It has been the tragic lesson of the history of many a country in the world that the hostile elements within the country pose a far greater menace to national security than aggressors from outside. Unfortunately, this first lesson of national security has been the one thing, which has been consistently ignored in our country ever since the British left this land. Wishful thinking born out of lack of courage to face realities, mouthing of high-sounding slogans by the persons at the helm of affairs to cover up the tragedies overtaking us one after another, and opportunistic alliances of parties and groups with the hostile elements to further their narrow self-interests, have all combined to make the threat of internal subversion of our national freedom and security very acute and real.

First, let us take the case of Muslims.

 

Even to this day, there are so many who say, "Now there is no Muslim problem at all. All those riotous elements who supported Pakistan have gone away once and for all. The remaining Muslims are devoted to our country. After all, they have no other place to go and they are bound to remain loyal."

 

 

But what are the facts? Is it true that all pro-Pakistani elements have gone away to Pakistan? It was the Muslims in Hindu majority provinces led by U.P. who provided the spearhead for the movement for Pakistan right from the beginning. And they have remained solidly here even after Partition. In fact, the Muslims of Punjab, Bengal, Sindh and NWFP which went over to Pakistan had totally rejected Muslim League in the 1937 elections. It was only in later years that, because of the wrong policies of our leadership, the Muslims there were pushed into the arms of the Muslim League.

And again, before Partition there were elections for the setting up of the Constituent Assembly. In those elections Muslim League had contested making the creation of Pakistan its election plank. The Congress also had set up some Muslim candidates all over the country. But at almost every such place, Muslims voted for the Muslim League candidates and the Muslim candidates of Congress were utterly routed. NWFP was an exception. It only means that all the crores of Muslims who are here even now, had en bloc voted for Pakistan.

Have those who remained here changed at least after that? Has their old hostility and murderous mood, which resulted in widespread riots, looting, arson, raping and all sorts of orgies on an unprecedented scale in 1946-47, come to a halt at least now? It would be suicidal to delude ourselves into believing that they have turned patriots overnight after the creation of Pakistan. On the contrary, the Muslim menace has increased a hundred fold by the creation of Pakistan which has become a springboard for all their future aggressive designs on our country.

 

 

Their aggressive strategy has always been twofold. One is direct aggression. In the pre-independence days, Jinnah called it 'Direct Action'. The first blow got them Pakistan. Our leaders who were a party to the creation of Pakistan may try to whitewash the tragedy by saying that it was a brotherly division of the country and so on. But the naked fact remains that an aggressive Muslim State has been carved out of our own motherland. From the day the so-called Pakistan came into being, we in Sangh have been declaring that it is a clear case of continued Muslim aggression. The Muslim desire, growing ever since they stepped on this land some twelve hundred years ago, to convert and enslave the entire country could not bear fruit, in spite of their political domination for several centuries, because the conquering spirit of the nation rose in the form of great and valiant men from time to time who sounded the death-knell of their kingdoms here. But even though their kingdoms lay shattered, their desire for domination did not break up. In the coming of the British they found an opportunity to fulfil their desire. They played their cards shrewdly, sometimes creating terror and havoc, and ultimately succeeded in brow-beating our leadership into panicky surrender to their sinful demand of Partition.

We of the Sangh have been, in fact, hammering this historical truth for the last so many years. Some time ago, the noted world historian Prof. Arnold Toynbee came forward to confirm it. He visited our country twice, studied our national development at close quarters, and wrote an article setting forth the correct historical perspective of Partition. Therein he had unequivocally stated that the creation of Pakistan is the first successful step of the Muslims in this 20th century to realise their twelve-hundred-year-old dream of complete subjugation of this country.

Their direct aggression, whetted by their first success, then truned against Kashmir. There too they met with success, though partial. One third of Kashmir continues to be in their clutches even to this day. Now, Pakistan is trying to gobble up the rest of Kashmir also with the help of powerful pro-Pakistani elements inside Kashmir.

 

 

The second front of their aggression is increasing their numbers in strategic areas of our country. After Kashmir, Assam is their next target. They have been systematically flooding Assam, Tripura and the rest of Bengal since long. It is not because, as some would like us to believe, East Pakistan is in the grip of a famine that people are coming away into Assam and West Bengal. The Pakistani Muslims have been inflitrating into Assam for the past fifteen years. Does it mean then that famine has been stalking East Pakistan all these fifteen years? They are entering Assam surreptitiously and the local Muslims are sheltering them. As a result the percentage of Muslims there which was only 11% in 1950, has now more than doubled. What else is this but a conspiracy to make Assam a Muslim majority province so that it would automatically fall into the lap of Pakistan in course of time?

