The Toxic Relationship of Religion and Politics
Hoping to unite the diverse country of India, the father of our nation once said,
“The essence of all religion is one. Only approaches are different.”
India is a secular country. By constitution,we respect and accept all religions. And we must mean every Indian, right? Saying this mustn’t take much thinking provided it’s ‘true’, but sadly it does.
Here is what is absolutely true, whether we like it or not.
Even if ‘we’ do, our political representatives don’t, not by a long shot. They proclaim themselves to be scholars and visionaries, and regard religion as a mere weapon to garner votes. Although they say that they respect all religions, they never fail to make statements which are against everything our constitution stands for, statements which bring shame upon our identity as Indians..
Forget about reading the holy books, a good number of these self-proclaimed sages with their unrelenting devotion towards their religion, are not even aware of most of its teachings.
Some politicians pass bigooted remark as casual comments and statements on stages and podiums. The politicians who oppose and question are no better than them, really- their opposition does not stem from a belief in secularism, or because they think it was wrong. No, it is just a tactic to win over the previously hurt publicSome politicians pass bigooted remark as casual comments and statements on stages and podiums. The politicians who oppose and question are no better than them, really- their opposition does not stem from a belief in secularism, or because they think it was wrong. No, it is just a tactic to win over the previously hurt public.
‘Yeh hinduon ka desh hai’, they shout in their election campaigns. Okay, look at that – They haven’t even read the preamble and now they want to rule the country.
Hinduon ka desh! India is home to not just Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs, it is also one of the world’s largest Muslim population (10.90% of world), as well as millions of Christians (24.08 million) and Buddhists (7.95 million). Just because around 80% of our population consists of Hindus, you declare majoritarianism?
Reminder – Sri Lankan Civil War!
Instead of having the motto of economic or regional development, they promise us religious development. What they actually help in ‘developing’ are communal riots. Well, ‘kuch toh ho raha hai’!
The dirty politics that is being played is slowly turning India into a country, which supports so many religions only on papers. We sentimental people are most easily manipulated, believing their fake promises when they say they will give to a certain religion after winning the elections.
Even after the Supreme Court’s verdict in favour of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the opposition spoke against the highest decision-making authority of the country. Who cares about the facts and reality anyway?
Let’s not forget the Anti-Sikh riot of 1984. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards, the whole INC heartlessly started killing all the Sikhs in the city of Delhi. Rajiv Gandhi’s justification to this was simply that “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes.”
Congratulations, it did! Even today, it does.
Under the manipulation of politicians and hiding behind the name of religion, people can do anything for anyone, be it voting for a selfish candidate, the massacre of innocent people and often, just for the money.
The moment people heard that CAA has to do with illegal ‘Muslim’ immigrants, people ignored the mention of the three countries and started to call it discrimination and not to forget the massive protests. The educated public overlooked the necessity to know the basic facts of CAA. No one bothered to realize that it has nothing to do with the Indian Muslims. Even after 70 years since independence, since we were brought together as one irrespective of all our differences, many still haven’t learnt that we must prioritize our country.
Democracy serves the people so that they can manage themselves in any way they want. However, the ugly side of politicians seems to make the world’s largest democracy nowhere to go.
No wonder, a political leader of one of our states instigated people to kill hundreds of Muslims if one Hindu was killed. In an article dated 24th March 2017, Washington Post declared this MLA as a militant monk who is spreading Islamophobia in India. So now our politicians are ruining the country’s name globally.
I refuse to give up on this. Until and unless we realise that our religion is being used against us and that our politicians have stooped to levels unimaginable, our country is never going to see development -because we are not ready to stand united.
If you’re offended by this, you’re doing something wrong.
It is heartbreaking for every Indian to have a political system in the country, which respects power and money, is unaware of secularism, and rules by hate. Moreover, they don’t respect the Indian Constitution, the actual ruler of our country and then they call themselves patriots and nationalists.
We talk about fighting terrorism together. How do the terrorists brainwash youngsters to join them? Isn’t it by using religion as their weapon? Long live so and so religion!
Isn’t it what our politicians do to get voted?
– Pratyusha Pathak
SY BSc.