Among the Christian institutions that received threats yesterday was the St Aloysius College. The threats state that cadres from different states are ready to attack them, besides 80 suicide bombers.
When I visited Mangalore for a wedding in the family a couple of months ago, one of the monuments that moved me with its haunting, ethereal, serene beauty was St Aloysius College. I remember thinking that the architectural style and scale was far superior to the monuments that I had seen in that great university town of Oxford.
It pains me that this 128 year old institution is under attack.
But, they say that a picture speaks more than a 1000 words. So, this one is for St Aloysius College, Mangalore.
And lest I seem alarmist, this one below was from Milagres Church, in the heart of town, and at the centre of the attack last Sunday. Not as striking as St Aloysius (it did not help that it was caught in the heat of the afternoon sun), but with a spiritual beauty of its own.
Finally, here is a glimpse from the wedding that took me to Mangalore in happier times. The next time I saw this church again was in a flash on television of hundreds of parishioners congregating to protect their churches.
I am not even Christian in my beliefs (though most fundamentalists wouldn’t know the difference – laugh!), and yet I find that looking at these pictures moves me to tears. For me, it is about the associations with those monuments and another way of being Indian that are destroyed when these monuments are attacked.
So, what about Manoj’s extended family and others who are Christian in their religious beliefs? How would these attacks that persist unchecked make them feel? I can’t even begin to imagine it.
Beautiful pictures Chris. Every religious building in India that was built at least fifty years ago, has a lot of architectural significance and beauty. This is like those idiot Taliban destroying the Bamiyan Buddhas, and the resounding echoes of a Babri Masjid in the making. I am feeling very bitter and angry, because earlier I was proud of my country and I could say that I am an Indian..but thanks to various fundamentalists, one has to qualify that now…no matter what I do, I will first belong to a minority group.
Andy… I know just how you feel because today I feel the same way too… And I never ever thought that I would feel like that…
In fact, that’s probably going to be the subject of my next blog post.
Christina, beautiful photos. As Andy said, earlier I used to be very proud of the fact that Indians as a whole were more tolerant when it came to religion. That seems to be changing rather drastically.