church is extant.

All the churches that St. Thomas built were dedicated to St. Mary. The one in Thiruvithancodu was raised on twenty cents of land given as a gift by the King of Venad. Thiruvithancodu was the capital then. It later expanded its territory and came to be known as Travancore.

The church was built entirely with neatly dressed rocks, and resembles a village temple. The tiled roof is a much later addition.

On Sundays, Syrian Christians throng here for worship. Prayers are recited in Syriac and Malayalam. The ancient church is under the direct control of the Catholic Orthodox Syrian Church at Kottayam.

K.V. Ramakrishna Rao's comment on this piece was published in the Indian Express on May 2nd:

Except the structure, which is quite recent, all claims made about the so-called "half-church' of St. Thomas in the write-up "Small and beautiful" (I.E. April 25), are totally unhistorical.

Samson Aseervatham has every right to believe that St. Thomas came to India. Some believe that Jesus Christ preached in Benares and died in Kashmir. But there is no historical evidence for such myths floated by the Portuguese.

About the St. Thomas myth in India and his "seven and a half churches', T.K. Joseph, in his book Six St. Thomases of South India has shown how missionaries were engaged in spreading the myth by planting relics, forging documents and writing "histories' in their own way.

The fact is that all the churches mentioned by the writer were previously Hindu temples which were converted into churches. In fact, even today they are either situated in or around the temple premises.

In 1990 the Indian Express allegedly had no space in which to publish a reply to C.A. Simon's St. Thomas article. In 1994 it has found a surplus of space in which to publish articles promoting the St. Thomas story. Editor Sapru has said (I.E. Feb. 25) that "the ultimate lord and master of the newspapers is the market place . If this is so—and ethics no longer have any place in journalism and newspaper publishing—then who is paying for this space? Is it the Jesuits—who own the world's largest bank, the Bank of America, with branches in India—or the Church of Rome? And if nobody pays, is telling the same old lie over and over again really so profitable?"

Hideaway Communalism in The Hindu

Whatever the faults of the Indian Express today, it had an honourable beginning and still has some of the moral authority it acquired in the Freedom Movement. This is not true of The Hindu which was established with the sole objective of making money from the Raj. It was known as The Sapper prior to 1947—even the British-owned Mail was more nationalistic—and after the White Sahib went away it was called—and is still called—The Old Widow of Mount Road. Its formula for success is a studied, high-tech mediocrity-name and form and no content—and a faithful toeing of the Government line. It is class-conscious, casteist and fashionably anti-Hindu. Its moral response to any media-created national crisis—such as the demolition of an unauthorised building in Ayodhya—is to fill its columns with the lugubrious drivel of various popular Marxist professors. In short, The Hindu is self-righteous and boring unless one is looking for a suitable girl for a middle class boy with B.Com. and a Green Card.

This is not only our view. A Christian missionary and social activist from Kerala who charges that Hindu civilization is exhausted and decadent, points a finger at The Hindu as a living example of this alleged condition. He says that we don't have to worry about Christian missionaries undermining Hindu culture when we have established opinion-setters like this at work in our midst.

All this by way of introduction to a hallowed Madras institution. We were quiet innocent of its ways when we sent a copy of the St. Thomas myth book to The Hindu in 1991. At the same time we sent a copy to Dr. T. Edmunds of T.B.M. Lutheran College at Porayar, Tamil Nadu. He replied and suggested that we ask The Hindu to let him do the review. We agreed, happy that a professional historian had taken an interest in the book, and wrote The Hindu book editor on April 3rd:

Some days ago I sent you a copy of The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple for review.

A copy of the book was also sent to Dr. T. Edmunds at the T.B.M. Lutheran College at Porayar 609307. He has just replied and suggests that I request you to allow him to review the book for The Hindu.

I do not know Dr. Edmunds but suspect that he may be the competent person to do the review, and therefore request that you consider contacting him for it.

This letter was replied to by 'special correspondent' C.V. Gopalakrishnan on April 6th:

This is in reply to your letter of April 3rd, regarding review of The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple.

The decision to review books sent to The Hindu and the choice of the reviewer rest with the Editor.

