Even before the blood of the 130
children has dried, the entire editorial team of a satirical magazine at Paris
has been slaughtered. It is easy to blame a particular religion and score
brownie points. However the real issue here is much deeper than the fanaticism
of one religion. The real problem is not the supposed intolerance of one
religion. Intolerance is used here as a weapon of aggression. It may be
surprising but many religious minded people in the Western world do not indulge
in such violent retaliation at the ‘hurting’ of their religious beliefs not
because of want of will as it is because of the want of power.
By 2012 there had been
anti-blasphemy laws in six of the forty five European nations. According to the
Pew Research Center in the United States, 11 out of 35 states (31%) had
blasphemy laws. In the Bahamas, for example, the publication or sale of
blasphemous material can be punished with up to two years imprisonment. The
2012 survey shows several U.S. states – including Massachusetts and Michigan –
still had anti-blasphemy laws on the books. But these anti-blasphemy laws are
clearly meant for the blasphemy against Christian deity but not against the
continuous demonization of the local spiritual traditions. The saving grace
against the anti-blasphemy laws is the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
which can prevent the enforcement of any such law.
But what we see in the Western
world is the progressive dilution of the mindset against blasphemy just as we
see in the Islamic world a progressive hardening of the mindset against
blasphemy.
The reason is that from the onset
of colonialism to the modern times political Islam has been nurtured by various
forces – from British colonialism, to Gandhian national movement to Soviet-US
cold war maneuvers. German Nazism also coopted the Islamic militancy because
the latter had a strong hatred towards the Jews. Churchill openly sided with
Islamic political forces in India and expressed his hatred for Hindus.
The Hindu approach to the
aggressive onslaught of Islam has been varied and multi-dimensional. The
accommodative all-embracing songs of Kabir and the unbreakable steel of the
sword of Khalsa are two sides of the
same coin. By the nineteenth century India has produced a veritable school of
Indic Islam with its roots nourished by Indian Vedanta. Ibrahim Razkhan sang
verses about the beautiful form of Lord Krishna. Even in the twentieth century
venerable Bismillah Khan openly declared that he had the Darshan of Sri
Krishna. One can imagine what kind of fate Raskhan and Bismillakhan would have
suffered in even a modern theocratic state like Malaysia.
Ultimately the violence and
barbarism of the religious come from the closed worldview and fanaticism.
Kendra founder Eknath Ranade used to point out with his characteristic humour
the fallacy of fanaticism:
Fanaticism is
intolerance of others views. We must clearly understand the view-point of
others also. Liberality in outlook is essential. … People are fanatic about
their own village or about vegetarianism and about so many things in the world.
A certain pleader always insisted and tried to convince the people
that his village
was the hub
of the earth.
Somebody declared and started propaganda that to drink cow’s milk was
sin. Fanaticism existed about yoga and about meditation and what not. To yield
to some good points of others is not bad. Staunch attitude about anything is
not always beneficial.
It is very easy to find out that
it is silly and downright foolish to call one’s own village as the hub of the
universe. But it is equally silly and foolish when someone claims that his only
holy book or only prophet or only begotten son of God is the only way to the
salvation of all humanity. Yet fanaticism has always been attractive to the
proselytizing religions. The reason is not far to seek. Swami Vivekananda
points out:
Through fanaticism
and bigotry a religion can be propagated very quickly, no doubt, but the
preaching of that religion is firm-based on solid ground, which gives everyone
liberty to his opinions and thus uplifts him to a higher path, though this
process is slow
But we need to get rid of this
evil by getting to the root of it. More than a century has passed since Swami
Vivekananda made that moving appeal to the world community to renounce
fanaticism and violence:
Sectarianism,
bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this
beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often
and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent whole nations to
despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far
more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that
the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the
death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the
pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the
same goal.
We can only hope that with what
has happened at Peshawar and Paris the world realizes the wisdom of Swami
Vivekananda’s words and make his appeal happen.
Aravindan Neelakandan
YB-ET
No comments:
Post a Comment