We have written several positive articles on this blog about the New York Times. At least two articles speak of our respect for the writings of Heather Timmons of the New York Times.
Unfortunately one solitary act can reveal the dark corner of someone’s soul. This was the analogy used by a CNN anchor to describe the well-publicized racially oriented comments attributed to the actor who played the role of Kramer on “Seinfeld”.
That is how we feel about Heather Timmons today.
Hari Kumar and Heather Timmons wrote an innocuous sounding article in the New York Times on September 4 titled “Violence in India Is Fueled by Religious and Economic Divide”. This article draws attention to a very ugly, savage episode that took place in Orissa, a state in Northwestern India. Indian society at times explodes into violent incidents between different religions. Most Indian media organizations tend to step warily and circumspectly into these incidents, realizing from past experience that placing blame is difficult and fraught with danger of misrepresentation. But the New York Times clearly does not feel the need to be so responsible.
This is NOT an article about the incident on Orissa or its reasons. This comment is about the “journalistic” treatment of this terrible tragedy by two writers of the New York Times.
We are outraged by the article by Hari Kumar and Heather Timmons. We find it reprehensible. We call a Flagrant Foul on Hari Kumar, Heather Timmons and the Editors of the New York Times for this article. This comment spells out our reasons for this call.
The article by Hari Kumar and Heather Timmons is not a news article. It is opinion under the guise of news. It is not even opinion, but a naked display of vitriol and a deeply religious supremacist bias.
To us, this article reflects the views of people who feel that
- Christians are an innately superior people of a master religion that is
- embarked on the noble pursuit of educating and enlightening
- deeply backward, ignorant Hindus to
- bring them into the modernity and brightness of Christianity.
If you think we exaggerate, read on.
First the facts.
The root cause of the animus between Christians and Hindus stems from the activities of Christian Priests who have been engaged in converting Hindus from lower castes to Christianity. Hindus are convinced that the Christian priests are funded by large foreign sources of money enabling such Christian Priests to bribe poor, destitute Hindus. Christian Priests deny this charge. Orissa passed a law that prohibits such “forced” or “enduced” or “allured” conversions. Christian organizations say that the conversions are voluntary. Hindus are convinced that the conversions are forced or enduced and that state laws are being violated with impunity. Hindu organizations have been active in protesting such activities of Christian Priests.
On August 23, 2008, an old and respected Hindu Priest Laxman-Anand Saraswati, who was spearheading the anti-conversion movement, was murdered. This murder enraged Hindu anti-conversion activists who promised retribution.
As far as we know, these facts are not disputed.
Let us see how Hari Kumar and Heather Timmons write about this tragic situation.
They write “The violence was prompted by the Aug. 23 killing in Orissa of Laxmanananda Saraswati, who had been associated with a Hindu radical group opposed to Hindus’ converting to Christianity.”. Look at the subliminal message.
The Hindu group is defined as “radical” because it opposes conversions to Christianity. The association with such a “radical group” is used to demean the importance of Mr. Saraswati’s murder and to suggest that he sort of paid for his association with such a group. Hari and Heather dismiss this killing without a single expression of empathy towards him or his followers.
Even the English writers of the 19th century were more fair, circumspect and understood the deeply emotional impact of a wanton killing of a revered Hindu priest.
Hari and Heather go on to describe the acts of revenge by Hindu activists in gory detail without any documentary evidence. A villager called Asha Lata Nayak is quoted extensively and her descriptions are vividly portrayed as the experiences of a Christian whose faith in “God Christ” remains unshaken.
Hari and Heather do not provide any quotes from any Hindu victims or villagers. There is no mention of the faith of Priest Saraswati or his martyrdom for his religion or God. But perhaps to Hari and Heather, faith only means Christian faith.
Hari and Heather then describe the noble deeds of Christian priests in Orissa. They quote a local Christian priest, Pastor Thomas Verghese and Joseph D’souza, the President of the All Indian Christian Council.
Hari and Heather do not quote any local Hindu Priest or any one from any national Hindu organization.
They quote Christian Pastor Verghese “The conflict is increasing because we are trying to educate the people and enlighten them,“. The subliminal message is:
These noble Christian Priests are engaged in God’s work – trying to educate and enlighten the dark Hindu souls trapped in their backward Hindu religion to bring them into the modernity and brightness of the Christian religion.Hari and Heather also deride the State of Orissa. They state that “Orissa has long suffered from government neglect”. Then they write, “Christian Missionaries provide services, including schooling, much better than most residents receive from the government.”
Every single state in India can be similarly criticized for neglect. There are many non-religious organizations that provide similar social services all across India which are far better than what the State Governments provide.
As an aside, we seem to recall that Hezbollah provides similar services in Lebanon and Hamas does the same in Palestine. The New York Times regards these Hezbollah-Hamas activities as fronts for a deeper, more sinister cause.
But we forget ourselves! How can Hari and Heather compare Christian organizations with Muslim organizations even though they may talk the same talk and walk the same walk? We should all know that Christian organizations are only trying to educate and enlighten backward, ignorant Hindus, where as the Muslims organizations are only trying to create terrorism.
Hari and Heather describe the faith of a daughter of a Hindu converted to Christianity as unshaken and quote her ” My husband died for God Christ..I was born a Christian and I will die a Christian.” This quote is used to end the article.
What a fervent call to arms for a new Christian Crusade from the New York Times! Let Christian organizations collect millions of dollars and send the money to India to convert all Hindus to Christianity.
What about a quote from a Hindu victim in this article, you ask! Surely you jest!
If you disagree with us, tell us candidly with an email to [email protected]. If you concur, tell the New York Times.
Editor’s Note:
A frightened Christian nun from Orissa called the Christian Archbishop of Mumbai, who in turn called the Pope in Italy. The Pope expressed his dismay for the incident. All the Christian organizations in India called for a one-day strike and closed all Christian education institutions on that day.
When a frightened Hindu woman is in trouble, she has no one to call anywhere. There is no Hindu Pope, no organized Hindu national council. The Indian Government does not care about her. Over 2,000 Hindus have been killed in India during the past few years. They had no one to call, no New York Times article quoted their faith and no one remembers them.
Tens of thousands of non-Christian (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain) children were denied access to their schools, access to education because Christian Religious organizations closed all their schools all over India. This is supposedly against the law, but no one in Indian Government cared enough to enforce the law. India has no class-action law nor does India have a concept of punitive damages. So, the school children of India can be denied education just because groups of a particular religion decide to do so.
We write this article because we are becoming afraid. We are getting deeply concerned that the silent majority of India is finally getting angry. The anger we sense is a cold, white-hot anger that is building slowly and within the core of Indian society. This anger is growing because of episodes in Kashmir, Orissa, Jaipur and is fed by the repeated misconduct of an Indian Government that disrespects deeply held beliefs of the silent majority.
There is no society on earth that is more liberal, more tolerant and more pacifist than Indian society. But, after a sustained period of deep cold anger, Indian society tends to burst into bouts of terrible uncontrollable savagery that washes over all governmental, institutional frameworks.
There is still time but not a lot of it. We urge the entire Indian Establishment – Governmental, Societal, Intellectual, Media and Religious – to begin becoming empathetic, more responsive to the deeply felt concerns of the silent Indian majority. The alternative is too ghastly to imagine and would be impossible to witness.
