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Famous Physicist and Astronomer Kaku
Why should we be so keenly discussing the difference between Hinduism, Hindutva and Hinduwaadi, that too in 21st century , when the world is focusing on Artificial Intelligence, 3D Multi-Sensor Transmitters, Robotics, IoT, 5G and edge computing, At-Home Digital Diagnostics ?
While the western countries realizing the damage the church was causing sidelined it almost a century ago and is now taking a lead in developing these cutting edge technologies, it is intriguing that many of us here in India are becoming religious zealots and spending our energies discussing Tulsi Vivah, going gaga over Kashivishwnath corridor and restoration of temples at the cost of tax payer’s money and whether Rahul Gandhi a Brahmin or not.
Are we living in 21st century or in medievel world ?
The recent incidents in Pakistan and in India therefore need to be understood and analysed because these incidents may appear to be trivial, but they have long term implications.
Over Dose of Religion: Pakistan shows the road ahead
The first incident occurred in Sialkot, Pakistan, where a Sri Lankan manager was tortured and then lynched to death by the workers of his company because they felt he desecrated the holy Quran. This incident shows what religion can turn us into and the path that the society can take if it is consistently nurtured on such over doses of religion. Pakistan took this path 73 years ago.
Famous Astromers and Scientists ; Galileo and Giordano Bruno were punished by the church for having taken a contrary view. But the West realized the follies and corrected itself whereas Pakistan has not.
The second incident took place in India where Waseem Rizvi, the former head of the Shia Waqf board, denounced Islam and changed his religion to Sanatan Dharam. For this, he received several fatwas that ordered his death and astonishingly the State remained a bystander, as if maintaining law and order is individual’s responsibility. Previously, Pehlu Khan and few others were lynched to death in India by their own countrymen on suspicion of consuming beef and the state palmed off its responsibility. Astonishingly, no one has been convicted for lynching of innocents and if any one has been convicted , i will gladly accept that. The third incident occurred in Amritsar where a young man was lynched to death in a Gurudwara for an alleged sacrilege. The political parties blamed the individual for this ‘heinous crime’ but could not muster courage to condemn the cruel killers. The fourth once again happened in Punjab where a few raised a demand for a seperate homeland and a prominent Sikh Leader claimed that if Hindus can demand for Hindu Rashtra whcy cann't some Sikhs demand Khalistan. Lastly, the recent rioting and arson that took place on the occasion of Ram Navmi in many states.
All these incidents call for the answers to the following questions :
- Why has the state remained a mute onlooker?
Answering this question should not be difficult as we have the shining example of Pakistan to analyze.
India unlike Pakistan started with an aim to burry its past and keeping religion away from Politics but in 73 years, its politics is now fully in grip of religion. The founding fathers of Pakistan had asked for a separate Nation based on Religion, So it was natural that gradually its society and its politics would revolve around religion. So, Madrasas mushroomed, the Maulanas started playing an important role in country’s politics and there grew a clamor for Shariat law.
The dip in holy Ganges by the PM with sandal wood paste all over his forehead is now widely celebrated in India, and the Kashiwishvnath Mandir corridor that he got it built through tax payers’ money is hailed by all. Gradually there is a growing demand for restoring other temples destroyed by Muslim rulers. As the clamor for temples rise, we should not get surprised when the likes of State Governments of Punjab, Kerala and Nagaland may start allocating funds for renovation of Gurudwaras and Churches. In this one-upmanship of Religion based Politics; no one is complaining from which fund Mr. Modi has paid compensation worth almost crores to numerous owners of houses and shops that were shifted for the construction of the corridor and stupid, incompetent and mentally bankrupt Netas are demanding for changing the names of the cities and towns, as if they have nothing better to do .
- Where will all this take us to?
India is now treading the same path that Pakistan opted for 73 years back and West left a century ago.
In such a scenario where Politics and Religion are intertwined it is natural that every incident will be viewed through the prism of religion and state can never be seen as fair, non partisan and so it remains an ONLOOKER.
And the elections will be fought as if the various communities are at war with each other and hooligans will be on streets baying for eachothers blood on silly pretexts claiming their Religious sentiments are hurt.
- Are we becoming Religious zealots ?
Aren’t these incidents of lynching similar to what happened in Sialkot, Pakistan? Yes, they are. So are we Indians also becoming Religious fundamentalists as Pakistan society is ? Surely, Yes and for those who think otherwise , there is a definition for them ;
Religious fundamentalism refers to a belief that emphasizes traditional religious texts and rituals and generally opposes anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. As a result, they are often aggressive towards anyone, even towards their own co-religionists who do not share their beliefs and views as they feel such people are threat to their entire worldview.
Thus one often hears the Islamic or Hindu fundamentalists accusing their own co religionists who do not agree with them as anti-Islamic or anti-Hindu and so on. Yes, Hindu fundamentalists may not issue Fatwas like Maulanas do, but they have groups who indulge in arson, rioting, lynching, in the name of cow, making bizarre claims like there is a Shiv temple underneath Taj Mahal and so on. Sikh fundamentalists lynched the young man recently and also issued dictats -Buta Singh was declared a ‘tankhaiya’.
When the Government fearing the spread of Covid in Haridwar, thought of suspending the Kumbh Mela it had to reconsider its decision because of the pressure from Hindu Saints.