In the anti-Bengali riots (1960) that rocked Assam, the Muslim population and the Muslim ministers, as usual, played their treacherous game. They set up Assami Hindu against Bengali Hindu and vice versa as it suited their designs and carried sword and fire into Hindu hearts and homes in their bid to oust the Bengali Hindus. By this, they increased their percentage in relation to the Hindus in that province. Certain things which have happened there are tell-tale. Many were the cases where the house of a Bengali Muslim gentleman was safe but the houses of Bengali Hindus on either side were burnt down. Papers also have reported that some persons were arrested while trying to carry away looted property to East Pakistan. It is a patent fact that Muslims form Pakistan had poured into Assam in truckloads to carry out their designs. When we remember that Kashmir and Assam were to have formed part of the Pakistan of Jinnah's dream, their plan of action becomes clear as daylight.

It would be suicidal on our part to dismiss their plan of realising the dream of Jinnah as mere thinking. And so did we, at one time, dismiss Jinnah's demand for Pakistan as 'fantastic'. But all the same, it is now a stark reality. Their hectic activities of collecting arms and ammunition are going on unabated. Their meetings in masjids and incitement to violence are dangerously on the increase. A few years ago the Police Commissioner of Calcutta had warned that the Nakhoda masjid alone had stored sufficient arms and ammunition to blow up half of Calcutta and unless the masjid was searched and cleared of the dangerous stuff, maintaining public peace in Calcutta was well-nigh impossible. For this courageous warning he was at once transferred from Calcutta! The bomb explosions going on in Delhi and several other places in the country are a glaring proof of their subversive preparations-if proof be needed even after the history of a thousand years of their naked aggression.

 

They are especially emboldened in their nefarious designs by the fact that the present-day leadership is too weak to put a strong check on them. They remember very well that their acts of violence and bloodshed in Calcutta, Noakhali and Tripura had unnerved our leaders and made them succumb to bartering away the unity of our motherland and handing over a part of the country to them. Even to this day they see that goondaism pays rich dividends at the hands of our present leadership.

 

An incident happened in the wake of the massacres and mass expulsion of Hindus from east Bengal in 1950. It was precisely at that period that a series of riots broke out in many parts of Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Our Government suffers from a strange obsession that wherever there is a 'communal riot' there must be the hand of RSS in it! Accordingly, the U.P. Government clamped some of our workers behind bars. Then I happened to meet Sardar Patel for some other reason. I naturally inquired why our persons were arrested. He replied that the U.P. Government had received reports that the Sangh workers were responsible for all those disturbances. Then I told him, "If you had observed the position of the areas where the disturbances have taken place, it would have been clear to you that they are the same as those that Jinnah had demanded as a corridor to join West and East Pakistan. Further, these riots have coincided with the mass expulsion of Hindus form East Bengal. The only meaning is that they want to browbeat our Government into yielding to their demand of the corridor." Sardar Patel remained silent for a minute and then said, "Yes. There is truth in what you say." Needless to say, all our workers were released soon after. We are fortunate that we had in Sardar Patel a person with an iron will to face the reality in those days.

 

 

Sardar Patel was aware that Western U.P. had continued to be powerful Muslim pocket as before. He did not want that it should be linked to West Pakistan by a continuous Muslim belt. Hence he had taken due precautions to see that the Muslims driven out of East Punjab after Partition did not resettle anywhere near West Punjab so as to from a continuous Muslim chain from West Pakistan to U.P. But, on account of pressure form Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Muslims were allowed to resettle first in Gurgaon district. Now, over four lakh Muslims have resettled in those regions.

There are sure signs that an explosive situation similar to that if 1946-47 is fast brewing and there is no knowing when it will blow up. Right form Delhi to Rampur and Lucknow, the Muslims are busy hatching a dangerous plot, piling up arms and mobilising their men and probably biding their time to strike from within when Pakistan decides upon an armed conflict with our country. And when they do strike, it is very likely that even Delhi may be rocked to its foundations unless we wake up in time to nip the mischief in the bud. Not that our leaders do not know it. The secret intelligence reports reach them all right. But it seems they have in view only elections. Elections mean vote catching, which means appeasing certain sections of people having a solid block of votes. And the Muslims are one such solid block. Therein lies the root of all this appeasement and consequent disastrous effects.

 

Muslim League has again raised its ugly head in the South. The creation of Pakistan woke up the Hindus in the North, at least for the time being, to the danger of Muslim League. So the League leaders shifted their headquarters to the South. Now they have come out with the statement that they have been carrying on their activities all these years in secret. The mass agitation in Kerala, which brought down the Communist Government, gave them a golden opportunity to come out in the open. The elections that followed proved to be a windfall for them. The Congress, learning nothing from its past experience of placating the Muslim League, which had landed our country in the calamity of Partition, once again stretched its arms to embrace that treacherous party during elections in 1957. And in order to justify their blatantly anti-national move, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave the Muslim League a clean chit of patriotism saying that it was not the old Muslim League but a new patriotic party devoted to their community and religion! What a marvellous definition of patriotism! But to his misfortune, on the very next day, the All-India President of the Muslim League came out which the statement that theirs was the same old party with not a shadow of change! Now in Kerala, they openly propagate an independent 'Moplanad'.

