Gstnit: Added stub!

2026-02-06T05:48:53Z

Added stub!

New page

{{short description|Indian academic (born 1958)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Aroup Chatterjee
|image = Aroup Chatterjee.jpg
|caption = Chatterjee in 2013
|birth_name =
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1958|06|23}}
|birth_place = [[Ballygunge, Calcutta]], India
|occupation = [[Author]], [[physician]]
|spouse = Zelpha Kittler
|children = 3
}}
'''Aroup Chatterjee''' (born 23 June 1958) is a [[British Indian]] author and [[physician]].<ref name=Crawley>{{cite news |author=Crawley, William |authorlink=William Crawley|title=Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict? |work=BBC |date=26 Aug 2010 |access-date=18 Dec 2015 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2010/08/mother_teresa_the_final_verdic.html}}</ref> He was born in [[Calcutta]], and moved to the [[United Kingdom]] in 1985. He is the author of the book ''Mother Teresa: The Untold Story'' (originally published as ''Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict''), a work which challenges the widespread regard of [[Mother Teresa]] as a symbol of [[philanthropy]] and selflessness.<ref name=Dutta>{{cite news |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=176802&sectioncode=40 |title=Saint of the gutters with friends in high places |author-last=Dutta |author-first=Krishna |date=16 May 2003 |work=[[Times Higher Education]] |access-date=4 March 2011}}</ref>

Chatterjee's criticism inspired the documentary ''[[Hell's Angel (documentary)|Hell's Angel]]'' that was shown on [[Channel 4]], a British television channel. The documentary was written by a well-known critic of Mother Teresa, [[Christopher Hitchens]], who co-produced it with journalist and filmmaker [[Tariq Ali]]. Chatterjee and Hitchens were the two [[Devil's advocate]]s, or hostile witnesses to [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church]] procedures for the [[beatification]] of Mother Teresa in 2003.<ref name=Crawley/>