This letter was unexpected and unnecessary. We had only made a suggestion which may or may not be followed up. It did indicate though that the editor did not want the review. We would learn soon enough that the book page editor was C.V. Gopalakrishnan himself.

But if his note was unexpected, what was to follow a week later was a real surprise. On April 13th The Hindu published a four-colour seven-panel cartoon feature on its children's page called 'The Story of Madras'. It was illustrated by Lalitha and scripted by a director of the newspaper, Nandita Krishna, who wrote:

Mylapore had several famous foreign visitors. Let us see who they were.

One of the minor apostles of Jesus Christ, Thomas Dydimus (or St. Thomas) preached the Gospel on the beaches of ancient Mylapore in the 1st century A.D. It is believed that he was buried here in A.D. 72.

Marco Polo visited St. Thomas' church and tomb in "ancient Meliapore' in 1293.

The Arabs visited Betumah ("the Town of Thomas") in the 9th century and the Nestorian Christians in the 10th century. The latter built a church over St. Thomas" tomb. In the 16th century, the Portuguese shifted the tomb and built a basilica—San Thome Cathedral—at the present site.

But St. Thomas did not live in Mylapore. It is believed that he lived in a cave at Little Mount, prayed and preached here, and took a daily walk to the beach at Mylapore ...

And died on St. Thomas Mount, where the Nestorians built a church which the Portuguese re-built and to which the Armenians made additions.

The church contains a painting of the Virgin Mary, said to have been the work of St. Luke, who gave it to St. Thomas to bring to Madras.

In the 16th century, the competition between the Portuguese and the Dutch to secure a port in Chola Mandalam, a province of the Vijayanagar Kingdom, and today"s Madras, sent the price of pepper up by 5 shillings. So 24 merchants in London started a trading company, the East India Company, to corner the Indian trade. The action was to change the course of Indian history.

Except for the last reference to the East India Company, none of these statements are true—or wholly true, for the feature is a most deceitful mixture of fact and fiction. And because it appeared on the children's page when we had made a specific and sincere appeal that our children be told the plain truth about Mylapore, we felt that the editors of The Hindu—be they Kasturi or Ravi or Ram in 1991—and Nandita Krishna were simply being spiteful. We decided to let them know that we knew what they were about and sent a letter to the editor on April 20th:

Apropos of the colour feature about St. Thomas (Young World, April 13), I am reminded of Mark Twain's observation that "a lie can travel half-way around the world before truth can put its trousers on."

My book about the myth of St. Thomas was sent to you in good faith, with the hope that it would receive fair treatment at the hands of a competent reviewer of your choice, and I must confess that I did not expect from The Hindu the spiteful response that this feature by Nandita Krishna represents.

Special correspondent C.V. Gopalakrishnan kept quiet this time and did not reply to us.

Nandita Krishna was not only being spiteful of course. She was declaring the policy of her newspaper—which appears to be the wholesale revision of Indian history 1 in order to extract yet more money out of a gullible middle class with the marketable commodity of 'Hindu tolerance (which is falsely presented as being Hinduism's essence). 2 That she should publish in her paper at all raises a serious question of ethics. Directors and publishers should not write in their own newspapers. This is an old, old rule. But perhaps most unfortunate of all is that The Hindu editors have shown themselves to be opportunists, a charge levelled at journalists because they often take undue advantage of a given circumstance when looking for the good chance. 3 Indeed, Jesus the twin brother of St. Thomas warns us against these pretentious, greedy scribes when he says in Mark 12:38-40:

Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: which devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.

Madras Musings and Other Media Meditations

Madras has two major English-language dailies, The Hindu and Indian Express, and a growing number of special interest community journals. The best known of these small publications is Madras Musings, a Catholic-owned fortnightly published by Anu Varghese and edited by S. Muthiah. Muthiah is a Sri Lanka-returned journalist who is described in an Indian Express article as talented and multi-faceted. He is certainly these-and more as will be seen. He is also reportedly multi-religious, though only the Catholic side of his faith shows. He is a committed and subtle promoter of the St. Thomas fable, which he repeats at length in his books Madras Discovered and Madras Rediscovered, and a zealous patron of the City's Portuguese churches.

