cmyk
2 Chennai ● Wednesday ● 19 January 2011
Nobel laureate Distribute relief
Antony Leggett to family of child
spoke at Institute killed during
of Mathematical Chennai
Sciences. Sangamam.
“The Christian
community in India -
Catholic and Protestant -
have thousands of crores
of rupees worth property
Church assets need protection
J. STALIN
DC | CHENNAI
and assets, which are out- Jan. 18: Lord Jesus Christ
side the regulatory con- had said, “My Kingship is
not of this world” (John
trol of any law. The 18:36). This meant that His
disciples and their succes-
community has practi- sors should keep away from
the temptation of ‘temporal
cally no say in the wealth’. But, today, Chris-
tianity is in grave crisis as
administration of there are several litiga-
tions alleging misap-
these huge propriation of funds
wealth/assets, and attempts to
grab church prop-
which are erties. Rising to
the occasion,
being squan- eminent per-
sonalities like
dered and mis- judges, lawyers
and bureaucrats
appropriated demand formulat-
ing a separate law
by the priestly like Muslim Wakf
and Sikh Gurd-
class,” argues wara Acts, to pro-
tect the properties
JCAC, a body
of leading peo-
ple who wish to
see such mis-
use being
ended.
— KGS
DC DEBATE REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
Do newspapers care
about readers’ views? They write their own textbooks
ANISHA FRANCIS
O
ver the years, I have written innumerable
letters to the press, here and abroad, mostly CHENNAI
published and largely edited and many a
times consigned to the waste paper basket. Why Jan. 18: There are no text-
do readers write and give their free opinion to the books in this class; each stu-
press? To satisfy their own egos to see their dent writes and illustrates
names in print? To vent their pent-up feelings? his or her textbook.
To share their opinions with fellow readers and Music is played during
get noticed? Who really cares? Do the govern- class hours and lessons are
ments or the authorities ever read and sit up and taught through movements
take note to redress the grievances? and expressions.
Invariably, one is left with the feeling that one is To learn measurement, the
merely filling up available space in the readers class is taken bushwalking
columns, and much to the chagrin of the writer, through mountains, and to
invariably, the Editor chops and changes the learn the gist of religions,
whole letter to fit in his available space or kills the every possible festival is cel-
gist of the opinions expressed by foisting and ebrated traditionally.
replacing the Editor’s own. Learning is radically dif-
Who benefits from these letters to the Editor? ferent at schools that follow
What do my fellow readers feel about this? the ‘Waldorf’ education sys-
tem, which is an application
Raju Umamaheswar, of ‘anthroposophy’—a spir-
Thudiyalur, Coimbatore itual philosophy that had its
roots in Chennai’s Theo-
Do you agree with the letter-writer that no sophical Society.
one cares? Can any paper afford to publish The ‘anthroposophic’
letters in their entirety? We invite readers to approach to education
seems too good to be true,
share their thoughts. but Chennai schools are
Write to info@deccanmail.com slowly warming up to late
Austrian philosopher
Rudolf Steiner’s free-spirit-
and finances of Indian
churches.
Foreign missionaries and
the forefathers of Indian
Christians purchased landed
properties in the name of
churches, educational insti-
tutions, trusts, hospitals and
orphanages for the noble
cause of doing service to
society. As a result, various
educational institutions,
hospitals and orphanages
flourished and were doing
yeoman service to the
nation. Almost all Christian
congregations own proper-
ties in every metropolitan
city and town in India.
According to advocates
P.T. Perumal, E. Edwig and
V. Varghese, who are han-
dling cases relating to
church properties, “With so
much wealth under their
control and with no effective
mechanism to monitor them,
the heads of Christian
organisations are
“Anthroposophy
when applied in
education, aims to
make the child a
confident, imagina-
tive person, who
thinks independ-
ently, but is emo-
tionally resilient at
the same time,”
explains Dr Laksh-
mi Prasanna, pedia-
trician turned prac-
titioner of holistic
anthroposophic
medicine.
ed take on child develop-
ment.
“Anthroposophy when
applied in education, aims
to make the child a confi-
dent, imaginative person,
who thinks independently,
but is emotionally resilient
at the same time,” explains
Union minister
Narayanasamy
called on chief
minister
M Karunanidhi.
temporal
Churches
property
own a lot of
property but Christianity
is the only religion with-
out laws to proetct them,
avers JCAC
allegedly tempted to dilute
those properties. As a result,
litigations pile up based on
allegations of corruption,
forgery and misappropria-
tion. Recently, a bishop of a
Christian congregation was
put in jail. Violent incidents
and law order problems
were created in a bishop’s
headquarters in Tiruchy in a
group fight over sale of
properties.”
