" मंदिर-मस्जिद-गिरजाघर ने बाँट लिया भगवान को,
धरती बांटी, सागर बांटा, मत बांटो इंसान को.
हिन्दू कहता मंदिर मेरा, मंदिर मेरा धाम है,
मुस्लिम कहता मक्का मेरा अल्लाह का इमान है.
दोनों लड़ते, लड़ लड़ मरते, लड़ते लड़ते ख़तम हुए.
दोनों ने एक दूजे पर न जाने क्या क्या ज़ुल्म किये.
किसका ये मकसद है, किसकी चाल है ये जान लो,
धरती बांटी, सागर बांटा, मत बांटो इन्सान को
नेता ने सत्ता की खातिर कौमवाद से काम लिया,
धरम के ठेकेदार से मिलकर लोगों को नाकाम किया,
भाई बंटे टुकड़े-टुकड़े में, नेता का ईमान बढा
वोट मिले और नेता जीता शोषण को आधार मिला.
वक़्त नहीं बीता है अब भी, वक़्त की कीमत जान लो.
धरती बांटी, सागर बांटा, मत बांटो इंसान को."
India is a country of more than one billion people, the majority of whom are Hindus. But we also have large populations of minorities, with about 150 million Muslims, making this the second largest Muslim population in the world, after Indonesia. There are also many millions of Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. In recent decades, the conflict between religious communities (referred to as communalism in India) have grown substantially and thousands of people have been killed in these religious conflicts. The future of India is bleak if religious conflicts tear the democratic fabric away and the development base dilutes under the aegis of religion.
Ever since our childhood, we are taught, for a stronger future in any field we must acquire firm and strong foundation laid with values in the subject of matter where we demand excellence. Every engineer knows the importance of the base and pillars' strength on which a building is to be constructed. Being a student, I know... for clarity in any topic of interest, the fundamental and most basic concepts of the topic must be very clear to me. So as in we all know, trees with deeper & firm roots are stronger than the one with mild base strength. So... what's the motto of focusing on the fundamental and basic need clarity in context to my write up! well, the answer is quite clear. For a strong country, the vision and the fundamental requirements of the nation must be clear to every individual living in that space. Everyone need to construct their own basement of ideas on which the building of development and progress of any nation can stand firmly even at the times of hardest storms. The fundamentals should be based on education, equality in terms of oppurtunity and developmental goals to take the nation to the next level rather than fundamental based on religion, caste, creed and social disparity.
Here, the most important question which remains in our minds for years and years and has been unanswered till the date, “what is the main motive behind religious cacophony”? The answer lies somewhere inside us. Yes we are liable for the gratuitous mess. A harsher word is more harmful than the knife because when some parts of our body are cut by the knife, the injuries can be healed within some days, but the injury of hearts caused by the harsh word cannot be easily healed, instead it remains years after years unhealed. People at times while giving out their views on religion have a trend to damage sentiments of individuals belonging to the other side of the line i.e. different religion.
As it is unknown to none that India is the homeland of numerous religions, and when we read the holy scripts of every religions we can come across to know that each and every religion of this land preaches to its follower peace and harmony. One religion tells us “salam alaikum” may be peace with you”while the other religion says “love your neighbor” still another religion tells “bhavatu sabha mangalam or sarve bhavantu sukhinha” may all beings be happy. Be it Islam, Christianity or Hinduism every religion promotes peace and amity. The promotion of compassion is the sole objective of all religions.
When every religion encourages its followers to make them compassionate then why atrocities on the name of religion are done even today? Actually, there are some people who use their scriptures in advocating hatred and intolerance to other religions. They break out a particular passage from its context to justify their actions, first actions are done then the people escort to the scriptures for the justification, no doubt it is an act of irreverence to the religious scriptures. We are the sons of an ancient land that has promoted many different schools of philosophy and spirituality over the millennia. Despite some remote and rare instances of bloodshed, our country has been a model of peaceful co-existence. Approximately, in 3rd century B.C this land was ruled by Ashoka the Great, whose realm stretched from present-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. During his magnificent ruling period, this sympathetic ruler spearheaded constant efforts to all group of religions of the time and caused edicts to be inscribed on stone, proclaiming that all faiths should be respected; and as a result, followers of all spiritual traditions felt secure under his sway. In some places such governments and rulers even now exist. An example is the noble king of Oman, who has showed his friendly relation for other religions as he sponsored land for churches and temples of other faiths while practicing his own religion with all devotion and diligence.
We should keep always in our minds that the country where we are living is not state of any monarch, but it is a democratic country ruled by the people for the people. Above this all we have also a set of laws in the form of written constitution which every Indian citizen trust on. The preamble to the constitution describes India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic and republic. It secures to all citizens the liberty of thoughts, expression of belief, freedom of faith and worship. Articles 25 to 30, in particular guarantee to everyone the right of religion, freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice and propagate his or her religion.
Over the years, there are various instances in Indian history with the creation of India itself as a part of religious breakdown into the political as well as social turmoil which led to partition and never ending tensed relation between two nations on the basis of religion. Our great motherland had witnessed the religious riots throughout it's parts occasionally on account of different clashes from Gujarat in the west to Assam in the west and from Kashmir in the North to Karnataka in the south. Although major riots occur between Hindu and Muslim community but the history had also experienced the bloody sheds of our Sikh brothers and sisters after assassination of Indira Gandhi. the fundamental problem lies in the fact that a crime when committed was justified and reasoned on the basis of religion and the headlines like Hindu Boys killed in XYZ area by two muslim men in a heated debate provides a ground and a sense of reasoning that Hindu killed Muslim or Muslim clashed with Hindu,etc. The time when crime will be addressed as crime irrespective of religious boundations and the society won't accept the religion to be the reason of some crime and media headlines would acquire headlines like, " two men murdered a person because of world's most stupid reason of crime commitment" would be the time when religious disparity and religious reasoning could be stopped and the central issues of development could be raised by the political parties in the years to come.
