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Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict Paperback – December 20, 2002
- Print length415 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMeteor Books, India
- Publication dateDecember 20, 2002
- Dimensions7.87 x 5.51 x 1.57 inches
- ISBN-108188248002
- ISBN-13978-8188248001
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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
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,904,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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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.
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.
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.


