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Politics and Religious Fundamentalism
In the mid-1930s when the leader of India's oppressed class, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, announced that 150 million of his followers who were (and still are) regarded as üntouchables" would convert to a new religion, many Christian and Muslim religious leaders came to India to get a slice of the religious cake. Many stood on street corners of Indian cities denouncing the evils of Hinduism, explaining how the "üntouchables" would find equality and dignity if they converted to Christianity. Weeks went by and not many of the üntouchables" took advantage of this offer. One day, Rev. E Stanley Jones of the United Methodist Church, asked my grandfather, M. K. Gandhi, why the üntouchables" were not accepting the Christian offer? Grandfather's reply was: The day you stop talking about how good your religion is and start living it everyone will want to join it.
I think there is a lesson in this for the modern world. Much religious intolerance and fundamentalism is due to competition -- our religion is better than yours. This is basically a religious problem and has to be resolved by religions leaders who, incidentally, are the one's who have taken their followers astray. I don't think a religious problem can be solved by politicians or by enacting laws. Politicians can only step in when fundamentalism takes the ugly form of violence. Then they react the only way they have learned to react -- with more violence. Just as darkness cannot dispel darkness, violence cannot dispel violence. We need light to dispel darkness and wisdom to dispel violence. I would suggest that the new President and his new team must get together religious leaders of all the different orders and sects with a strict mandate to put their house in order through dialogue and understanding.
By
Arun Gandhi
|
December 7, 2008; 4:26 AM ET
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Posted by: politicallyincorrectworldcitizen1 | December 8, 2008 8:11 PM
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Mr Gandhi, with due respect for your ancestry, surely you are aware, religion has not been spread by the simplistic method, "my religion is better than your religion." The history of spread of Islam and Christianity are very different.
Posted by: politicallyincorrectworldcitizen1 | December 8, 2008 8:06 PM
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The question was:
In response to the terrorist attacks in India, how would you advise President-elect Obama and his new foreign policy team to confront religious extremism and terrorism?
It has been established beyond a shadow of doubt that Pakistani Muslims are behind the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack. It has a clear political motive. "Liberation" (read: take over by Pakistan) of Indian administered Kashmir, bleeding Indian politics, stability and economy with a thousand cuts.
How exactly did 150 million Hindus in India and 170 million Muslims of Hindu origin in Pakistan and 140 million Muslims of Hindu origin in Bangladesh, 460 MILLION Muslims of Hindu origin, come to be Muslims in the first place?
Why did 310 MILLION Muslims of Hindu origin choose to live in separate countries wanting to have nothing to do with their Hindu brothers and sisters?
Why are the Hindu "untouchables" who HAVE accepted the Christian offer, being persecuted for their religious conversion by some Hindu extremists?
Please read the 2000 year history of Christianity and the 1000 year history of Islam in India and make comparisons sir of how both religions came to get a piece of the religious cake and what they did with it.
Posted by: politicallyincorrectworldcitizen1 | December 8, 2008 7:59 PM
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Hinduism, Jainism and Judaism does not spread their faith after it was initially established. The fact that it was not spread actively to other peoples has to do with the nature of the faith. Buddhism was spread far and wide. Buddha himself spent over 40 years walking the length and breadth of India converting Hindus to Buddhism. Emperor Ashoka, a covert to Buddhism from Hinduism, did the most to spread Buddhism to the Far East. Spread of Islam on the other hand went hand in hand with political conquest until not long ago. In India Sufi Islam and mainstream Islam with Sufi elements was spread by peaceful means.