It is a spare, whitewashed space, not much changed since 1952, when Mother Teresa welcomed the hospice’s first patient, a man found near death on the street. Hindu groups, including the powerful Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have long held that Mother Teresa’s true agenda was to convert Indians to Christianity. And the novelist Amit Chaudhuri complained that the Western focus on Mother Teresa had reduced Kolkata, in the imagination of outsiders, to a “black hole” peopled by the mute poor. Once, he recalled, Mother Teresa had learned of a government plan to shut down the trinket stalls, and submitted a written protest, blocking the move. Abhimanya Chatterjee, who manages an office in the temple complex, said Mother Teresa had left an imprint on everyone in the neighborhood.

Source: New York Times September 05, 2016 00:51 UTC