 

In these developments, one almost sees over half-a-century-old happenings coming to life once again. During the twenties, in a bid to win the friendship of Muslims, our leaders had called upon the Hindus to take up the Khilafat movement (a movement against the British who had dethroned the king in Turkey) as their own. In Kerala too, Hindus came froward with men and money to help the movement. But the Muslim wrath against the British soon developed into a jehad against the Hindu 'kafirs' carrying with it all the usual atrocities of Muslim barbarism like killing, burning, molesting, looting and forcible conversions. When the news of these hair-raising atrocities reached and shocked other parts of the country, an eminent leader came out in open appreciation of those heinous Muslim criminals, calling them 'brave Mopals'! Let us just compare those words with the words of the present leaders speaking of them as 'patriotic' and we will get an idea of the long suicidal stupor, which has deadened all our faculties of national alertness and security.

 

Everywhere the Muslims are being abetted in their separatist and subversive activities by our own Government, our leaders and political parties. Take the case of Calcutta riots which occurred in the wake of the holocaust of Hindus in Khulna, Narayanganj and Dacca areas of East Pakistan in 1963. Our men in power tried to paint it as a reaction to those East Bengal riots. But what are the facts? It was the Muslims in Calcutta who first started the attack on a peaceful procession of students. It was again they who set fire to the grand exhibition pandal erected in connection with the Swami Vivekananda centenary celebrations and destroyed the precious exhibits. Can anyone in his senses believe that the Hindus of Calcutta could have destroyed a pandal containing Swami Vivekananda's exhibits? It was only after the Muslims began perpetrating such vandalism that the Hindus rose to defend themselves. Thus the Calcutta riots were, beyond a shadow of doubts, only an extension of-and not a reaction to- the riots in East Bengal.

But our Government, as usual, following in the footsteps of their erstwhile British masters, came down upon the Hindus with a heavy hand and shot them indiscriminately. One of our Central Ministers even declared, "Every Muslim life is sacred to us", whereas every life ought to be a sacred trust with any Government worth the name. He even boasted that more Hindus were killed in police firing than Muslims. By the statement he had only betrayed the real mind of the Government in the matter. That, in fine, is how things are going on in our own country.

 

 

Some years back, an Arab Muslim moulvi who was on a visit to our country was requested to recite Quran as they do in their country. To that he replied, "There we sing to the accompaniment of harmonium, tabor and such other musical instruments. Here if I do that, the local idiotic Muslims will cut me to pieces!" Is it not obvious that the so-called religious susceptibility of the Muslims here regarding music has nothing to do with religion or prayer but is solely motivated with a view to picking up quarrel with the Hindus and establishing their own little independent cells?

 

How is it that they dare to carry on these offensive and anti-national practices openly? It is because our Government too overtly and covertly supports them. Though the High courts have upheld the fundamental right of the citizens to go in procession with band in all public roads, the Government, under the cover of discretionary powers vested in the executive for regulating processions in the interest of peace and order, often prevents the Hindus altogether from taking out processions in streets where masjids happen to he situated. That could set the premium on those who want to violate peace. And peaceful citizens, in the enjoyment of their inherent rights as citizens, are the prey of such violations. The law-abiding citizens are told to restrict themselves, and those who are out to indulge in violence are given a free hand to do what they like. This is in a way admitting, though indirectly, that within the country there are so many Muslim pockets, i.e., so many 'miniature Pakistans', where the general law of the land is to be enforced only with certain modifications and the whims of the miscreants have to be given the final say. This acceptance, indirect though it may be, implies a very dangerous theory fraught with possibilities of destruction of our national life altogether. Such 'pockets' have verily become centres of a widespread network of pro-Pakistani elements in this land.

 

 

To cite an example, there was riot in Malegoan (1963) in Maharashtra. The idol of Ganesha was being taken in a procession for immersion. The Muslims attacked it. There was a skirmish. The Government, as usual, came forward to establish law and order, and took into custody scores of leading Hindu gentlemen as though they were responsible for the outbreak of lawlessness? Later, I had an occasion to meet one important high-up in that State. I said to him, "This incident took place at about 9 or 10 o'clock in the night. The very next morning the Pakistan radio broadcast that there had been 'a great genocide of Muslims' in that particular town! How did Pakistan come to know about the affair within these few hours? There must be some pro-Pakistani gentleman with a transmitter and he must be in constant touch with Pakistan." He said, "Yes, that is the only possibility." Then I asked him, "Do you know that the reports of even the in-camera conferences that go on in Prime Minister's house which are supposed to be very confidential often go to Peking and Rawalpindi the very same night?" He said, "Yes, I am aware of it."

