I recently watched a CNN-IBN debate on the fatwa issued against Vande Matram by Darul Uloom. The supporter of the fatwa insisted that bowing to one's nation is unIslamic as one can bow only in front of Allah. The one against fatwa (also a Muslim) accused the Darul Uloom of misinterpretation of Vande Matram. Then there were accusations that it was Shiv Sena - BJP who triggered the fire by making Vande Matram compulsory, knowing that it was against Islamic principals. Few argued that when Muslim children could sing Prayers to Lord in Convent schools then why not Vande Matram. Suddenly the debate shifted to how innocent Muslims are made victims of police terrorism hunt. The role of Home Minister Chidambaram was also debated because he had gone to Darul's convention as they had passed a fatwa against terrorism too. Poor HM was accused of pseudo secularism and by the saffrons and not doing enough for Muslims by the Islam hardliners.
And all this made my head reel. I don't want to take sides because I don't have any opinion on this. The whole debate seems pointless. Didn't religion originate to civilize people? To give them sense of right or wrong and make them love their fellow humans. If this is what religion has transcended to, do we need a religion? If it teaches us to only look at the negatives in other religions and has just become a tool in the hands of the leaders to manipulate the naive, hasn't it lost its original purpose?
Yet history shows us that anarchy mostly prevailed in countries that didn't follow religion and civilization came earlier to the ones that did. But sadly a handful of leaders at the top have changed the course of religion. I thought the whole debate was pointless when there was so much that needs to be done for the upliftment of poor in the society, when everyday number of Muslims are being killed by Islamic militants and Hindus by Maoist militants. Ultimately the terrorists will unite to form a religion of their own, one that will terminate the world contrary to the religion that helped the human evolution.
Posts
Very well written article.
ReplyDeleteHello Rit.,
ReplyDeleteyour blog title reads you "are opinionated".....but your blogs seem more in search of ways to help you "get" opinionated and find answers.....anyways at least someone has the audacity to ask questions what if not that much to find the answers.
a very good question indeed...one that is turning many a in the west towards aetheism.....why do we need religion.???....if we fight in the name of it?....if that is the point of segregation..??...."if it teaches us to look at negatives in other religion?''........
In a multi-faceted and somewhat conservative(if I do not call it orthodox) country of ours, each and every1 is of one religion or the other...but do we really know what our religion says??......we see that people are fighting in the name of religion....make a lot of hue and cry and then think whats the use of religion? In a way we get depressed , disillusioned and dejected because we can't do anything--because we dont have the guts--we are coward.
If some Raj thakeray comes and says to the North Indians.."shoo shoo get out of here you silly rats"...the mumbaikars dont even spare a bit of a thought that even those North indians are "indians" after all....and the Greater state (tr. of Maha.) is still a "state" of India....no the other way round.and our laudable political peeps , as if they consider it as there digestive enzymes, play politics on it.....a very latest incident ...there was protest for water in Bombay(i will prefer calling it by that name) with the point of Matoshree being raised. and the next day the revered Bal Thakeray so politely manipulates the whole saga into a perfect anti-north Indian brewery......and what we so-called "educated have-gots" do? write another blog with much of questions in it on the page which has the heading "i am opinionated". Do we ever spare a thought about that fatherless boy in Dharavi ?.....whose mother can't even make her two ends meet....about what that boy would feel when the area goons would consider her more of a "piece" than a woman? And of those people who can't afford the luxury of even a tin roof? or of a boy who has seen his parents getting humiliated in the name of some community or region or sect? Is this democracy? Is this the spirit of equality enshrined as our right? But natural, it is not hard to think (if you have the audacity to think by keeping yourself in that place) what will they feel........a resentment.....an anger.......a rebellion.......to DO something. Rit. pls dont think that i am justifying extremism in any any way........what happened was wrong and violence canNOT be the solution.......but what of the war inside?between the heart and the mind? between the pocket and the stomach?But natural he will turn to "ways that will make him do his will".
And amid all this what will our government do? give speeches frame policies...pass laws.....etc.
Started as a comment but became a discourse.
I came here through the link on Indicast site.........a good effort indeed from the Indian arena.....but please start thinking of the answers or you may feel one day to pack your bags and leave for Melbourne , just like the have-gots have done in the past.....leaving there brethren in utter conditions of poverty, full of dismay.....the people of the land for whom that old fellow fought for Independence.
We cant think enough because we have a home, a room heater in that house with the provision of a geyser and a closed bathroom, a cushioned bed to sleep, a mother to take care for all our nastiness a job that pays us something every month, enough in the pocket to have a coffe in CCD.........but what of those who live on the streets....those children who have made pavements their home...and hav not a blink of thought for education?
It is time to act......one can do everything in his capacity....much more that writing question-ful blogs and amusing podcasts.Act now or we may become our own victims.
-=Z=-
godfather_delhi123@rediffmail.com