Holey Religions

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, the moderate Muslim clergy, was sharing the platform with the VHP President ShriAshok Singhal on the Independence Day. The maulana recounted the number of times the Quran refers to humanity,acceptance and tolerance of other faiths. Shri Singhal lost no time in discarding that compassion and startedpainting Islam with everything the maulana said it is not. To be more authoritative, he took out a note fromhis pocket with a verse from the Quran that says, "A Muslim should kill a Kafir when he sees one".

Shri Singhal did not need to take out that note from his pocket because his entire rhetoric of yearsagainst Islam has been built on that verse. Of course, denying or ignoring the existence of that verse in theQuran by the Muslim intelligentsia would be an exercise in futility. Moderate Muslims have tried to hide thatfact under other verses in the Quran which ask for humanity, respect for other faiths and forbearance to bevalued above everything else. What they need to do is to contextualise it - put that verse in the properperspective and spirit that it was said and meant to be.

People living in this age of science realize that nothing is perfect. We move towards perfection onlythrough failures. The need for Islam was dictated by the social conditions existing at that particular timeand place where Islam came into existence. There are many apparently contradictory statements one can find inthe tenets of Islam, when those statements are torn apart from the contexts in which they were made --something that the critics of Islam regularly do to denigrate this faith. However, such deficiencies, are notlimited only to Islam, but exist in every other religion, the way practiced today. There is no religionwithout holes, or without scope for improvement.

I have great admiration and regards for Hinduism which, when understood properly, is a faith that seeksunity at the highest level of human intellect, regardless of religious belief. This makes Hinduism a veryscientific and a rational belief system that does not limit one’s imagination to attain perfection, or ifyou will, God. However, as practiced, it is far from perfect.

Following in the footsteps of Shri Singhal, let me bring out some of the serious shortcomings of Hinduismas it is practiced today. This is not meant to denigrate or disrespect this remarkable faith and a way oflife, but only to show Shri Singhal and his followers around the world that finding faults with any religionby focusing on the negative aspects is an easy but a bad exercise.

What I present in the following is with my sincere apologies to real Hindus.

Caste system
If there is a single aspect confronting Hinduism today which can be termed really evil, but practiced forcenturies, it is the classification of its followers into Varnas by creating a hierarchical systembased on ones profession. This is an ancient concept, several centuries old, which has lead to the practice ofuntouchability amongst Hindus whereby a very large part of Hindu community (between 15 to 30%) is reduced to astatus that is much lower than that of animals.

Under this system, Hindus have committed much worse atrocities on their co-religionists than what Muslimsever did to them. This practice of discrimination and alienation has continued for centuries and isresponsible for the torture and deaths of millions of innocent Hindu men, women and children. Even in presenttimes, the followers of Hinduism -- Shri Singhal brand -- not only condone the practice, but defend it interms of specialisation and benefits for the society as a whole.

The latest case of Harijan lynching in Jhajjar, where 5 dalits were brutalized and burnt for skinning adead cow, is a case in point. There are thousands of villages and towns all over India where cattle and otheranimals have unrestricted access to the ponds and other water resources. But they are off limits to the Dalits.One recent report said, "Oppression of 160 million Dalits is one of the most nauseating, but enduring,reality of India's countryside. As is the violence against them, especially Dalit women. To be a Dalit todaymeans having to live in a sub-human, degraded, profoundly insecure way. Every hour, two Dalits are assaultedin India. Every day, three Dalit women are raped; two Dalits are killed."

Human sacrifice
Concept of sacrifice in order to please God has been quite old. It is said to have a very sound and logicalbasis. If I like something very dearly and yet give it to you, that sacrifice would surely please you. And soit is with God, it is argued. Every religion has promoted the concept of sacrifice. Semitic religions believeGod commanded Ibrahim to slaughter his son Isaac and just when Ibrahim lifted his hand to kill his son, Godintervened and substituted the life of a ram for the life of his son. Sacrificing animals for pleasing Godcontinues to the day.

But the tradition of human sacrifice to please God continues in Hinduism, and many other tribes in Africa,even today despite laws banning it. A ferocious slayer of evil in Hindu mythology, goddess Kali is said tohave an insatiable appetite for blood. There are a large number of faithfuls who still believe goddess Kaliand goddess Durga can be pleased only with human sacrifices. Until as recently as 200 years ago, a boy waskilled every day at Kali temple in Calcutta.

In January this year, a 24 year old woman in Andhra Pradesh hacked her three-year old son to death toplease God and receive earthly riches. In February, two men in Tripura beheaded a woman on the instructions ofa deity they said appeared in their dreams. In April Khudu Karmakar, brutally killed the 15 year old virgin,Manju, amidst chanting of mantras in Atapur village in Jharkhand state to please mother Kali. There are manymore such cases, which take place every year.

