This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rumpelstiltskin223 (talk | contribs) at 12:44, 27 December 2006 (The term "Hindu polemicist" is insulting. What if somene put Muslim polemicist in Zakir Naik? It is not there then why here?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 12:44, 27 December 2006 by Rumpelstiltskin223 (talk | contribs) (The term "Hindu polemicist" is insulting. What if somene put Muslim polemicist in Zakir Naik? It is not there then why here?)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Vindicated by Time - The Niyogi Committee Report On Christian Missionary Activities is a book edited by Sita Ram Goel in 1998. The book is about a controversial report on missionary activities in India.
The Niyogi Committee Report
The Niyogi Committee Report was a controversial report of the Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee Madhya Pradesh, that was published in 1956 by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. It is known as the Niyogi Committee report because its Chairman was Dr. M. Bhawani Shankar Niyogi, a retired Chief Justice of the Nagpur High Court.
The Committee contacted 11,360 persons, interviewed people from 700 different villages and received 375 written statements and 385 replies from a questionnaire.
The Committee recorded that "there was a general complaint from the non-Christian side that the schools and hospitals were being used as means of securing converts." It said that "Reference was also made to the practice of the Roman Catholic priests or preachers visiting newborn babies to give ‘ashish’ (blessings) in the name of Jesus, taking sides in litigation or domestic quarrels, kidnapping of minor children and abduction of women and recruitment of labour for plantations in Assam or Andaman as a means of propagating the Christian faith among the ignorant and illiterate people." (Goel 1998, p.13)
The report writes that especially Roman Catholic missions used money-lending as a device for proselytisation. They gave loans which were then written off if the debtor became a Christian. (Goel 1998, p.115)
According to Baba Madhavdas, Christian missionaries had bought all available copies of the report and destroyed them. The report was even removed from many libraries, or borrowed and not returned. (Goel 1998)
The recommendations of the report
The committee gave the following recommendations
- (1) those missionaries whose primary object is proselytisation should be asked to withdraw and the large influx of foreign missionaries should be checked;
- (2) the use of medical and other professional services as a direct means of making conversions should be prohibited by law;
- (3) attempts to convert by force or fraud or material inducements, or by taking advantage of a person’s inexperience or confidence or spiritual weakness or thoughtlessness, or by penetrating into the religious conscience of persons for the purpose of consciously altering their faith, should be absolutely prohibited;
- (4) the Constitution of India should be amended in order to rule out propagation by foreigners and conversions by force, fraud and other illicit means;
- (5) legislative measures should be enacted for controlling conversion by illegal means;
- (6) rules relating to registration of doctors, nurses and other personnel employed in hospitals should be suitably amended to provide a condition against evangelistic activities during professional service; and
- (7) circulation of literature meant for religious propaganda without approval of the State Government should be prohibited. (Goel 1998, 163-164)
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