The preamble of our constitution begins with "We the people of India....."....But in reality do we really mean WE?? The people of India have constantly oscillated between religious fanaticism and secularism.And hence the saying of Jonathan Swift in Gulliver Travels goes quite true in stating that "we have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough religion to make us love one another".
Talk about the unfortunate Babri masjid demolition in 6th december 1992 or the torching of the train carrying karsevaks by miscreant arsenors in 2002,this country has always been hit in the name of religion.And thus the major question still persists-"are we really secular?" Quoting the term secular in certain texts or delivering it in speeches doesnt make us feel the indepth meaning of this word.For this we need to broaden our own outlook and restrain ourselves from being myopically self referential.
We have immense credentials within ourselves and do not require any foreign stamp for certifying what we already have.Say for instance A.R.Rahman.When we can love him for getting us the Oscar why cant we love his entire community with a brotherly feeling? Just because Rahman is oscar certified and the rest of them are not? Why do we first pick ourselves to be of a particular religion and then an INDIAN? Its high time that we chose to rise above this religious chauvnism and throw away the thoughts of nepotism and strive towards being a better Indian.
Swami Vivekananda once quoted "religion is not in doctrines,in dogmas or in intellectual arguementations; it is being and becoming,it is realisation".So lets pledge not to distract this path of realisation from its ultimate goal.Religion is something which should give us peace of mind rather than taking away a piece of our mind.So lets put our swords back at its place and instead sharpen the swords of our brains so that we can be directed towards a preosperous and a glorious nation,so that our future generations can have a safe haven to reside in.
You really have made elegant use of words and sayings to make your point. Yes i agree that there is war in the name of religion, there is fear in the hearts of people of will they survive the day and come back home safely. But the real question we need to ask is it really the common mass who hate each other? Is it your neighbour who is of a different religion you hate or is it the miscreant who carried out the crime. Despite 63 years of partition we still stand together. Despite each and every riot, people still celebrate holi together. This is actually nothing short of a miracle if we assume that there is a lot of hate. What we really should be asking is do we let those people (who belong to no religion as they don't qualify to be called as human beings!!!) who create such kind of situations, lead us??? Or do we pick up the strnght and oppose it! Each and every religion teaches us to reamin peaceful, saints, be it hindu, muslim or christian carry the same bead chains in their hands in the house of God. We are secular it's proven dear! But are we strong enough to voice against those people who sow the seeds of hatred? Well that's a question mark. But still the blogs written beautifully and the composition and integration of the paragraphs is good. Keep writing and you will get much much better...
ReplyDeletea very nice blog sagarika ....religious fanticism and chauvinism is the rooot cause of all the conflicts .but the allegation pf crime done by a single person is thrown into the bags of the whole caste .which is entirely wrong ..
ReplyDeletenice blog ..hope it makes an appeal
@ ANSHUMAN...
ReplyDeletewell u cant say dat "itz proven dat we are secular"....if we are secular then where is our voice? if we are secular then why didnt we turn u at the state parade this year after the maoists threatened to blow us apart? if we are secular then is sitting peacefully at our homes and writing blogs related to secularism and religious fanaticism the only thing we can do? when will "we the people of india..." have our voice? when will "we" make a strong impact to be heard? when will "we" the common mass will have an uncommon voice? so the uestion still persists......"are we really secular?"
@ RAKESH...
ReplyDeletethanx....there are numerous issues that are generally discussed only at stategic forums...but we alwayz forget that it is us who have to make a difference and not our ancestors or forefathers.they have already fulfilled their duty and if we dont act now then we act never....its a do or die situation.if we want a developed nation then we need to be developed individuals first..
nxt Indira Gandhi :)
ReplyDeletei agree to your point that we are not actually secular......let me bring into lyt sum of the things which v actually ignore.....it happens dat while starting any of the institutional program we start it wid a diya lighting.....but where did this custom of diya lighting originate from???it is just one of the hindu customs....are v ryt to follow dis tradition and b accepted just because hindus r the majority...so hw do we define secularism???not only secularism der r many things ver v indians shud improve our thinking.....stating dat india is unity in diversity is a very wrong concept.....while v r the ones who ignore certain groups of ppl and certain regions
ReplyDelete@ KUEEN....
ReplyDeleteyah dear, u really stated a very vital point that may not have occured to ne1 till now...we are being quite dubious in our definition of secularism...lets hope that we can change this... :)