[Assam] useless Conversions?- new Malayalee movies: Kerala and rapes etc
umesh sharma
jaipurschool at yahoo.com
Sun Oct 15 13:12:10 PDT 2006
My landlord is watching the movie again right now (after 12 hours of watching it -mainly for the reality in the story and its gripping depiction. However, for an outsider (not of that state) it has many more shades which are startling.
Generlally Bollywood movies have themes on Agressive Muslims and corrupt Hindus -since Christians are not dominant there in North India. Christians are known mainly from the Catholic (and recently Protestant) schools they run on large lands (atleast initially - before 1947 - India's independence a large number of schools came up including St. Xavier School , Jaipur in 1940s -where I completetd grade 5-12) granted to them by British before they left India.
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/ar/i/movie_name/8185/2/
http://malayalam.galatta.com/entertainment/movies/malayalam/unreleased/Achanurangatha%20Veedu/
It is interesting to see that despite converting to other faiths people don't convert their ideas and habits that much. The movie has a slight anti-conversion theme.
It is made by a Catholic guy Lal Jose and shows the Christian comunity in South India (I had seen it during my visit to Bangalore and Chennai in 1995 with Moses Mathuram by classmate at Hindu Institute of Management, Sonipat) but also shows how families get divided when a brother (the sleepless father of the poor girl in the movie) becomes a Christian just so that he can marry his Christian girlfriend -and how he becomes estranged with his sister (though her son helps him in the police case). And how the pastor offers one of the rapists as a groom for the poor girl -since his sins have become washed away - he converted to Christianity and changed his name as well.
And that was a ruse (for the pimp - thats what the guys did with her) since he just wanted to escape the jail and get the girl.
In the end the family tries to commit suicide and are sent to jai for three months -since the high court finds the accused not guilty due to lack of evidence --- and this is a real story --from Kerala : "God's own country" -- the most lierate state in India.
Umesh
umesh sharma <jaipurschool at yahoo.com> wrote:
Alongwith my Malayalee landlord I was watching my second movie from that language - the first one was about an honest police officer (without sbtitles) this one was about a raped school girl who didn't get justice (based on a true story) named "House where Dad is sleepless" -- Christian rapist Christian girl - no religious rivalry angle: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/feb52006/movies18516200624.asp
found more stuff in google search
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.australian/browse_thread/thread/60497c979428a4fb/69d824ee2b88143e?lnk=st&q=father+movie+malayalam+rape+true+story&rnum=1&hl=en#69d824ee2b88143e
CHURCH IN KERALA is rocked by sex scandals All 19 messages in topic - view as tree From: reddy - view profile Date: Wed, Dec 1 1999 12:00 am Email: "reddy" <satya... at hotmail.com> Groups: soc.culture.indian, alt.religion.christian.baptist, alt.religion.hindu, soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.canada, soc.culture.british, soc.culture.australian, soc.culture.indian.kerala, uk.religion.hindu, soc.culture.tamil
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Church in Kerala (India) is rocked by sex scandals
BY George Iype in Kochi
http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/dec/01iype.htm
** In 1995, Father Cyriac Karthikapally, a parish priest of Kurumbanadam
church in the Changanacherry archdiocese, lured a 15-year old school-going
girl to his bedroom. For the next two years, the priest entered into a
sexual relationship with the minor girl that she gave birth to a female
child on September 15, 1998.
The Changacherry police on Tuesday registered a case against Father
Karthikapally for raping, abducting and compelling the victim for abortion.
The police has submitted before the local judicial court a first information
report against the priest under sections 315, 316 and 336 of the Indian
Penal Code that deal with provisions on rape and abduction.
** In 1993, the dead body of 21-year old Sister Abhaya was flushed out from
the well of St Pious X Convent, Kottayam. Six years of police investigations
reached nowhere and in July this year the Central Bureau of Investigation
closed the sensitive case as it failed to fix the liability of the young
nun's murder. Church critics circulate two theories for Sr Abhaya's death.
One, she was murdered when she refused the sexual advances of a priest or a
bishop. Second, she was killed because she knew that some of her colleague
nuns had sexual relationships with two Catholic priests -- Fr Jose
Putrukayal and Fr Thomas Kattoor.
While the Sister Abhaya case is closed forever, a popular Malayalam movie
was released three weeks back on the incident. Titled Crime File and
starring superstar Suresh Gopi, the film depicts the Church in bad light by
portraying what many say "the real story" behind Sister Abhaya's murder.
** In 1998, Sr Jyothis of Sacred Heart Convent at Mukkom in Kozhikode
district was found murdered in the convent's well. Investigations so far
have made no headway, but the police suspect that sexual motive could have
been the cause behind the murder.
Recently, Sister Jyothis's father, K M Jose filed a case in the Kerala high
court pleading for a CBI investigation into his daughter's murder in the
convent.
** Last month, a gang of students belonging to the Student Federation of
India attacked Father Geo Pulickal, principal of the Catholic-run
Nirmalagiri College at Koothuparamba in north Kerala. SFI students allege
that the principal is a sodomite and subjected a college student to sodomy
and two priests were involved in a ragging case in the college hostel.
Posters depicting the priests and nuns in bad light appeared on the college
campus.
The tug of war between the SFI activists and the Catholic church over the
attack on Father Pulickal reached a flashpoint when Nirmalagiri College was
closed last month and later re-opened after mediations between the Church
officials and the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist.
Is the vow of celibacy that priests and nuns adopt to serve the Catholic
church in Kerala becoming suspect? Why are increasing numbers of sex
scandals involving the clergy coming up in the state?
