It was the time of post Godhra carnage. A couple of boys in my neighborhood were busy killing ants. I approached them, with a kind of curiosity to know this newly-invented game.
"Hey Rahul, what do you think you guys are upto?" I questioned one of them.
"We are killing the red ants who bite us." He replied proudly.
"But why, what's the problem with the red ants??" I asked for the explanation.
"As red ants bite us, they belong to Muslims, and being Hindus it becomes our moral responsibility to kill them." He answered me.
I was in a sense of shock with his revelation. I could not speak anything more to him and continued my walk towards my home. My mind, continuously thinking and raising a flurry of disturbing questions.
Is this, what we have taught our younger ones about the religion??
Is this what they would be teaching to their youngsters?
Have we lost our grip on the most basic fundamental of morality??
Is this, for which we follow any religion on this earth?? Or rather, was this, the objective of developing the religion?
Talking religion is not one of the very new things in this country. But, many a times, we overlook the complexities related to it's origin, development, destruction, modifications and many such things, and only focus on the customs and traditions followed by our family, or community members from past several decades.
Origin and Evolution of Religion:
When we talk about the origin of religion, two main questions need to be answered first,
'How did religion begin' and 'how did religion evolved'. The evolutionary approach was influenced by Darwin's 'On the origin of species', published in 1859. In terms of religion, two main theories, Animism and Naturism were advanced to account for it's origin.
Animism means the belief in spirits. To make sense of the events arising in dreams and visions, and to understand the difference between a living and a dead body, early philosophers invented the idea of the soul. The soul, according to them is a spirit being which leaves the body temporarily during dreams and visions and permanently at death. Broadly speaking, the idea of Animism was originated to satisfy man's intellectual nature, meet his need to make sense of death, dreams and visions.
Naturism, on the other hand, means the belief that the forces of nature have supernatural powers. According to F. Max Muller, Naturism arose from Man's experience of nature, in particular the effect of nature upon man's emotions. Awed by the power and wonder of nature, early man transformed abstract forces into personal agents. In effect, sun, water, wind and many other natural objects turned into natural spirits. Where Animism seeks the origin of religion in man's intellectual needs, Naturism seeks it in his emotional needs.
If we try to figure out the origin of Caste system (which is the most important part of religion) "It is said that caste originated when a white race, The Aryans, coming from the north-western direction, conquered the dark-colored races inhabiting India at that time, probably 5000 or so years ago." Says Markandey Katju, a judge of the Supreme court of India. There have been a number of theories with regard to origin of religion. But, if we look at today's scenario, it doesn’t look that a single theory or assumption has been followed purely.
Peeking into the evolution of religion provides us with the number of perspectives and raises a few questions too. Edward B. Tyler, a proponent of the Animism theory, believed that human society evolved through 5 major stages, beginning with simple hunting and gathering and ending with the complex nation state. He believed that each stage in the evolution of religion derived from preceding ones, and that the religion of modern man, 'is in a great measure only explicable as a developed product of an older and ruder system'. Talking about Naturism, the first indication of a possible belief in supernatural dates from about 60000 years ago. Evolutionists such as Tyler and Muller came up with plausible reasons for various beliefs which we re held by members of particular societies, but this does not explain why those beliefs originated in the first place. We also can't argue that all religions originated in the same way.
Development of the religion :
Tyler and Muller attempted to explain religion in terms of human needs be it intellectual or emotional. In a more general sense, we can say religion to be a dividing element between sacred and profane. According to a functionalist perspective, religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices related to sacred things. Now, as we say this, 'belief and practice' will change for sure with the change in geographical condition, purpose of worship and the mind make-up at the time of establishing the particular practice. This was one of the most important demarcating difference between the origin of different religions at different places in the world. In the course of time, they spread through the entire globe and several people adopted the religion which suited them to fulfill their needs and which was a more easier one on the compatibility front.
God : The supreme being
Every religion, be it Hinduism, Islam or Christianity, was developed with a central idea of 'God'. Proponents of different religions, proposed various ways, to reach to the almighty god. The ways and methods that they suggested was what made the peculiar difference between the ideology of one religion with the another. This difference of path must have arosen due the difference in thinking, analysis, implementation and most importantly, realization of the supreme being by the person(s) involved in the development of the particular ideology as 'Dharma'. But, with the gradual changes in the human societies, focus of man shifted from the god to the attainment of material desires. We started worshipping god, and following any particular religion for the sake of fulfillment of our petty wants. Symbols of religion transformed into a new 'avatar', where input was a particular custom, and at the place of output, you waited for your wish to be granted. In the process, many authorities related to different religions, claiming themselves to be the representatives of the specific religion (And even of God) and providing the public, a guarantee to solve all their problems. They devised different strategies and practices which promised people with a feasible solution to every problem that they faced in their daily lives. With the course of time, the objective of developing religion was lost, and we started deviating towards the material life and losing our grip on the more important inner self and values, which was, supposed to be the hallmark of the religion's origination.
