Kandhamal, Odisha. 23 August 2008: Why Was Mata Bhakti Moyi Killed?

Today is the 14^th death anniversary of Mata Bhakti Moyi.

'Mata Bhakti Moyi, who?' you may ask.

Well, let them not make you forget her name. She was killed in cold blood along with Vedanta Kesari Lakshmananda Saraswati (1926-2008).

According to the Hindu calendar, she was killed on Sri Krishna Janmashtami - one of the holiest of the holy nights for the Hindus.

Now you will remember her faintly.

Mata Bhakti Moyi had dedicated herself to spiritual life, where her sadhana was the upliftment of tribal children. Her Guru was Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati. She was working for the welfare of 130 girls - mostly tribal and all from the economically weaker sections of society.

Who killed this selfless woman and who killed the octogenarian Swami?

More importantly—why?

The conventional answer is that the Naxal Maoists killed him. But a name that always props up with regards to the murders of the Mata and the Swami is, World Vision.

World Vision (WV) is a super-powered Christian charity that has the capacity to mobilise billions of dollars in the name of any humanitarian relief. It has its organisational tentacles throughout the world and channelises its money power through local Christian proselytising agencies. It uses every human misery an opportunity for an aggressive Christian intrusion.

In the state of Odisha, the tribal communities, which fought bitter battles against the colonial British government, have been cut off from the mainstream ‘development’ process. Colonial impoverishment and post-independent Nehruvian bureaucratic apathy left them in a vulnerable state.

The missionaries saw in that a great evangelical opportunity.

World Vision also found the state strategically important and started its operations there.

Born in the post-colonial Cold War era, this US-based evangelical organisation combines Protestant right-wing expansionism with left-wing terminology. It has served the US intelligence and it has also worked in tandem with left-wing organisations (if the organisations were useful in the WV's goal of evangelical expansionism).

And here in India they were allegedly aided by the Maoist terrorists.

To the Maoists religion is anathema. So why should they oblige an evangelist contract killing, if that was indeed the case? Is that not hypocrisy?

The answer is 'no.' It is not hypocrisy.

Hatred for the Hindu family of indigenous religions unites evangelists and Maoists. To both the evangelist and the Maoist, a Hindu should be a fatalist or an exploiter. He should not care for the poor and the downtrodden. A Hindu should be responsible for the suffering of India’s down trodden.

To an evangelist, a Hindu is tyrannical and heartless because he is an idolater. To a Marxist, a Hindu is an exploiter of the downtrodden because he represents a fossil in the course of history.

To both the evangelist and the Marxist, a living India, a successful India has presented the ultimate falsification of their worldview.

Here is a civilisation that has not only survived the ravages of time but has even flourished despite the ravages. It has withstood the attacks on it. It has demonstrated its ability to flourish as a democracy.

The Marxist and the evangelist cannot stand this success of India. They want to essentialise Indian culture and spirituality with every failure of the Nehruvian state machinery and the horrors that colonialism brought upon India – from famines to exploitation of vulnerable sections of the society.

In this furthering this narrative, they were, and are, challenged by brave souls like Mata Bhakti Moyi and Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati.

Theo-colonialists, like both the Marxists and the evangelists, manufacture the claim that there were no schools before missionaries came and the missionaries brought schools and education.

‘No’, History answers them. No. British colonialism destroyed the local schools of India that were more organic to the local ecological realities. Instead of adapting to, and upgrading, those schools, the colonial government destroyed and introduced evangelist schools.

One of the counters to this system came from Swami Lakshmananada Saraswati and Mata Bhakti Moyi.

They recreated and updated the original school system in Kandhamal, Odisha. The students in these schools learnt agriculture and self-sustained livelihood. They also learnt about their cultural roots. They realise that they are proud contributors to pan-Indian culture.

Swami and Mataji cared for the downtrodden children. They worked for them day and night. They give them their self-respect. They fought for their rights, their right to ST certificates from the government, a possession that was made difficult-to-get under heavy pressure from the foreign funded missionaries. They fought for the educational and cultural rights. They fought for the childrens' right to remain rooted.

That was their crime.

They challenged the stereotype of passive, fatalist, cruel, exploiting Hindu. They showed that the Vedanta and Bhakti can unleash wonderful social emancipation for the tribal children and forest-dwelling communities, without them having to lose their cultural and spiritual sovereignty.

They lived not in the comfort of the colonial surplus that Vatican provides to its liberation theologians in India. They lived not in the comfort of the dollars sent from the US.

They lived on their self-sustained simplicity and sacrifice.

And these simple lives falsified the worldview of the Marxist and the evangelist.

So the Marxist and the evangelist came together and eliminated the Mata and the Swami in cold blood.

Mata Bhakti Moyi and Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati became the living proof of the vitality of Hindu Dharma and its ability to effect social change without colonial interventions – Marxist or evangelical.

Mata and Swami - are both Balidanis for the cause of cultural and spiritual freedom of not only India but also of the indigenous people around the world.

To the voiceless native spiritual traditions crushed by theo-colonialism, they provided hope and strength through their Balidan. Against the expansionist violent forces of Marxism and evangelism, their sacred memories serve as both the shield and weapon.