Sunanda K. Datta-Ray in The Telegraph, Calcutta:
“No individual or even private organization can ever do more than offer solace to a select few. Private activists are not to be discouraged but even the most selfless among them only nibble at the edges of suffering. Only sweeping government action can create the social welfare net needed to tackle destitution on this enormous scale….
“It’s impossible for a non-Christian layman to assess Mother Teresa’s impact and legacy because India’s haunting problems of poverty, disease, malnutrition, illiteracy and joblessness did not figure at the top of — or anywhere in — her agenda.
“My saying so offends devotees with more faith than information, but I repeat it with the full authority of the good lady herself. She forbade me pointblank to confuse her with social workers: she did what she did not to save the poor but because “Our Lord” ordained that her soul could be saved through serving the poor.”
Photograph: courtesy Catholic home and garden
Read the full article: The edges of suffering
Also read: Pramod Mahajan on Mother Teresa
Tags: Churumuri, Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa, Sans Serif, Sunanda K Datta Ray, The Telegraph
21 August 2010 at 7:13 pm
sunanda’s view of mother teresa’s allegedly selfish motive is not new.
mother teresa was no more selfish than any of us that have never have given a second thought to lepers’ suffering, leave alone tried to serve lepers.
christopher hitchens, mother teresa’s intellectual critic, had once gone a step further to say: “why is it never mentioned that her stated motive for the work is that of proselytization for religious fundamentalism, for the most extreme interpretation of catholic doctrine?”
at which time i thought: what’s wrong with religion, even religion of the exclusive abrahamic sort, motivating good?
her karm clearly was that of a brahma-gnyani. in her service, she was inclusive, compassionate, competent and eternally conscious of god.
so she had a selfish motivation of “saving” herself? well, anyone that believes in being part of god seeks happiness (“anand”) in the belief that one is a tiny part of god (“anand sindhu”), whom one is in an eternal quest to rejoin.
clearly, one does not need religion to do good in the material world, but religion can motivate such good. mother teresa showed us that.
21 August 2010 at 11:24 pm
and something tht is seldom bought to light is the tough time she had during her initial yrs.. the pelting of stones and obstruct the work of Missionaries of Charity by characters who tough she was spreading Christianity..
22 August 2010 at 2:55 am
Mother Teresa did the greatest harm to the image of the city of calcutta and India. A city once known for its vibrant culture and traditions was singularly reduced to a slum and gutter city. She was able to mobilize millions of dollars of donations in the name of the starving and dying indian on the indians. We self depricating indians lapped it all up and even revered her. she had hardly any respect for the local customs and religion. A bigot to the core. We clapped and lauded when the western powers conferred a nobel prize to this religious fanatic. What a shame.
22 August 2010 at 4:09 am
I dont understand what the author’s point is.
Okay agreed that only the government can effect a real change, but when that is lacking and private individuals like Mother Teresa make a change (however small the author thinks it is), what exactly is the problem here?
Why does a ‘non-Christian layman’ need Mother Teresa’s ‘agenda’ to assess her impact?
The author can use this as a starting point: from the Nobel peace prize biography:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-bio.html
There are real claims outlined there. This is only one starting point, see the wikipedia entries or any other source to validate Mother Teresa’s impact.
If the author is not a lazy armchair lounger and has any inclination to do some real research, she/he can follow up and verify if the impact attributed is true or false.
Writing a meandering article lampooning Europeans and ‘canny Indians’ to fill space is easy. Especially when the target you are attacking is dead and anyway would have probably been too busy doing what she did to respond to vague insinuations.
22 August 2010 at 10:22 am
The same people who talk against Mother Theresa wouldn’t go one mile near a leper.
22 August 2010 at 6:13 pm
@Complex: Plus one
and we have people like Kitapati and sunanda who creates their own assumptions. They would do one bit to help, but critisze, we have lots of them here in our country.
22 August 2010 at 7:18 pm
An Albanian nun, taught by the Irish. The woman’s path to sainthood expedited by a Vatican fiat. She was beatified and thereafter a miracle performed by her was found double quick to render her worthy of canonisation. The woman who succeeded her, Sister Nirmala, let it be known that she was a Brahmin by birth. Saint Teresa de Calcutta was posthumously revealed to have thought that she had been forsaken by God or that she no longer lived for him. What a conglomeration of ironies.