 

The conclusion is that, in practically every place, there are Muslims who are in constant touch with Pakistan over the transmitter enjoying not only the right of an average citizen but also some extra privileges and extra favour because they are 'minorities'! Our C.I.D. department seems to be more concerned about patriotic persons than about such elements as are trying to undermine our very national existence!

 

Some time back an M.L.A. threw a challenge in the U.P. Assembly that several transmitters were active in Lucknow City alone and that he would guide the police-if they dared-to trace them. So far the Government does-not seem to have heard him at all! No wonder the enemy agents carry on their nefarious schemes merrily as if the Government itself is on their side!

 

 

Let us now at least wake up, look around and understand the true significance of the words and actions of even the very eminent Muslims. Their own statements have exposed the greatest of the so-called 'nationalist Muslim' in their true colours today.

 

Maulana Mohammed Ali, the right hand man of Mahatma Gandhi in the early days of freedom struggle, had announced in public, not once but repeatedly, that the worst sinner and debauchee among the Muslims was, in his eyes, far superior to even Mahatma Gandhi!

 

I had once an opportunity to talk to a great scholar of the Sufi sect in our country. He said that the only way to meet the challenge of the godless philosophy of Communism was to mobilise and bring together all men having faith in God to whatever sect or religion they might belong. I asked him, "What is that common plank on which all can come together?" Without a moment's hesitation he replied, "Islam"! That is how the minds of even their so-called scholars and philosophers work!

 

The greatest 'nationalist Muslim' of our times, Maulana Azad too in his last days gave out his mind in the book India Wins Freedom in unmistakable terms. Firstly the whole of the book, from start to finish, is an unabashed egocentric narration which depicts all other leaders including Gandhiji, Nehru, etc., as simpletons and Patel as a communalist. Secondly, he has not a single word of censure for heinous massacres and atrocities committed by Muslims on Hindus in various places like Calcutta, Noakhali, etc. More than all, the entire burden of his opposition to the creation of Pakistan was that it would be against the interests of Muslims! In fact, Azad says, the Muslims were fools in following Jinnah, as thereby they got only a fraction of the land whereas if they had followed his advice they would have had a decisive voice in the affairs of the entire country, in addition to all the benefits of Pakistan! Sri Mehrchand Mahajan, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, had come out with the same comments about the book. For instance, he says, "The Maulana was more shrewed than Mr. Jinnah. Left to him, India would have become virtually a Muslim-dominated country."

 

 

Their speeches carry the ring of open defiance and rebellion. A Muslim Minister at the Center, speaking from the platform of one such conference, warned that unless the Muslim interest was well protected the story of Spain would be repeated here also, meaning thereby that they would rise in armed revolt.

 

They have now been emboldened to such an extent that they are not only contesting elections in the name of the Muslim League in several provinces but are invariably raising the slogan 'Pakistan Zindabad' in their public meetings and processions. For them, only those areas in which their unbridled sway is established are 'Pak', i.e., holy and the rest of Bharat where they are living and flourishing is 'na-Pak', i.e., unholy. Can any son, however debased and depraved he may be, ever call his mother unholy and sinful? And still, we are asked to believe that such elements are the sons of this soil! It is strange that the creators of Pakistan should have chosen to name that state in that fashion. Calling that territory alone as pak, i.e., holy, amounts to lessening the holiness of even Mecca and Medina. Because even they would be na-pak when compared to Pakistan! Let us cry a halt, before it is too late, to this long and suicidal spell of wishful thinking and come to grips with the cruel realities of the situation keeping the interests of national security and integrity as the one supreme consideration.

 

 

So far as the Christians are concerned, to a superficial observer they appear not only quite harmless but as the very embodiment of compassion and love for humanity! Their speeches abound in words like 'service' and 'human salvation' as though they are specially deputed by the Almighty to uplift humanity! They run schools and colleges, hospitals and orphanages. The people of our country, simple and innocent as they are, are taken in by all these things. But what is the real and ulterior motive of Christians in pouring crores of rupees in all these activities?

 

 

Our late President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, had once gone to Assam. He visited the schools and hospitals established by the Christian missionaries in those hilly regions and expressed his appreciation. But he also advised them at the end, "You have no doubt done very good work. But do no exploit all these things for the purpose of proselytisation." But the missionary who spoke next bluntly said, "If we had been prompted to do all this by mere humanitarian considerations, why should we have come all the way here? Why should we have spent so much money? We are here for only one reason and that is to increase number of followers of our Lord Jesus Christ." They are very clear about it.

 

Towards that end they feel that any tactics, however foul, is fair. The various surreptitious and mean tactics they employ for conversion are all too well known. There is the case of a village where, in the last census, the Christina missionaries got the whole population entered as Christians. When the mischief was known and the people there protested, the Christians missionaries told them," Nothing can be done now. You have been registered as Christians in Government records. So you have to behave hereafter only as Christians." The poor Hindu villagers, cut off from the support and succor of the indifferent Hindu Society, believed in their words and embraced Christianity. It is through such tactics that they are swelling their numbers day in and day out.