==Life and career==

Chatterjee was born in 1958<ref name=nyt2016>{{cite news|last1=Schultz|first1=Kai|title=A Critic's Lonely Quest|work=The New York Times |date=26 August 2016 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/world/asia/mother-teresa-critic.html?_r=0|access-date=5 November 2016|ref=nyt2016}}</ref> and raised in the city of [[Calcutta, West Bengal]], India, before moving to the United Kingdom in 1985. In the 1970s and 1980s while studying at [[Calcutta Medical College]] he worked part-time for a left-wing political party campaigning against poverty and later worked at a hospital where he regularly treated patients from the oldest and poorest districts of the city as well as refugees from the civil war with what is now [[Bangladesh]].<ref name=nyt2016/> Later, while living in the [[UK]], he became concerned by the increasingly common portrayal of the widespread destitution and disease in his native Calcutta which stemmed from press reporting of the work of [[Mother Teresa]]. At that point he describes his attitude to Mother Teresa as "If anything, I was positively inclined towards her" although he says he never saw any of her nuns in the slums.<ref name=toi2016>{{cite web|last1=IANS|title=Mother Teresa's sainthood deeply flawed|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Mother-Teresas-sainthood-and-Nobel-Prize-deeply-flawed-says-author-Aroup-Chatterjee-IANS-Interview/articleshow/52761090.cms|website=The Times of India|access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> However it was this image at odds with his own experience as a doctor in Calcutta that caused him to look more closely at her work and reputation.{{Cquote|text=I was mystified and perturbed. So I wanted to look into it ... still I thought she was a superb lady who was not faultless, but somehow, this image of Calcutta had permeated the world imagery. I thought it was probably a kind of offshoot or a corollary of her image and it was not her doing.<ref name=toi2016/>}}
From the 1990s onwards he began to uncover what he calls a "cult of suffering"<ref name=nyt2016/> which Mother Teresa and her followers in the [[Missionaries of Charity]] were running back in Calcutta supported by her friend [[Pope John Paul II]].<ref name=the2016>{{cite web|last1=Dutta|first1=Krishna|title=Saint of the gutters with friends in high places|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/saint-of-the-gutters-with-friends-in-high-places/176802.article|website=Times Higher Education|date=16 May 2003 |access-date=5 November 2016|ref=the2016}}</ref>
In February 1993, Chatterjee sent a proposal for a short documentary to Vanya Del Borgo, associate producer of Bandung Productions which was owned by [[Tariq Ali]].<ref name=moc2016>{{cite web|last1=Gonzales|first1=Hemley|title=Chatterjee and Hemley discuss Mother Teresa|url=https://missionariesofcharity.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/dr-aroup-chatterjee-hemley-gonzalez-discuss-mother-teresa-christopher-hitchens-and-the-negligence-and-fraud-of-the-catholic-nun/|website=missionariesofcharity.wordpress.com|date=January 2014 |access-date=5 November 2016|ref=moc2016}}</ref> The proposal was passed to a [[Channel 4]] commissioner who approved it, and Del Borgo with Chatterjee's proposal began work, approaching journalist and author [[Christopher Hitchens]] to write and present it.<ref name=moc2016/> The documentary became the 1994 film [[Hell's Angel (documentary)|''Hell's Angel'']].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mehta|first1=Hemant|authorlink=Hemant Mehta|title=Listen to Christopher Hitchens Eviscerate Mother Teresa's Legacy in This 1994 Documentary|url=http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/09/04/listen-to-christopher-hitchens-eviscerate-mother-teresas-legacy-in-this-1994-documentary/|website=Friendly Atheist|publisher=Patheos|access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> Chatterjee found the documentary "too sensationalist" and Hitchens went on to write his book [[The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice|''The Missionary Position'']].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kinchin|first1=David|title=Book Review: An Unquenchable Thirst|url=http://www.huntingtonnews.net/14635|website=Huntington News|access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref>
Chatterjee spent the next year travelling and interviewing people who had worked closely with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity and began to campaign against the conditions in Nirmal Hriday, also known as the [[Kalighat Home for the Dying]] in Calcutta.<ref name=nyt2016/> In particular he heard stories of lack of basic hygiene,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Holznagel|first1=Fritz|title=Mother Teresa, the Saint of Calcutta?|url=http://www.who2.com/mother-teresa-is-not-the-saint-of-calcutta-to-dr-aroup-chatterjee/|website=Who2 Biographies|date=30 August 2016 |access-date=5 November 2016|ref=who2016}}</ref> the absence of any pain medication<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gillett|first1=George|title=The West's big lie about Mother Teresa|url=http://www.salon.com/2016/01/03/the_wests_big_lie_about_mother_teresa_her_glorification_of_suffering_instead_of_relieving_it_has_had_little_impact_on_her_glowing_reputation/|website=The Salon|date=3 January 2016 |access-date=5 November 2016|ref=sal2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Bhaumik|first1=Subir|last2=Ganguly|first2=Meenakshi|title=Seeker of Souls|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,138292,00.html?iid=chix-sphere|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> and the frequent reuse of hypodermic needles.<ref name=nyt2016/>
Chatterjee then began work on a book, eventually released by Meteor Books in 2002 under the original title ''Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=B|first1=Sandeep|title=Is canonising Mother Teresa Vatican's strategy to gain ground in India?|url=http://www.firstpost.com/world/the-problem-with-sainthood-is-canonising-mother-teresa-vaticans-strategy-to-gain-ground-in-india-2687636.html|website=Firstpost.com|date=21 March 2016 |access-date=5 November 2016|ref=fp2016}}</ref> Chatterjee says in addition to the hours of interviews, "I started in pre Internet days and I spent months in libraries in London. I also travelled the world researching it. I followed slum dwellers, beggars, destitute children with a video camera. I interviewed hundreds of people. I stood with video camera outside Teresa's home for hours."<ref name=naw2016>{{cite web|author=NAW Staff|title=NAW Interview with Aroup Chatterjee|url=http://www.new-asian-writing.com/naw-interview-with-aroup-chatterjee/|website=New Asian Writing|access-date=5 November 2016|ref=naw2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110043828/http://www.new-asian-writing.com/naw-interview-with-aroup-chatterjee/|archive-date=10 November 2016}}</ref>

Following the publication of his book, Chatterjee continued to speak out against what he calls the "bogus and fantastic figure" of Mother Teresa,<ref name=gua2016/> acting as [[Devil's advocate]] in the ongoing discourse about her sainthood.

In 2019, Chatterjee moved to Sydney, Australia {{citation needed|date=September 2020}} where he lives with his Irish wife (who was raised as a [[Catholic]]) and their three children, and continues to work as a [[physician]].

