Secularism in India: What should be the form of it?

One of my earliest posts was on a war of religions. "The Judgment Day" Those who read it all said it seemed to be a sci-fi story. My intention was not to write a sci-fi story but to highlight the dangers of a war fought for one's faith or religion.
Though it was a doomsday story, I have a feeling that we are gradually moving towards such an environment, where major wars will be fought in the name of religion. It has happened in the past and one would have thought with passage of time and better education, wars would truly become a thing of past. But today its a different story. I will take just two examples, both biggest democracies in the world. The USA and India.

On USA, I would only say, racism is not much of a problem now but religion is. I have been following the US presidential elections and it seems most whites now don't have a problem in electing a black president. But they will not under any circumstances as of today will elect a Muslim president. There was so much controversy involved Barrack Obama's middle name "Hussein". All the newspapers and blogs I have read and all the comments by the readers indicate one thing, Americans will not vote for Muslim president.
There is a polarization of views on the matters of religion in the most developed country in world. Clearly education hasn't been able to change much.
Almost all the Americans are vary of Islam and consider it to be a violent religion. Some consider Hinduism as a peaceful religion but then surprisingly there are others who consider even Hinduism as violent. But then it is not surprising cause all they would have heard from India would have been attack on Christians.

That brings us to the situation in India, I myself being an Indian and a Hindu tried to analyze the things happening in India in the name of religion.

Why do all the major religious groups in India feel threatened?

There was a time when all the religions flourished in India and nobody had any problems. At least till Islam was introduced. Till then Hindus, Buddhists and Jains all lived peacefully. At least there is no history of violent clashes between religious groups. There were kings who followed either one of these religions but never made it a state religion. And people were free to follow any religion they wanted without fearing retaliation or persecution from the neighbours or society. Even the non-dharmic religion Judaism (Jews) reached India in around 500 B.C. and have lived without any fear and persecution while the rest of the world bayed for their blood. Then what happened?

The answer is proselytizing. With Islam came the culture of converting other people's faith, either forcefully or by lure of wealth and position. And this was followed by setting up of christian missionaries during British rule.

I won't go into the details of these conversions. But its a fact, everyone knows Mughals and other Islamic rulers in India forcibly converted a section of the population into Muslims. And very few people accept but it is true that Christian missionaries do induce and lure disadvantaged people to convert to Christianity. I can say that because I have seen this happening (though only once), since I have been brought up in a city which had a sizable tribal population and have studied in a missionary school.

Anyways, today these two religions have been actively proselytize in most of the places, though in case of Islam I guess it has completely stopped in India (maybe except for cases of inter-faith marriages). But then Islam in India faces the criticism of dividing the country, though I see it as a political battle between Nehru and Jinnah. Both of them are to be blamed and some blame should also lie on people who could have managed to reach a compromise between them (read: M.K.Gandhi). Still majority of the population sees Islam as the force which caused partition and thus the cause of pain arising from it. And in case of Christianity it is still going on. Though the missionaries don't want to stop conversions but ironically enough these same missionaries have a different view point on conversions when it comes to North East Christians converting to Judaism.

So because of these conversions, the majority Hindus in the country feel threatened. And as a result retaliate causing reconversion in some cases and sometimes leading to violent clashes between the respective communities. These violent clashes often lead to higher number of casualties for the minor communities, causing them to feel insecure.

(I am not against any particular religion per-se. My best friend is Christian and I don't consider Islam in a bad light either. But I don't believe that proselytizing is good for the unity of the country rather unity of any country)

So is the government at fault? Definitely Yes.

Is the Central leadership lacking or the problem is at state level? The answer is the problem lies with our politics. All the political parties despite their claims of being secular have been taking positions just to garner votes. All the so-called secular parties are inherently pseudo-secular, giving additional benefits to minorities doesn't make a government or political party secular. Why should any community based on its religion get a beneficial treatment? So when the government devises special policies for the minorities, the majority Hindus feel, why not us?
Moreover, over the years saying anything against minority religion is considered to be communal while saying anything against Hinduism is secular. For example, vilifying Jesus or Prophet is a communal act but vilifying Hindu gods is not. Parts of the government itself goes to the extent of saying some Hindu gods do not exist at all (Ram Sethu Controversy).

So my question to the government is; Is this what is secularism?

Now we come to the problem of inaction in the bureaucracy against vandalism by the majority and targeting of minorities as suspects. Here the problem lies with the demographic profile. When 80% of Indians are Hindus and when many of them feel that the political class is not doing anything for them and instead is giving benefits to the minorities, then the section of people who are supposedly protecting Hinduism from the proselytism the minorities and the discriminatory policies of the political class become the saviors for most of the Indians including those who are in bureaucracy. So they go slow in investigating attacks against minorities and are quick to round up minorities when they are at fault, often indulging in unnecessary roughness while handling them. So finally it comes to a situation when all the communities feel threatened and like frightened animals often resort to violence to basically protect themselves and their identity.

