From: "Vrin Parker Mailing-List: list vediculture@yahoogroups.com Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 21:44:55 -0000 Subject: [world-vedic] More info on Nagaland Visit:By Ramrani Hello Srividhya & Rajeev, I see that an off-the-list tamasha (conflict) has erupted due to Vrin Parker's post about his trip to Nagaland. Srividhya Ragavan referred to Vrin's organizational affiliations and also wanted to know why he was criticized in the Nagaland Post--what was the "other side"? Since I was there in Nagaland and also was at the meeting in Dimapur where we spoke with several journalists, I would like to comment. First of all, Vrin has associations with numerous Vedic oriented organizations and enterprises, most of which he founded. From infancy he was raised a Vaishnava Hindu and personally enjoys the color and depth of his life long spiritual understandings, which are Hindu. Throughout his life he has tried to be on the path of right livelihood (to borrow a line from the Buddha) and that is why his bio is filled with references to his efforts to bring the beautiful aspects of Indic civilization to other Americans. The organizations that he has founded engage, among other activities, in staging musical revues of Indian devotional music and other such alternative entrepreneurial efforts. These things that he does in Hawaii have no connection with his trip to Nagaland. I have never attended one of Vrin's musical events, but he did not stage one of those in Nagaland--though maybe he should. So, separating Vrin's activities in Hawaii from his visit to Nagaland is essential. I think that is perhaps what Rajeev intended by saying that his bio was not on trial. I can easily tell you the "other side" and the tilt of the article in the Nagaland Post. I will also share the contents of two other articles about our visit to Nagaland, one from the Asian Age and one from the Nagaland Page. Both of these articles were more favorable and had very interesting things to report. First I will tell you about the journalists we met in Dimapur. There were reporters from five newspapers. Four of the journalists were fairly young and asked very interesting questions. That morning we had given a talk at a Jain school about the importance of the preservation of indigenous traditions--highlighting the UN's resolution on that issue we had also met with with Naga students at a hostel who were followers of Rani Gaidilieu. Interestingly, the press conference was almost turned on its head, because we began to ask the journalists about themselves and a very rich exchange ensued that lasted for more than two hours. During the meeting, a gentleman who was a bit older came in late. He said he was a reporter for the Nagaland Post. He did not like it when I told my story of why I had deep respect for Dharmic based religions even though I was born in a Christian family. He and I got into a bit of a debate because he insisted that Christian missionaries have the right to harvest souls in any manner they can which includes calling Hindu traditions into question. He felt the inherent superiority of Christianity must be told to the tribal peoples. "Christians have the right to propagate their religion because the path of Jesus Christ leads to salvation." Well, that old prejudicial narrative just didn't sit well with me so I asked him numerous times, "Will all non-Christians go to hell?" He hedged and made euphemisms, but he couldn't deny that he believed that to be true. This exclusivism is basic Christian dogma. He left the meeting early in a bit of tiff. However, the other journalists stayed until long after dark and we talked extensively about many issues and exchanged email addresses. I have been in touch with one of the reporters, Frances several times, he is a journalist from Nagaland. (More about him further on in this message.) The other journalists who remained after Mr. Basu, the fellow from the Nagaland Post left, told us that he is not really a journalist but actually a well known Christian activist in Dimapur. Though originally from West Bengal, he has been doing missionary work in Nagaland for 25 years (this by his own admission). We were also told by these four journalists that the editor of the Nagaland Post was a fundamentalist Christian. I could not verify this, but several other people told us the same thing the day the article came out in that paper. The editor's name is Jaffry, or so we were told and supposedly he is a Pentecostal, as was Mr. Kalyan Basu-- this, as mentioned, according to the other journalists present and also several Dimapur residents. The title of the front page article in the Nagaland Post was "US Vedic Scholars take Christianity to Task", and appeared on December 16, 2002, written by "staff reporter". Besides the sensationalist title, IMHO, the article itself was nothing but truth--their effort to be critical in this article backfired. One of the most important comments was made in the first paragraph: "Two US nationals currently on a visit to the north east to study tribal culture, practically turned [the meeting] into an exercise in attacking Christianity thereby confirming a long held suspicion in church circles of such eventuality." [please note, I was the one who took Christianity to task, not Vrin... hence his feeling that he was misquoted I was not.] Think about the above quote. Here were two nobodies on a trip through Nagaland, and because we advocated the preservation of indigenous traditions and because we were Americans who dared to take on the Biblical paradigm, we were front page news. In our discussion I brought up the need to protect indigenous cultures from divisive hegemonic forces, such as almost destroyed the Native America tribes. What is most revealing in this above quote is that there has been a long held worry in church circles in that region that