Shenali Waduge

Dear All,

Please find attached an appeal addressed to Hon. Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India and His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse, President of Sri Lanka.

This appeal to the two Heads of State is to help satisfactorily conclude the centuries of doubt over whose sacred remains lies in a glass casket in a Church in Goa.

While the Buddhists in particular the Sinhalese Buddhists from Sri Lanka believe the body belongs to Ven. Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula Thero (1409 – 1491) a highly venerated literary giant and scholar monk from Sri Lanka, the Catholics believe the body is that of Christian Missionary Francis Xavier.

To put to rest centuries of arguments and theories, we believe this joint appeal will urge the two heads of State of India and Sri Lanka to give patronage and initiate an impartial DNA test or a blood sample of the descendants of both families to scientifically establish whose body is enshrined in the glass casket in Goa,India.

In order to generate a voice for this appeal, please include the name of your organization, association or even as an individual, place your name and country of origin.

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Please extend your cooperation by signing and share among others known to you and request them to include their names too.

09 December 2014

Hon. Shri Narendra Modi

Prime Minister of India

His. Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse

President of Sri Lanka

Your Excellencies,

 Appeal to Governments of India and Sri Lanka to initiate an impartial DNA test to establish the identity of the body enshrined in a glass casket in Goa

We, the undersigned call upon you as concerned and right thinking citizens of both India and Sri Lanka and the rest of the world to kindly intervene in resolving a long standing controversy in respect to the true identity of the remains of a body enshrined in a glass casket in a Church in Goa, India.

There is a widespread belief in Sri Lanka particularly amongst the Buddhist public that the body in question is that of Ven. Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula Thero (1409 – 1491) a highly venerated literary giant and scholar monk from Sri Lanka, while the Catholics have been led to believe it is that of Francis Xavier, a controversial Christian Jesuit missionary accused of crimes against humanity by initiating the notorious Goa Inquisition.

We believe that a DNA test or a blood sample of the descendants of both families would satisfactorily put to rest centuries of arguments and theories.

Our appeal is inspired recently by calls amongst the Goan people themselves drawing public attention to the genocidal crimes committed during the Goa Inquisition and Portuguese rule and thus demanding that the body lying in Goa be returned to France and not allow the controversial remains to be kept in Goa any longer as neither Goa nor India is a colony of foreign countries. Goa was liberated by India in 1961. In fact the descendants of Konkani Christian victims of the Goa Inquisition (first proposed by Francis Xavier) have started a nation-wide campaign and have appealed to the Indian Government as well.

There is substantial evidence based on historical data and factual reasoning as detailed in the article attached to this appeal to merit a full scale public inquiry including the conduct of a DNA Test under the patronage of the Governments of both India and Sri Lanka.

Truth and justice must prevail and historical injustices need to be rectified particularly wrongs committed during the brutal colonial rule by Western Christian powers lasting close to 500 years in South Asia and the rest of the former colonies around the world.

We fervently appeal to the heads of Government of both India and Sri Lanka to show both spine and backbone in a spirit of true moral leadership in addressing monstrous crimes committed on our people during the dark period of colonial rule and hold those responsible, however powerful they may have been, for these injustices and crimes accountable before the bar of world opinion and posterity.

Thank you.

Signed by

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Sri Lanka must demand the return of the remains of Ven. Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula from Goa, if the DNA tests prove positive

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/11/27/sri-lanka-must-demand-the-return-of-the-remains-of-ven-thotagamuwe-sri-rahula-from-goa-if-the-dna-tests-prove-positive/

By Shenali D. Waduge

Holocaust, Crusades, Portuguese and Spanish inquisitions, Salem witch trials, Genocide of the native peoples of the Americas and Carribean, Genocide of Middle Eastern peoples, Genocide of Africans and Australian Aborginals, the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa and Sri Lanka the list can go on. These are unforgivable crimes committed by European Christians in the name of Christianity. Adolf Hitler was a Roman Catholic, a Christian. He had Jews killed in the name of God.  The Holocaust was conducted primarily to avenge the killing of Jesus Christ. That is why the Catholic Church including the then Pope Pius X11 never really opposed it.  When the Holocaust comes to mind, it must be remembered that Germany was, and still is, a predominantly Christian country.