Althouse: "In Agra in Uttar Pradesh, members of right wing Hindu groups burned effigies of Santa Claus outside missionary-led schools...."

December 27, 2021

"In Agra in Uttar Pradesh, members of right wing Hindu groups burned effigies of Santa Claus outside missionary-led schools...."

"'As December comes, the Christian missionaries become active in the name of Christmas, Santa Claus and New Year. They lure children by making Santa Claus distribute gifts to them and attract them towards Christianity,' said Ajju Chauhan regional general secretary of Bajrang Dal, one of the right wing Hindu outfits leading the protest.... 'Let only Christian celebrate Christmas,' said one of the men, in a video filmed during the disruption. 'We are against Hindu boys and girls participating in Christmas function … it hurts our sentiments. They dress up in church and everyone sings Merry Christmas. How will our religion survive?'... A Christmas event that is held every year at Matridham Ashram in Uttar Pradesh was also targeted by a Hindu vigilante group who stood outside shouting slogans such as 'stop conversions' and 'missionary murdabad,' meaning 'death to missionaries.'"

From "Jesus statue smashed in spate of attacks on India’s Christian community/Amid growing intolerance to India’s Christian minority, several Christmas events were targeted by Hindu right wing groups" (The Guardian).

22 comments:

Bilwick said...: The use of the term "right wing" reminds me of the time during the Cold War that he NYT reported "right wing" elements in the Kremlin were suppressing anti-communist literature, including Barry Goldwater's CONSCIENCE OF A CONSERVATIVE. "Hey," NATIONAL REVIEW protested, "we're right wing, but we're not THAT right wing!"; 12/27/21, 12:20 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: 'We are against Hindu boys and girls participating in Christmas function … it hurts our sentiments. They dress up in church and everyone sings Merry Christmas. How will our religion survive?'

Vishnu Claus? Just a thought....; 12/27/21, 12:25 PM
Dave Begley said...: Hate crime.; 12/27/21, 12:30 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Stay on topic. There is no reason to talk about Muslims here.; 12/27/21, 12:47 PM
Wince said...: Here, it's the "left wing" that does all that on behalf of the religion of Statism.; 12/27/21, 12:49 PM
Achilles said...: 'We are against Hindu boys and girls participating in Christmas function … it hurts our sentiments.

This just doesn't sound right.

Another thing is the Guardian is not really a good source for straight news. They are strangely allied with Islamic powers and consistently push the Islamic agenda.

Given that they are ignoring the actual ethnic battle going on between Hindus and Muslims in exactly the same area I would suspect it is fairly likely this story is completely fake and not just exaggerated.; 12/27/21, 12:52 PM
Mary Beth said...: I have a hard time believing that a person of faith thinks their religion is threatened by Santa Claus. If it were that easy, the whole world would have converted by now.

The problem is a hyper-nationalistic political group who are against anything that might make anyone or anything from outside India look appealing. They're not just blocking culture, they are blocking food and medicine from people because, to them, it's better for people to suffer than to risk them appreciating a foreign country or religion.; 12/27/21, 1:45 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: "They dress up in church and everyone sings Merry Christmas. How will our religion survive?"

Wow, sounds like your problem is that your religion sucks, dude. Why don't you try to fix that, instead?; 12/27/21, 1:49 PM
Owen said...: I'm sure this will end well.

*fumbles around in search of sarc tag*; 12/27/21, 1:49 PM
mccullough said...: I thought it odd that the Nazis coopted the swastika from Hindus.; 12/27/21, 2:06 PM
CJinPA said...: As I get older and watch my nation's customs ridiculed and systematically replaced, I can understand the feeling. But not the violence.; 12/27/21, 3:00 PM
Narr said...: I'm tempted to say, "Nuke 'em all and let God sort 'em out," but I have a feeling that might be in someone's plans already.; 12/27/21, 3:56 PM
rcocean said...: If Hindus don't want Christians, hey its their country. Its sad that Christianity is somehow mixed with Santa Claus, a fake commercial figure designed to replace St.Nicholas.; 12/27/21, 5:36 PM
Rollo said...: Rama and Lakshmi brought me bupkis for Diwali this is year, but you don't hear me complaining.

