Mother Teresa has admirers and critics. I belong to the former category
Sambeet Dash
I lived in the city of Calcutta in the mid-1990s. One day I happened to see a leper whose almost entire torso was covered in wounds filled with yellowish-white pus oozing out of them. Flies swarmed around, feasting on it.
I was too scared to look, and soon turned my head and back to this helpless guy. Engraved in memory, that abominable sight still refuses to go away. I feel nothing short of kudos for those who shelter them and nurse their wounds. Mother Teresa was one such person.
She has admirers and critics. I belong to the former category. In this age of 24×7 media, social or otherwise, it’s imperative for the folks at the helm of affairs, to be judicious in what they say. We are a free country. There is no harm in being a critic of Mother Teresa or anyone else for that matter. Our constitution does allow its citizenry to freely practice their religion. If she or anyone else tried to convert within the parameters of law, nothing prevents them to do so.
Christian missionaries do convert but they do some good charity work. My cousin was once the SP, Police in a remote district of Chhattisgarh. He narrated to me his Aankhon Dekha Haal (First Hand Information) of a densely forested area which was under his supervision to maintain the law and order.
Most part of that district was remote and totally inaccessible, evenly infested with maoists and mosquitoes who can carry you for miles. The administration is virtually nonexistent. Only folks who treaded inside and tended to the tribals were the Christian Missionaries. They provide them food, shelter, education and healthcare. They do where our government spectacularly fails to do – to provide the basic necessities and governance.
If I am suffering from hunger and shivering from malaria, it may not take me long to prefer Jesus over Ram or Rahim if the need arises. We have a saying in Sanskrit, BUBHUKHITAM KIM NAKAROTI PAPAM (Why a hungry mouth will not commit a crime). In the 1970s, an Airliner carrying a Uruguay Rugby team crash landed on the Andes Mountains. Without food for many days some players turned cannibals, did not think twice before eating the flesh of their dead fellow mates and attempting to kill live ones.
Compared to that, changing the religion could be a walk in the park, if we step into their shoes. If the missionaries take the gullible tribals for a ride, the fault lies in the system. They just take advantage of a failed system. As long as poverty and hunger remains, Jesus could triumph over Ram and Rahim under the right conditions.
(Author is an Odia technocrat living in the USA. Views are personal)
