Sr. Jean, “Mother Theresa of Bangalore,” Ordered to Move out of India. Why?
Perhaps there is no real convincing answer to this question, but any number of reasons can be given in this ancient land of great men like Gandhiji! Is it the open expression of “gratitude” by the people of India to the poor nun who came to India from Britain almost three decades ago and spent her entire life ever since, caring for the most neglected human beings in our country, the leprosy patients? She was sharing her selfless life at Sumanahalli near Bangalore, loving and caring for the leprosy patients during the last 30 years. Just like Mother Theresa, she always cared for them and manifested Christ in her life carrying out his mandate through her love and concern for the last and the least in the society. Then, what was the reason? God alone can answer that question, like many other similar questions in this great land of ours, the largest democracy in the world today. Thank God, the good men who moved into action, thankfully saved the good name of our country. Her expulsion was cancelled at the very last moment when she was about to board the plane for London. The joy of the inmates of Sumanahalli leprosarium knew no bounds. We understand that Home Minister P. Chidambaram intervened to restore her visa “without limit of time,” and making it abundantly clear that she can stay on in India as long as she liked. Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has expressed its thanks to Home Minister Chidambaram, and to the Government of India for responding to the concerns of the Christian community and the Sumanahalli destitutes and leprosy patients. With that problem out of the way, now Sr. Jean hopes to hold on to the land, that houses Sumanahalli Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre, and carry on with her usual work of service to the leprosy patients.

The Centre, over the past 34 years, has tried to change the lives of those afflicted with leprosy and enabled them to join the mainstream of the society. The 30-year lease with the State Government for 63 acres of land expired in 2007. Also, the extent was already reduced to 55 acres, after acquisition of land for the widening of the road. Hospitals, schools, training centre and other buildings, also stand on this land. The saffron brigade State Government seems to be in no mood to give back the prime piece of land, which is part of the land given to rehabilitate the beggars and the lepers of the city. For two years, the high-level committee appointed to decide the fate of the land has chosen to stay mum. “The file is lying somewhere and still being looked into. We are trying to ensure that the lease is renewed,” Sr. Jean said. That, indeed, is the crux of the whole matter why “important” eyes are being focused on that “prime piece of land.” From what we have been able to gather from very reliable sources is that they wish to convert the entire locality into a posh modern township with ultra-modern facilities for the” lucky blessed people” from the world over. Naturally, the eye-sores like the leprosaria and the beggar-homes, that may, sometimes, prick our conscience, better be closed down or shifted to any God-forsaken place. Interestingly, a front-page article in an important Bangalore daily recently, speaks about all this. The article was not about the Sumanahalli Society, but about the nearby Beggar-home in Sumanahalli. As detailed in the article, we learn that during the last few years, every attempt was being made to swallow that prime land, running into a few hundred acres, and the result of all that was that 3 Chief Ministers who tried to dabble in it, lost their posts within a few months. So did a number of ministers and top officials who also accompanied them, some being locked up at the Parappana Agrahara, the Central Jail in Bangalore. It is quite clear that all those who visit the place with evil intent and avariciousness, perhaps have to pay for it very dearly. The meaning of the word SUMANAHALLI is also very interesting. It can be rendered as the village of good will in the local language, Kannada. So, how can evil ever triumph in a place exclusively meant for good, in a village of goodwill? Well, that is another matter, but then we too are expected to do our bit, and then also God helps those who help themselves.
With the stigma attached to the leprosy patients in our country, they are left on the streets to beg, but then only these angels in our midst treat them undeterred by the stench of the festering wounds of leprosy. The Governments of the religious fundamentalists in the states with their own ideologies are perhaps trying to turn India into a feudal theocratic state. That would be a very retrograde step for a third world super power with great many responsibilities lying at its doorstep. In the world today, we are in a situation where each one of us is expected to rise above one’s caste, creed, religion or place of birth and the very boundaries of his nation, for our very survival of mankind. Under such circumstances with our narrow outlook and selfish behaviour, we are bound to destroy the very fabric Indian ethos, its culture and its proverbial benevolence. The silence of the intelligentsia of India is far more deafening than ever. It is the silence of such people and their failure to take a clear cut stand that would do the maximum damage to this nation. The two quotations from Edmund Burke as given below, would, perhaps, amply explain why good people should not shirk from their responsibility for any reason. He says, “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing,” and, “The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.”
However, the question still remains unanswered as to why these foreigners, who dedicate their whole lifetimes for the cleansing of the festering wounds of the leprosy patients, and caring for the dying in the destitute homes, are being treated as the red-rags, and looked at as the possible dangers to our nation? Isn’t it tragically funny that we, as a nation, don’t care much for these unfortunate sick people and neither can we stand others doing that painfully nauseating job with love and compassion? There is certainly something drastically wrong with our perception of human values and the priorities in our lives in the fast changing world of today. And, that needs to change, change as fast as possible, if we wish to be treated as a civilized society among the comity of nations in the world. Failing which, whether we like it or not, we are bound to be treated as a nation of barbarians, with its retrograde and outmoded policies in this modern world, pushing everything to the stone ages.
Progress, whether in one’s personal life, or that of a society, ultimately depends upon the right perception of the priorities. These priorities are primarily based on the proper understanding of right and wrong, good and bad, and, sacred and profane, often perhaps transcending our very religious beliefs. “Where there is no vision, people perish,” is the age-old saying with which most of us are quite familiar. Forgetting all the walls that divide us, it is time for all of us to join hands and applaud all that is good, wherever it may come from, and extend our helping hand and see that good people carry on with their good work, and the “vultures” are kept away from interfering with such good work.

Dr. Sajan K. George
National President
Global Council of Indian Christians

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