How can any secular government allot taxpayers money for the purpose of religious propagation?
Andhra government is controlling temples, looting them and also in some cases diverting the funds for the welfare of other religions.
Andra Pradesh government under the chief ministership of Sri Jagan Mohan Reddy proposed the state budget recently. There is one crucial announcement which caused a lot of furore among Hindus, especially those who oppose religious conversions. The Andhra Pradesh government proposes to pay monthly salaries to Christian Pastors, Muslim Imams, and Mouzzans. A total of 948.72 crores is allocated for this scheme for the year 2019 – 20[1]. On the other hand, Hindu pujaris/pundits don’t find any mention.
A few are comparing the salaries that pujaris working in Hindu temples get, to the new scheme of Sri Jagan Mohan Reddy. This is nothing but ignorance. Those who are doing this and even others should know that most of the Hindu temples in states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha and Maharashtra are in the hands of the state and the salaries given are from the money which belongs to temples and not from the state budget. It is a different story that lakhs of acres of temples were encroached upon and thousands of crores of temple wealth looted by the government both “legally” and illegally. Those who want more details may please watch Sri J Sai Deepak‘s videos and read his writings online. So, salaries being paid to Hindu pundits should not be compared with the proposed salaries to Pastors and Imams.
If one carefully studies the similarities between world ‘religions’ that existed before Christianity and the strategies implemented by Christianity to destroy them, one will find strikingly similar.
This is not the only one such incident, readers of PGurus might already know about the ‘illegal’ detention of Sivaji, a Hindu activist belonging to Siva Sakthi and the controversial order release by Visakhapatnam police to provide protection only to Churches and Christian minorities, which they later altered to religious places of all the religions. Thanks to the protest of various vigilant netizens[2].
There is one more incident that took place in a village called Dasaripalem near Vijayawada, wherein 3 women who came back to Hindu dharma from Christianity were threatened to be removed from Dwarka group. As per the news reports, their lives were made miserable and even the police are not registering their complaint[3]. These are only those incidents which came out and we do not know how many more happened since the new administration took charge.
Is Bharat A Secular state?
By definition, yes, but practically, no, we are not a secular state. A secular state, by definition, should keep itself away from religion. But it’s not the case with Bharat. In Bharat, most parties in the name of secularism snub the majority Hindus and appease so-called Minorities. Perhaps Bharat is the only country where majority people fight for equality and the only country where a religion with a population of nearly 20 crores is considered a minority. I am not sure where our political parties borrowed this definition of secularism, but what is happening in Bharat cannot happen in ay truly secular state. I can quote several examples to prove my case and the recent decision by Andra Pradesh government is another such example.
Historical Roots
All the countries, with the only exception of Bharat, got culturally destroyed after Christianity/Islam set foot. It’s not that we didn’t loose anything but are far far better than the rest. All the other countries got almost completely disconnected with their own culture and become Christianized or Islamized. Be it Europe or the Middle East or South/North America or Africa, all the ancient cultures are more or less lost. Bharat is the only ancient civilization that has not just survived but also in a way thriving. The fact that now Yoga, which was considered a superstition by most Western-educated 30 – 40 years ago, is now being practised across the world, is a proof of that. More than 3.6 crores Americans practice Yoga and it’s only growing[4]. We shall see a similar thing happening with Ayurveda too.
If one carefully studies the similarities between world ‘religions’ that existed before Christianity and the strategies implemented by Christianity to destroy them, one will find striking similarities. In 313 CE Constantine made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire[5]. Since then, support of those in power has played a vital in Christianity across the world. After coming to power Constantine supported the spread of Christianity in many ways like giving financial assistance to Bishops and others, grants and other facilities to construct churches etc. Though the destruction of temples on a large scale started little late, Constantine did start it. He destroyed at least 5 temples and converted them to churches as per “Life of Constantine” written by Eusebius. Eusebius is a very prominent church historian and is called “The father of church history”[6].
Whatever has happened in the Roman empire is happening in Bharat now and perhaps would have happened in a lot of other countries too.
All the other Roman emperors after Constantine, except for Julian, who just rules for 19 months, were Christian. As time passed by, the Christian population and along with that support of emperors to the religion only grew. Not only that, but the restrictions on the native religions also increased. The restrictions on native religions only got worse. It all started with making Christianity legal, then comes state support to Churches, then temples were taken over by govt, a lot of times temple money too was diverted to churches, new temple constructions banned, repair of old temples banned, divination (something similar to Jyothisham), animal slaughter, public celebrations, worship inside temples, going into temples, going anywhere near temples, worshipping at home and finally Theodosian who was the Roman emperor from 379 CE to 395 CE not just banned all the native traditions but also made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire[7]. There was also active destruction of temples across the Roman Empire. Many a time Christians themselves lead by the local bishop destroyed the temples. Bishops in some cases used to get prior approval of the emperor to destroy the temple and construct a new church or converted the temple into a church, by quoting verses from the bible which ask Christians to destroy temples belonging to other gods.
Ban on animal sacrifice deserves some explanation. Please note that the ban on animal sacrifice has nothing to do with cruelty towards animals. For some theological reasons it is banned in Christianity and only because of that, it was banned in Roman Empire and for the very same reason, though not overtly called so, activists even today oppose animal sacrifice at temples. A true animal lover would promote vegetarianism. But these activists specifically target a Hindu practice.
Whatever has happened in the Roman empire is happening in Bharat now and perhaps would have happened in a lot of other countries too. If you take Andhra govt as an example they are also doing the same. They are controlling temples, looting them and also in some cases diverting the funds for the welfare of other religions. Also, governments are providing financial assistance to those who preach religion like in the case of Andhra Pradesh and also sponsoring the construction of churches and other institutions which are traditionally associated with a church like a hospital, school etc.
For example, the Andhra government has given the following grants[8].
1. New church construction: Upto Rs.1,00,000
2. Church Repair: Upto Rs. 30,000
3. Christian Hospital: Upto Rs. 10,00,000
4. Christian School Building: Upto Rs. 5,00,000
5. Christian Orphanage: Upto Rs. 5,00,000
6. Christian Old Age Home: Upto Rs. 5,00,000
7. Christian Community Hall cum youth resource centre: Upto Rs. 5,00,000
So, what is happening now in Andhra and most probably in many other states of Bharat and what has happened in the Roman Empire are strikingly similar. Luckily we are still, relatively in the initial stages and we have time to reverse things. But if we let the things continue as they are, we will also meet the same fate what the Roman pagans met and our temples will also get destroyed and be converted into churches as well.
No Jati survives without learning from their and others’ history. Roman pagans though got destroyed are a great source of history to us. Now it is up to us to at least react. The reversal should start NOW.
It’s NOW or maybe NEVER.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
References:
[1] ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ బడ్జెట్ 2019-20 SakshiEducation.com
[2] 2016 Yoga in America Study Conducted by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance Reveals Growth and Benefits of the Practice YogaAlliance.org
[3] Christianity took over Andhra Administration? July 22, 2019 PGurus.com
[4] గుంటూరు,కృష్ణా జిల్లాలలో మతమార్పిడి వివాదాలు ,మతం మార్చుకున్న వారి ఇళ్లపై స్థానికుల దాడి July 23, 2019
[5] The Triumph of Christianity by Bart D. Ehrman – page number: 290 (2018)
[6] Ibid 230 – 231
[7] Ibid 250 – 252
[8] Andhra Pradesh State Christian(Minorities)Finance Corporation Go to downloads section and download the applications. All the details are on the application form.
