The Treacherous Kerala Christians & Aggressive Evangelism in Punjab

To understand the true nature of Christians around the world, we should take a better look at Kerala. In the 4th Century A.D. Christianity became the dominant religion and later become the established religion of the Roman Empire. The Sassanian rulers of Iran who followed a philosophy which was a part of Hinduism, wisely foresaw that the Syrian Christians within their borders would develop into a fifth column of their powerful neighbours. Their aim was to persecute the Syrian Christians. Some of these Christians fled Iran in groups. In 345 A.D. around 400 odd persons from 72 families comprising men, women and children, reached Cragananore (Kodungalloore) Kerala, under the leadership of a merchant known as Thomas Cananeus. The Hindu kings out of their generosity, gave them refuge. What these treacherous Christians did in return was to invite Vasco da Gama to invade India. This information has recently came to light from Portugese documents.

Sanjay Subrahmaniam in Lisbon went through the Portuguese documents Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama and found that these Kerala Christians, known as Syrian Christians, were indeed a fifth column who were engaged in spying and were brought by Vasco da Gama to Kerala shores that began the colonisation of India. They had promised the Portugese, French and British their support to defeat and evict the local kings, the Zamorins, who gave them refuge. Vasco da Gama had bombarded Calicut in Kerala when the Zamorin ruler refused to be dictated by him. He plundered the Kerala ships bringing in rice to the city and cut off the ears, nose and hands of the crews. The Zamorin sent to him an envoy after getting safe passage from the Portuguese. Vasco da Gama chopped off the nose, ears and hands of the envoy and strung them around his neck together with a palm-leaf on which a message was conveyed to the Hindu king that he could cook and eat 'food' made from his envoy’s limbs.”

These facts came to light from the Dutch history of Travancore, and also through the French records. That the Syrian Christian refugees of Kerala wanted the Europeans to help them to finish the Hindu kings who gave them refuge is now the most shocking piece of information received that no Keralite can digest.

Now readers may wonder what has Kerala got to do with Punjab & Sikhism? Well, for several years under the British occupation of Punjab, Christian Missions were allowed to spring up in every corner of Punjab to convert the so called 'Heathens' ( Hindus & Sikhs ). Amritsar had at one point become the centre of such treacherous activities and Shri HariMandir Ji too had been closed off by the British to convert the temple into a centre of Christian propagation.

In a alarming trend, evangelism has begun to tread on the Sikh faith as well. I have for the past 3 years been keeping a close eye on the Church that has suddenly sprung up right next to Shri HariMandir temple at Amritsar. If any of you have noticed it, it never was there some 6 years back, but now with Easter around the corner, these Christian evangelists are busy with their agendas of brainwashing Sikh youth into accepting Jesus as their 'SatGuru'.

Every aspect of Punjabi society is being overwhelmed with this new wave of assertive Christianity. Besides nationwide programs in Hindi, Punjabi television channels have been deluged by Christian programs even though the Christian population of Punjab is less than 1%. Taking aim at Sikh youth, animated films and children’s books on Christianity are freely distributed by missionaries.

Because of the strong adherence to tradition by Sikhs, missionaries have attempted to repackage Christianity. Jesus is called 'Satguru', church is referred to as 'Satsang' and choir singing is called 'Kirtan'. Choir boys in Punjabi churches wear turbans to attempt to minimize the variation between Sikhism and Christianity. However, despite these attempts to disguise Christianity as a version of Sikhism, missionaries still cannot hide their intent: to destroy the Sikh as well as the Hindu faith.

While there have been some cases of genuine conversions, economically disadvantaged and illiterate Sikhs often complain that missionaries are using extortive practices such as bribing them with material possessions to change their religion.

A young boy whose friends had converted to Christianity explained, 'When I asked the boys as to why they have converted to Christianity, they said they had been given cash and free education. In our village alone, 5 to 6 people have converted and, of course, their generations to come would also be Christians.'

Gurbachan Singh Bachan, former Secretary of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee and a proud Sikh, says 'People who are converting from Hinduism and Sikhism to Christianity are those who have lost understanding of their own religion… Khalsa [Sikh] institutions and the Government need to educate the people about the values of a religion, and tell them that all religions are equal and no religion teaches us to fight with each other.'

Such provocative evangelism in Punjab does not always go unnoticed by the local community. The Open Door Church run by Pastor Harbhajan Singh, a landlord who converted to Christianity from Sikhism, has aggressively converted over 2,800 members of the Khojewala village community. In February of 2004, Singh made derogatory remarks against several Sikh gurus including Guru Granth Sahib. This led to several protests by Sikh youths in front Singh’s church. The conflict was ultimately resolved by police intervention and an unconditional apology by Harbhajan Singh. Meanwhile, Christian media painted this incident as an example of 'Christian persecution.'

A recent study showed that at least 800,000 are converted to Christianity every year throughout India. In the coming years, this number can significantly increase with attacks on the Sikh faith. Below is a translation of a book published, by the missionary organization, Operation Mobilization (disguised as a Hindu group with the acronym OM). The passages below are a story of a man who is portrayed as a hero for rejecting his Sikh faith, cutting his hair and ultimately converting to Christianity.

Chapter 3: Having long hair on head was the most important sign out of five signs for Sikhs in Punjab. He knotted his hair in a bun on his head. He was nothing without steel bangle, half pant, comb, and a small sword that provided his identity. His holy book ‘Granth’ had an instruction for him to never cut his hair, and like a devoted Sikh he never cut his hair. Though, his beautiful beard was very uncomfortable in summer and dusty environment. Without being cut, his long hair on head dignified him. A Sikh who had cut his hair was then not called a Sikh. He was boycotted from his religion, society, and family. Whatever Sundar did was seen as resistance of shock by his father, Sher Singh, and after that Sundar had seen such anger from him that he had never seen before. His father became very angry and kick him out of the house without hesitation, saying that he was now not a member of this family. He brought bad name to the family. He was removed from his Caste; he had no right to live in the courtyard of the Singh family. He had to go out immediately. Page 30: Sadhu Sundar Singh: …….ended that made his relative clearly angrier. The pressure coming from various sources undoubtedly could not mislead the internal determination of this 15 years old boy. But they could be sufficient to make the boy quite. But as far as Sundar was concerned, it had opposite effect. As he studied the work of good news and Christian converts, and read about that extraordinary messiah whom he had seen from his own eyes. How he endured pain with insult and how his pupils were really happy to be found qualified to bear insult for the sake of his name. Then, a desire also arose in Sundar to endure pain for messiah. One day, by a program that would separate him, he would not only show that he has attained youth but also fulfill the primary requirement of being Sikh. He could not participate in this program and he did not want to. He did not want to do this to deny his Caste or Clan. He wanted to deny Sikh religion. Even after his infatuation was broken when he was studying at a school in Ludhiana, he faced threatening calls, anger, and bad behaviour from his father and elders of the family. He knew that no one could erase the memory of that living God. It was that messiah that vouched for his sincerity and he also needed to do that. To make it clear to his family and to make them understand, he left Sikh religion for good; and that he has seen Jesus Christ and was determined to follow him.