Religious Violence

Religious Violence


The new generation seems to be disappointed that the previous generation had miserably failed the country in curbing evils in society and in ushering equality, justice and dignity to human life. I appreciate their sincerity of purpose and vehement determination to achieve this goal. They have every ones blessings in their pious endeavors.

Perhaps they may also like to consider the views as hereunder.

To begin with both evil and good , though appearing opposite , are complimentary . Without one the other does not exist. Creator of life gave human beings intellectual freedom. If the creator desired the existence of only good , human beings could easily be programmed like animal and plant life. Then the life would be without excitement and depression would take over. Since there would be good every where , all would remain satisfied and there would be no need for effecting any change what so ever. Creator purposely let the good and evil co-exist and thus gave meaning to life. It is left for the human beings to balance it out. Here the role of values imbibed from the parents matter. Parents behavior which the children copy should be above board. It is essential that they sat a good example. Schools and other institutions would also have a role in later life as also their peers.

It is common knowledge that generally the children are always better than their parents as they have a head start over their parents. They begin their lives at a point where parents end theirs. They have more awareness as they actually see the progress in all the fields, be it science, technology, computers, television, print media , agriculture, etc etc. If it is not so then the parents have to be blamed. So the next generation should learn from the past mistakes of the earlier one and improve on them. It will be a stagnant society where people are afraid to experiment with ideas. In any case next generation would always find fault with the previous one. This is as it should be. Otherwise there would be no change for the better.

Our generation brought independence from British dominance and set up a solid base for a democratic society . It never intended to create a classless society with equality to all. It only tried to provide equal opportunities to all. In a democracy vested interests with different ideologies but with the common aim to improve the lot of people become essential as each group tries to gain the confidence of the people at large. Assimilation of conflicting views and arriving at either a consciousness or acceptance of the majority view are paramount. Confliction of views expressed by people working together is the very essence of democracy unlike military or communist dictatorships with single agenda. Hence the creation of different parties was necessary outcome and a welcome change from the past. But the obvious result is that each party or group when in power strengthens its own voter base. This is how the democratic system works. It may not be ideal but it ensures freedom of speech and action and is therefore preferable .

In a democracy there is freedom of religious beliefs and faiths for all individuals. Persons can profess any religion and convert to any on their own. But mass conversions with inducements and allurements of monetary and other benefits to poverty stricken people is undesirable and would lead to conflicts as some ones vote bank is adversely affected and the country’s demography is altered with fall outs in future. This needs to be nabbed by the party in power in the bud. Otherwise helplessness would lead to violence . Affected people would have no recourse left. Such public grievance must need to be addressed. Indians should not be left at the mercy of foreign money easily brought in. When a mob frenzy develops it leads to very undesirable and despicable actions. This is avoidable with proper actions satisfactory to all before an ugly situation develops.

Religions are a source of peace of mind and tranquility and generate a beautiful value system for a common fruitful life in a society . Religions also unite people of the same faith through common rituals and religious gatherings, festivals etc . It is a strong binding force and leads to common goals and aspirations. It sometimes leads to conflicts when mutual interests clash and also when there is lack of tolerance for other faiths.

In Islam cruelty and intolerance is built in the Text. For them there is no other supreme one than Allah . People professing other Gods are nonbelievers and infidels and Allah has no mercy for such Kafirs. Their meat has to be Halal , ie , the animals have to be killed slowly and not swiftly in one blow when it becomes Haram and is prohibited to be consumed by Muslims . It induces cruelty. Since the Holy Quran is the word of Allah as told to His messenger Prophet Mohammed , it can not be altered except if Allah ordains so through another messenger. Hence intolerance continues.

Christianity became some what more tolerant and benevolent with the New Teatament subtly enunciated and introduced by Jesus Christ , Son of God. Only a Son of God could ever embody such a change. But he had to pay for this by being crucified by the people in power as he became too popular. The Church considers its right to convert people of other faiths. It is fine with others so long it is voluntarily done and not by allurement and inducements. It leads to conflicts.

