Religious
Freedom, Hinduism and India
Vijay Kapoor
(Excerpts from submission to US Commission on International Religious
Freedoms, September 2000)
[Much conflict over the past millennium in South
Asia, and especially today in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, has
resulted from the obsessive drive of other religions to target Hindus
for conversion and prosletyzation on the Indian subcontinent. In south
and east India, there are numerous reports of discord arising from
intense conversion efforts by Christian missionaries using foreign aid.
From time to time this journal will publish articles on the highlights
of the Hindu religion and the need for other religions to end their
incessant activities targeting Hindus for conversion in India. -
Editors]
Violence and hate are generated when one group
claims to be on the side of God and points fingers at everyone else as
godless sinners. The word 'tolerance' is too often merely camouflage. To
avoid religious conflicts, we need to elevate the concept of 'tolerance'
to 'reverence'. 'Tolerance' has a negative connotation of indifference
or virtuous disdain. The concept of 'tolerance' is too brittle, always
seeming to sit on the edge of contempt, ready to pounce when invoked by
fundamentalists.
Just as we exchange ambassadors to minimize misunderstandings amongst
nations, we should devise an exchange of gods between the religions.
Hindus will welcome Christ into their homes alongside Krishna and Shiva;
and Christians should reciprocate by giving room to Krishna and Shiva on
the alters beside Jesus. We should exchange stories from the lives of
Krishna, Shiva and Jesus. The practice of mutual reverence for each
other's spiritual and saintly figures will promote genuine mutual
respect.
Following their scriptures, Hindus have promoted freedom of religion
with an almost excessive zeal to the point of not perceiving that people
of other faiths may follow with equally fanatical zeal exactly the
opposing philosophy-believing that their form of worship is the ONLY
true way to salvation and others who do not come within their fold are
sinners. It is this violence of thought, setting up as 'I pious' versus
'you sinner' which is the breeding
ground of hatred and resulting violence.
In pursuing the dictums of their scriptures venerating diversity, Hindu
civilization is the only civilization which has never attacked any other
civilization motivated by an impulse to convert. And further, Hindu
Civilization is the only civilization which has offered refuge to the
persecuted including Christian followers of Saint Thomas, the brother of
Jesus, Jews and Zoroastrians. In the modern days, India has given refuge
to the Buddhist Tibetans under the leadership of Dalai Lama, even at the
cost of giving rise to animosity with the nuclear power China. On the
other hand, pursuing monotheistic, 'mono' ideals, peace has never
prevailed in the Christian or Islamic world since their identities were
established. It was after all religious intolerance in Europe which
played a major role in motivating the early settlers to migrate to the
USA. Having suffered such religious persecution, the Founding Fathers of
the United States enshrined the concept of secularism in the U.S.
Constitution, giving birth to a multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation.
The evangelical agenda of Muslims and Christians has been antithetical
to peace throughout the annals of history. In nations West of India,
starting from Pakistan all the way to Algeria, and encompassing dozens
of Islamic nations where there are no Hindus, there have been
innumerable acts of violence under the banner of religion perpetrated by
Islamic sectarian groups or by the State. In the Christian world, but
for the prevalence of strong secular sentiments, the carnage would be
even greater, as the cases of Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Croatia and
Kosovo or East Timor suggest.
If our intent is to search out a path to peace while allowing freedom of
religious choice, just consider the proliferation of Yoga practitioners
in the United States. It is overwhelmingly practiced and promoted by
Euro-Americans who pursue the knowledge contained in Yoga books, which
constitute a part of Hindu sacred literature. There are no Hindu Gurus
watching over the shoulders of Yoga practitioners. Even when and where a
handful of Yoga teachers have come from India, they come empty-handed,
without credentials and with no monetary support or an army of
volunteers to convert people.
In this era of mass media and information technology, anyone desirous of
seeking knowledge of other faiths can do so. It is thus an act of
demeaning violence for missionaries to cross oceans with huge resources
and an army of trained cadres with the sole purpose of convincing people
to hate their own centuries-old religious traditions in order to entice
them to commit themselves to foreign gods whose history is besmirched in
blood.
The purpose of any spiritual pursuit, we would propose, is to achieve
inner peace of mind, which in turn promotes social harmony and peace.
Yet, ironically, for the last 2000 years, Jerusalem - the shared cradle
of Judaism, Christianity and Islam-- has been a center of violence
exceeding any other single place in the world. It is still boiling in
vibrations of hate. The very people who profess the rule of Law and
Justice, Love, Compassion and Brotherhood cannot practice and live in
peace to prove the viability of their own tenets and principles. What
chutzpah Christian missionaries or Islamic preachers must have to
promote their faiths as the means to salvation when for 2000 years they
have been lost in mutual hatred and violence.
