Posted on 03/21/2006 10:38:57 AM PST by NYer
Ahmedabad (AsiaNews/UCAN) – The nationalist Hindu government of Gujarat has decided to stop sisters from working in a hospital for lepers, terminating a contract that has lasted for more than 60 years.
But the decision has been opposed by patients. Many of the sick people said they will follow the sisters wherever they go. “They are everything for us,” Babban Sitapur. "Not even our family members take such care of us."
The Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate took up the administration of the Leprosy Hospital in 1949. Gujarat then was part of Bombay state, which was later divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat. The government invited the nuns to run the hospital in Ahmedabad after many criticisms labelling it one of the country's worst-run institutions for leprosy patients.
The government used to renew the five-year contract routinely, but things began to change in 2001, soon after a government led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the state.
Fr Cedric Prakash, the Jesuit who helped the sisters to renew the contract in 2001, said they managed to do so only with “great difficulty”. Already then, he could discern what the government intentions were. The renewal of the contact became a “vague and remote possibility”. On 21 February, the government announced it would not renew the contract with the sisters, which expires on 1 April.
The hospital stretches across a 10-hectare plot of government-owned land and houses some 40 inpatients while treating hundreds of outpatients. The nuns' residence is on the premises.
Fr Prakash said the decision to send the sisters away came from the state Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Health Minister Ashok Bhatt, both known for their anti-Christian stance.
As news of the government decision spread, the patients gathered under a tree to discuss what to do. "We will go to the government and plead," said one of them, but another waved him down with his bandaged hand and said, "They will not allow us to even enter the compound."
Joseph John, a Catholic patient, suggested they go on a hunger strike, but that too was turned down. Sister Karuna, who is in charge of the hospital, stood at a distance; she said what the patients feared most was the discrimination they may face in contrast to the welcome they experienced within the premises. "People come here hesitatingly, but would not leave this place afterward. Back home they are hated, isolated and some are even thrown out.”
Chinga Powar came from a government hospital in neighbouring Maharashtra. In that hospital, he said, doctors would "not even come near us. The nurses would give out tablets in a plastic bag tied to a stick. The toilets were never cleaned, because lepers used it. We were treated worse than animals."
Eventually someone told him about the Ahmedabad hospital. "I didn't know the place, but I knew it was managed by Christian nuns, which was enough inspiration to come here," he continued. One night he left the Maharashtra hospital. He covered all his wounds, used a shawl to hide his face and rode in the back of a bus to Ahmedabad. He later helped two other patients from the hospital in Maharashtra to come to Ahmedabad.
Cinga Powar said he would not know where to go if the nuns left. He said the best thing to do would to request the government to allow the nuns to stay.
Minaben Patel, 81 years and a Hindu, has worked with the sisters for the past 50 years. She said the "real aim" of not renewing the nuns' contract could be to take over the land. Thanks to the development of the city, the value of the property has increased. She said there was no one ready to replace the sisters. "The government may gain some land, but they will lose these wardens of the poor permanently,” she said.
The secretary of the state's Health Department, S.R. Rao, said the decision not to renew the contract was “purely administrative”. The government owned the hospital, he continued, and was thus free "to decide whom to hand over the administration”.
The Health Minister said the government had plans to expand the institution's services and the termination of the sisters’ contract had nothing to do with ideology.
The contract stipulated that the sisters should shall not “do any preaching of the Bible or carry on any proselytizing activities among patients of the hospital as well as on the premises”. The sisters said they have never violated these stipulations.
Almost a year ago the government permitted them to start a house for HIV-positive patients in the same compound. Christians saw this decision as an expression of the government's appreciation for the sisters' service. Today, some HIV-positive people live in the hospital and around 500 receive medicines and treatment.
So far, the sisters have not yet received any official communication from the district health commissioner. They have only received some information from the Health and Family Welfare Department. (www.ucan.com)
Compared to Islam, Hinduism is much less of a threat. For one thing, it's basically limited to India and has no expansionist ambitions.
But the Hindu religion is not pretty. The caste system makes any of the western class systems, no matter how obnoxious, look tame by comparison. Hindu literature is fascinating, but I would not want to live under a Hindu regime.
So that's the reason.
Those nuns are saints, in my opinion. Christians of whom we can all be very proud. You can bet this won't make the MSM news.
We can be sure God is watching. "For whatever you did or didn't do to the least of my people, you did to me."
The caste system isn't a part of the Hindu religion. It is a cultural issue.
If the caste system isn't part of the Hindu religion, then how does a slave of the culture escape such oppression...without having to be an illegal alien?
Caste discrimination in India is, like racial discrimination in the US, against the law. India also has a quota system for employment and university spots for the "untouchables."
Sounds like time must heal this wound and it will disappear only through generations of "equal opportunity".
The caste system was inextricable from Indian religion in earlier days. The castes were connected with the divine order of things and with reincarnation. The Brits managed to cut back on some of the established customs, like suttee. And Ghandi's movement led to freeing the Untouchables.
But the strict, fanatical Hindus who go around murdering Christians and burning churches would pretty certainly like to restore the caste system if they had the power to do so. And probably burn widows, too. The question is, do they have the power to turn back the clock on things like that? Hopefully not. The leaders of Hindu nationalism are pretty ruthless, but they just don't have the kind of following any more that the Muslim leaders have.
