Freedom Fighter Lala Har Dayal about the Missionary Activity in India:

Posted November 28, 2004
Lala Har Dayal

Lala Har Dayal (1884-1939) India's Freedom Fighter wrote about the missionary activity in India:

"The missionary is the representative of a society, a polity, a social system, a religion and a code of morality which are totally different from our own. He comes as a belligerent and attacks our time-honored customs and institutions, our sacred literature, and traditions, our historical memories and associations. He wishes to give us a new name, a new place of worship, a new set of social laws. He has declared war to the knife against everything Hindu. He hates all that we hold dear. Our religion is to him a foolish superstition; our customs are the relic of barbarism; our forefathers are to him black heathens condemned to burn in the fires of hell for ever. He wishes to destroy our society, history, and civilization. Our Shastras, Darsanas and Vedas are for him so much waste paper. He regards them as monstrous machine devised by misguided priests to prepare millions for damnation in the next world. He condemns our manners, pooh-poohs our holy love, laughs at our heroes and heroines and paints us black as the devil to the whole civilized world. He is the great enemy of the Hindu people – the Principle of Anti-Hinduism Incarnate – the Ravana of today who hates all that we cherish, despises all that we revere, all that we are prepared to defend with our very lives….

"He looks forward to the time when the Smritis shall be unknown to the descendants of present day Hindus, and the Ram Lila shall have become a meaningless word in their ears. He shall cover Indian with acres of burial-grounds; cremation is anathema to him. He is the arch-enemy who appears in many guise, the great foe of whatever bears the name of Hindu, the ever-watchful, ever-active, irreconcilable Destroyer of the work of the Rishis and Maha Rishis, of that marvel of moral, intellectual and civic achievement, which is known as Hindu civilization. Let us labor under no delusions on this point. You may forget your own name; you may forget your mother. But do not for a moment forget the great, all-important, outstanding fact that the missionary is the most dreadful adversary you have to meet….the greatest enemy of dharma and Hindu national life in the present age."