Therefore, India is slowly but surely becoming like Pakistan. We may still not be the mirror image but are closely following their footsteps.
- Can Religion keep the people united ?
Once again, Pakistan provides us the answer. Has Pakistan succeeded in keeping its flock together? The answer is No. Has it been able to defeat us ? The answer is No. It could not even defeat us when it had state of the art weapon systems. East Pakistan has already gone off and there are secessionist movements in POK, Baluchistan, Gilgit and other tribal areas, despite the fact that they are all Muslims. There is also the perennial conflict between number of fundamentalist groups who want Shariat laws to be implemented and a large section of population who does not want the same. And thus, we find Tehrik-e-Taliban calling Pakistan army its biggest enemy and organizes terror attacks against its own countrymen.
For instance, Tamils are Hindus but they give equal if not more preference to their Tamil identity and so Tamil Thai Vaazhthu has been declared Tamil Nadu's state song, and the state government has made it mandatory that this song be played during all functions in government institutions and everyone to stand while it's being played. This gives the state song a higher priority than the National anthem. This is exactly what happened in Pakistan when Bangla Nationalism grew despite Jinnah’s insistence on Islamic unity. The people of erstwhile USSR except the Central Asian Republics were Christians but USSR broke up because regional identity was more important rather than the religious identity.
We find this happening in Mumbai where Shiv Sena goons beat up their countrymen from Bihar and UP and earlier they had done the same with people of Tamil Nadu. And recently we saw how some Hindu saints exhorted their followers to pick up weapons against Muslims.
So to believe that Hindu nationalism will keep the flock united, is doubtful.
Gradually, even armed forces may get politicized and the Generals may not mind to display their religious affiliations for political favors. For instance, General Rawat preferred to be in the company of Yogiji at his Gorakhnath math and skip the wreath laying ceremony of Indian Navy, in which being the CDS, he should have been in attendance. General Panag very aptly described this in his article, “CDS Bipin Rawat told Gorakhpur students to rediscover culture but forgot military tradition”.
Pakistan Army Generals, since General Ayub Khan’s rule in 1958, have been using religion as a tool to establish its power and decry other Political groups which could undermine its authority. Slowly and gradually its rank and file became Islamicised. After Zia ul Haq became President, the Pakistan army officers often sounded like ‘Maulanas rather than soldiers’ as they urged their men and society to follow Islamic tenets.
Against this backdrop, let us recall what CDS General Rawat said at Gorakhnath Math. He urged the students to rediscover Indian culture diluted by centuries of foreign rule. He also unveiled life-size statues of the previous two mahants of the math — Brahammleen Mahant Digvijay Nath and Brahammleen Mahant Avaidyanath.
So, Aren’t there similarities between Pakistan’s Army Generals and the Indian army General who had just begun to take the path that was treaded previously by General Ayub Khan?
Lastly, Is Religion capable to rejuvenate a society towards Nation building? Will Religion based Nationalism help the Nation?
Pakistan once again is the best case study. Pakistan was created on the basis of religion where religion was used to unite people and it was felt religion would lend a positive impulse to the nation. Instead, it has resulted in the creation of hundreds of terror organizations and turned Pakistan into a failed state. It has also not produced very many renowned scientists, CEOs of MNCs and technocrats.
Religion also destroyed its educational system and the scientific temper of the society and lacks research facilities/infrastructure. India on the other hand today can boast of hundreds of top class research facilities and infrastructure- TIFR, IISC, Atomic Energy Commission, ISRO, BARC, National Chemical Laboratory, the National Physical Laboratory, the Fuel Research Station, The Glass & Ceramics Research Institute and the National Metallurgical Laboratory and off course the IITs. India has produced many world class scientists and technocrats including noble laureates because we took a different approach in 1947.
Thus, the fundamentalist forces that are unleashed will neither reinvigorate nor provide positive impulse to the society nor it will help uniting the people, on the other hand it will politicize the armed forces, bring stagnancy, destroy rationality and make us only conformists rather than innovative and creative.
Conclusion
The above appears to be true as proven in a research done ; To investigate the cognitive and neural systems involved in religious fundamentalism, by a team of researchers—led by Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University.
The team of researchers said ; Since religious beliefs play a massive role in driving and influencing human behavior throughout the world, it is important to understand the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism from a psychological and neurological perspective.
The Findings; It was found that the prefrontal cortex plays a role in religious fundamentalism, since this region is known to be associated with something called ‘cognitive flexibility’ ; brain’s ability to think about multiple things simultaneously and comprehend concepts.
The tests revealed that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex, can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination may harm the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness because religious fundamentalism emphasizes on rigid adherence to beliefs.
In view of the above, it is not surprising that societies that get an over dose of Religion consistently display a lack of scientific temperament because may be they have a large number of people that have impaired frontal neo cortex and Pakistan is surely the example in front of us.
Now the choice is ours as a society ; WHICH PATH DO WE TAKE HEREON ?
Should we get the prefrontal cortex impaired and damage the cognitive flexibility or make sure that the brains ability to think multiple things and understands concepts remains intact or we sideline the Religion like West did and focus on Science & Technology or take Pakistan’s path and create a huge army of fundamentalists who would keep harping on the ancient glory and ruin the FUTURE.