So is the situation still manageable? Can the various communities live in Harmony?
Yes the situation is not irreversible and various communities in India can still live in perfect harmony though it is very difficult to change the mindset of the masses, given the vast differences that have cropped up between them.

The next obvious question is, So what can be done now?

The answer is, the government should be pro-active in introducing policies which are fair to everyone. The first step should be to have policies to stop conversions by way of force or inducement. And strictly punish those who are involved in such activities. At the same time, the government should also take the harshest possible action against groups and people who are involved in vandalism in the name of religion.
All the parties involved should feel they are protected and all the parties should feel they are not discriminated against. There shouldn't be any special treatment for any religion, majority or minority all should have the same benefits from the government.

May be "Laïcité" (France's model of secularism) would work here perfectly minus its ill conceived notion of banning of hijabs, turbans, etc. I believe that government should keep away from religion and religion should keep away from government. The government should focus on law and order in the state and the policies should be same for all the citizens irrespective of their religious affiliations.

There will be many who will disagree with me and say this is not a perfect solution, humans by nature can not be satisfied by anything, there are critiques of democracy also.
May be this is not a perfect solution, but then what is the perfect solution?

Be Like a child

She cries only when she is hungry or needs her nappies to be changed. My sister was talking about her 6 month old daughter, who was at that time trying to reach her toys hanging from her bed.Looking at her I felt a very protective instinct and I almost leapt out of the sofa to give her the toys but then a thought stopped me. “She should learn to get there herself.” And so I waited and watched her. After repeated attempts she finally managed to grab the doll and pull it towards herself and it went straight to her mouth.I observed her for the whole day and it amazed me as to how much we have to learn from a child. Or rather how prejudiced we become after “growing up”. I realized all of us should unlearn some of the things that has become a part of us and start being a child. There are so many qualities we lose out being an adult that we need to regain them, probably by observing a child.
Here are some of my observationsA child is always curious:
We don’t know so many things in life, but we still assume we know. A child is always curious, he/she has no shame in accepting that he/she doesn’t know certain things and is always inquisitive. The moment we stop being inquisitive, we stop learning.A child likes to explore:
Children are ready to absorb everything they see. They reach out to the animate/inanimate things and try to feel it or should I say experience it. Adults on the other hand are wary of exploring and they will already have an opinion about everything even before trying something or meeting someone new.
A child easily trusts people:
A child is always ready to trust people. Adults on the other hand start with distrusting others. Imagine if everyone starts trusting each other from the beginning then how beautiful and quickly new relationships new friendships could be forged.A child is indefatigable: I realized this after watching my niece trying to reach the toys for a good 20-25 minutes and never once did I saw her grimace in frustration.
If only when can have such perseverance, we wouldn’t have known the word impossible.From an adult perspective, if you ask too many questions and are inquisitive then you are a nerd. If you try to reach out and explore new possibilities and deviate from the accepted standards then you are promptly shunned as a mad man. If you trust people as soon as you meet them you are termed as an emotional fool or immature. If you keep trying and failing before you reach your final destination, you will get free advice like “stop wasting your time, its beyond your capabilities try something else”. If you finally reach the destination, everyone will praise your perseverance but till that life will be insufferable. And then a thought crossed my mind,
How beautiful this world will be, if only the adults can break through the so called defense mechanism or protective shell they have created around themselves, the shell which obstructs them from seeing the true colors of the world, the shell which stops them from laughing their hearts out with the strangers, the shell which forces them to distrust people before trusting them, the shell which keeps the dirt of jealousy, anger and pride inside but keeps love and empathy outside their system.And there is only one way to come out of this shell… “Be Like a Child”

Originally posted on 6/18/08 @ Bahrain

What is love?

I believe love is the sense or feeling of belonging to someone and very often this feeling is confused with the feeling of possessing someone. In fact in my opinion sense of belonging and sense of possessing are the exact opposites of each other. Belongingness can be defined as the feeling of being a part of someone whereas possessing will mean that someone is a part of you. Only when you are a part of someone will you be able to understand its value while if someone is a part of you that someone loses its value.

And what is the purest form of love?

It is the love of a mother to her children. She knows that she belongs to everyone she knows that everyone of her children are individuals and have their own identity but at the same she is a part of everyone of them. From this comes the most important quality of love i.e. selflessness, only a mother can give selflessly to her children and that is why this is called unconditional love.

When do you know you are in love?

Love can not happen overnight, it needs time to blossom. A mother loves her children because she keeps them with her for nine months even before they are born. In most cases the feeling that you love someone is actually the feeling of liking that person. You enjoy being with that person thus you like him/her. This why many love marriages fail, the couple thinking that they love each other get married without considering whether they are compatible or not. More often than not these marriages happen just on the basis of attraction. Liking or attraction without understanding is the culprit in these cases. The couple though they like each other fail to understand one another; this creates disappointment as they start feeling that their needs are being neglected. Love is always unconditional and develops with time, and the basic ingredients for the same are trust, understanding and a healthy respect for each other. So when you have understanding trust and a healthy respect for that person then you know that both of you have the basic ingredients to fall or should I say grow in love. And when you feel that relationship has become unconditional then you are truly in love.