Morality : The forgotten fundamental:-
Every religion carries in it, one of the most important asset for self-development as a human being i.e. Morality. It is the fundamental f every religion. Not a single religion has ever taught us to take a single life(especially human) n our own will. Right form childhood, it was this concept of morality that pushed our parents to enforce upon us, the customs, traditions and practices, taught to them by either their parents or religious books, which, in one or the other way, developed those hitherto unnoticed moral traits into our personality which went up to shape our 'character' in the most appropriate manner. But, the problem here was, the moral principles taught by any religion were also confined to the boundaries developed by that particular religion itself. Following this, what became 'moral' for a particular religion was not necessarily considered to be 'moral' for any other religion. As different religions firmed their feet in the later years, this distinction between 'moral for me and moral for you' increased dramatically like a wide valley of approach and consequently led to the conflicts between followers of various religions. It was also not the case that everything was different on the point of morality, many things seemed to be the same, but it was the things that didn't match which became the root cause of the problem. In the coming years, this was what led to the wrong interpretation of the religious text by several people.
Interpretation : The deciding element:-
As we had accepted different religions in our country, so was the case with religious text too. Every religion has one or more sacred books which teaches people about the philosophy and principles incorporated into the religion. These books prove to be a ready reference for performing various rituals at the time of marriages, family functions and at the death of any person who was the follower of that particular religion .They help us in understanding the ideology of the religion which we follow. What becomes crucial with respect to this religious literature is its correct, or we can say, appropriate Interpretation, which, in turn, will lead us to the path of self-realization, or, for the least, help us in understanding the basic and true cause of the development of the particular relegion. But, as we know, "Every coin has two sides". In the same way, the darker side of this coin is exposed when you move forward with the wrong interpretation of the same literature.
Terrorism, which is one of the topmost issue of concern in the world, in general and in our country, in particular, is the product of this wrong interpretation combined with an attitude of hatred in some individuals. As it is well known that none of the religions teach us or rather permit us to take the life of any other person. This happens only due to the wrong interpretation and than subsequent implementation of our religious teachings which leads some of the 'so-called' human beings to cause destruction and devastation of life and property. As explained above, these people take the wrong path because they have completely forgotten the most fundamental principle of morality.
Communal riots, one of those human-engineered calamities, which have come time and again and tried to break the unity of our country, but every single time we bounced back with more vigor and enthusiasm to combat this enemy of ours. But, if we try to analyze the issue of riots keeping in mind the above explanation, we reach to the conclusion that, at that time, 'religion', which was indeed developed by man, starts dominating the society and tries to finish off its originator itself. In those days, the original purpose takes a back seat and religion drives our actions, which , in some cases, turn to be very violent, cruel and inhuman. So, in every problem which initiates due to religion at its root, we need to look upon the perspective of wrong interpretation modify it accordingly to sort out the matters.
Let the Religion of Humanity prevail:-
Religion, as everyone knows, is one of the basic pillars of Indian culture. It doesn't matter at all if India has entered into the modernization era from medieval times. Religion was, and will continue to be the hallmark of India's identity on the globe. It will continue to attract people from around the world to make a visit and learn form its ever-rich culture. But if we carry on the destruction of our sacred religion(s) due to improper understanding and fractured implementation, than we will prove to be the 'destructors of our own creation'. Any religion, in our country or elsewhere, has taught us, or rather tried to teach us, the language of Humanity. This was, what always remained, the basis of forming communities and developing religion.
We should always remember that we belong to a class of living creatures called 'Human-Beings' in the first and foremost place. It doesn't matter which religion we follow, what practices we get involved in, which path we adopt to reach our realization, which sacred literature we read(or follow), but what matters is; that we should always try to be a human being before appending our religious identities. If we speak the language of humanity, than surely, we would be speaking the language of every religion on this earth.
So, Let the religion of Humanity prevail, and for following it, you don't have to change your religion, but what you need is to seek into your own religion(or maybe your heart), the feeling of humanity, which might have got suppressed under different feelings of various religious rituals. It becomes our moral duty to leave this earth in a better state than which we got it(at the time of birth), but if that seems difficult than at least we should try to maintain the state and not leave this earth in a worsened state. I suppose that is what every Religion expects from a human being. Right???
