Shame on us

This has taken a long time for me to complete, partly because I was ashamed to even think about this. The 14th Dalai Lama was at Rice University on May 1st and delivered two speeches. The one that interested me the most, without question, was the one on religious tolerance. It amazed me how forcefully, yet simply, he conveyed the message that there was nothing wrong in accepting people of different religions, including the atheists. We could all live in harmony if only we tried. The urge to learn what other religions are about, and embrace should be our motivation, not to use it against them. Like the Dalai Lama said, the theists all derive their inspiration, their faith from the same source- GOD, while the atheists derive their inspiration from their concept of "GOD". So everyone draws their inspiration from different "sources". So where is the question of hating one another coming from?

The Dalai Lama then continued to tell the Rice Owls that the world should follow the example of India- a Secular Nation- guaranteed by the Constitution also. We are a nation of different religions; rather almost all religions in the world . To be openly glorified as a nation with so much tolerance is no small feat after all. But stop for a moment and think- are we that tolerant after all? The recent insurge of Hindutva and their "insecurity" of the declining Hinduism, has given a different dimension to our country- after "trying" to live in harmony all these years with different religions; especially with Muslims- how on earth are we threatened? We call ourselves a developing country trying to be one of the superpowers by 20whatever, but how are we going to be able to progress if we are this closed minded? We condemn Islamic fundamentalism, but gleefully condone Hindu fundamentalism. Any sane mind would agree with me that this contradiction has no grounds. Any orthodox/fundamentalist religious group is full of cynicism and is wrong. What's even worse these days is young Indian minds support this kind of fundamentalism. THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT WHO WERE/ARE!!!! We are a diverse nation; that has nurtured and respected this diversity- we might as well start mandating people to speak only Hindi and no other languages; such is the case.

I hang out with the Baptist Student Ministry a lot- and whenever people hear this, they proceed to ask me the infamous questions; "Baptist!!! Why on earth do you go there? We would have never guessed you were Baptist?!" I am not. I love that bunch of people. No one has ever asked me what religion I am, whether I believe in theism or not, they have always embraced my presence with open arms. I have never had a complain with them. They are the most down to earth people I have ever seen in my life. And this coming from people who could have frowned upon me any day. Because of a couple of fundamentalists, we make the wrong judgement call of STEREOTYPING and GENERALIZING- I am of the opinion that it is sinful to stereotype.

Due to upsurge of religious fundamentalists in India these days, we are a earning a bad reputation; they have better advertising tactics and they definitely win. It is a sad trend, just like friend of mine put it. We should be ashamed of ourselves. How many of us have friends who are from different religions? Just because we are Hindustan, does not mean that we did not have non- Hindus before!

I realize I am spinning in circles with this topic- its because I am really ashamed of where India has reached with religion in the backdrop. It is shameful. Unless we youngsters do something soon- we will have a religious war that will spread doom not only to us but neighboring countries too.


http://webcast.rice.edu/index.php?action=details&event=967
( This is the link to the Dalai Lama's speech, in case some of you want to listen to it)

Shreya