Violence in the name of ‘RELIGION’

“The essence of all religions speak of peace, compassion, justice and the interconnection of all life.”

-Ann Emerson

India is a country which manifests diverse cultures and supposed to be religiously tolerant. India is a secular nation as stated in the Constitution. In the literary context secular means “not connected with religious matters or not subject or bound by religious rule.” This meaning seems to be true only hypothetically. The actual scene is quiet contradicting. Religion has paved way for violence amongst fellow humans who belong to the same locality or city or state or country. Religion is dominating human existence right from the time when man fell prey to it.

In ancient India, it is known that various cultural and religious discrimination was prevalent. But it seems to be more prominent and wrong when it happens in the present day’s modern and technology-oriented world. Many lives were lost and still being taken all in the name of religion. Various spine chilling events have taken place in the recent past which requires attention from the government and people. The communal riots in Gujarat in 1969, considered to be the most deadly communal riots post independence claimed 660 innocent lives. In 1984, anti-Sikh riots claimed thousands of lives and displacement of many Sikhs from their homes. Likewise various anti-Muslim, anti-Hindu and anti-Christian riots have taken place which have created shock waves all across the country. Statistics show that during 2005-2009, an average of 130 people died every year from communal riots, and over 2200 were injured. In a more recent study in 2013, shows that over 107 people are killed in communal riots of which 66 were Muslims and 41 were Hindus. The world's average annual death rate from intentional violence, in recent years, has been 7.9 per 100,000 people.

Our constitution is so designed that we are a religiously tolerant nation i.e., secular. Freedom of religion is a fundamental right as guaranteed by Article 15 and Article 25 of the Constitution of India. Blasphemy and heresy are not recognized. Yet why does religious violence and discrimination still exist? What are we doing to protect our fellow brothers and sisters from being killed? This is still a debatable question. My opinion is always the same. The attitude of people should change towards caste and religion. Religion is only a way to lead a peaceful and disciplined life. No religion teaches us to kill other humans to show their domination. As rightly said by Ann Emerson the essence all religions is peace, compassion and justice. Whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parse or any religion, everyone preach about togetherness. We should respect the beliefs of other religion and learn from them. It does not show low of ourselves by doing so. Stringent laws and people’s attitude are the only two governing factors that will help bring about change. We should always remember that we all belong to the same race called ‘Humanity’.

- Maheshwari M