Is love always romantic?

No absolutely not. Every person loves his/her parents, siblings and friends. This is platonic love. One can even love flowers, pet animals, etc. When there is a certain amount of sensual interest between two people then this is called romantic love. This is why we hear of heartbreaks when someone proposes to a person and gets to hear that I have never seen you in that way. This basically means that the second person is not sensually interested in that person and wants to keep the relationship a platonic one. Romantic love in the initial phases is not the purest form of love though as people start expecting a few things in such relationships, thus it is not unconditional. It is only with time that such relationship start moving towards true love. If the initial few years of these relationships are maintained with understanding between the couples, then true love will follow. In this kind of love the physical need will always remain but slowly it will be more about giving than about taking and thus will truly become unconditional.

I wear Specs

Well, this is not a description of how I look like; rather it’s a description of how we look at the world. Though I had read about this n number of times but it was an accident that made me realize this. I am hale and hearty and nothing happened to me, just that that I managed to lose my specs for a day and thus had to wear the much hated lenses.
Why I hate the lenses is a different story, what happened after I wore them is - what I want to convey.
To start with; the whole world looked completely different. On the physical side, things looked a little bigger (my lenses and specs have the same power but still the world through each of them is different. Is it because of the difference in the distance between my eyes and the lenses? May be.)
Also the world looked shorn of its color. It was still colorful, but not as bright as was the day before. Now I don’t know the exact reason for this! As I told you, my lenses and specs, both have the same power. So, things should look exactly the same through each of them, giving concession to the fact the specs are worn on the face whereas lenses are directly on the pupils. I think, distance might have a role to play but that should only change the size of the objects and not the brightness!
So was it my mood that made the world look dull?
Well, I was irritated throughout the day as the irritation in my eyes was having a telling affect on my overall disposition. So I guess that was the reason behind the world being gloomy.
But at a metaphysical level, I think, all of us wear lenses or specs to look at the world.
To some, the world looks very big and they are afraid of getting lost, while for others the world is a small place to live. For some the world is flat, while for others its round.
There are people for whom the world is a beautiful place, while still for others it is ugly.
For some the world is full of colors, for some others its grey and rest thinks it is all black and white.
Some look at the world from a distance and take and objective view and then there are others who take a subjective view.
Today I wear my specs and look at the world from a distance to get an objective view. There is no hatred in my eyes which, the lenses and the accompanied prejudice had brought into my disposition. And the world looks small not crowded ,but small where everyone is linked to each other. And I am enjoying the beauty of life showered upon us with all its colors.
This is why I wear my specs. What are you wearing?

Originally published on 3/18/08 @ Mumbai

Visit to a temple

Yesterday, I had gone to a temple and was thinking as to how commercialized a visit to a temple has become. From parking to Darshan, you have to pay money to please the gods. As I wondered what the temple trusts do with all this money, I saw a notice asking people to contact a certain person from the trust, if they see a destitute who need help. Now I think I will go more often to that temple and instead of buying goods from the poor children on the streets, I would rather send them to the trust where they can be helped by professionals.

Originally posted on 8/8/06, while I was in Bangalore

Street Vendors

In my last post I was talking about street vendors, more precisely children who sell goods at traffic signals. I have observed that most of the time it is the people from lower to middle classes, who actually buy goods from them. Do they actually use the goods they buy? I doubt that, may the lower classes but not the middle classes. Moreover, even in case of beggars, it is the same group who take a rupee or two out of their pockets. Very often I have seen the Honda Citys and Sonatas and Mercs rolling up their windows in disgust when these little kids come to them to sell or beg. It is very astonishing that those who can share easily are so stingy.

@ originally posted on 7/31/06 while I was in Bangalore

Earbuds, Sunglasses and more

How many packets of ear buds do you need? Especially when you are living alone? Well I have amassed four now. Not that I am a cleanliness freak but it just happened that one evening while returning from office, I saw this kid completely drenched and shivering trying to sell the ear buds. It was raining heavily and my heart went out for the poor kid, so i rolled down the window and bought one from him. Then a few days later, I saw another kid in exactly the same situation, I again bought one again. This happens very frequently. Now apart from the four year buds, I have a useless key ring too. I was even contemplating buying sunglasses, which would have been completely useless as I wear glasses so obviously I can’t put on sunglasses over my power glasses. The quality of the road side products are really poor. So despite my heart telling me to buy it, the brain vetoed the idea.
Why can't the government do something for these destitute rather than spending money on useless activities like inauguration of roads make more roads, where more people can be employed? Construct housing colonies for those living in slums; involve people from these slums for the construction. This will give employment and houses to these people and at the same time, will free the slum areas of hutments. For cities like Mumbai, it can be a boon.
People like us who are reasonably better off can also contribute. Just because we work at office and pay our taxes doesn't mean that we have fulfilled our responsibilities.
I definitely want to do something for these people. Now I am buying ear buds, later on I hope to do more.

This blog was originally posted on 7/28/06, while I was in Bangalore