Buy used: $78.91
$5.07 delivery Friday, April 26. Details
Or fastest delivery April 22 - 24. Details
Used: Good | Details
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: May have minor to moderate wear such as rubbing to corners and spine ends, minor tears, foxing, bumping, or soiling.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict Paperback – December 20, 2002

3.9 out of 5 stars 14

Make use of your limited-time offer now. Discount by Amazon. Terms  Make use of your limited-time offer now. Discount by Amazon. Terms  

The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Meteor Books, India (December 20, 2002)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 415 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8188248002
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8188248001
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.87 x 5.51 x 1.57 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 out of 5 stars 14

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Aroup Chatterjee
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
14 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2016
Fine thanks
One person found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2009
Dr. Chaterjee, a Calcutta native, has gone to great lengths to expose Mother Teresa for what she was: a faithful servant of the Catholic Church whose work to help the poor in Calcutta was hugely exaggerated by herself and by the Western media. This substantial book is fairly well-documented, often painstakingly by himself, in videotapes, voice recordings, and photographs. As the Mother freely admitted herself, her primary goals were religious, not humanitarian in nature. I think there can be little doubt but that she was a scheming woman who intentionally misled the world press and public in order to obtain funds, which were used primarily to build religious orders, promote an anti-birth-control agenda, and go mysteriously to the Vatican Bank, and use only a tiny fraction for show to help Calcutta's poor. She shamelessly defended anyone who sent her large enough sums of cash: the Duvaliers, Charles Keating, and so on. Yet these gifts went mostly to help support her nunneries/religious institutions and Catholic families, and even minor expenditures towards the comforts of her residents were denied (such as inexpensive pain medications). Even the corporate gift of ambulances were used almost exclusively to shuttle the nuns around town.
While this book has enough documentation to prove the essential truth of its message, I would be remiss in presenting this as a perfectly-written or documented book. For example, on some occasions his documentation consists of phrases such as "it's widely known," or "anyone will tell you." On page 106, he writes "I have seen shiploads of [towels, underwear, aluminium mugs, gifts] arriving at Calcutta port as donations to the Missionaries of Charity"....."These are sold off to the local shops. Also a vast amount of clothes destined for the poor find their way to the Calcutta street markets--any street trader will tell you." At other times he impugns thoughts into Mother Teresa's head. For example, when he describes her speech to President Reagan in which she said "Because of your suffering and pain, you will now understand the suffering and pain of the world." He then states "By 'suffering and pain,' she meant abortion, not the suffering of poverty and disease." While perhaps quite true, it would have been more appropriate to state "she PROBABLY meant...".
It's unfortunate that Dr. Chaterjee is one of the few people to truly investigate the facts behind Mother Teresa. Even an ardent fan of hers cannot honestly praise her unless he's read this book and reconciled the facts it contains. Despite its imperfections, this is probably the only book which objectively examines the truth behind Mother Teresa's facade. I would go so far as to say one cannot have any meaningful understanding of her work without reading this book. One can praise Mother Teresa for her faithless devotion to the Catholic Church if one likes, but not for her honesty, her caring attitude towards Calcutta's poor, or her lack of hypocrisy.
43 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2011
This is a meticulously researched book which, along with Christopher Hitchen's far slender book on the same subject, opened my eyes into the manufactured mythology of the Mother Teresa mystique. Growing up in India, I had swallowed the story that was uncritically broadcast in the Indian media even though there had to have been many journalists who knew for a fact that parts of it were blatantly false. It took a medical doctor to ferret out the inconsistencies in the myth that any trained journalist could have uncovered in a matter of weeks; which speaks deafeningly to the dismal and shoddy quality of investigative journalism in India, and in Calcutta in particular. Sadly, despite Dr. Chatterjee's deeply-felt crusade to shine the light of truth on the myth of Mother Teresa, it has taken on its own life and even the posthumous revelations of Ms. Teresa's doubts over her faith will not derail this runaway train into which the Church has vested enormously.

It would also make a superb case study for how myths are manufactured, and in particular the motivations of all the parties involved; especially the curious role of Indians who have willingly helped to perpetuate a story that by all objective analysis casts them in very poor light. In this regard I must personally admit to a small sense of schadenfreude at how Calcutta, the intellectual capital of Bengali arch-snobbery, was so badly besmirched (admittedly unfairly as Dr. Chatterjee's central thesis for his heartfelt book demonstrates) by one of the city's most (world-)famous resident. Calcutta today is synonymous with abject poverty and some of the worst excesses of human depravity thanks to Mother Teresa and her film-making acolytes; a portrayal that was largely fictional and fabricated to tap into billions of dollars of charity from gullible laypersons and governments alike. While Dr. Chatterjee obviously rebelled against this unfair characterization of his beloved city and has expended a great deal of energy and effort to set the record straight, the majority of his Bengali brethren (and for that matter most Indians) appear to have preferentially embraced the flip-side of this sordid script; the Western attention, the association with glamorous dilettantes who made Calcutta a necessary pilgrimage stop for do-good celebrity-hood, and the reflected glory of the Mother Teresa myth however insidiously harmful it actually was.

Even Dr. Chatterjee, a confirmed atheist, evidences considerable disdain for Hinduism in his book even as he meticulously tabulates the unsung and unheralded charity quietly practiced by millions of Hindus (in stark contrast to Mother Teresa's hypocritical and parasitic photo-op visitations to sites of disaster in India). However, this doesn't detract much from this important contribution to modern India's social history, and I wish that large numbers of my country wo/men will buy and read this book in order to have their eyes opened, as mine were from reading Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict.
23 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2019
The same recycled and refuted lies Hitchens wrote. It boggles the mind how anyone can believe the content in this book without evidence. Any smart person can see that this book is libel. If Mother Teresa was so bad, why did India give her a state funeral? Why haven't they kicked out her order or brought charges against them? Ignorant people will buy into the lies in this book and in the one Hitchens wrote.
6 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2014
I've lately discovered how atheists can be as verbally violent as the not only religious extremists they criticize, this book represent a good example.
It's too long and redundant, the author hates catholics more than anybody else on this planet, while being mildly critical of anglicans, for example.
There are some major and some minor errors here and there :

- he misspelled Grosseto an the Via Casilina;
- how can anybody describe listening to Michael Jackson's music as a sign of cultural decline?
- I'm not an Mtv fan but his critics ("it's a vulgarity") are exaggerated;
- he describes Gandhi as a saint he wasn't, he was a hater and a racist so neither he or mother teresa deserve to be defined saints;
- as I've already written he treats catholics differently, he's softer with hindus, muslims and anglicans;
- he says that Vatican citizens are only male, that's not true, one of the most famous V. citizens is Emanuela Orlandi, the young girl kidnapped in the early '80's;
- Italian magistrates cannot do much with IOR because it's the bank of another state, they have same problem with Swiss banks, without a treaty you can't do much;
- Mother Teresa was a Catholic, so why is it so strange for him that she preferred IOR to a London or NY based bank?

I'm giving it 3 stars because despite my critics it's a quite interesting book.
11 people found this helpful
Report