In the Vedic way of life ( Hindu is not a religion ) tolerance and democracy is built in . Arjun accepts Shri Krishna as Paramatma only when He proves it so. In all scriptures the disciple always questions the teacher before he accepts his teachings. He does not accept if he has doubts. All the doubts have to be cleared by the teacher.
Though there is only one Supreme Being – Paramatma , yet He works through a trinty. Brahma – the Creator , Vishnu- the Sustainer and Mahesh – the Destroyer. These Gods too work through several minor Gods .Paramatma’s authority is thus diversified and shared. This is democracy in action. Jews and Parsies were willingly given refuge in India when they were driven out of their abode by religious diehards.

However of late seeds of intolerance have been sown as the guardians of the faith are afraid that other faiths would poach on their followers by allurements and inducements with monetary help from abroad. They consider it a matter of survival lest they be out numbered in their own country. They now seem to be ready to resist conversions even by force if needed. A serious conflict of interest is brewing.

Suggested Solution

An amicable solution is to be found at the earliest to avoid alienations. I suggest that in order to prevent people taking recourse to violence by taking law in their hands due to their helplessness , the law should be made simple, clear, explicit , unambiguous and very strong both for public at large and the Law Enforcing Agencies along with very very harsh punishment as a deterrent and to create fear of the consequences if people indulge in violence.

Since fear of God is not effective, fear of punishment might be successful. Let us give a trial. Even in Ramayan it is said , “ Bhaya bin hot na preet “ Fear is necessary to create respect for law.

China has no religion yet they have progressed unlike India- Why

In India we have religions but generally people are not religious. Religions have become an hindrance to material progress. Selfishness and corruption has seeped in the society unfortunately at all levels mainly due to the examples set after independence by the elite of the country. Nehru ji occupied the most levish and best house in the capital , that of the outgoing British Commander-in-chief . Others followed suit. They changed their life styles. That needed easy money. Corruption was the only viable means. Birla's were given monopoly for their Ambassador car to be exclusively sold to all the Govt Departments both civil and military. Fiat people were obliged separately by not permitting manufacture of imported cars. The seeds of corruption were sown. Nehru's all relations and even his family cook were taken care of either bringing them as members of parliament or nominated to IFS, IAS or other coveted posts. How could he stop others following him. Greed has no religion. Gandhi ji accepted the hospitality of Birla's every where except for a very brief period when he went to Bhangi Colony. He kept mum. He was the only one who could tell Nehru to have a frugal life style and occupy a modest house. A bad and a dangerous example was put in motion to be followed by the people as Nehru was venerated by all. Once the self takes over who bothers about the country.
In contrast, China had a benevolent and dedicated leadership , though despotic, yet very patriotic with a determination to make China a top class country, militarily, politically and economically even at the cost of social well being and personal freedom of the masses. Dissent had no place. They created a largely corruption free society. Main aim was the material progress of their country. How was it achieved was meaningless. Result was the main thing , means had no value. They seem to have done well but at the cost of personal freedom.

Officially China has no religion. So there is no hindrance or obstacle in taking hard decisions. For decades every one in China wore the same type of clothing , even stitched the same way-closed collar coats. Remarkable thing to be noted is that every one including the elite wore the same. It led to large scale manufacture of the same cloth. What a saving of money needed for progress in other directions. Once the wealth is created , it is easy to deal with social backwardness. China is doing fine as religion is personal to people as it should be. It has nothing to do with the governance of the country. Otherwise each religion would try to pull the country towards it and a chaos would result.

I may add that human beings whether in China , India or else where in the world can not live at peace with one self if one does not believe in some God or an unknown Force. In adversity only God helps us in tiding over the tough period . We say that what ever happened was God's will and it was not our fault. In China too all individuals would be believing in some God . Truth would come out in the open when democratic freedom comes to the people. Example is the upsurge of Christianity after the dismemberment of the erstwhile Soviet Union. All Churches every where had remained intact. Religions can not be wiped out from the minds of the people. It remains in the mind for ever.

R.K.Singhal
10.01.2008



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