POINTS TO PONDER

Around the last week of Ramazan, I was invited to speak to a group of disabled kids and staff at the Association of Physically Disabled (APD), an organization in Bangalore striving to make useful citizens out of physically handicapped people. It is run by Christians but renders service to all. I was accompanied by a co-social worker, Dr. Khamarudin Abdur Rahman, who heads the Sheriff Foundation in Bangalore. We spoke about Ramazan, its spiritual significance and socio-economic benefits also the medical benefits which could be termed a byproduct. A sister stood besides us and conveyed in sign language the content of our speech for the benefit of deaf and dumb children.
The audience was heterogenous, speaking Hindi/Urdu and south Indian languages. But they were all comfortable with English. Deaf and dumb students were to be communicated through sign language. Yet others, were mentally challenged and may well have skipped all that we spoke. A sizeable number were seated on wheelchairs. Some came hobbling on crutches and walking stands. A dozen or so used calipers. A considerable number of them had hearing aids fixed behind their ears. Occasions like this clearly challenge our capacity to communicate. Diversity of linguistic background and handicaps suffered by these kids, and their young age have the potential to render even the best speaker speechless.

APD was set up in 1959 by Hema, a paraplegic who still moves around the 4-acre campus in a battery operated wheelchair. She is now almost 80. Of the nearly 170 disabled students in the institution, 37 are Muslims. Instructions are imparted from 1st to 7th standard and several children are given vocational training too. It employs a staff of nearly 180 persons and operates several such centres in villages and towns around Bangalore.

Many of us might be quick to attribute motives to the missionary-run social service centres, but fail to take note of selfless service to the humanity. Sheer number of their Muslim and Hindu beneficiaries disproves the charge of conversion. Images of burqa-clad women around mission hospitals is not uncommon. So also the sizeable strength of Muslim students in Christian schools. One of our surveys in Bangalore had revealed that at least 22 per cent kids in Bangalore's Christian-run schools were Muslim way back in 1982. I myself was on the board of governors of Indian Social Institute, Bangalore chapter for two years which essentially includes a Muslim and a Dalit for each term. I and my colleagues have routinely delivered lectures on Islam and Muslim viewpoint at institutes and ashrams run by Christians. Be it centres for leprosy treatment or rehabilitation homes for the disabled, service and pain relief overrides all other concerns. Besides, their schools, colleges, nursing institutions, hospitals and rehabilitation homes act as incubators of cosmopolitanism, bringing together people from diverse faiths and social strata together.

That is just one aspect of their service. Any more encomiums on this account is likely to earn me the blame of passing on a clean chit to 'proselytizers'. I understand very most of us only grudgingly accept the contributions of Christian missionaries. However, I see the missionaries as direct conduit for import of Western technologies helpful in development of human resources. In the past, they wielded the soft power of the colonialists. But for them, Braille, sign language, wheelchairs, calipers, shorthand, or even printing technology and more important than all, English language, may not have found so early an advent and acceptance in India. Be it languages, skills, devices or techniques, these facilitated into conversion of every single individual into a useful member of the society thereby leading to an inclusive society. They groomed skilled and smart individuals out of the hobbling lots of handicapped. Invariably, the first printed book in most of the Indian languages was a Bible, indicating that Christian missionaries were the introducers of modern machines. Inventor of the Braille slate, Louis Braille of France, was not a Christian missionary. But Braille was first introduced by Christian missions in schools for the deaf and dumb run by them. Similarly, they were pioneers in bringing the sign language, a method of oral communication for the mute people. It was first developed by Juan Pablo Bonet in Spain in 1620 who had nothing to do with missionary activity.
Not alone these. Missionaries were pioneers in compiling grammar and dictionaries of several Indian languages. In one case, a parish from Europe was instrumental in developing alphabets for the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia dialects of present day Meghalaya. He even prepared the dictionaries for these languages and wrote their grammar. It is the only state whose regional language has adopted Roman alphabets in India. Colonialists were forced to retreat in the wake of end of the Europe's dominance after the Second World War. But missionaries continue to extend their soft arm, hugely impacting the human mind.

They reach out to people where the Government agencies fail to reach. They rehabilitate those who mortals like us disdain to touch. They make a difference in lives of those who have been cast away like garbage by the society. They impart dignity to every single individual who would otherwise have been an object of, at best pity, and at worst contempt.

When I look at my own community, I find a lot of armchair critics of Christians who see devious designs on their agenda without batting an eyelid. But I find hardly amidst us any institutions rendering service to the disabled, the underprivileged, those stigmatized with disease like Aids or leprosy, those who live on the margins of the society, those who are trying to rise from humble backgrounds, those caught in the hopeless circumstances. Last year, we conducted a survey of school for the deaf and dumb and the visually challenged in and around Bangalore. We could identify 42 such schools, a majority of them run by the Christians. But not a single one owned, run, funded or sponsored by Muslims. But among the beneficiaries a sizeable section belonged to Muslims. No wonder then why a much smaller minority than us needs to be emulated rather than criticized.