alternative perspectives would one day come to Nagaland. These would come from Americans who do not subscribe to evangelical propagation but rather cultural preservation, they have had a fear that these yoga practicing Americans would eventually bring another message to the peoples of the NE. This statement was very telling-- the church fears that the tribal peoples may hear that the church has declining membership in western countries and that many westerners are looking to tribal cultures for models of sustainable societies. Perhaps it is time for Americans go to the Northeast and speak out against the dogmatism that Pentecostal churches and the faith healing revivals that are financed by evangelical outfits in the USA. The kind of Christianity that is promoted in Nagaland is very superstitious and arcane. In all fairness the negative headline was because of what I said, not Vrin Parker. He did stress numerous times that he respected Jesus. I was the one who engaged the Bengali missionary. He asked me why I gave up my Christian religion and I told him. I was quoted in full in the newspaper. I did not find it negative reporting--it is accurate. Here is that paragraph from the Nagaland Post: "Yvette Rosser strongly denounced Christian fundamentalism and 'exclusivism' (the only religion to spiritual emancipation). She not only charged Christianity of being responsible for the 'extinction of tribal religion' (animism) and culture through hegemonism but accused the colonial powers of propagating Christianity and importing western culture. Yvette spoke of the scandals in the Catholic church in America besides her view of the hypocrisy of the church leaders. She also claimed that only a few percentage of people in America attend church service. Yvette disclosed she gave up wanting to be a nun because if the hypocrisy within the church." One thing that I really did not like was the addition of the word "animism" as defining tribal religion. I had actually made the point that this term was used by early Christian missionaries in the NE to try to create distinctions between the tribal people and Indic religious orientations. In fact, the non Christian Nagas with whom I spoke insisted that their religious traditions have many overlaps and links with multiple aspects of Hinduism. I strongly object to the use of the word animism to describe Heraka or other Naga beliefs. The article in the Nagaland Post also included a brief bio of Mr. Kalyan Basu and comments he had made at the meeting in defense of early missionaries. He is quoted as saying, "Christian fundamentalism is a choice left to a person to accept Jesus Christ as the way and no one can become a Christian by birth." The Nagaland Post newspaper staff reporter wrote, "The church proved to be a unifying medium which was instrumental in promoting peace and understanding among the people of the state." I must say, on our visit to Nagaland, several groups of Nagas told us the opposite, including Frances, one of the reporters present in Dimapur. So, that is a description of the negative article to which Vrin referred in this report that caused this spammed email to come to my mail box. I want to point out again that Vrin did NOT criticize missionary activities. I did. Since I was raised Christian and Vrin wasn't, I suppose I can speak from experience and an emic perspective. In his brief report to the IJAI list, Vrin failed to mention that there were two other articles about our visit to Nagaland, both of which were very positive. I would also like to quote from those two articles. One appeared on Dec. 18 in a newspaper called the Nagaland Page. At the bottom of page one was a headline, that really cracked me up: ""Will non Christians go to Hell? Yvette Rosser asks". This article was written by Karaiba Chawang. Here is what this article states: "Two Americans, Yvette Rosser and Vrin Parker feel that Americans did the wrong thing to Nagas by introducing Christianity. They are not against the Christianity. They love Jesus too. But they said it has destroyed the culture of the indigenous people" The article goes on to quote us as saying that all cultures evolve and change and to claim that Nagas would have remained primitive animists if it were not for missionaries bringing them civilization is to trivialize the very real contributions that indigenous cultures can make to a sustainable future. I was quoted as saying that the UN is now also trying to preserve indigenous traditions. I also commented that tribal peoples worldwide have much in common-- I sited some of those commonalties. This article in the Nagland Page was a very positive report about our visit to Nagaland. The third article appeared in the Asian Age on Dec 29, and though it states that it is written by a staff reporter, it was written by Frances Kikon. Since it appeared over a week after we left Nagaland, Frances scanned it and sent me a copy of this article electronically. Here is what he wrote: He gives our names and then writes that we had come to Nagaland "to propagate that the traditional customs and culture should be preserved and not destroyed." We were then quoted as saying things such as we were not against any religion, we thought people should preserve their historical traditions, we mentioned the UN resolution to that effect. The story concludes with this comment: "Ironically the people of the land that brought Christianity to Nagaland have come again to spread the message of cultural identity."' From: "Vrin Parker Mailing-List: list vediculture@yahoogroups.com Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 23:09:48 -0000 Subject: [world-vedic] Why Defend Hinduism?By Vrin Parker Mr Parker, > > Please tell us what the association does specifically > > to promote religious tolernace. Also tell us what in > > your association's eyes is religious tolrenace. > > > > regards