 

Many leading Christian missionaries have often declared unequivocally that their one single aim is to make this country ' a province of the Kingdom of Christ'. The Archbishop of Madurai has said, as reported in Vedanta Kesari of Madras, that their sole aim is to fly the flag of Christ over the whole of Bharat. Even during the recent "Eucharistic Congress" at Bombay, Cardinal Gracias bewailed that after centuries of proselytising in Bharat the Catholics were only six million and the overwhelming majority remained Hindus. He exhorted his followers that every one of them should hereafter feel himself a missionary in the cause of proselytisation. What does all this mean? It means that all the people in this country should be converted to Christianity. That is, their hereditary religion, philosophy, culture and way of life should be demolished and they should become absorbed in a world federation of Christianity.

 

 

The way they are behaving towards other people forces us to conclude that the modern proselytising religions have very little of true religion in them. In the name of God, Prophet and religion, they are only trying to further their political ambitions. In true religion there need be no porselytisation, no change in the way of worship. Our religious missionaries who reached distant lands in ancient times did not force their religion on other people. On the contrary, without negating their mode of worship, our great teachers tried to make it more sublime by fortifying it with an all-comprehensive philosophy, to inculcate in them noble and chaste qualities of head and heart and make them better devotees in their own form of worship. That was real dhrama.

 

The concept of religion as propagated by the Christian missionaries is really amazing. Once I met a missionary. He gave me a book written by an Archbishop in England and told me that the book would make the nature of their work clear to me. I read it. When I returned it to him, he asked me with quite an interest, "How is the book?" I replied, "If such is your Archbishop, what about you?" that startled him. I pointed out to him some passages in that book which said that to attain God it is enough if one prays twice a day and attends the church on Sundays and that during the rest of the time there is no harm in indulging in any kind of physical pleasures and enjoyments. These words are, in fact, totally opposed to the sublime teachings of that seer, Jesus Christ.

 

Even St. Paul, the great disciple of Christ, has said, as quoted by Lokamanya Tilak in his Gita Rahasya, "How can it be a sin if by uttering falsehood I add to Your (God's) Glory?" No wonder, the present Christian missionaries have made full use of that statement to further their nefarious designs. Truly has it been said, "There was but one true Christian, and he died on the Cross!"

 

 

Their activities are not merely irreligious, they are also anti-national. Once I asked a Christian missionary why they abused our sacred scriptures, gods and goddess. He said frankly, "Our aim is to knock out the faith from the heart of the Hindus. When his faith is shattered, his nationalism is also destroyed. A void will be created in his mind. Then it becomes easy for us to fill that void with Christianity."

 

Some years ago, the Madhya Pradesh Government appointed a committee to report on the activities of these Christian missionaries. The Chairman of the committee, Sri Niyogi, was a highly respectable retired High Court Judge, not belonging to any group or party. The Committee members toured the whole of Madhya Pradesh and met the converted Christians, missionaries and other people. They also visited many churches. On the basis of all these personal investigations, the Committee prepared a lengthy report. The substance of that report is: "All the philanthropic acts of the missionaries are simply a mask for carrying on proselytising activities, sometimes by intimidating and sometimes by tempting the simple folk. At the root of the activities is their ambition to carve out a separate Christian State for themselves on the strength of their numbers. They are spending crores of rupees for that single purpose."

 

 

The creation in Assam of 'Nagaland' is a glaring example in point. That the open rebellion going on in the Naga Hills is all engineered by the Christian missionaries was accepted even by Pandit Nehru. But our Government is never tired of telling the country time and again that 'peace' has been established there, only to be followed on the next day by the news that some train was looted, some bridge was blown up or some of our army men were ambushed and killed! When it was asked in Parliament how the rebels had come in possession of such large quantities of arms and ammunition, the reply given was that, during the last war, when the Japanese were fleeing, being unable to carry the load of arms, they threw them away in the jungles and the Nagas took possession of them. But a report had appread in the press that during one of the clashes with our military some rebels were killed and their arms captured. The arms were of the latest American make with an imprint of the year of manufacture. It was 1955 and 1956. And we are asked byour leaders to believe that the Nagas had secured those American arms made in 1955 and 1956, as far back as 1944! It is reported that the Nagas are in possession of even anti-aircraft guns of the latest model. It is also evident how these arms must have come into their possession. The American arms which come to Pakistan are handed over to the Christian missionaries in Assam.

