Communalism?India?s odyssey of shame

Communalism-a social disease that has been slaying our spirit and
energy for a very long time. The real trouble with the present social
system is not that it makes some people richer than others, but it
makes life fundamentally uncomfortable for all.

Communalism is not only a functional reality in India, it is also a
respected social culture. Over the last half a century, it has never
been seriously questioned, dismembered, nor has it ever been
substituted by any new approach. Why is this so? The simple answer is:
"Hindu is immutably Hindu, and Muslim Muslim." This is a fact of
history.

Hindu Muslim unity has always been sabotaged by non-issues like "music
before mosque, cow slaughter and cow protection, and conversion." It is
matter of shame that these things haven't changed even though we're
approaching the 58th anniversary of our independence. On the contrary,
it has become an incredibly live issue today.

Anyone who knows anything about India knows that the problem has in
large part resulted from the coming together of religion and politics.
What we have is a communal situation changing for worse.

India was perhaps the one nation in the ancient world which recognized
cultural democracy, whereby it is held that the roads to God are many
but the goal is one, because God is one and the same. In fact, the
roads are as many as there are individuals in the world.

This is India's secularism. Born of age-old tolerance and philosophy of
acceptance, the Indian mind has been characterized by infinite
inclusiveness. What else can secularism be?
What secularism means is obscure, but I think it to be scientific
humanism, an awakened individuality. After all, a man must be more
serious about of heart and mind. And that's all.

The dream is of a "common human home"...this common human home needs
defining. It awaits the emergence of a new composite culture based on
common need and common good. Hospitals, municipal corporations, science
labs-all these serve to strengthen the bonds of spiritual unity. Evil
customs and so-called religious institutions lead to separatism.

So WHAT is the way to communal harmony? Communalism must go at any
cost. But HOW and WHEN? Religion is all right, but religious fanaticism
and sectarianism are not But they are flourishing....and only a secular
ethos and modern approach can save us.

RELIGION IS REALIZATION, not talk. But today, it is in the market
place. Its high time to realize that religion is for man, not man for
religion.

Think about it.