Sati
The practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre in the belief of uniting with himafter death or, some may say, to escape the cursed life of a widow in a society that does not allowremarriage, has been an ancient Hindu tradition. Although several ancient Hindu scholars pronounced Satias suicide and called it against Shastras, the tradition lives on essentially because Agni Puranadeclares that the woman who commits sahagamana goes to heaven. Maha-sati stones are erected inmemory of brave women who committed sati and are worshiped. Jauhar was a part of sati tradition inRajasthan by the wives of the soldiers who used to get killed in the battle. Although, it must be emphasizedthat this act was more to save the honor of those brave women who would prefer death than falling in the handsof the enemy.

Sati was first banned by the British Government in 1829. But the tradition continued despite concertedefforts by the social reformists like Raja RamMohan Roy, Dayananda Saraswati and Mahatma Gandhi. The latestcase of sati took place this year in Madhya Pradesh. A recent verdict by the Indian court allowing worship intemples dedicated to sati-mata has raised some concerns that this may further encourage sati traditionand practice.

Dowry and bride-burning
Dowry is yet another ancient Hindu tradition whose ills far exceed its benefits in present times. Thetraditional Hindus still refuse to give it up despite laws banning it. I personally know several families,some of them very close, where the woman worked all her life, lived without spending a paisa of thoseearnings, only to save it for the daughter's marriage. Girls who fail to bring the bounties in marriage areoften tortured, traumatized and in several cases even killed by her in-laws. On an average, there is onereported case of bride burning per day in India. Many go unreported and so unnoticed. The curse of dowry is sosevere that many Hindu couples do not want daughters. When amniosynthesis came promising the determination ofthe child-sex in the womb, many Hindus regularly aborted girl fetuses essentially with the fear of dowry. Thisevil is still very much at large.

Sub-human role of women
Inferior role of women in every ancient civilization was a reality. Hinduism also had no better or respectablerole for women in their societies. It is said that the author of Ramcharitramanas, Swami Tulsidas whoovercame his passion for his wife, once said:

dhol, ganvar, sudra, pasu, nari; yeh sab taadan ke adhikari
(Drums, illitrates, shudras, animals and women; work only when beaten)

Pained with the status given to women in Hindu society, eminent poet and writer, Maithili Sharangupta said:

ablaa jeevan hai tumhari yahi kahani; aanchal maen hae doodh aur aankhon maen paani
(Helpless woman, this is the story story of your life  - milk in the breasts, tears in the eyes)

With time and stronger movements for women's rights, that is changing. But women in general still facediscrimination, brutality and subhuman treatments. In many villages, there are ponds, temples and several holyplaces, which are off limits to women, and Dalits.

There are many, many other evils, apart from those I've mentioned above, plaguing Hinduism which,otherwise, is an excellent way of life. There is no single book giving guidelines to this way of life and sothere are no fixed tenets of Hinduism that are provided for its followers. The traditions form the seat ofthis faith.

But, as with any other tradition, or faith, there are many aspects of Hinduism, which are simply wrong. AsI said earlier, all this is not to smear this great faith and bring it in bad light, but it is merely to showthat deficiencies in religions is not limited to any single, or a particular, religion as has been repeatedlypreached by Shri Singhal and his lieutenants.

It is important, even essential that we understand this reality, look into our own faith and beliefs andreform where needed. The present day activists, guised as saviors of Hinduism from what they perceive asdangers to their religion by the foreign faiths (read Islam and Christianity), must worry about the internaldangers posed by their own practices and change those traditions, which need urgent attention.

No one can deny that Islam needs reforms. It does. It also has a caste system, although not like that inHinduism; the role of women in Muslim societies is also subhuman; laws on marriage, talaq (divorce) andmeher (support money) are far from adequate; Talibanization of Islam has been very easy, whichleads to a series of its own ills and unacceptable attitudes we see in the world today.

But no one can also deny that there is plenty of good in Islam, again, just like any other religion. Thebiggest asset of Islam is its concept of equality among the believers, which Shri Singhal and his followerscan learn from. That itself may take care of their concerns about conversions.

The extremism and terrorism we see amongst some Muslims today has little to do with Islam, and more to dowith the global geopolitical situation, mainly the Arab-Israel conflict and America's unconditional support toIsrael. Just as a man becomes a critic when he cannot be an artist, or an informer when he cannot be asoldier, he becomes a terrorist when he cannot be a free citizen.

Indian Muslims, just like any other Indian, are proud and free people living under a secular and democraticsystem. It is wrong to call Indian Muslims terrorists, or supporters of terrorism. That charge is simply illconceived and mischievous.

There is no "perfect" religion. The followers ofIslam have a duty to reform it just as well as ShriSinghal and his school of thought have a duty toreform their own practices and understanding of Hinduism. We need tostop hate mongering and focus on learning from thepositive aspects of other religions to be able to seethe elements of humanity, commonality and tranquilityin them. That is the only way we all will find peace.