 

Thus the revolt has continued and for the time being our leaders have partly accepted demand and set up Nagaland. The ominous feature about it is that it is under the direct charge of the Foreign Ministry and not of the Home Ministry which governs all other States in our country today. The pressure under which this concession was made is still continuing. This pressure is of two types. One is the internal rebellion, which is still continuing and gaining momentum in view of the partial success they have achieved. Even after the decision to form Nagaland, one of our planes was shot down. The second type of pressure is international. We know that Phizo, the rebel Naga leader, disappeared from our country with the help of Pakistan and some other countries and went to England. He was given asylum by a noted Christian missionary, Michael Scott, who abetted him at making various statements damaging our reputation. Our leaders, who are oversensitive with regard to their international reputation - whatever it may be! - thought it better to give a Nagaland than stake their reputation as peacemakers in the world. And now they have started 'peace talks' with the Naga rebels with a view to giving them greater autonomy, and included that gentleman Michael Scott in the 'peace mission'. To show themselves off as peacemakers, partition of the country seems to be a very cheap price for our leaders. Since that international pressure is also mounting, it will be little wonder if at no distant date Nagaland is separated and formed into an independent State ridden and dominated by the Christian fanatics.

 

 

There is already the demand for another separates Hill Sate round about Shillong in Assam inspired by the Christian missionaries. Of course, our leaders have categorically stated that their demands are fantastic and cannot be met. But we cannot be sure of what will happen in future. Because our experience tells us that whenever our leaders vehemently denounce a particular demand as fantastic, anti-national and so on, then it is a sure indication that they have already made up their mind to accede to it! That has been our uniform experience right from Partition down to the formation of Nagaland.

 

Then in Kerala, during the people’s agitation against the Communist Ministry, the Christian leaders used to say that it was a life and death struggle for the Christian Missions in Kerala. They went to the extent of saying, "Kerala shall be ruled either by the Catholics or by the Communists. And WE want to rule."

In a pamphlet circulated at an international gathering of Christian Fathers in Europe some years ago, a detailed plan was put forth to start centres of Christian influence all along our coast and right across the country through the Vindhyas and the Satpuras. That was the first stage of the plan – to surround the Southern peninsula and make it Christian-dominated. Then the whole of the Himalayan belt was to be captured in the second sweep.

Some time back, news had leaked out in papers that an agreement had been reached* between the Christian missions in our country and the Muslim League that the two should join together and between themselves partition the country, the whole of the Gangetic plain between Punjab and Manipur going to the Muslims and the Peninsula and the Himalayas to the Christians.

 

A few years ago, there was an All India Conference of Christians wherein they were called upon to pledge themselves to establish Christian Empire in Bharat. And one of our Central Ministers was present there to bless the proceedings.

Such is the role of Christian gentlemen residing in our land today, out to demolish not only the religious and social fabric of our life but also to establish political domination in various pockets and if possible all over the land. Such has been, in fact, their role wherever they have stepped-all under the alluring grab of bringing peace and brotherhood to mankind under the angelic wings of Jesus Christ. Jesus had called upon his followers to give their all to the poor, the ignorant and the downtrodden. But what have his followers done in practice? Wherever they have gone, they have proved to be not ‘blood-givers’ but ‘bloodsuckers’? What is the fate of all those lands colonised by these so-called disciples of Christ? Wherever they have stepped, they have drenched those lands with the blood and tears of the natives and liquidated whole races. Do we not know the heart-rending stories of how they annihilated the natives in America, Australia and Africa? Why go so far? Are we not aware of the atrocious history of Christian missionaries in our own country, of how they carried sword and fire in Goa and elsewhere?

 

There is the story of ‘Saint Xavier, who used to experience the highest joy of his life when he used to see the new converts trampling upon their former gods and goddesses, razing their temples to the ground and insulting their own parents and elders who remained Hindus. And even as recently as during the Congress rule (a de facto Christian rule?) in Kerala after the quitting of the British, hundreds of ancient and scared Hindu temples, including the famous one at Shabarimalai, were desecrated and their idols broken by the Christian vandals. It is the same Christian fanatics who smashed the Vivekananda Memorial Tablet on the Vivekananda Rock at Kanyakumari. Such are the men who come to us to preach that Christianity would shower bliss of peace and milk of human kindness on humanity!

 

So long as the Christians here indulge in such activities and consider themselves as agents of the international movement for the spread of Christianity, and refuse to offer their first loyalty to the land of their birth and behave as true children of the heritage and culture of their ancestors, they will remain here as hostiles.

 

 

After the British quit this land and we became free to shape our future national set-up, the discussion of various theories and 'isms' has become a live issue for us. No doubt we have opted for the Western type of democratic set-up. But have we been able to reap its beneficial fruits after all these years of experimentation? Instead of symbolising the collective will of the people, it has given rise to all sorts of unhealthy rivalries and forces of selfishness and fission.

 

 

A serious failure of democracy in our country is the growing menace of Communism, which is a sworn enemy of democratic procedure. In a bid not to be left behind the Communists in their economic appeal to the masses, our leaders are only making Communism more respectable by themselves taking up the Communist jargon and the Communist programmes. If the leaders imagine that they will be able to take away the wind out of the Communist sail by such tactics, they are sadly mistaken.