We did not know any of these wonderful things when we sent him a copy of the first edition of this book for review. Madras Musings reviewed books then-early 1992—and had the motto 'We care for Madras' blazoned across its masthead, and we thought—rather naively we would soon learn- that knowing about Madras was also caring for it.

Sometime later, in the May 1-15 issue, a prominent, boxed, front page editorial appeared in the paper. It was obviously written by Muthiah himself though it appeared with the byline 'Staff Reporter'. It was called 'Looking back—for action tomorrow' and read:

In all the excitement to draw up plans to make a heritage zone of Mylapore-San Thome, only one thing is certain. And that is that the area, ancient Mylapore, which was pushed far from shore by the Portuguese after 1522 to create San Thome, and the new Mylapore, that developed where it is today through the efforts of the Vijayanagar "governors' of this part of Tondaimandalam, has the strongest historical reasons for conservation efforts to be spent on it.

Tamil tradition has Mylapore as over 2500 years old. Thiruvalluvar, it is said, lived and sang here. Christian tradition, as much an article of faith, has Thomas who Doubted, the Apostle of India, living and preaching in this part of the Coromandel from about 65 A.D. till his death in 72 A.D. Today, there is much associated with that legend that survives between the Mylapore beach and the Mount of St. Thomas.

Ptolemy the Greek geographer wrote of the great port of Maillarpha about 140 A.D. From the 6th to the 8th centuries, this was the chief port of the Pallavas of Kanchi and it was from here that the culture of India first spread to the lands of the east. It was to this great port that the Arabs and the Nestorians and Marco Polo came at different times, from the Pallava period to the 13th century. And it is Maila and Meilan and Mirapor they all also called Betumah, "The Town of Thomas'. 1

After the Pallavas, the prosperity of Mylapore declined and it was little more than a small town when the Portuguese established their settlement in its place and pushed it back from the shore. 2 But of it Camoens, the author of the national epic of the Portuguese, The Lusiads (1572) sang:

Here rose the potent city Meliapor Named, in olden time rich, vast and grand...

A lineage as ancient as that, a town associated with Thiruvalluvar and Thomas, the Pallavas and the Portuguese, certainly deserves its heritage protected. But to find common consent of what that heritage is and all of what it should encompass will be the first hurdle to be crossed in any plan to "save' Mylapore.

Unfortunately, try as he might, Muthiah does not have a facet among his multi-facets that reflects any real feeling for a Mylapore other than the one the paranghi priests and pirates colonized and sang about at home. We replied to this editorial in Madras Musings on May 5th:

The legend of St. Thomas coming to Mylapore may be an article of faith for some Christian communities in India. It is not an article of faith for Rome and the unedifying fable is no longer taught in Catholic universities in Europe and America. Nor was it an article of faith for Bishop Stephen Neill, himself a man of faith, when he, in his authoritative History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to 1707 A.D., lamented the spread of this spurious history about St. Thomas among Indians. 3

Equally important if not more so, the myth of St. Thomas is not an article of faith for the majority of citizens of Mylapore and Madras. It represents for them the destruction of the great Shiva temple on the Mylapore beach and the denigration of their religion by the Portuguese and the Roman Catholic Church. How can these citizens be expected to sympathize with the sordid heritage that San Thome represents? How can they be asked to assist with the preservation of the monuments that represent the success of this vicious attack on their faith?

This letter was not published of course, and in retrospect it is not reasonable to insist that it should have been. Madras Musings is a Catholic newspaper-for all of its non-sectarian face-and if The Hindu and Indian Express will not allow the truth about Mylapore to be told, we can hardly expect this fortnightly to be more honest.

The references to St. Thomas in India which follow were found in various national and international media over the last four years (1990 to 1994) and are produced here for the record. They are in chronological order and do not include items already discussed in this book.

