Mumbai: The Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), a Mumbai-based community NGO has taken a strong exception to the publication of a book "Christ Parichay" (introduction to Christ) and said contents of book hurt religious sentiments of Christians.
Sparking off a debate, a controversial book penned by the brother of Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar named Ganesh Savarkar, has claimed that Jesus Christ was a Tamil Hindu. The book says that Christianity was a sect of Hinduism and that the Essence cult rescued Jesus Christ after he got crucified and revived him using herbs from the Himalayas.
An Indian Catholic nun displays a poster of Jesus Christ to customers at the Pauline Media Book Centre in Hyderabad on February 22, 2010. At the age of 49, Christ sat on yogic posture and went into deep "samadhi", leaving his physical body, the book states.
They pointed to the book being written by a founding member of a Hindu group that has been accused of forming anti-Christian violence in India and also trying to carve out a Hindu nation. The book also says Christ was born as a Vishwakarma Brahmin, Tamil was his mother tongue and he was dark-skinned.
The Marathi book is being brought out by Savarkar National Memorial, a trust that preserves and propagates the Savarkar brothers' literature and ideology. It is one of the books that my grandfather (Ganesh Savarkar) authored. Many others have researched on the similar lines and drew their own conclusions. A few people upset everybody else by these claims, but by and large, this is such a lovely country of faith. So, such a book will hardly disturb true Christians.
Film Division of the Government of India in 2011 released a documentary by the name Truth of Jesus in Kashmir.
Jesus, surrounded by followers, is portrayed in the movie, "Passion of the Christ".
