4 posts tagged “religion”

This editorial piece in The Telegraph made me wonder whether even leading newspapers in India have succumbed to the tendency of leaving logic to the heavens:

The editorial says:

"The recent attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka and the rise of Hindu and Muslim fundamentalism are examples of movements that run counter to India’s rich history and praxis of cultural diversity. It is somewhat apt that together with the news of violence against Christians has come the news that the Roman Catholic Church in India will have its first woman saint when Sister Alphonsa is canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 12. This is a special honour for India, more so because it goes to a woman. Not too many people, outside a select circle, know of Sister Alphonsa, who died at the age of 36 after a life of terrible physical suffering. This only goes to show that she carried out her piety away from the limelight and she sought her solace from her God rather than from public acclaim. The sense of sacrifice and selflessness that she brought to her life are the hallmarks of holiness of all the religions associated with Indian culture." [..]

"In 2007, her canonization was authorized after a one-year-old boy, born with a physical disability, began to walk a day after he was taken to Sister Alphonsa’s grave. This was taken as a miracle, the performance of which is essential for a person’s canonization. These are the necessary details that underline the significance of the canonization for Indian society. It demonstrates that the work of Christian missionaries, contrary to what some Hindu fundamentalists are propagating, were integral to Indian society, and posed no threat whatsoever."

I don't understand how canonization of Sister Alphonsa is a moment of pride for all Indians. The editorial would have been fine to me if it just treated Sister Alphonsa as one more example of dedicated Christian missionary worker who helped poor Indians, and hence espoused secularism and social work. But why should an act of 'supposed miracle' underline the significance of canonization for Indian society, when all rational logic would point out that no such miracles ever happen - at most they are cases of faith healing, or just a probabilistic chance. Is the Telegraph not paying its editors well? or, have the last remaining intellectuals decided to leave bengal after Mamta dee's recent grand victory over all reason and logic?

Stephen Law writes in his book, The War For Children's Minds:

What if you go to an authority on some matter, and they give you bad advice? Who’s to blame, then, if things then go awry? Suppose, for example, that a student new to chemistry wants to know whether it’s safe to dispose of a large lump of potassium by flushing it down the sink. They ask their chemistry professor, who tells them it will be perfectly safe. So the student drops the potassium in the sink. There’s a huge explosion that kills another student. Is the student who was given the wrong advice to blame? Can she excuse herself by pointing out that her authority told her to do it?

Yes she can. It was entirely reasonable for the student to trust the advice of their chemistry professor. She had every reason to accept the professor’s advice. Generally speaking, if we go to the acknowledged experts for advice, and those experts assure us that something is a good idea when in fact it’s a very bad idea, we’re not morally culpable when things go wrong as a result.

But if it’s sensible to trust the word of medical, legal and plumbing experts – if we are justified in simply taking their word for it – then why not the word of moral experts?

Suppose someone wants to know what sort of attitude she should have towards those who don’t share the same religion as her. She goes to her community’s religious and moral Authority for the answer, the Authority to which she has always deferred in the past. Suppose this Authority tells her that it is her moral duty to kill those who don’t share the same religious beliefs as her. In fact, suppose this Authority tells her to go out, wire herself to some explosives, wander into a supermarket full of unbelievers, and blow herself up. She takes her moral Authority’s word for it (as she always has) and goes out and kills several hundred people. Is this person also blameless?

An interesting piece worth reading. Here's the link.

The survey reveals that on an Average 12% of Indians have extra-marital affairs, which is far below the global average of 21%. (Rhetorial question : Shit.. We are a developing country on sexual habits indicators too!! when will this country finally become developed?)

Surprisingly, Turkey has topped the Survey. (Lucky Turks!! I guess this Survey can give a big fillip to Turkish inclusion in European Union)

Coming back to India, When this survey was published here, expectedly, these were varied reactions received from different communities and different people. Here are a few excerpts:

The Hindu religion's self-professed guardian's response: What crap is this? Now, you will classify our women worshiping the stone lingam as having extra-marital affairs with Shiva!! No no no, Hindus have no contribution to this survey. These are all Muslims getting involved in these Pakistani practices. Also.. look at who's the Topper.. The Turks. See.. Muslims only.

The Muslim waging-jihad-is-cool-if-others-do-not-agree-with-me philosophy preaching dude's response: We in Islam don't have this concept of sex outside marriage. If we want to have extra-marital sex, We can always have multiple wives. So, no need to indulge in such carnal pleasures. These are all Hindus and Western Acts. And I'm telling you it's just another propaganda of Chaddiwallahs of RSS. What do they call themselves.. lifelong bachelors. Sour grapes.. eh.

The Christian church's I-am-not-descended-from-apes-fug-you-Darwin philosophy preaching pastor's response: Whadda the hell!! See.. even when the movie The Da Vinci Code wasn't banned anywhere else in the world, we Indian Christians managed to get it banned here in India. We are the best followers of Christ in the world, Freedom of expression be damned!! I tell you, nobody Christian is involved in these devilish acts. I'm telling you it's all these tribal people in Jungles who are doing this.. oops!! I forgot i converted all of them to Christianity last week. No no.. this survey is all fiction.

