SHILLONG: Fr. M. Thongni SDB, Priest of Mawlai Parish has come out in defence of Fr. Bacchiarello whose book Diengjat ki Longshuwa has been in the eye of the storm with demands for its removal from the syllabus of Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE).
Fr. Thongni stated that Christian missionaries were the front-runners in providing education to the people living in the hills.
In a statement to the press, Fr. Thongni said, “When the Christian missionaries came to Khasi Hills, there were hardly any LP schools run by the government. They gave us alphabets, grammars, books and literature and infrastructure to facilitate education. Thanks to the missionaries, schools mushroomed in Khasi and Jaintia Hills.”
“Fr. Bacchariello never forced anyone to be a Christian. If his love for the Khasis – for the language and the people – has inspired anyone to be a Christian, we need not be apologetic about it either,” he added.
He pointed out Fr. Bacchiarello’s efforts in starting St. Anthony’s College in 1934. On the Seng Khasi Mawsynram’s demand to the MBOSE to have the book removed, he said, “The request to the MBOSE is providential. Those who have not read the writings of Fr. Bacchiarello will read them now. And their love for a Christian missionary, who left his homeland in 1923 and lived here among us till 1985 without returning to his homeland, will leave an indelible mark in their hearts.”