Hinduism is an open source religion. Just think of Jesus as one of many gods or as one of the many faces or facets or avatars of the one God.

Do it long enough and energetically enough and sincerely enough and maybe even the monotheists will even come around to looking at things that way.; 12/27/21, 6:39 PM
robother said...: BBC is reporting that Modi has cancelled Mother Teresa's charity license to bring in foreign donations, and there are (conflicting) reports that her charity's accounts in India may be frozen. All over accusations that Christian conversions are taking place among the abandoned children and desparately ill untouchables the charity treats.

Obviously the Hindu view that these types deserve their suffering for karmic misdeeds in prior lifetimes was not respected by the Christian charity.; 12/27/21, 6:54 PM
rcocean said...: Maybe we can send some Christian Missionaries to Scandanavia or England. They need it.; 12/27/21, 7:16 PM
Gospace said...: There are 3 major monotheistic religions- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And of the three Christianity is at once the most divided and the most united. Swords aren’t drawn over disagreements about literal or figurative transubstantiation occurs. The wars that have been fought over various Christian beliefs have in reality been dynastic wars with religion as a cover.

There are many polytheistic religions.

In the free market of ideas- monotheism beats out polytheism almost everywhere at every time. The catch being- is there a free market of ideas?

Among the monotheistic religions when competing freely- Christianity wins out, without resorting to violence and forced conversion. An odd thing about Christianity is that the Churches that adopt to “modern beliefs” lose members and die out. Churches that preach from the Bible without interpretation to “modern beliefs” grow. RC Churches that perform the Latin Mass are growing, with younger more energetic parishioners than those that have a 10 AM guitar mass. In Protestant Churches Bible thumping hellfire and brimstone preachers get the families.

I left Mormons out. IMHO that particular church is going to end up imploding in the foreseeable future. I can’t articulate why I think that, but I do.; 12/27/21, 7:21 PM
Narr said...: Religious wars are real, and fought by believers. The idea that it's all about money or dynasties is appealing to those who see religion as a positive force tout court, but isn't supported by either logic or history. It's the same shallow thinking as Marx's "it's all about money," of Freud's "it's all about sex." Tell Philip II his religion was just a cover, or Martin Luther, and good luck.

It's easy to tell oneself that Christianity is a religion of peace if you ignore the 16 or 17 centuries when Christians gleefully massacred one another and others before admitting that it wasn't working that well, and backing off to more irenic pursuits.

I notice attempts lately to bootleg Islam into the Western heritage by proposing a Judeo-Christian-Islamic "Abrahamanic" tradition. If you like that kind of thing, go Bahai.; 12/27/21, 8:20 PM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: Persecution of Christians worldwide is greater now than at any time in history. We find this hard to absorb in America and the nice places we visit, because disapprovals are mostly social and mild in those places, even where not many are sympathetic to the church.

Open Doors USA's statistics gathering is pretty good, for those who want to follow up. Voice of the Martyrs used to be, but I haven't followed them in over a decade, so I can't be sure.; 12/27/21, 9:21 PM
dbp said...: Let's say you're a Hindu born into a lower caste. Your religion has some explanation for why this is so, but you will remain in this backward caste your whole life. How is it a mystery that such a person would find Christianity or Islam attractive? Both of these faiths see all men as equal before god.

So sorry that it hurts your feelings, maybe it hurts their feelings that you consider them
"untouchable".; 12/27/21, 11:23 PM
Gahrie said...: You cannot coexist with those who refuse to coexist with you.; 12/28/21, 9:40 AM
Narr said...: A few months ago, at the head shop, I saw a bumper sticker that read:

Can we admit now that the "Coexist" stickers aren't working?

They were gone the next time I was there.; 12/28/21, 10:22 AM