1. INDIAN EXPRESS, Madras, 23 April 1990, carries a P.T.I. news item about the annual pilgrimage to Kurisumudi, Kerala, where a shrine houses a golden cross believed to have been installed by St. Thomas in 52 A.D. Letters sent to the editor are not published.
2. INDIAN EXPRESS, New Delhi, 13 January 1991, in "The Lost Road to Ayodhya" by B.G. Verghese, claims that Christianity came to India in 56 A.D. with St. Thomas and is an indigenous religion that may pre-date Hinduism. Letters sent to the editor are not published.
3. THE WEEK, Cochin, 5 April 1992, in "Polishing the Past" by Vincent D'Souza, refers to the burial of St. Thomas in Mylapore. D"Souza quotes S. Muthiah and tries to mislead the public about the destruction of the Kapaleeswara Temple by the Portuguese. The article does "polish the past" and is a deceitful piece of negationist Christian propaganda"C The Week is Catholic-owned and -edited. Letters sent to the editor are not published; instead, the magazine publishes a letter which says that "the article has placed the history of [Mylapore] in proper perspective'.
4. INDIAN EXPRESS, New Delhi, 20 September 1992, in "Crisis in the Church" by P. Venugopal, refers to the arrival of St. Thomas in Kerala in 52 A.D. and promotes the theory that there was a native Indian Church up to the 5th century when it was taken over by Syrian immigrants. Letters sent to the editor are not published.
5. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, Washington, November 1992, in "Portugal's Sea Road to the East' by Merle Severy, refers to the martyrdom of St. Thomas in Mylapore. This article, like others before it, is a whitewash job on European and Christian imperialism. A letter sent to the editor is acknowledged but not published.
6. B.B.C., London, 14 March 1993, in "Gods, Guides and Gurus" produced by David Craig, refers to St. Thomas in Kerala where he is said to have established the Syrian Church. As the B.B.C. is a 'department' of the British Foreign Office and the 'secular arm' of the Church of England, it is not prudent to send letters to the director.
7. ORGANISER, New Delhi, 24 October 1993, in "Masjid in a Mandir Shape" by Muzaffer Hussein, refers to the landing of St. Thomas at Cranganore. A letter sent to the editor is published in full on December 19th. It says in part, "That the Organiser should promote this political tale in even so innocuous a fashion as Hussain does, is ... a blow to truth and part of the history of minority appeasement that everybody without exception engages in ..."
8. DOORDARSHAN (National Network), New Delhi, 25 December 1993, in its Christmas programme, repeats the story that St. Thomas landed at Kodungallur (Cranganore) in the first years of the Christian era. Doordarshan neglects to point out that if Jesus was born on December 25th, St. Thomas, his twin, must have been born on the same day. No letter sent to the director.
9. READER'S DIGEST, Bombay, 1994, publishes new "inspirational' book on Christian history and the travels of the apostles called 'After Jesus: The Triumph of Christianity'. This magazine is a secular Christian missionary organ with an emphasis on Protestant ethics and like the National Geographic it has a long established tradition of whitewashing Christian history. It will be "most edifying' to see how the Reader's Digesttreats the travels of St. Thomas.
10. LONELY PLANET: INDIA, Ninth Edition, Victoria, Australia, August 2001, in "Little Mount Church", in the chapter on Chennai (Madras), treats St. Thomas as a historical person who came to India around 58 A.D. A copy of the second edition of this book was sent to the publisher in 1998, and some corrections were made to references of St. Thomas and early Christianity in India. However, it seems to be very difficult for Western travel guide publishers to treat St. Thomas in India as unhistorical, as he is a potential tourist attraction. We expect Lonely Planet to entertain the subject of St. Thomas with extreme caution in future editions.

This list is random and incomplete. It does not represent any kind of statistic but it does show that the St. Thomas legend is pervasive throughout the media for a variety of reasons.

The letters that follow were exchanged between the historian Sita Ram Goel and the journalist Khushwant Singh. They are self-explanatory. Sita Ram Goel wrote to Khushwant Singh on 3 December 1992:

I am writing to you with reference to your article, "The Divided House of Kerala," in The Sunday Observer of December 1-7, 1991. Among other things, you say that "In A.D. 52 St. Thomas, one of the 12 apostles, arrived in northern Malabar and succeeded in converting some Namboodiri Brahmins and Nairs."

I draw your attention to a hot controversy which is presently raging in the South regarding the role of the St. Thomas myth. A clipping from the Organiser dated 7.11.91 is enclosed.4 It shows what use the Christian theologians are making of the myth, and how Hindu scholars have started reacting to it.

Leading Christian historians have doubted whether a man like St. Thomas ever existed in history. Even those who accept his existence are positive that he never came to India. The whole subject has been discussed in detail in our publication, The Myth of St. Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple, a copy of which I am forwarding to you by separate post.