Dear Srividhya, Respectful greetings. Thank you for your questions and sorry for any misunderstandings. In reply to yr relevant questions I must say that it was the aggressive anti-hindu and anti-india nature of the media and academia that turned me into an activist.By standing up against the constant slander, disinformation and intolerance being perpetrated against Hinduism I am promoting religious tolerance. As a person raised in this culture, it is my duty to defend it. For me to try and defend another tradition of which I have no background would be illogical and ineffective. For example, if my family is being attacked, I will naturally defend them. That does not mean I do not care about other families which may or may not be under similar attack. It just means I am acting within the parameters of my abilities and geographical location. It's high time this illogical concept that love and focus for one's own culture is considered hate and ignorance of another's culture. It may surprise you to know that I am a great admirer of both Lord Jesus and Prophet Mohammed (pbuh). Yet having no background in these cultures,I would not make a good spokesman for either Islam or Christianity. However my whole life has been nurtured by India's beautiful Hindu culture so I do have a few things to say about it. It was only after I began my college studies and was forced to study and be tested on fallacies about India and Hinduism that I became an activist. (ex. The textbook stated that Kali yuga was named after the horrific and bloodthirsty Goddess Kaali among other blatantly false statements.) My prof. was actually an Indian lady and when I pointed out the mistakes she was sympathetic but said if you want to pass you have to know what is in the books rather than the reality. To me this was a wake up call to action. So by promoting the truth about Vedic/Hindu culture people will be able to get over their prejudices and intolerant attitudes. Once they understand it correctly they will see that it is a culture that encompasses all religions. Yet it is the Abrahamic traditions which have frequently promoted the concept that all others are hellbound heathens unworthy of God. This concept should never be tolerated because it is an assault on our individual human rights.To tolerate this is to support religious intolerance. In regards to the Nagaland Post, I was shocked by their report. What I told them was that it is wrong for Christians to come and bring love of Jesus in one hand and hate of the ancestral tribal traditions in the other. This statement was ignored in their report. I also said that by preaching against the native traditional ways and denigrating Hinduism, Christian converts naturally develop an anti- national mood and this may be the root of the anti-India insurrection. Upon hearing this, all the reporters emphatically denied this. They informed me that the Christians have never promoted secession from India but rather have created a sense of unity amongst the people. I said I was very happy to hear this good news and was happy to be corrected. YET STILL THE NEXT DAY THE NAGALAND POST REPORTED THAT I BLAMED THE NAGALAND INSURGENCY ON THE CHRISTIANS, WITHOUT MENTIONING THAT I STOOD CORRECTED AND HAD RETRACTED THE STATEMENT WITHIN MINUTES. After the press meet, I was informed that it was very dangerous to make such public statements and people have been killed for less. So imagine my angst reading the next days front page article. After spending 2 hours of talking and listening, all the Nagaland post had to say about me was that I was blaming the insurrection on Christianity. This after I repeatedly glorified Jesus and his teachings. I still had 2 days in Nagaland and the day the report came out, I went on a trip into the countryside. Because of Nagaland Post's inaccurate reporting I was very worried that I would now be labeled an anti-christian rather than a Vedic/Hindu promoter.(Besides the worry of being killed by some insurgents.) I believe that True Christianity(and Islam) is teaching the essence of Vedic philosophy so the anti-christian/islam jacket does not fit me at all.(Wrong Size and style for me to wear.) The VFA Vedic Friends Association promotes religious tolerance by allowing the sincere seeker to get an accurate view of Vedic/Hindu culture. Specifically we do this by putting on cultural shows, veg. feasts, TV shows and book publication. We can not expect people to tolerate or care for something they know nothing about or even worse only have anti-hindu or incorrect sources to access. Thus they will not only tolerate us but actually see us as friends. This is our associations goal. What do I see as religious tolerance? I see religious tolerance to mean tolerance of all religious traditions. It does not mean supporting one religion over the other the way India's govt does. (Free trips to Mecca etc. no govt financial oversight for Muslim or Christians but intensive oversight of Hindu groups etc.) As I pointed out to the Nagaland Post tolerating intolerance of the ancestral traditions leads to social chaos and creates a climate of fear. So for the media to constantly harp on the non-fatal Babri Masjid incident as the darkest day since independence, while Hindus are being slaughtered repeatedly is intolerable to me. By promoting the facts we strive to wake up people's intolerance for the slaughter of Hindu pilgrims and the cultural genocide of the world's indigenous root cultures.WHY IS THE DESTRUCTION OF AN OLD UNUSED MOSQUE SO INTOLERABLE COMPARED TO THE MASS SLAUGHTER OF INDIANS (of all denominations)....OVER 70,000 IN THE PAST 12 YEARS? WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? IN THE USA NO ONE WOULD DARE LAMENT THE LOSS OF THE WTC OVER THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE KILLED. So I hope I answered your questions. Sincerely, Vrin Parker