Justice K.T. Thomas, a for-
mer judge of the Supreme
Court, former IAS officers
L.M. Menezes and M.G.
Devasahayam, former Ker-
ala minister N.M. Joseph,
Dr Lakshmi Prasanna, pedi-
atrician turned practitioner
of holistic anthroposophic
medicine.
Dr Lakshmi Prasanna and
her colleague Michael Koki-
nos are in Chennai to intro-
duce parents and teachers to
the spiritual philosophy that
has a strong Chennai con-
nection—its founder Steiner
was deeply involved in the
Theosophical society in
Adyar, whose president
Anne Besant made him head
of the society’s German
chapter. A kind of marriage
between religion and pagan-
ism, Anthroposophy was
created by Steiner after he
broke away from the Theo-
sophical society.
“In the Waldorf system,
the same teacher continues
teaching the same class for
seven years,” explains Dr
Lakshmi.
“This way, the teacher
forms a bond with every stu-
dent, and understands each
child and his abilities.”
In kindergarten, there are
Major Joseph Victor, presi-
dent, CSI Laity Association,
Bhaskar Benny, president
Indian Christian Party,
Andhra Pradesh, and others
have formed a Joint Christ-
ian Action Council (JCAC).
The JCAC held its first con-
vention meeting on ‘Protect-
ing Church Properties and
Assets’ in Chennai on Nov.
20, 2010, in which
Catholics, Lutherans and
Christians belonging to the
Church of South India, rep-
resenting Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and
Puducherry, participated.
According to JCAC, “The
Christian community in
India - Catholic and Protes-
tant - have thousands of
crores of rupees worth prop-
erty and assets, which are
outside the regulatory con-
trol of any law. The commu-
nity has practically no say in
the administration of these
huge wealth/assets, which
Greed rampant in priestly
class, says ex-IAS officer
GEORGE ADIMATHRA and
ANISHA FRANCIS
DC | CHENNAI
Jan. 18: During their incep-
tion in India, the objective
of both Catholic and Angli-
can Church missionary
groups was to spread the
Christian faith and deliver
education to the far reaches
of the continent, particularly
the deprived classes. These
men braved all opposition
and aided by beneficiaries
sowed the seeds of what we
see as the modern Christian
institutions in India.
However, according to
Major J. Victor, general sec-
retary of the Laity Associa-
tion of CSI-Madras Dio-
cese, the era of those dedi-
cated people has long gone
with the Church in India
now transformed into a “lair
of hyenas”, vying for the
vast amount of riches that
the foreign missionaries left
behind.
“’Money is the root cause
for all evil’ is a true saying
and it has become a chronic
disease in many of the
church leaders too. From
minor cases like the crimi-
nal case against Madras CSI
bishop for allegedly misus-
ing of `4.82 crore collected
from abroad without the
knowledge of CSI to the
FIR registered against the
present CSI moderator for
allegedly diverting large
amounts of money from the
Bishop Cotton’s boys and
girls school into his person-
al account, corruption in the
church is being exposed to a
great extent. The inspiration
no blackboards or books,
and in primary school, the
main lesson is only taught
between 8 and 10 am in the
morning.
Music, arts and theatre are
part of the curriculum; gym-
nastics is a must to improve
coordination and ‘hand-
work’ class includes practi-
cal skills like metal casting
and carpentry for older chil-
dren.
“We believe that there are
12 senses, and not just five,”
says Dr Vasudha Prakash,
whose school V-Excel has
adopted the Waldorf system.
“Nourishing these senses of
balance, warmth, ego, self-
movement, language, con-
cept and life sense is impor-
tant for the child’s develop-
ing brain.”
While there are 1,000 Wal-
dorf schools across the
world, the handful of Indian
schools can only follow the
system until class ten, after
which students appear for
the CBSE board examina-
tion.
Issues
are being squandered and
misappropriated by the
priestly class”.
Muslim Wakf and Sikh
Gurdwara Acts, enacted
under Article 25 of the Con-
stitution, were protecting the
properties and assets of
these minorities without
government intervention.
Article 26 of the Constitu-
tion permits religious
denominations to own and
acquire moveable and
immoveable property and
administer them in accor-
dance with law.
Christianity was the only
religious community that
has no law to protect its
properties, the JCAC added,
and passed a resolution,
appealing to Parliament and
state legislatures to enact a
suitable law to protect the
properties, assets and insti-
tutions of Christian church-
es.
