Are we losing humanity in the name of religion?

Religion is a strong belief and faith, for that ultimate supreme power which we believe is the reason for our existence and happiness. It is a philosophy based on spiritual beliefs which is the most comprehensive and intensive manner of valuing known to human beings. It aims to deliver a code that would help to heal the spiritual side of an individual. Unfortunately, one aspect of religion in the life of the world is that it has involved conflicts between religions; conflicts of the sort that sums up to end humanity within humans, conflicts that are the reason for humans transforming into monsters. Whereas humanity is the quality of being human and not inhumane, it is also the quality of choosing those traits that are acceptable to other fellow human beings, which are desirable to others and indeed correcting their wrong assumption with what the society accepts. It’s about feeling respect and empathy for others, for other people, be they families or people who are distant from our lives. It’s a feeling of love and compassion for everyone, irrespective of religion, caste, creed and nationality. Collectively, it means living with emotions and intelligence, which appears to be diminishing overtime now.

In the nineteenth century, India was still a place where traditions, languages, and cultures cut across religious groupings, and where people did not define themselves primarily through their religious faith. But, back in August 1947, when the subcontinent was partitioned into two independent nation-states naming Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, there began one of the greatest migrations in human history, as millions of Muslims migrated to West and East Pakistan (the latter is now, known as Bangladesh) while millions of Hindus and Sikhs drifted in the opposite direction while many hundreds of thousands never made it, as the great migration drew to a close. Lately, it was discovered that more than fifteen million people were uprooted, and between one and two million were dead making it one of the most destructive conflict till date in the name of religion.

Giving the origin to lots of dispute occurring between these two religions throughout the country, Kashmiri pandit flight was one of such cases. Though the threats had been coming in for a long time, however, the night of 19 January 1990, is said to have seen a demented assault of a different level. Things went out of hand when Kashmiri Pandits, constituting 99% of the total population of Hindus living in Muslim majority area of the Kashmir Valley, were violently pushed out of the Valley by the Muslim community. People were slaughtered for being Hindu. They were subjected to brutal torture to instill fear among them to achieve their submission. They were forced exodus from the land of their ancestors and birth by way of issuing threatening letters, kidnappings and torture deaths. The social base was destroyed by the desecration and destruction of their places of worship. People were hanged on the trees with lots of cut on their body and were even burnt with cigarettes. Attacks, molestations, kidnappings, gang rapes of the womenfolk of the Hindus to introduce fear and humiliation in them became common. They had to go through a lot, way more than a normal human being can ever imagine in their worst nightmare.

Contributing to make the situation worse for the rest of the country as people still must pay for what happed ere, no matter whether they are directly connected to it or not. Because since then, the condition of Muslims living in other states of India has found to be deteriorating. Consisting of events, when a 16-year-old Muslim boy was stabbed to death on a train by a mob that accused him and his three companions of carrying beef in their bags while they were travelling to their village after Eid shopping. Some Muslim families are even beaten up and are kicked right on their faces for serving beef. Some states have even made it illegal to sell and consume beef just because Hindus consider the cow sacred. Therefore, restrictions on the sale and slaughter of cows — considered a holy animal by the majority Hindus — have led to vigilante killings of several people, most of them Muslims who were transporting cattle. Muslims are not just injured physically but, are even stripped of dignity by forcing the devout Muslims to eat pork, chew it and then gulp it down. There are times when people must present documentation of their family trees and prove that they’re Indian. Imagine proving your loyalty again and again to the nation, which you have been serving from the past 73 years. Reason being some people following the same religion, who committed a crime in some other part of the country. Again, nothing can be more crucial than beating defenseless fellows following Muslim theology to death and asking them to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, which is an insult not only to Hinduism but also to the great deity as assaulting others to chant the name of a God Ram which has nothing to do with Lord Ram who we have learnt to adore and pray.

Things don’t stop here, in fact, it gets worse when kids of initial age are involved in this kind of filth; talking about an eight-year-old Muslim girl, who was kidnapped, drugged and mercilessly gang-raped and tortured before she was murdered. All this just to drive the nomadic Muslim Bakerwal community that the girl belonged to, away from the area they lived in. The most disturbing part was people stood and raised their voices too, but not in favour of that little kid but against her. It’s truly embarrassing to even visualize what can be the mindset of people who protested in support of the accused. Just because the accused were from the same religion, showing no sympathy to that innocent soul and all the evil she went through for no reason. Was this too difficult to understand that the religion had nothing to do here? A well-planned crime was committed for the which the sinner had to be punished, playing a religious card at such critical point not only raise questions on an Individual’s humanity but at its religious views as well.

Coming to one of the longest-running battles in India’s legal history, the Ayodhya case, a case that is 134 years old. It boils down to a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. The site that is regarded among Hindus as the birthplace of Lord Rama also historically locates Babri Mosque. The religious site has become a fixture in the vision of millions of Hindus and Muslims in India. The demolition of the centuries-old mosque by a Hindu mob in Ayodhya in 1992, sparked deadly religious riots around the country. This further created severe violence among the people, giving rise to more riots in different parts of the country. For example, the burning of a train in Godhra which caused a lot of deaths of Hindus while they were returning from Ayodhya. The outcome of this stupidity was the same. Its reaction in entire Gujarat came in very rough form and nearly 2000 people were killed in violent incidents across the state. It is estimated that 230 mosques and 274 dargahs were destroyed and up to 1,50,000 people were displaced during the violence. It is also estimated that at least two-hundred-fifty girls and women were gang-raped and then burned to death. Other acts of violence against women included acid attacks, insertion of objects into bodies and carving of Hindu religious symbols on women’s body parts, breaking all the records of the brutal acts till date. Not only this but also, children were forced fed petrol and then set on fire. When a man begged the crowd to spare the women, he was dragged into the street and forced to parade naked for refusing to say, “Jai Shri Ram”. He was then beheaded and thrown onto a fire, after which rioters returned and burned his family, including two small boys, to death. The massacre was so intense that the place remained in flames for a week.

Now, the question arises ‘why so much of conflicts and How is it that religions, which supposedly uphold peace, love and harmony, are so commonly connected with intolerance and violent aggression?’ Or should the question be, ‘is our religion, our beliefs genuinely responsible for the happenings’ or ‘is it just we humans who are too busy in satisfying our ego in the name of religion?’ As religions are something which is meant to bring peace not war, that teaches you a set of practices to live by, such as being kind to others. Consequently, we can conclude that there must be something seriously wrong with our perception and judgment towards our religion, and if we do not check it in time there could be disastrous consequences for the future of humankind.

Concluding to the point that, all religions have one similarity that no one can deny, they all give the message of love and respect and teaches you to follow humanity. Region-wise learning process brings you to a stage and helps you walk on the path of becoming a good human being. Therefore, humanity and religion go together. Humanity is an important step towards the goal of religion but unfortunately, some of the religions have overlooked the goal and some have lost touch with being humane in the name of religion. Being a religious person, your religion won’t supervise you to break humanity and do something which comes in the inhuman section because the sole purpose of the discovery of religion is to maintain humanity. Also, there is no religion which claims it to be the best, every religion is at best place. Then what’s the purpose of fighting and killing others when we can together live with peace and harmony? Religion apart from a relationship with God is devastating but when humanity combines with genuine religion, both become beneficial for the world. There is no different chain of religions, humanity is only and biggest religion that one should follow. Religion was never bad for humanity. Humans are bad for humanity, the statement is contradictory, but this is how it is.

Written by Vineeta Shankar of The Phonetic House