==''Mother Teresa: The Untold Story''==

In December 2002 independent publisher Meteor Books, owned by Bhagbat Chakraborty, published Chatterjee's book under the title ''Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict''.<ref name=naw2016/> In 2016 the same book was reissued under a new title, ''Mother Teresa: The Untold Story'' by Fingerprint! publishers after being taken up by literary agent Kanishka Gupta.<ref name=naw2016/> The book covers her life and her rise to fame following the documentary ''[[Something Beautiful for God]]'' by [[Malcolm Muggeridge]], the Calcutta [[Kalighat Home for the Dying|home for the dying]] and the practices of running it,<ref name=gua2016>{{cite news|last1=Sherwood|first1=Harriet|title=Mother Teresa to become saint amid criticism over miracles and missionaries|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/sep/02/mother-teresa-saint-criticism-miracles-missionaries-abortion-suffering-canonisation|website=The Guardian |date=2 September 2016 |access-date=5 November 2016|ref=gua2016}}</ref> the non-consensual death bed [[baptism]]s of [[Hindu]]s and [[Muslims]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Mother Teresa's legacy under cloud as sainthood nears|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1281799|website=[[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]]|access-date=28 November 2025|agency=[[Agence France-Presse]]|date=3 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Stone|first1=Michael|title=Mother Teresa Brags About Coerced Deathbed Conversions|url=http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/09/watch-mother-teresa-brags-about-coerced-deathbed-conversions/|website=Progressive Secular Humanist|publisher=Patheos|access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> the pathetic hygienic practices in the homes run by her,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.thequint.com/books/2016/09/01/mother-teresa-how-saintly-was-the-saint-of-the-gutters-canonisation-aroup-chatterjee-book-the-untold-story|title=Mother Teresa: How Saintly Was the 'Saint of the Gutters'?|website=The Quint |date=September 2016 |access-date=2019-03-10}}</ref> her very limited connections with Kolkata and the masses<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/saint-of-the-gutters-with-friends-in-high-places/176802.article|title=Saint of the gutters with friends in high places|date=2003-05-16|website=Times Higher Education |access-date=2019-03-10}}</ref> and the vast amount of financial donations given to the charity but not spent at Nirmal Hriday.<ref name=fi2016>{{cite journal|last1=Cooke|first1=Bill|title=Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict|journal=Free Inquiry|date=2004|volume=24|issue=6|pages=54–55|url=http://reason.org.nz/journal/2004v77n2win.pdf|access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> He covers her [[Nobel Peace Prize]] and the speech in which she claimed to have saved tens of thousands of destitute people; Chatterjee estimates in his book the real number was 700.<ref name=the2016/> He also writes about the celebrities and the powerful people who had audiences with her, and the controversies surrounding the money she accepted from dictators such as Haitian president [[Jean-Claude Duvalier]], convicted fraudster [[Charles Keating]] and disgraced publisher [[Robert Maxwell]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Campbell|first1=Mícheál|title=It's a sin|url=http://socialistreview.org.uk/281/its-sin|website=Socialist Review|access-date=5 November 2016|ref=sr2016}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> The book looks at the worldwide reach of the Missionaries of Charity and examines the available evidence for her financial accounts<ref name=the2016/><ref>{{cite web|last1=Mathews Thomas|first1=Prince|title=Pointing Fingers At Mother Teresa's Heirs|url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/08/10/forbes-india-mother-teresa-charity-critical-public-review.html|website=Forbes|access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> along with her personal crusade against abortion and contraception.<ref name=gua2016/> He blames the West, especially the United States, for creating her benevolent image as a saviour in the backdrops of a ravaged subcontinent.<ref name=":0" /> The final chapters address her death, funeral and beatification and Chatterjee's own involvement as an official [[Devil's advocate]] or hostile witness and the transcripts of the proceedings.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} Chatterjee sums up his view of Mother Teresa's life's work as: {{Cquote|text=Principally, she was a ... medieval ideologue – who taught that abortion had to be banned at any cost. And any means could serve to achieve that end. That was her.<ref name=moc2016/>}}

=== Critical reception ===
The self-published book has been praised for the content. ''[[Times Higher Education]]'' praised the book as necessary and well-documented, which could have been improved with editing.<ref name=":1" /> ''[[The Irish Times]]'' praised the content and advocated for its wide dissemination in light of its seriousness but noted Chatterjee's personal agenda to have undermined its credibility. It criticized the book for suffering from glaring errors of syntax, missing words, repetitions et al. and for his often contradictory assertions.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/under-the-microscope-1.349069|title=Under the microscope|newspaper=The Irish Times |access-date=2019-03-10}}</ref> A review by [[Tim Challies]] praised the extensive documentation in the book, consisting of multitude of examples, though noting the shoddy organizing, as a result of being self-published.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.challies.com/book-reviews/book-review-mother-teresa-the-final-verdict/|title=Book Review - Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict|last=Challies|first=Tim|date=2005-08-16|website=Tim Challies |access-date=2019-03-10}}</ref> The [[far-left]] ''[[Socialist Review]]'' favourably received it as "a valuable contribution to unmasking the real Teresa".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://socialistreview.org.uk/281/its-sin|title=It's a Sin|website=Socialist Review |access-date=2019-03-10}}</ref>