Well, if it's a cultural issue (as you claim), how do you explain that their society--stratified by cast--fairly well mimics the Hindu relgion (Eastern Pantheistic Monism) in which life (Atman/Brahman) is reincarnated--get this--8.4M times before reaching Braham?
Stratifed social structure...stratified reincarnative religion...go figure. I can see the connection.
Sauron
Poligamy is against the law in Utah, too....
I am sorry but your post is inaccurate. India has the largest affirmative action programs in the world. A religion that gave rise to pacifist movements like buddhism, jainism and that survived 800 years of islamic and i dare say christian aggression probably has some good points to it.
The Indian religion does have caste. But it isnt hierarchical. For example the greatest epic of hinduism the ramayana was written by Valmiki a so called lower caste. The Hindu god Krishna was born a cow herd another lower (and one of the most powerful castes in india today) Most of india's saints and its religious leaders today come from the so called lower castes.
The Brits managed to exploit caste divisions and created a theory of lower and upper castes. This helped the british to divide and conquer the natives and i daresay in promoting prosleytisation. This theory of "lower" and "upper" caste has no correlation to political or economic power. For example the brahmins in india are well educated but not economically well off.
As it is india is witnessing a social revolution where it is "advantageous to be a lower caste"!!!! by the way much of the hindu right is also made up of lower castes including the man quoted in this article Mr.Modi.
But the strict, fanatical Hindus who go around murdering Christians and burning churches would pretty certainly like to restore the caste system if they had the power to do so. And probably burn widows, too. The question is, do they have the power to turn back the clock on things like that? Hopefully not. The leaders of Hindu nationalism are pretty ruthless, but they just don't have the kind of following any more that the Muslim leaders have.
If the leaders of hindu nationalism are ruthless they would have made india an extreme right wing dictatorship when they were in power. But they lost an election and exited out of office. As regards to that comment about burning indian widows - i would attribute that to anti hindu propaganda.
With the islamic threat it doesnt make any sense for us to go and keep baiting hindus as some christians extremists are trying to do. We need the buddhists, atheists, hindus, zorastrians on our side and not against us.
From what I understand India reserves upto 70% of its seats in higher education exclusively for the lower castes . By the way parties made of the lower castes have most of the political power anyways. Martin Luther King would be jobless /sarcasm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/08/22/stories/2005082210100400.htm
CHENNAI: The all-party meeting convened by the Centre on August 23 and the Education Ministers' meeting on August 27 in New Delhi may, at best, spark a renewed debate on some critical issues affecting higher education in the private sector. Though political consensus in Tamil Nadu cannot be imagined on any key issue of national or State import, there has always been near unanimity on the two critical issues of higher education and the need to protect reservation for the educationally and socially backward classes. It is not without reason that Tamil Nadu has been in the forefront on these key issues. The State offers the highest percentage of reservation of seats in the whole country — a whopping 69 per cent. This includes the statutory reservation for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and Backward castes, in addition to separate quotas for Most Backward Castes, the physically challenged, sportspersons and wards of freedom fighters, among others. Though there is no constitutional backing for the 69 per cent reservation, successive Governments have ensured that there is no tampering with this percentage. All political parties have urged the Centre to provide constitutional protection for this level of reservation, though there are Supreme Court orders to the effect that it should not exceed 50 per cent. That question is still before the courts, but there is no threat to the 69 per cent reservation. Another reason for Tamil Nadu's leadership in higher education is the proliferation of professional colleges, especially engineering colleges. Over 700 — more than 50 per cent — of the private self-financing engineering colleges function in the four Southern States and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. Tamil Nadu has about 240 of these colleges. The immediate import of the apex court order — providing minority and unaided professional colleges complete freedom in the matter of admissions — is the imminent end to reservation in these colleges. Of the more than 70,000 seats in engineering colleges in the State, about 42,000 were available through the single window system of admissions with a transparent counselling programme; that meant the "quotas" applied to all these seats. But, if the private unaided colleges go out of the single window and the Government cannot insist on its share of seats, hardly 5,000 engineering seats will come under the counselling and quota system. That has been considered the most serious challenge by the political parties here, which are pressing for Central legislation to ensure the quotas and the State Government's say in the matter of admissions and fees. Government sources argue that the private colleges not only want to lower the qualifying mark for admissions, but also do not want to have a merit-based, transparent system of admissions that can stand the scrutiny of law. "They just want to fill up the seats, but you can see the seats going abegging in the single window. Education is on the concurrent list and this Government will not yield its legitimate rights — both in monitoring higher education and supervising admissions, especially in ensuring that the reservation policy is followed," says a senior Government source, adding that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has already expressed her "strong views" on the matter. Administrators expect both the ruling party and the Opposition to take similar views at the all-party meeting and insist that at the Education Ministers' conference, the State will reiterate its commitment to reservation and a free, fair and transparent system of admissions to all professional courses. There will be no compromise on that. A couple of days ago, rumours were rife that the State Government was thinking of taking over a number of professional colleges, including some Deemed Universities. But educationists and officials stoutly denied the speculation and described it as "a plant by vested interests."
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