Church leaders, especially those belonging to the Syro-Malabar Church in
Kerala are upset as social groups are mounting protests for trying to
protect priests like Father Karthikapally from the clutches of civil law.
But Catholic activists who have launched a movement against the church claim
that cases of priests caught in sex crimes are increasing in the state. "It
seems priests in Kerala are losing their faith and virginity. We know the
names of many priests who deliberately fail to keep their sacred pledge of a
celibate lifestyle," says Sebastian Vattamattam, secretary of Kottayam-based
Vikas Institute that has raked up the sex scandal involving Father Cyriac
Karthikapally.
"Priests are sinning against their church and the community. But their
crimes have thrown up legal, ethical and moral issues for debate within the
church and the catholic community," he said.
Vattamattom, a college professor in the Changanacherry archdiocese-run Saint
Berchman's College, is one of the many active Catholics who have launched a
movement against what they call "erring and immoral priests and nuns."
Critics like him cite many reasons why priests and nuns are stepping out of
their pastoral and missionary duties to the forbidden paths. "All the modern
priests are very educated and rich. They are exposed to the world and lured
by the luxuries of the modern world. They are spiritually corrupt and
indulge in all sorts of immoral activities," accuses Vattamattam.
Kurian Verghese, a Catholic activist in Kochi, who himself left priestly
studies mid-way and became an engineer later, says the fault lies with the
seminaries. "Seminaries where students are trained and moulded to become
priests are old-fashioned. They are taught philosophy and theology of the
old order without any freedom of thought or action," he points out.
"I left the seminary after five years because I felt suffocated. So I think
once they are out of seminaries, the present generation of young priests are
attracted by the outside world which they have never seen or experienced,"
Verghese says.
"I know many priests who drink and womanise regularly. But they still remain
within the dioceses and pastoral ministry and serve the local people. Our
social set-up is such that a priest giving up the cassock for marriage is a
butt of ridicule," he said.
Therefore, he says, the best thing that the church should aim for is to
encourage those "immoral priests" to get out of the church services and help
them get married.
But Church officials point out that some of the sex scandals rocking the
Catholic community in Kerala are "stray instances" and have been blown out
of proportion by "some misguided catholic activists."
According to Bishop Thomas Chakiath of Ernakulam archdiocese, it is sad that
"some vested interests have launched a smear campaign against the church
basing their arguments on some stray incidents."
"Of course, there have been incidents in which priests were accused of
disobeying the sacred order of celibacy. But it is improper to accuse that
the church is plagued by sex scandals," he said.
Bishop Chakiath said often priests who indulge in immoral activities leave
their pastoral job and embrace matrimony. "But these all are very rare
instances and they do not mean that the church has lost its mission, unity
and integrity," he asserted.
However, according to Professor M J George, a member of the action council
that is now pursuing the Father Karthikapally case the gravest mistake
within the church is that "it itself is the protector of criminal clergy."
George said when the Father Karthikapally sex scandal rocked the
Changanacherry archdiocese, what the Archbishop did was to get him tried in
the diocese's own tribunal, which "punished" him by removing him from the
pastoral ministry and offering remuneration to the girl.
"The accused priest is still with the diocese. His residence is provided by
the diocese and he is protected by the church while his daughter is growing
up in an orphanage," George said.
Catholic activists claim in many dioceses across Kerala, many "clerical
gangsters" have come up. "Our information is that Father Karthikapally used
to take the minor girl to his priest friends in other parishes. They had
actually formed a sex racket involving many girls," says Vattamattam.
But Changanacherry Archdiocese Chancellor Father Gregory Naduviledam refutes
the charges levelled by the church pressure groups. "They are misguided
activists who are acting with some vested interests against the church," he
said.
As for Father Karthikapally sex case, he said, the diocesan tribunal decided
to try the priest after the victim's parents approached Archbishop Joseph
Powathil for a settlement on the case from the church side.
"In the tribunal the priest confessed to his crime. We found him guilty and
punished him by relieving him of all pastoral duties. He is now living in a
remote village without serving any parish or other diocesan institutes,"
Father Naduviledam said.
As to the accusation that the diocese did not take the case to the police,
he said "it was not the duty of the church." "It was the duty of the
offended party to approach the police. But the girl's parents instead wanted
that the priest should be tried by the church tribunal only," Father
Naduviledam added.
According to Father Paul Thelakkat, editor of Sathyadeepam, a popular
Catholic weekly, "It is an unfair argument that the church has lost its
image because one among thousands of its priests is involved in a sex
scandal."
"In every religious society and community in the world, there are erring
members. The Catholic church considers the rare instances of sex scandals in
Kerala as insignificant," he asserted.
One of the first sex scandals that rocked the Kerala church was in the
1970s, that too in the Changanacherry diocese. A diocesan priest, Father
Benedict entered into a sexual relationship with Mariakutty, a regular
church-goer. But when their relationship began doing the rounds, Father
Benedict allegedly killed Mariakutty.
Father Benedict was arrested and fought the case in many courts for years,
but was later set free for want of sufficient evidence of murder.
Old timers recall when Father Benedict was acquitted and released, he was
given a warm reception by the Changanacherry archdiocese.
"I think this is the fault with the church. It does not punish those priests
who break their celibacy and seek immoral means of life. But the church is
always eager to protect the clergy who are found guilty," says Joseph
Punnen, a devout catholic who had launched a movement against Father
Benedict in 1970s.
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park,
(Washington D.C. Metro Region)
MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com _______________________________________________
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Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park,
(Washington D.C. Metro Region)
MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep
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