The Sikh, Sword wearing Knicker brandishing.. Oops Sorry.. Knicker wearing Sword brandishing, famous leader's response: This is all Gurmeet Singh's fault. He should apologize or else, We all throw our knickers away.

Other We-are-the-vote-banks-Weeeeeeeee-are-the-vote-banks candidates response: As regards with everything else, We have been left behind in sexual progress too from the rest of the society. We are too poor to buy even a pirated copy of Kamasutra, how can we even dream of bedding another man's wife. That's why, We want compulsory reservations for SC/STs, OBCs in extra-marital affairs too, so that we can become equal with the rest of Society in every aspect of life. In fact, That fat head - Arjun Singh ji has even promised us to give reservations in extra-marital affairs starting with biggest bombshells of India - our bollywood and tollywood actresses. I should really say.. He is really gem of an Ass. So.. Let's start our agitations. As they say, Why should only Vijay Mallya have all the fun.

One of the few things, I've learned in my life is the attitude to ask questions even when no one else seems to. There are myths and false propagandas which tend to be assumed as eternal truths just because no one questions them. I had to suffer in the past for not asking, not fighting and leaving the ground to superstitions, and I know that it's not easy to question every bit of my existence, but I've found that this is the only way I can find the meaning of my life.

Being a libertarian, I oppose every kind of extremism because extremism, by itself, connotes absolute negation of certain beliefs and since nothing is absolutely correct or absolutely wrong objectively, extremism fails in any plain rational analysis.

One of the biggest lies prevalent in Indian Society is the myth propagated, and routinely reinforced after communal tensions in our society, by the right-wing Hindu extremists, which is - "Islam has a certain direct correlation with terrorism". Reading through this story in Indian Express, I came across some points:

“Why does every dead or captured terrorist happen to be a Muslim?”

“What image comes to your mind when you think of terror?”

“Every Muslim is not a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim”

These beliefs are something which all of us have come across in our lives. We all might have Muslims as our friends in our personal lives, but still we are not able to answer these questions, and a lame but most commonly given answer is - "May be there is something wrong inherent in Islam". And these beliefs and questions have become even more prominent after 9/11 attacks, London bombings, and the increased debate and discussion of Islam in the western media.

As for Hindus living in India, they've already heard all these vituperations against Muslims from the mouths of their political leaders during the 80s and 90s. How many of them believe in the political leadership of these parties now is a different matter in contempory India but the moot question remains - Are the right questions being asked from these Hindu nationalists. A simple thought process would clearly bring out the name of one of the well known Hindu terrorists - "Narendra Modi" and yet, nothing of this sort is ever attached along with his name in media and elsewhere. Why? Is a terrorist only a person holding gun in his hands, reciting Koran at every step, and ready to give up his life for killing any number of innocent persons. If yes, then definitely Osama bin laden isn't a terrorist because he didn't kill anybody directly. He just incited few brainwashed individuals to supposedly fulfill his dream of Islamic dominance all over the World by killing thousands of innocent humans belonging to other community. Can you now see a parallel here between revered Osama bin Laden and Mr. Narendra Adolf Modi?

And certainly, the West can't speak of itself as an Angel. Pope himself ordered Massacres of Muslims and Jews during Crusades in First and Second century A.D. for the rule of Christendom everywhere. And What exactly is Mr. Bush doing? Going to Iraq, Killing innocent people, Torturing their very existence in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib jails.. What exactly is this if not concentration camps and outright terrorism?

Yes, i know that the West has a supposedly free media. Mr. Bush has more opponents than allies in White House regarding Iraq War, but that does not absolve West from its responsibilities. A look at History of West and U.S. policies would clearly suggest, in their mad desire to control Oil, they have interfered in the internal affairs and dynamics of middle-eastern countries countless times. Al-Quaeda is a result of U.S. attempts to destabilize Russia only.

Similarly, to say that Hindus are peace loving people is clearly forgetting the History. During the partition of 1947, Hindus killed thousands of Muslims during communal riots in Bengal and elsewhere. In Godhra riots, the whole system conspired to fail the basic tenets of the nation India. And yet, Narendra Modi got away with just being called a "thug" or "goon". Huh! A Dalit women gets raped and is paraded nude before the whole village and still we call ourselves peace and non-violence loving people? What are we.. numb to uncomfortable facts? deaf? blind?

The truth is : We all are guilty. Looking at other person's bath tub and crying nudity doesn't hide our bare loins. There can be no cause for any kind of support of Fascism and terrorism in a free and liberal Society. That's why these lines by Salil Tripathi in WSJ article regarding protests against painting by Mr. M. F. Husain and the Vadodra University art student Chandramohan hurt:

(text copied through IndiaUncut)

[I]f Muslims can get Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” or the Danish cartoons banned, they [Hindutva supporters] want Mr. Husain’s—and now Mr. Chandramohan’s—freedom restricted.

At last, it seems, Hindus have secured the parity they believe they’ve been denied. They have their own Taliban.

The truth doesn't lie in these paintings on Terrorism drawn by a RSS painter, Kailash Tiwari. It also doesn't lie in burning these paintings and banning them as the Right-wing VHP and RSS goons do to art works uncomfortable to them. It lies them in accepting their very existence and philosophy but yet, rationally using our minds for asking the right questions and then, searching their answers for doing what is ultimately "Right".