 

They also feel that economic development is the only defence against Communism. It is the constant dinning into the ears of the masses of the promise of 'higher standards of life', thus raising their expectations at a time when they cannot possibly be satisfied, that is aggravating the sense of frustration and paving the way for popular discontent and chaos. Nowhere do we find the appeal to higher sentiments like patriotism, character and knowledge; nor is there any stress on cultural, intellectual and moral development. It is only in such imbecile and despairing minds that the seeds of Communism strike root.

 

 

The approach of the Western countries to the menace of Communism is contributing its own share in giving a fillip to the spread of Communism here. America believes that dollar aid will solve the problem of Communism. As experience had shown in the case of China and now Viet Nam, such aid will be of little avail without a corresponding building up of national character and morale. The countrywide propaganda that accompanies each one of their economic aids is only aggravating the 'economic consciousness' of the masses to the exclusion of those aspects which form the real backbone of a free and democratic life.

 

The westerners also suffer from a strange hallucination that the 'old Hinduism' must go if our country is to be saved from Communism. They feel that Christianity alone can stem the tide of Communism. Once, Arnold Toynbee bad truly described Communism as a 'Christian heresy' and strangely enough it is he who has now come forward to say that Christianity is the one answer to Communism. How can Christianity solve a problem which came up as a reaction due to its own deficiencies? Those who think Christianity alone can save this 'heathen country' should pause and ponder why Russia, the most orthodox country of Christendom, disowned Christ. In our own country, is it not significant that the province where the Christian population and influence is the greatest, Kerala, is also the biggest Communist pocket? If the Westerners believe that by pouring men and money to convert Hindus to Christianity they will save this country from Communism, they are only labouring under a suicidal self-deception. Because, the spread of Christianity shatters the ancient faith and nationalism of the people, and Communism takes root only where faith is shattered. That has been the major psychological factor in the growth of communism.

 

 

Man does not live by bread alone. He must have a faith to live by and die for. Without such a faith life loses its direction and meaning, and man begins to drift. He feels lost. It is an impossible state of being. Till the rise of science, Christianity provided the necessary faith for European life. But science made mincemeat of Christianity. It blasted the Christian concept of time, space, life and the world. However, Europe lost one sheet-anchor but gained another. It lost its faith in religion but gained a new faith in science. Indeed, science became its new religion. Then people believed science to be omniscient and omnipotent as any God thought of in any religion.

 

However, within a course of some centuries, science began disproving itself. The scientists began to confess their ignorance of the Universe. Einstein, than whom there has been no greater scientist in recent times, admitted the existence of a Reality beyond the reach of physical sciences. Thus, from the omniscient mood of the Victorian Era, the scientists felt themselves no more than picking pebbles on the shore with a whole ocean of knowledge lying unexplored before them. This collapse of faith in science left the Western man rudderless on an unexplored sea. The old faiths were dead and no new faiths were in sight. It was in this situation of vacuity of faith that some specious faiths came to fill the gap. One such faith was Communism.

 

So any attempt from whatever quarter, to uproot our ancient and life-giving faith, a faith, which has sustained us and produced the finest flowers of human culture, is bound to bring about sure national disaster.

 

 

Various are the attempts going on to neutralise the appeal of Communism in our country. Some people feel that the Bhoodan movement launched by Vinobaji will take away the appeal of Communism. On the contrary, with its Communistic slogan of 'land to the tiller' and with threats by some of his shortsighted followers like, "If you do not give of your own accord, Communists are bound to come up and take away your all by force" it will only give rise to an impression in the mass mind that after all Communism is correct and is inevitable. It will be an indirect sanction for Communism. Further, the masses will have a suspicious feeling that all such movements, which come up in the name of their uplift are only half-hearted and deceptive. They may very well say, "Now that the Communists are making headway, you want to come forward with all these reforms and promises! We would rather prefer the blunt Communists. They are at least honest and bold. They mean what they say and we can believe them." Thus, contrary to expectations, this movement may pave the way for Communists. In fact, to work merely with a view to counteracting Communism is always dangerous. It is only the inculcation of a right and positive faith that can make the masses rise above the base appeal of Communism.

 

There are some who feel that the growth of Communism is inevitable so long as economic disparity persists. But the fact is, economic disparity is not the real cause for mutual hatred on which the Communists thrive. The idea of dignity of labour is not properly imbibed by our people. For example, a rikshawala who makes a daily earning of 3 to 4 rupees is addressed as a 'fellow' and a clerk getting but Rs. 60 a month is addressed as 'Babuji'. It is this disparity in outlook in all walks of our life which creates hatred. This is a recent perversion that has entered our life. In our philosophy, there is no distinction of high or low in one's karma, i.e., duty. Every work is the worship of the same Almighty in the form of society. This spirit has to be revived once again.