It also entrusted with
BYGONE ERA
◗ The eraof dedicated
people running the
church is long gone,
says Major Victor
◗ A case has been filed
against a Madras CSI
bishop for alleged
misuse of Rs 4.82
crore.
◗ The charge is made
that corruption is ram-
pant in school manage-
ment.
◗ Prime land near Adyar
river has shrunk to 12
from acres from 105.
for the Church of South
India (CSI) was born from
ecumenism and inspired by
these words from the Holy
Bible: “That they all may be
one, as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us: that
the world may believe that
thou has sent me.” (Gospel
of John 17.21). However,
those heading the CSI of
Tamil Nadu seem to believe
and follow only the last por-
tion of the quote, that they
are God’s own installation
upon the earth and can carry
forth anything as per their
wish,” Mr Victor said.
Mr M.G. Devasahayam, a
retired IAS official and con-
vener of the Joint Christian
Action Council, formed
recently to protect the prop-
erties of churches, said,
“The most prime property in
Chennai, on the banks of the
History book grabs
magic of yesteryear
DC CORRESPONDENT
CHENNAI
Jan. 18: Rich tributes were
paid to the legend of Telugu
film industry and former
chief minister of Andhra
Pradesh, Nandamuri
Tarakarama Rao or NTR as
he is fondly known, by Tel-
ugus in the city on his 15th
death anniversary on Tues-
day. The occasion was
marked by a release of a
book on his history –
Yuganikokkadu.
Authored by senior jour-
nalist U. Vinayaku Rao, the
nearly 350-page book, was
released by C.M.K. Reddy,
president of the All India
Telugu Federation at a func-
tion here. Noted film pro-
ducer K. Murari received
the first copy.
Distinguished actress of
yesteryear Anjali Devi who
was to have released the
book could not attend the
function due to the senate
meeting of the Tirupati Uni-
versity.
Speaking on the occasion,
cmyk
DC
JCAC the task of drafting a
model bill to be submitted to
the authorities and pursue
other means if the law is not
formulated in time. A copy
of the resolution was sent to
the President, Prime Minis-
ter and Union law minister.
Mr Devasahayam and
Clement Selvaraj, JCAC
members from Chennai,
said Mr Devasahayam
received a copy of the com-
munication from the Presi-
dent’s Secretariat, forward-
ing the petition to the Union
home ministry stating that
the petitioner would be
informed of the action
taken, after intimation to the
President’s Secretariat
When attempts were made
to get comments, CSI bish-
op V. Devasahayam was
unavailable, according to
CSI office, and Dr A.M.
Chinnappa, archbishop of
Madras-Mylapore, could
not be reached over phone.
Adyar river, which formed
part of the D’Monte Trust
with the archbishop of
Madras-Mylapore as the
trustee, originally measured
105 acres. But, by 1995, it
had shrunk to about 12 acres
(212 grounds - Bens Gar-
den). In 2001/02, this rem-
nant of the John D’Monte
trust was alienated to two
private parties in violation
of the trust conditions.
However, the approval for
leasing out 150 grounds to a
leading businessman was
turned down by the Madras
high court and, subsequent-
ly, he vacated the premises.
But approval for leasing out
another 50 grounds to the
other party was not at all
sought from the high court.
The businessman still occu-
pies the property. The sec-
ond attempt to lease out the
same 150 grounds also did
not materialise. Because of
this, the trust properties
have got encumbered or
entangled in litigation. The
properties are not earning
any revenue whatsoever and
this has resulted in grave
loss to the trust. All these are
due to rampant corruption
and greed among the church
authorities,” Mr Devasa-
hayam alleged.
All attempts to contact the
archbishop of Madras-
Mylapore A.M. Chinnappa,
and CSI bishop V. Devasa-
hayam failed as calls to both
the bishops’ mobile phones
were not attended and the
office-bearers stated that
they were either attending
‘important’ meetings or
were ‘out of station’.
C.M.K. Reddy, president
of All India Telugu Feder-
ation releases the book -
Yuganikokkadu, auth-
ored by U. Vinayaku
Rao. Noted film produc-
er K. Murari receives the
first copy. — DC
Mr Reddy recalled the yeo-
man service of NTR and
said he was a legend of his
times. He had introduced
several reforms including
equal share in ancestral
property for women.
D. Sathyanarayana, presi-
dent of South Indian Telugu
Welfare Association, Mr
Vinayaku Rao, M. Audise-
shaiah, V. A. K. Rangarao
and K. Prasad were among
those who spoke.