The woman knew that India’s worst calamity is not that we were subject to the original sin, but that unrestrained breeding leading to poverty, disease, and death is. As Kitapati says, she made our misery her trademark. I am glad she fed and housed lepers. I am glad she created a more palatable real life counterpart of “The Slumdog Millionaire,” chummying up to billionaires and riding with them on their luxury jets. The dollars and euros flowed in; political influence, always an ally of religion, even brought her a Nobel. But Kolkata is about more than leprosy, just as India is more than poverty and filth. But the world now had a facile equation: Help Theresa=Help India.
Yes, only Christians can understand Theresa, but why try to augment the army of the cognoscenti through conversion? She and her fellow prosylitisers helped add an additional jaathi to the myriad that already festered in our national life: Dalit Christians, accepted neither by ignorant Hindus nor by supercilious Christians who believe they are of higher birth than their adopted, freshly minted low caste brothers in Christ.
I wonder if Muslim Albania needed Mother Teresa more than Hindu India. I don’t know how true the stories of her being pelted with rocks are, but I do know her trade would not have flourished much in her native land.
Let those with eyes see; let those with ears hear.
23 August 2010 at 8:46 am
I started reading churumuri a couple of years ago, but have been frequenting it only of late, and I am sensing more ‘spicy’ than ‘sihi’. By that I mean the articles are leaning more toward controversy than offer any intrinsic value to me as a reader.
Just a thought.
23 August 2010 at 12:04 pm
Well written, PTL.
23 August 2010 at 12:12 pm
Strong suggest “Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict” by Dr Aroup Chatterjee http://www.meteorbooks.com/introduction.html to the Mother Teresa apologists; Christopher Hitchens book on Mother Teresa “The Missionary Position” is well known.
Her image is a testimony to sound media management and the utter gullibility of PLUs (people like us)!
24 August 2010 at 5:11 am
I wonder how many lepers and slumdwellers Christopher Hitchens and his fanbase feed, clothe and care for on a daily basis?
Oops I forgot, they are not supposed to do that since it might ‘harm the image’ of Calcutta. And India. That’s all explained then.
24 August 2010 at 3:25 pm
THANX JVchani for the link.
Missionaries work under the garb of ‘service’to religious conversion,Sri Sri needs “Sudarshanakriya”to gain publicity and money.Devi Shetty in the guise of “philonthropist” Jai ho!
25 August 2010 at 1:05 am
People who talk Mother have not visited or know very little about her. I guess it would be a wise thing to visit the Missionaries of Charity whenever you visit Kolkata to see the work they do.
Its easy to think and talk ill when someone has given their life time for the poor!
26 August 2010 at 1:53 am
Agnes Boiaxhu is a monumental irrelevant. Her contribution to the alleviation of misery is inconsequential. That would have been OK if she did not make a song and dance about it and hobnob with the rich, crooked and powerful. If you have a rupee to spare send it to the many others who have done fine work, Baba Amte’s Anandvan, Dr. Pathak’s Sulabh International, The Ramakrishna Mission that has operated a hospital in Kolkata since the 1930s. And do yourself a favour by reading Aroup Chatterjee’s “The Final Verdict” which buries the myth of Teresa once and for all.
26 August 2010 at 6:05 am
Thank you, JVachani, for the link. Do you happen to know if the author is a professional journalist?
26 August 2010 at 4:05 pm
I take back my comment. This is very interesting,
27 August 2010 at 9:53 am
She is the Indian-version of Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Poverty Reality’ show or a Satyajit Ray in a nun’s habit running India’s longest socio-horror show!
17 July 2011 at 7:24 am
By their actions you shall know them. Mother Teresa would have helped Christopher Hitchens if he needed it and he needs it big time now with his illness. I will pray for him.
Pat Moran
17 July 2011 at 7:29 am
Christopher Hitchens believes that this life is all there is. When his time comes to breathe his last, I hope he comes to the realization that Mother Teresa and many others, myself included, believe there is a more glorious life after this one. I will pray for Mr. Hitchens particularly because he too believes life is precious and is anti-abortion.