 

 

The threat of Communism has become real from another quarter in our country. And that is by the present policy of our Government who have declared 'Socialism' (same in content as Communism and differing only in the method of achievement) as their goal. In the first place, our leaders say that they will achieve Socialism by the ballot-box, and not by the bullet as was done in Russia and China. That only means that there is a difference between the people in Russia and China, and the people in our country. In Russia and China, probably the people were alive and kicking and therefore they, had to be cowed down by the bullet. Here our people are docile hero-worshipers. If the hero comes and says, "My dear friend, come on, bend forward, I want to behead you", our people will certainly bend forward and offer to be beheaded! With such docile people, why is the bullet required? A ballot-box is sufficient. If the leader says, "Vote for Socialism", the people will vote for it. If tomorrow they find that having voted for Socialism their independence is gone, and as individuals they have become only dead parts of a machine, they will take it as an ordinance of fate and submit to it.

 

Our people submitted to the Muslim rule for more than a thousand years, to the extent that even today we find people saying that Muslims were great godly persons! Some have even gone to the extent of saying that we must erect statues of Hyder who jailed his Hindu king and usurped his throne, and of his son Tippu who forcibly converted countless people to Islam, demolished many temples and molested a number of women! To this extent the infatuation still remains. When the British came, some persons said, "They have been sent from heaven." Some even said, "In the Bhavishya Purana, it has already been prophesied that our country would be ruled by a queen named Vikateshwari and she is none other than Queen Victoria herself"! With such a docile people a little propaganda is enough.

 

In John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, the Pilgrim is caught by the Giant. The Giant wants to murder him straightway but on advice from his wife tries to persuade him to commit suicide. The Giant says, "Why are you undergoing all the troubles of life? Nothing is sweeter than suicide. Choose whatever you like, knife, halter or poison, make an end of your miserable life and be relieved forever." He so convinces the Pilgrim that the latter gets ready to commit suicide. Just then a friend counsels the Pilgrim and prevents him from falling into the trap. The moral is, for innocent docile people, a little persuasion does the work of a bullet.

 

 

Under the grab of Socialism, what is it that is actually taking place? We find that all the measures being undertaken here are only an improved carbon copy of what has happened in China. The only difference is that these developments were brought about by brutal violence in China whereas here the same things are being done through polished propaganda. This will be quite clear to us if we compare the governmental measures of both countries. When the present Communist Government in China first came to power, they did not want any challenge to their absolute power. So they liquidated the old nobles, chiefs and industrialists and nationalized all industries. They liquidated the big landholders and ultimately the smaller zamindars and framers.

 

Here also, landlords were liquidated. Now the 17th Amendment has come by which even the smaller farmer, having even half an acre of land, is considered an estate holder, and the Government is empowered to take away his property practically without any compensation. Co-operative farming, collective farming, nationalisation of banks and industries and such socialistic doctrines are in the air. All this is, in a way, following the Chinese line step by step. Let us try to see close parallel and read the writing on the wall. And before we are reduced to mere slaves and tools, beware!

 

Further, socialism is not a product of this soil. It is not in our blood and tradition. It has absolutely nothing to do with the traditions and ideal of thousands of years of our national life. It is a thought alien to crores of our people here. As such it does not have the power to thrill our hearts, and inspires us to a life of dedication and character. Thus we see that it does not posses even the primary qualification to serve as an ideal for our national life.

 

 

And finally, as we have already seen, Socialism (the same as Communism in its original form, as even Russia calls itself a Socialist State) was born as a reaction steeped in the theory of class conflict and has failed to deliver the goods in Russia itself. As a theory it was exploded long back and now it has been exploded in practice also.

Nowadays our leaders are trying to cover up the fatal defect of Socialism, i.e., the wiping out of the individual as a living entity, by coining new slogans like 'Democratic Socialism', 'Socialistic Democracy' and so on. As a matter of fact, the two concepts of Democracy and Socialism are mutually contradictory. Socialism cannot be democratic and Democracy cannot be socialistic. For, individual freedom, as we have seen, is the first faith with Democracy, whereas it is the first victim of Socialism. In Democracy, the majesty of the individual is held high, whereas, in Socialism, he is only a cog in the wheel, just a lifeless screw in the colossal machine called State.

 

 

Thus, after the quitting of the British, we find ourselves in a confused state of affairs trying to catch at something of each of the foreign theories and 'isms'. This is highly humiliating to a country, which has given rise to an all-comprehensive philosophy, capable of furnishing the true and abiding basis for reconstruction of national life on political, economic, social and all other planes. It would be sheer bankruptcy of our intellect and originality if we believe that human intelligence has reached its zenith with the present theories and 'isms' of the West. Let us therefore evolve our own way of life based on the eternal truths discovered by our ancient seers and tested on the touchstone of reason, experience and history.