Dr Rao VBJ Chelikani
Primitive feelings of bewilderment and fear in man were expressed by declaring his submission to the unknown and known forces in nature, imploring for their protection. Such submission or surrender was, gradually, extended towards many invisible and visible things and to persons on earth or in heavens in order to seek their favourable disposition and kindness. We have good evidence to conclude that before the period of established religions, people all over the world, including in India, were practicing shamanist kind of cult of animals, where each tribe masked itself with some fetish animal head-gear and fought against other fetish-bearers. At a much later date, those animals became the privileged vehicles for the new gods, as in the case of the Aryans and Dravidians. Thus, invoking the power of the identified and un-identified forces above and communicating with them has become, for all times to come, the pre-occupation of all religions.
- Religious Power
Right from the beginning, there was, in the human history, a struggle between the power of the chief of the clan and the priest of the invisible forces. There were occasions, even in the past, when the religious forces fought wars and became kings. Initially, there were attempts to unite the political and religious powers into one single source: a king-priest or priest-king. Sometimes, one seconded the other. In order to gain legitimacy, the chief was blessed by religious endorsement. At the same time, many royals too, claimed to be deriving their powers from the divine sources. On the whole, the regime of the kings under the direction and guidance of the priests continued for the longest period.
i). Divine Interventions: The religions have attributed the same kind of relations of power-hierarchy among the gods also, who are living in other celestial abodes. Right from the Rigveda, Zend Avestha, Old Testament to the Qu'uran, we understand that there had been a permanent obsession as to who should give orders, control or govern whom. Mobilising gods for political ends had a long history. The local political heroes were portrayed as the demi-gods in India, Greece, Egypt and Rome. Gods waged wars among themselves or along with human beings. They caused changes in earthly governance by punishing the bad rulers by means of direct physical action or by miracles, rather than by causing changes in the hearts and minds of the wicked. Reforming or ennobling or perfecting the human beings did not seem to be very high on their agenda, as much as punishing the wicked and protecting the innocent devotees in order to ensure stable political governance.
ii). Religious Laws: On the whole, we must admit to the credit of the religious powers that it was they who made the earliest efforts to humanize the absolute, brutal and cruel physical forces demonstrated by the kings. Primacy of religious law was imposed as guidelines for the exercise of civil and political decrees. Right from the Assyrian tables or the Moses' Ten Commandments or the Buddhist Dhammapatta or the Jaina Agamas, and later on, the New Testament and the Qu'uran did leave enough justification and room for the exercise of religious power parallel to the political power.
iii). Specific Cultures: An established religion is a social organization, very deeply rooted in tribal and, later, nationality entities and endowed with a firm theological mission. Though since the Holy Roman Empire, many kings in Eastern and Western Europe and in the Scandinavian countries, which declared themselves as defenders of Christian faith, had, gradually, became very secular as far as the political governance is concerned. At present, in many Arab Muslim countries as well as those Asian countries converted into Islam, declared their state as Islamic state. In some states only the religions that were formed after Abraham i.e. Islam, Christianity and Judaism are recognised.
a). Usually, each religion by fixing chronological landmarks of certain local historical events, by giving local names to their gods and announcing holy books in local languages and native holy men, as sanctified revelations, inalterably closes itself against future events or modifications by other people who have not shared the same historical experiences.
b). Many religions divide people into believers and non-believers. Among the believers again, there are discriminatory distinction between one's own religion and other religions. Some class of people like kings are considered to be chosen by god by birth; some are ritually initiated into an elevated religious status as 're-born' (dvija) or as 'chosen'. The rest of the people have to acquire merit or grace by good acts like prayers, devotion, etc. Some priests are considered holier due to their proximity to god. Some religions do not even recognise the right to exist to other sects in their own religion.
The situation would go on complicating itself, as the existing identities have been multiplying themselves by further sub-divisions. Out of Christianity came the Orthodox, the Catholics, the Protestants, the Calvinists, the Puritans, the Copts, etc. Similarly, out of Islam, came the Sunnis, the Shias, the Sufis, the Ismailies, the Ahmedias, the Baha'is, etc. Similarly, out of the Hindus, came the Jains, the Buddhists, the Vedic Hindus, the Shaivites, the Vaishnavites, the Sikhs, etc. There are many more religions like Judaism, Zoroastrianism and many sects and their sub sects who live very distinctly.
