 "RSS co-founder's book dubs Christ a Tamil Hindu, Twitterati have a field day")
A Mumbai-based right-wing trust is reissuing a book by one of the founders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that claims Jesus Christ was born a Tamil Hindu, the Mid Day newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Ganesh Damodar Savarkar – the older brother of Vinayak Damodar, or Veer, Savarkar – had claimed in his 1946 book 'Christ Parichay' that Jesus Christ was born a Vishwakarma Brahmin and that Christianity is a sect of Hinduism.
According to the report, the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak (Savarkar National Memorial) will release the Marathi book on February 26.
The report said that according to the book Jesus Christ was a Tamil Hindu and his real name was Keshao Krishna.
It added that the book claimed that Tamil was Christ's mother-tongue and that he was dark-skinned, not the fair, blonder, blue-eyed person seen in popular representations.
The book's claims, the report said, do not end there. According to Savarkar's work, Christ's sacred thread ceremony was held when he was 12 and he wore the sacred thread in accordance with Hindu Brahmin traditions
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Additionally, it claims that people from the Essenes cult, which practiced yoga and spiritual science, saved Christ after he was crucified. The book claims they treated Christ with medicinal herbs to revive him from his deathbed.
According to the book, the report said, Christ was taken to Kashmir in India where he became a devotee of the Hindu god Shiva. It also claims that Christ spent the last phase of his life in the Himalayas and that a tomb where his remains are buried is known by his name. The report added that according to the book Arabia was a Hindu land and Jews were Hindus.
When the news hit Twitter, users decided to have a good laugh.
Possibly drawing from the recent quota agitations, Rowen D'Souza tweeted, "Christ was a Tamil Hindu Brahmin. He didn't get any reservations so he converted to a Jew & his followers founded Christianity."
A user going by the handle 'Intolerant Puneet' tweeted that if Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi could be a Gandhi then Christ could be a Tamil Hindu.
Another user tried to point out that a book by a German author had also said that Christ was Indian.
Drawing upon regional stereotypes, Rahul Roushan's tweet, however, questioned why Jesus had not pursued a course in B Tech if he was indeed a Tamil Brahmin?
He wasn't alone, though. Another tweet claimed that Jesus, being a Tamil Hindu Brahmin, did his engineering from IIT.
One user decided, in jest, that Christmas should be renamed "KrishnaMast".
The ensuing hilarity did not stop there. One user called out the Tamil Nadu's government's policy on alcohol and said that Jesus's miracle of turning water to wine would have gone to waste had he been a Tamil Hindu Brahmin.