I hope you will spend some time to study the story. We should be able to stand on firm ground so far as facts are concerned unless we want to vindicate Bernard Shaw who said that journalists have a vested interest in ignorance.

Khushwant Singh replied to this letter on December 6th:

Thanks for your letter and the clipping which I have read. And the booklet which I will read. You pronounce as facts what suits your pre-thinking. What are the 'facts' about the Ayodhya dispute all only known to historians who don't seem to agree on any of them.

Sita Ram Goel replied to this missive on December 9th:

Thanks for your postcard of the 6th.

The sentence, "You pronounce as facts what suits your pre-thinking," is not quite clear to me. Have we cited facts which are not facts? Or are there facts which we have not taken into account? In both cases, we wait for the other side to come out with evidence. So far we have waited in vain.

I have studied the sources and can say with full responsibility that St. Thomas visiting India is as much true as Jesus spending his early years in a Tibetan monastery. People in highest places have repeated the story without caring to check the sources. But repetition does not make truth out of a lie.

About Ayodhya, I must say that our side has been completely ignored by the media. I am sending another publication, History versus Casuistry, which shows how the VHP scholars presented solid evidence, and how the AIBMAC ran away from the conference convened by the Chandra Shekhar Government. Kindly find out for yourself if the AIBMAC has published the "evidence" they presented.

Saint Thomas: A TTK Product

T.T. Krishnamachari was a Sunlight soap salesman who made a lot of money from the Raj, joined the Congress after independence, and somehow managed to become Nehru's finance minister. He is a success story in Madras and has a road named after him in Teynampet--T.T.K. Salai. His sons now preside over a business empire that includes pharmaceuticals, health care, travel, textiles, pressure cookers, condoms, road maps and Catholic propaganda. It is the Catholic propaganda that concerns us here but we cannot ignore the presence of the condoms. Catholics are not supposed to wear condoms-at least they are not supposed to be seen wearing them-and we cannot imagine what the Archbishop of Madras and St. Thomas-who was ideologically against intercourse in the first place-think of their new patron and his disparate business interests. But to start our story at the beginning.

In the first edition of this book we made a reference to the 1985 edition of the T.T.K. A Map s Guide Book to Madras . We had quoted a line from it regarding the fate of the original Kapaleeswara Temple which was a piece of wrong information that had been subsequently quoted by another writer in the Indian Express. 1 We had also noted that, "This popular guidebook, like others of its kind, treats the legend of St. Thomas in Madras as accepted historical fact."

Now because we had made this observation and because we believed that the T.T.K. publisher was simply misinformed about the St. Thomas story'C everybody was misinformed about it we had discovered—we had sent him a copy of our book on the St. Thomas myth when it was released in early 1991.

This was done as a courtesy—and it was sincerely meant as a courtesy—and we had no reason to suspect that the T.T.K. publisher had any interest in repeating the St. Thomas fable in his publications in an unqualified manner if he knew better. We were mistaken. Big business obviously had contingencies and a code of ethics that we could not anticipate or appreciate. And we did not know then that the talented and multi-faceted S. Muthiah, the man who would become editor of Madras Musings and editorial advisor to other Madras newspapers, was a director, consultant and copywriter at T.T. Maps and Publications Ltd., the T.T.K. company that published the Madras guidebooks.

Muthiah is an informed and articulate local historian and-as we have already noted-a motivated promoter of the St. Thomas tale, and we, unwittingly and in good faith, had given him yet another opportunity to publish abroad-or advise his principal to publish abroad-the great Portuguese lie. The 1993 edition of the T.T.K. Road Guide to Madras is a masterpiece of disinformation. It has a large photograph of the San Thome Cathedral steeple and cross on its cover and a disingenuous commentary inside that presents the St. Thomas story straight across as Indian history, objectively and in detail. Obviously we had provoked this delinquent response from T.T. Maps and Publications Ltd. with our own St. Thomas book. The Kapaleeswara Temple entry, which had caught our attention in 1990, was now revised and gave the distinct impression that the temple had never been in any other place than it is today. This entry, like others, is a bundle of contradictions and appears to be a crude rewriting of S. Muthiah's own published Mylapore B San Thome histories.

