Hi all,
Religion has been an issue that has evoked eternal debate and it is this issue that i wish to talk about. There have numerous discussions on religious extremism, communalism etc in this space and elsewhere. But what i wish to discuss is something different and distanced from the above mentioned.
Something about religion has irked me quite a bit. It is our brazen display of our religious affiliations that leave me perturbed. Be it the kumkum on Hindu women or the white cap on Muslim men or the turbans of Sikhs, we seem to have no qualms about wearing our religion up our sleeves and other hand we seem to be proud of displaying these religious articles.
Before you pounce on me and accuse me of being an atheist, i must say that i am in fact far from one. It is just that, i feel, displaying our affiliations in the open doesn't augur well for a harmonious society. We keep harping that religion should not pervade our society but keep doing the exact opposite. Why cant we just restrict our religious practices to the confines of our four walls? Is it necessary to openly display our religious faith to be counted among the faithful? Even if there is a minuscule chance that stopping these practices would in fact augment our chances of a more harmonious society, wouldn't it be worth a try?
4 comments:
Nice post Palani. I understand your point that explicit shows of our religious practices are probably not helping our general cause of harmony. But I'd take the stand that we shouldn't demand that we restrict ourselves in certain well-intended activities to be harmonious with people. If X demands that he'll be harmonious with me only if I don't put on my religious sandhanam or whatever, then I think you can understand that he probably has to take the blame. This is of course assuming that I don't intend to use my public religious showings to put him off. I for one put on my, what you call, 'namam' even here. But I'm doubly careful I don't even inadvertently use it to differentiate people. I consider that it's a part of my duty and I'm very cautious that it serves just the purpose it is originally intended to. And not all people use these signs to want to be 'counted amongst the faithful' (to quote you) - some people simply don't have any other intention other than consider it as their duty (you can take me as an example for this). In one sense, I consider these things protocol. As you are expected to dress in a certain way for a business meeting or a function, so are you expected to honour practices that befit your lineage. And regarding why we can't restrict it to our own walls, the simple answer that I can find is 'there's no reason why we should'. If you're sure that you can and will do all in your powers to make your friends comfortable even when you don your namam or veebudhi, go ahead and do it. After all, you can change only you and not others. If they're still not comfortable with you, then it's an unfortunate situation. You either have to change your environment or shrug these people off and get on with your work. Regarding your last point on whether it would be worth a try - I think it has to be taken on a person-to-person basis. If I feel that my co-worker will be more harmonious and comfortable with me if I don't follow my religious practices then I should probably do a self-analysis to see the ways I'm making him uncomfortable and correct it; there should be some way other than the obvious to solve the problem. But I'm not very comfortable with the suggestion (and I don't mean you're suggesting) that an individual should force himself to NOT do his duty to please others.
ppl shd understand religion is jus a way to streamline human beings.. nothing more or nothing less..and being an athiest is nothing wrong..
@sriram...thanks for dropping by...i guess its all about making the other comfortable while not giving in on ur beliefs...
@preethi...streamlining huh...hmmm...where and how are u?
like this post!
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