Does man really deserve to be called Human, considering the current political and social turmoil in present India, world’s largest democracy (?) and a secular country? Do we really need the concept of ‘religion’ which is totally man-made? Do we really refrain from doing the ‘wrong’ because we fear our respective Gods? I am finding myself in this state of introspection and inquisition for the past few weeks and so want to write about it since then.
I was reading a book "India: A History" by John Keay, which mentioned that there was no religion in the times of Indus Valley civilization. The author leaves it on the reader to imagine what the world would have been like had there been no such thing called religion. I was amazed by this imagination, there would have been no different doctrines, thence no conflicts…!! That means, Peace all over.
But this, I know, is utopian. Ever since Arab’s invasions in late 8th century in countries like Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent for trading, the society is witnessing dissatisfaction among people in the subcontinent. A few of them apparently had a mission of spreading Islam here and around. Then followed breaking of temples, allegedly forceful conversion of people in the times of Mughals, especially Aurangzeb!! Some people would feel tempted to disagree on this stand of mine, but a lot of people who have read unbiased history of Mughal India would corroborate me. I would certainly like to mention the demolition of Standing Buddha statues in Bamiyan lately. The sole reason behind this lowly act by Talibans is just that it does not comply with rules in Islam. This is really beyond my understanding why these people take everything on their religion, forgetting the fact that theirs is the largest religion in the world, but still this insecurity, alas! Does religion demand the devastation of arts and civilization? Another question.
Not only one religion is imposing its regulations on people, Christian missionaries (some of them) had perpetrated such atrocities in remote tribal areas in Orissa in late 20th century that it fomented the local mob, which led to another sectarian and political tension in some parts of the country, lately Karnataka. I once prepared a report on burning of churches and priests. It was a reverberation of similar conduct of these missionaries in a tribal village in Orissa. Locals were reportedly being converted, initially by giving financial benefits and then forcefully when the former did not work. Not even this, children were killed, their limbs amputated in front of their parents. People took their revenge by burning the church and its people.
Such never ceasing suppressive conduct of various communities (I hate to use that term) has caused a part of Hindu sect to take an equally, rather more, violent stand against apparently all other communities in India. The demolition of Babri Mosque, Godhara riots, burning of priests and churches are just few examples…!! An assault on any particular individual is bound to be taken as an assault on the community as a whole. I think that was the sole reason behind the assassination of India Gandhi after Operation Blue Star, which was interpreted as the Insult of Sikh religion.
Now, take any existing problem in the world at present, be it terrorism or world economics, which is in turn a game of Oil, everything converges to be an outcome of rifts between the communities. No one knows what sect was behind the recent Delhi Serial Blasts, but we love to believe that Muslims are either terrorists or their supporters who are happy seeing these things happening. Even on the shoot-out, people of Jamia Nagar seem to be taking every gun shot on their religion. But at the same time, we cannot forget the fact that just because a few fundamentalists share their religion with a lot other people, all the innocents fall in the circle of suspicion in the eyes of common people of other sects. Not to forget, Amarnath Shrine issue looks like a never ending dispute about land and funds, which has now taken a political shape, but the actual reason behind everything is discordance between two religions. All the massacres of the past, including the one during The Exodus of 47, killing of Sikhs in 84, riots of 91, have religion as their root cause. Doesn’t it look like religion has done more ‘harm’ to the humanity than ‘good’.
One of my friends put his point in favor of religion saying that man certainly needs a governing power, call it God, so that he doesn’t go astray. This prevents him from going on the path of evil because he fears his God. Had there been no God, no religion, man would not have any reason to be afraid of while doing the wrong. He may happily lead an unrestrained life thereby giving a definite shape to Hell on this earth. Religion ingrains ‘Conscience’ in an individual. But I somehow do not agree with the statement. If this is what we call ‘Conscience’, then we are better off the concept of religion. And if an individual does have a sense of humanity and the ‘Conscience’ alive in his core, he doesn’t need any such crap as religion to guide him in leading his life.
Again, I come to the thought which I started this article with, just imagine the world without any religion, just imagine treating people like people, humans…not like a community. Haven would be then here, on Earth!