Many people believe igniting diyas and aggarbattis in temples, putting flowers on ideals of gods and goddesses, blowing candles in church or chanting namaaz in mosque is the worship to god! Unfortunately the thought of thinking oneself different from other is the root cause of disparity on any ground in a society. However, different religions originated as ideas in different parts of worlds to attain spiritual satisfaction and self-peace. Since, the living style and other mild differences always occur from one place to another.. these ideas which were then followed by considerable part of human population classified themselves as a religion and different people in different parts with ideas to attain peace grew popular and their followers then started called to be of a particular religion. these people mobilised to different parts of worlds and so the flow of ideas took place and people of different religions mingled. However initially people CLASSIFIED themselves of a particular religion and it has nothing to do with your day to day activities. Later when the power and politics grew stronger, Divide and rule policy was best method to win an area and this division could easily be made by creating religious disparity and sense of being different if we belong to a certain religion and certainly this was the time when people rather than CLASSIFYING themselves of a particular religion started DIFFERENTIATING themselves in community and divide and rule technique worked well which runs even today! The soul of every religion was peace and love among humans and that humanity itself is the largest religion. But with time narrow minded and greedy people destroyed ethics and culture and used different dogmas to create disparity among people belonging to one religion. Gita, Quran, Bible, Guru Granth Sahib and all scriptures says humanity is the largest karma (duty) through different ideas, which greedy people in past manipulated and ruined the true meaning of religion for their benefits.
We as a true nation builder must not allow any crime to be reasoned on the basis of religion, we must act and make our fundamental idea to elect and select anything and anyone on basis of development and not religion or other social disparity, we must abate the feeling of hatred and that of being different from other religion from our soul. We all are one and our motive is to serve this nation and mother earth for its betterment. This is actually a glad tiding for the new generation that today the distance between different religions is gradually decreasing. Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians are showing their capability of living in peace together like they have done for centuries in India.
An unforgettable story of a Muslim couple proved a strong motive for those who believe in religious harmony. A 27-year-old Ilyaz Shaikh was taking his pregnant wife Noor Jahan to the hospital in a taxi in Mumbai. In the midway Noor Jahan went into labour and they became shocked when the cab driver ordered them to leave the cab as he did not want her to deliver the baby in his car. The couple saw a Ganesha temple at some distance; they went there in order to seek help, as the couple walked towards it, they were helped by a group of women who created a makeshift delivery room in the temple. A successful delivery of a beautiful baby took place by the help of some strange Hindu women for a strange Muslim woman. This story did not end up here, but to commemorate this awesome day, Noor Jahan named her son “Ganesh”.
Likewise a beautiful event which is worth to be written in the history of India with gold ink took place in the summer of 2015; actually this example is stronger than others mentioned above, that the heart of a Hindu man was transported across Kerala for a Christian patient in dire need of a new one. Funds were raised by a Muslim businessman to pay for the operation, which was performed by the state’s top heart surgeon who was a Christian. The entire state became gripped as the story unfolded. An Indian Navy helicopter and an ambulance, both dispatched by Kerala’s then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, sped the heart from Thriven drum to Kochi and a life was saved by the collective effort.
In my humble piece of advice there are some factors; if we are really firm to uproot the religious disharmony from our land and from whole world and mould a world of mutual understanding, compassion and affection we should affectively implement those factors in this world. Religious education to co-exist in peace and harmony in a multi-religious society all over the world is one of those factors. Every country should have a sound religious education with strong emphasis on moral and ethical values as the first positive step towards better understanding and mutual cooperation amongst all religionists. All religionists should unite and co-operate with one another to promote and institute a proper and systematic religious education, welfare activities, and fellowship meetings. The institution of community service programmes and other social and welfare activities where all religionists work hand-in-hand for a common humanitarian cause, to uplift the lot of the more unfortunate ones in society will help to present a good example of co existence and multi religious community. My mind says to me sometimes-
Destination one, channel many
Creator one, paths to realise many
Basic postulate- unity and integrity
common ideal, worship of almighty
why interference, why profanity
why intolerance, why basphemy
why can't humanity, live in harmony?
Every individual mirrors his society. To crush the religious fanaticism, an intensive effort must be geared towards individual enlightenment on the imperative of religious harmony, and everyone should keep this in his or her mind that violations of human rights often start with individual before it becomes a collective phenomenon. So, it became cut and clear that when individuals acknowledge the norms of both democratic and human rights principles and strive to live it, then the government and human rights agencies will have less work to do. Solving the scourge of racism, religious fundamental and terrorism is the work of all. The whole world must unite in condemning acts inimical to human rights, but we also must be part of the healing process. No one thinks, this fight will be easy, but it is our belief that Religious Harmony can be achieved in the 21st century and beyond. We are eagerly waiting for the dawn when a new sun will rise with its colorful rays joining each other to shine the whole universe, the sun will be our country and the colorful rays will be we, Indians.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. - Rabindranath Tagore
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