Contemporary
Times-Role Of Religions
By Ram Puniyani
16 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Current
times are witnessing violence of severe nature all around in which religion
is projected one of the reasons. It is also projected as a clash between
people of two religions and that people belonging to a particular religion
are violent due to their faith, also that some violence is a retaliatory
violence to check the activities of others who are out to convert the
gullible people by luring them.
In India one has seen the
intensification of violence in the name of religion more so from last
two decades. After Babri demolition a wave of violence rocked the nation.
In 1998, a Pastor working amongst leprosy patients was burnt alive along
with his two innocent sons. Anti Christian violence has been the marker
of our times. The burning of Sabramati express in Godhra followed by
the massive anti Muslim violence, the genocide, was another blot on
the national life. The 9/11 events, resulted in the death of close to
three thousand people of all religions. Along with this came the thesis
that current time is the one of clash of civilizations, the backward
Islamic civilization is out to destroy the advanced Western civilization.
One can see the underlining element of the attempt to relate the violence
and religion in some form or the other.
Along with this came the
misunderstanding about other religions. This misunderstanding has assumed
mammoth proportions today and it provides the base for the violence
and the policy of aggressions/acts of violence and terror. There is
a clear need to understand the difference between religion and politics,
there is a need to understand the rise of violence from these misconceptions.
Most of the religions came
as a set of moral values to guide the people to cultivate the feelings
of love for mankind. There began a process of institutionalization of
religions to ensure that these values are sustained and percolated to
the broad layers of people. At the same time the emphasis on rituals
began to be heavier while the focus and emphasis on moral values took
a back seat. Over a period of time the institutional rigidities and
ritual, identity part of religion has undermined the moral values of
religions. There have been numerous attempts to ensure that the basic
unity between people of different religions is sustained though the
efforts of saints and others who preached the values of humanism in
right earnest.
Today the vested interests
have launched the efforts to suppress the weaker section of society
and weaker nations for the sake of their material interests. As these
attempts are undertaken in the name of religion a feeling of alienation
amongst people overtakes the real spirit of religion.
Here at home those associated
with RSS and politics in the name of Hindutva have been spreading the
hate amongst different communities. The result is there for all to see.
This hate has been spread against Muslims and Christians both. Muslims
have been projected to be fanatics, aggressors, having more wives, converting
through sword and being more loyal to Pakistan. This has resulted in
a broad social common sense which sees Muslims as the ?other?, their
demonization, the consequent violence at different places even on the
smallest of pretexts, the fear and insecurity leading to their ghettoisation.
At global level the US has been resorting to War against terror which
is a ploy to attack the areas in oil rich countries and to create a
global Islamophobia. World wide this hate against Muslims is on the
rise. In India the problem is worst confounded as the US goals worldwide
and RSS goals at home match and worsen the problem. In many a Muslim
majority countries similar processes are going on against the other
religious minorities.
In India even the tiny minority
of Christians has been accused of conversions through allurement and
fraud. As a matter of fact the population of Christians is declining
from last four decades (1971-2.60%, 1981-2.44%, 1991-2.32% and 2001-2.30
%), despite that a sustained scattered attacks on Christina missionaries
is on the rise. Similarly the myths against Muslim minorities have no
truth but have captured the minds of people, the destruction of holy
places done by kings in the past for the sake of power and wealth is
being presented as the insult of faith, the conversions in the past
are being presented as due to coercion, the demographic profile which
is due to social factors is being shown to be due to religion, the loyalty
to other nations is a mere propaganda meant to suit their political
goals, and that all Muslims are terrorists also does not hold any water
as neither is terrorism due to religion nor all terrorists belong to
Muslims.(LTTE, ULFA, Khalistainis, Irish Republican Army and so on)
The responsible people of
different faiths do realize that this is not in tune with the spirit
of their religion. They are watching helplessly this whole process of
demonization of certain religious communities and the social rifts being
created due to that. Faith in the values of humanism is paramount in
the values of religion. This current scenario is pushing back the aspirations
of poor people and so it is needed that the situation is overcome for
the sake of better world, for the sake of peace and amity. While the
political forces bent upon creating this mayhem are very powerful and
almighty, have control over resources of different types and on media,
the people with genuine faith in human values need to come forward to
ensure that this dark phase of human history is overcome in the spirit
of dialogue. The need for inter community relations and dialogue was
never needed more than at present times.
The isolation due to this
political process is not only creating emotional walls amongst different
communities, it is also resulting in the retardation of social development.
The kernel of present efforts for peace lies in the process of building
bridges amongst communities and that process can be started only by
a genuine dialogue amongst people of different faiths, by coming close
to each other by abolishing the artificial boundaries created by the
politics of hate being practiced by various forces, globally and locally.
These dialogues amongst different
religious communities are needed at all the levels, starting from the
basti, mohalla to the leadership of religions, scholars of religions,
the activists engaged in dispelling hate from the society, and those
working for human rights, all of them need to be involved in this process
of dialogue. The present impasse which is presenting religions as the
separating points need to be overcome and the understanding that religious
differences and plural ways of life are a strength not an obstacle to
peace. The dialogue amongst religions needs to be supplemented by the
cooperation in the field of social work to alleviate the pain and misery
of the mankind, there is a need to encourage and coordinate in the field
of struggles for the human rights of deprived sections of society. We
aspire for peace and we remind ourselves that the peace desired by us
can not be achieved without justice for the people. Justice is a mandatory
prerequisite for peace. The spirit of service to mankind has to prevail
over the current assault on the basic human values in the name of religion.
We need to look into the
recent high level committee of UN which went on to counter the thesis
of Clash of civilizations put forward by the US professor Samuel Huntington.
This thesis forms the cover for US ambitions for its aggressions in
West Asia. The UN committee (http://www.unaoc.org/repository/report.htm)has
put forward that there is no clash between civilizations, as a matter
of fact civilization have an alliance for a better tomorrow. On the
similar lines one will like to say that there is no clash between the
moral values of religions, it is the alliance between these values that
the human race can look forward to a better future, a future which will
eliminate poverty, hunger, disease and misery from the world. Religions
should be standing for love and peace. One posits that there cannot
be peace without justice and so the implication is that religions should
address the issues not only of poverty but also of the system which
creates poverty, it just does not talk of superficial manifestation
of the problems but to go to the root of prevalent problems and to raise
the voice against perpetrators of injustices. Religions have to raise
the issues of human rights of all people of the World. It is this alliance
which will ensure that the focus of world policies has to be brought
back to the issue of Human rights of weaker sections of society. Nothing
short of a genuine dialogue amongst people of different faiths can overcome
the obstacles created by the political forces misusing the religious
identity for their political goals.
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