Religious Fanaticism – Just two days ago, an episode from Quantico sparked controversies where Priyanka Chopra is accused of defaming the nation and Hinduism.
In a given scene, she is seen to stop a Hindu nationalist, categorically, a Hindu terrorist who has pledged to launch a nuclear missile on Pakistan.
She tracks him down and chides him. However, the furore is completely justified because it does defame the nation and chips away at the religious sentiment in various ways.
Ever since there had been the grand emergence of BJP, we have hitherto seen the commensurate rise of Religious Fanaticism, Hindu nationalism which shoved the ones belonging to the religious minorities to a fretting corner.
Talking about this, an incident crosses our minds that is of Amir Khan and his wanting to leave India as they feared for their child’s future in the onset of this rise of Hindu nationalism.
Obviously, Amir Khan too were not spared even if he is a superstar to make such an outrageous comment before the media and winds of dissent followed. He had to wait for the dust to settle to win his lost repute again as his films were being banned and he was being barred from visiting places.
But then, from an impartial view, the religious fanaticism has rose to superlatives nowadays. We are not only blaming Hinduism but people belonging from other religious minorities too are up in arms for their religion. Why this Religious Fanaticism ? Has the secularism of India become a farce? The benchmark brotherhood dream is going to a sparse now and the government is sitting idle.
The religious dubiousness that is on the rise can be very well likened with Talibanism as they are using strong-arm tactics and bringing a bad name for themselves. There have been instances of Shiv Sena goons backed by the members of Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Kranti Dal are prompting the meat shops to close down driven by religious adrenaline. They cite that the endeavours are aimed at preserving the indu sentimentalities and our stomachs are in knots whether one needs to change his diet for proving that he is religious? Doesn’t this contradict the archaic examples of Hindu liberalism and tolerance?
The distinctly benevolent feature of Hinduism is that it doesn’t convert people to other religions and keep their faith to themselves unlike Christianity and Islam. We have eaten beef and have still been a Hindu so what’s the carp about it now? In fact, the gamut of violence broke free the bearable limits that they made people give up on beef at the cost of their lives. They have even rendered us ancient again by stopping us to celebrate us occasions like Valentine’s day. Is this how one practise religion? Then perhaps we are heading back to the primitive times again.
Is our religious sentiment so fragile that a mere diet and celebrating western culture can rip it off its repute? There are other bottlenecks too that the modern Indian society facing now nut this one really unnerves.