''[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]]'' praised the 2016 reprint as a brutally honest and relentlessly scathing read which gives readers an impartial point of view.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-secret-lives-of-saints/cid/1451242|title=The secret lives of saints|website=[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]]|access-date=2019-03-10}}</ref> A review in ''[[The Quint]]'' described it as a disconcerting book that had exhaustive details and consisted of laborious arguments though parts of it did appear to be inarticulate rants and failed to be objective.<ref name=":0" />

==Devil's advocate==

On the path to Mother Teresa's sainthood, a process Chatterjee has described as "a superstitious, black magic ceremony",<ref name=gua2016/> Chatterjee acted as one of two official [[Devil's advocate]]s during the process of her beatification in 2003, the other being [[Christopher Hitchens]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Crawley|first1=William|title=Will and Testament|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2010/08/mother_teresa_the_final_verdic.html|website=BBC|access-date=7 November 2016|ref=bbc2016}}</ref> In order to begin the requirements of beatification, the first step on the way to [[Canonisation|sainthood]], the Catholic Church was required to announce a first miracle ascribed to Mother Teresa, which it did on 1 December 2002, the alleged miraculous cure of [[Monica Besra]] of a cyst caused by [[tuberculosis]].<ref name=nyt22016/> Chatterjee pointed out the cure was a result of medical treatment Besra received from superintendent of the [[Balurghat]] Hospital and not the placing of metal jewellery on her body.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} His position was also confirmed by her doctor Ranjan Mustafi, speaking of the nine months of drugs and treatment he provided: "I've said several times that she was cured by the treatment."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gowen|first1=Annie|title=The Vatican believes Mother Teresa cured this woman|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-vatican-believes-mother-teresa-cured-this-woman-but-was-it-a-miracle/2016/09/01/83664464-6e12-11e6-993f-73c693a89820_story.html|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=7 November 2016|ref=wp2016}}</ref> Initially both Besra<ref name=toi2016/> and her husband called the miracle "a hoax",<ref>{{cite web|last1=Orr|first1=David|authorlink=David Orr (journalist)|title=Medicine cured 'miracle' woman – not Mother Teresa, say doctors|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/1443320/Medicine-cured-miracle-woman-not-Mother-Teresa-say-doctors.html|website=The Telegraph|date=5 October 2003 |access-date=7 November 2016}}</ref> as did [[Prabir Ghosh]] from the Kolkata Humanist Association, who runs a programme raising awareness of holy men who dupe ordinary Indians into paying for supposed miracle cures.<ref name=nyt22016>{{cite news|last1=Rohde|first1=David|authorlink=David S. Rohde|title=Her Legacy: Acceptance And Doubts Of a Miracle|work=The New York Times |date=20 October 2003 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/20/world/her-legacy-acceptance-and-doubts-of-a-miracle.html|access-date=7 November 2016}}</ref> During the process, the Catholic Church allows consultation with doubters where the miracle is contested. In his book, Chatterjee details his deposition to the committee, his correspondence with the official [[postulator]] [[Brian Kolodiejchuk]], and the transcripts of his questions and answers.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chatterjee|first1=Aroup|title=Mother Teresa: The Untold Story|date=2016|publisher=Fingerprint!|isbn=978-8175993310}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Criticism of Mother Teresa]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=8744 Review of Chatterjee book] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100108090712/http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=8744 |date=8 January 2010 }} in the ''[[Socialist Review]]''
* [http://newhumanist.org.uk/622 Maternal Neglect] – Review of ''Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict'' by Latha Menon
* [https://twitter.com/aroupchatterjee Aroup Chatterjee Twitter page]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterjee, Aroup}}
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Critics of the Catholic Church]]
[[Category:English atheists]]
[[Category:English people of Bengali descent]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to England]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]
[[Category:British people of Bengali descent]]

Aroup Chatterjee - Revision history

Gstnit: Added stub!