One Religion, One Caste, One God For Mankind - Essay, UPSC MAINS | Course for UPPSC Preparation - UPPSC (UP) PDF Download

One Religion, One Caste, One God For Mankind

structure

(1) Opening    —    Quote

    —    Present scenario

(2) Body    —    Violence in religion’s name

    —    Failure to understand real meaning of religious teachings

    —    Ethnic cleansing

        * Yugoslavia. Rwanda/Brundei

    —    Social relations fractured

    —    Caste identity being crystallized as political entity

    —    Human values supreme

    —    Caste/religions distinctions against truth and non-violence.

(3) Closing    —    One religion and one caste—mankind.

    —    One god—love and truth.

“One caste, one religion, one God, for man. Whatever be the religion, man should be better”.

Great Men die, but their words are cherished for ever. So are the immortal words spoken by Sree Narayana Guru—they appear so relevant today in the age of increasing religious fundamentalism, unabated caste-wars and ethnic conflicts. Christ taught—”Love thy neighbour as you love yourself”. Confucius taught—‘Do not do to others what you won’t want others to do to you”. Today, men pray to Christ in churches, they visit Confucius’ village but they have forgotten their words. Someone rightly remarked—”It is the work of men of God to teach Godly way, but man goes his mainly ways—crooked and bloody”. What is the world we are heading for where a man’s identity is known not by his being a man but by the way he prays or the family he is born in?

Religion does not teach hatred. It doesn’t crave for human blood. Then, why does human being create differences, maim and kill others in its name? All through the centuries, we find that religion was used as a tool by a few vested interests to serve their own selfish motive. Be it the crusades of Middle Ages or Partition of India in the modern age, religion came as a handy tool for a few to instigate many and further their own ends.

Today, we find this dangerous process being revived in India. In the name of God, people are being made to break law and break other’s hearts too. Law can be protected by force but what can be done about the broken hearts and fractured relations. A brutal form that this has taken is ethnic cleansing taking place in former Yugoslavia. Men are being butchered, women raped and children maimed, with no signs of remorse or regret shown by the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.

As if religious terrorism and violence was not suffi cient, another monster that is raising its ugly head is casteism. Not that it did not exist before. In fact, through cent-uries, if Indian people have held steadfastly something, it is their caste. Caste, by itself, may not have been consi-dered bad had it remained simply a group to give identity and develop close relations. But the concepts of superiority with restrictions on inter-dining and inter-marriage have given it a grotesque shape. So much so that the life of so-called untouchables was turned completely inh-uman and demeaning—no better than that of an animal. Today unscrupulous politicians have found in caste a handy tool to rouse sentiments and help them in elections.

Caste and religious distinctions have turned our society into a divided lot. We have forgotten the basic human values of love and sacrifice. The distinctions themselves are irrational, obscurantist and immoral. How can a person be given a lowly status just because he is born in a so-called ‘low-caste’ family? Is his merit, his intellectual ability, his hard work of no value? Why do we forget that it is our skills, our knowledge, our hard work that have brought our civilization to this level, not our religion or our caste.

Gandhiji condemned caste distinctions as unethical and against the tenets of non-violence and truth. How can a man call himself truthful when he denies the most important truth—that all men are equal. About secularism he said if I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. But today we find that the foundations of our state are sought to be laid on religion. Our social fabric and national identity are at a dangerous cross road.

Today, what we require is love, understanding and tolerance. We are human beings first and our first and foremost duty is to help in progress of mankind. The artificial distinctions of caste, religion should not be made to divide us. Today we require faith in one god—truth and nonviolence, one religion—love, and one caste—mankind.