Now as interesting as what is said in the T.T.K. guidebook, is what is not said. This trend of omission had started with Nandita Krishna's St. Thomas article in The Hindu and was copied later in the Indian Express. The new purveyors of the St. Thomas myth, all of them Hindus, are always careful to leave out the Brahmin assassin who stabbed the saint in the back while he was at prayer. This attempt to accommodate a vicious communal tale directed against themselves and their forefathers by cutting out the offending parts, is sad indeed and it has given the Catholic believer the last laugh. He knows that there is no martyred saint without an assassin- and hecould only be a Hindu priest in 72 A.D.

We can only wonder at the ostrich-like posture of our intellectuals's heads in the sand and feathered bottoms stuck high in the air for everybody to see—and at their continued policy of self-abnegation and appeasement of an intolerant other side in order to keep the peace. We wonder indeed at their intellectual dishonesty. Big Church and big business are not going to change their unprincipled ways until Indian intellectuals themselves find the courage to tell the truth and continue to tell it even when first efforts appear to be counterproductive and overwhelmed by Catholic and commercial interests.

News Item

H.V.I 1

Madras, Sept. 22, 1991. Christian fanatics have sent a letter to Kanchi Kamakoti Shankaracharya Math, Kanchipuram, threatening to bomb the office of Kamakoti, a journal edited by T.S.V. Hari and published by T.V.S. Giri from Madras, if it does not stop a serial on the Hindu temples destroyed by Christians and converted into churches in the yesteryears. The journal has been publishing the serial based on authoritative historical sources and evidences produced by renowned research scholars. 2 Even The Vedanta Kesari, a monthly of Ramakrishna Math, published from Madras, had recently carried an article by no less a person than Swami Tapasyananda, Vice-President of the Math, pointing to evidences of the destruction of the ancient Kapaleeswara Temple which was converted into Santhome Church. 3 It is learnt that a copy of the threatening letter from fanatic Christians has been forwarded to the authorities for necessary action. The publisher of the journal, without commenting on the letter, told our correspondent that they do not intend to stop the serial succumbing to the threat.

Serene Mount beckons

BY GEORGE ADIMATHRA

Big Mount or St. Thomas Mount. Originally the seat of Rishi Brungi (Bhrigu), it was occupied by the Portuguese after 1523 and the Hindu temple on it demolished to make way for the Church of Our Lady of Expectation. - IS

Chennai and its suburbs are replete with heritage sites such as the Tiruneermalai Vishnu temple (6th century), Tiruvottriyur Adipureeswarar temple (8th century), Kovalam Thameemun Ansari Dargha (7th century) and the St. Thomas Mount near the Chennai airport.

It is believed that St. Thomas, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, died on the mount in AD 72 (first century), which makes it one of the oldest heritage sites in Chennai and also one of the oldest Christian sites in the world.

Believed to be one of the first Christians to reach India and preach Christianity in a country dominated by Hindus, St. Thomas was assassinated and the site where he was martyred came to be known as St. Thomas Mount.

People of various religions visit the holy shrine, negotiating the 160 steps built by Armenian merchant Choja Bedros Woskan leading to the top with 14 “stations of the cross” erected along the way. At the summit stands the church built by the Portuguese with its altar located at the very spot where St. Thomas breathed his last.

George Adimathra: Amateur photographer and Deccan Chronicle fiction writer.

There are relics too, among which is the “Bleeding Cross” chiseled by the Apostle himself. The cross, which is said to “bleed” periodically, is believed to have been in the hands of the Apostle while he lay dying.

The oil painting of the Madonna, believed to be one of the seven painted by St. Luke, the evangelist, and brought to India by St. Thomas is placed above the altar.

This is considered to be the oldest Christian painting in India.

The place is also ideal for picnics [and romantic encounters if the warning notices placed by the resident nuns are to be believed - IS].

The metropolis, spread all around the hillock, seems a distant dream land.

However the calm is shattered by the scream of the aircraft taking off or landing at the airport nearby.

கல்யாணத்துக்கு முன் கர்ப்பமாக்கு…!

பாதிரியார்-தமிழகம் முழுவதும் குழந்தை கடத்தல் கும்பல்!