iv). Religious Democracy: Religions have not been accepting the power of knowledge, if it is not power of belief. Since the period of Renaissance in European history, free thinking and free expressions have started igniting the human energies towards challenging the absolute authority of the political and religious institutions. Protests and opposition, on and off, against absolutist and obscurantist trends in political and religious powers have been recorded. There were a few small and big revolutions with more or less lasting effects. Sixteenth century Protestantism in Europe had introduced some elements of democracy against the Orthodox and Catholic doctrines. The catholic establishment too has some elements of democracy as we notice from their election of the Pope who is the supreme pontiff. The Age of Enlightenment in the Nineteenth century in Western Europe had sown the seeds for secular, scientific, mechanical and rational approaches to things and life. Individual is encouraged to react to the divine signals or texts directly and to inspire himself personally without the domination of the middlemen. Islam is the most egalitarian, while Christianity has been emphasising sharing, caring and service.
v). Civic Behaviour: Aggressive external symbols, like complicated names, striking dresses, noisy rituals, shocking and superstitious practices should make room for tolerable and civic manners. Human and animal sacrifices, exposing humans to suffering, mutilation of human organs, etc. cannot be permitted under common civil and criminal laws of any civilised society. Terrorism should be fought tooth and nail, though it is only a swan song. In the recent past, the countries that claimed communism as their ideology, excepting one or two, had totally banned all religious identities.
vi). Religious Conversions: In the past, while saving the souls, almost all religions have been passionately indulging in adding numbers by conversion either because they believed that more numbers would make their truth more truthful or they wanted to become a majority, so that they could be politically powerful.
Among all the factors that have been leading to the religious conversions across the history, the change of heart has not been a prominent factor. Finally, across the history, we can count that the religious wars have killed more human beings than any other wars for land or gold. As a matter of fundamental human rights, any person should be free to adopt a religion out of his free-will, as a matter of heart and mind, and not due to fear or inducements.
- Powerful Challenges
i). The Indian Experience: Since times immemorial, Indians never declared themselves as mono-religious. It is always recognized that an individual has a potential spiritual personality above and beyond the religious personality. Long after the Zoroastrians, in the second half of the Nineteenth century, we had received the followers of Bab, the herald of Baha'i faith. Thus, we have in our country, practically, all sects and different cults of Islam, seeking spiritual peace, with extremely rare cases of persecution of Muslims in India. An Indian Muslim has many things in common with an Indian Hindu than with an Arab or an African Muslim. Beef eating is a minority activity in one country and it is a majority activity in many countries. Pig is not eaten in some countries but it is a source of survival in a great number of cold countries. An Indian-Christian but for his Biblical names, resembles very closely rest of the Indians, with same morphology, ethnicity, genetic heritage, history, nationality, social and cultural habits, etc. None of them were totally immune from the inherited caste distinctions. Further, some Indian Muslims and Christians have acquired their own distinct identity in the world. The Sufi's, the Bohraas and the Ismaelis of the Aga Khan are distinct contributions to the world of Islamic culture. The Vatican, the centre of Catholic Christianity treats Indian Jesuits as well as the Missionaries of the Charities of Mother Theresa as a distinct enrichment to the Christian faith. There are scores of many such examples.
ii). Political power alone could not have managed to pacify the wild and crude nature of the early human behaviour. The religions did, already, help in humanizing the individual and improve human relations. But, in spite of the progress made, still, the human beings continue to live in insecurity, suspicion, aggressiveness, violence, hatred and the fear of other religions. How to educate all such people in democratic values and to help them to learn to respect others and their beliefs, so as to live together peacefully is a challenge of our century. There are many secular civil society forces which are struggling for internal reforms against the traditional religious practices in such countries. They are to be supported by the international community.
iii). The National Commission for Minorities, whose members are nominated by the president, should help remove the innate persecution complex among all the religious minorities and goad them to join the mainstream without losing their identities. But, this is not happening, except that most of the urban middle classes are becoming indifferent to religious beliefs and are uncomfortable with the ritual demands of their religious heads.
iv). The country has huge assets of lands, properties, gold and jewellery with precious stones, lying unproductive with various religious endowments, foundations and institutions, which are, at present, benefiting only a small elite group. Religious places are collecting huge amounts as fees and donations on daily basis. They should be prompted to be better managed by themselves without the governments intervening, so as to enhance their resources which can be spent on the poor from the same religion, for their food, clothing, shelter, education, health and skill-development. Rich gods and poor devotees is an insult to human dignity.
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