Dear all citizens of my country,
I am writing this blogs because sometimes the religious extremism incidents like Dadri hurts me a lot. We are living in 21st century India because our forefathers worked hard, they did everything what they could do to make India in modern shape.
But when I hear the incidents like Indians killing Indians in name of religion/regions/customs/languages/castes/etc , i feel bad for everyone.
Before making my point let me show you the history of country name India.
India, a land of ancient civilization.
Its not certain what is accurate time of evolution of civilization in this subcontinent. Some say there is evidence of human activity in this subcontinent, as long as 75,000 years ago.
On records, Indus Valley Civilization is said to be oldest civilization in this subcontinent and the written Indian history begins with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization and the coming of the Aryans.
These two phases indus valley civilization and Aryan migration are usually described as the pre-Vedic and Vedic age respectively. Modern day Hinduism arose in the Vedic period, some scholars named it as vedic religion.
Vedic aryan were highly intelligent community. They mixed their religion with the local religion of subcontinent and gave the whole religion a new shape.
But still the vedic aryan religious customs were nominating in nature so local religions slowly started raising concerns and new branches of lcoal religions started emerging. One of the such branch was sraman.
The Sramanic traditions have a diverse range of beliefs, ranging from accepting or denying the concept of soul, fatalism to free will, wearing dress to complete nudity in daily social life, strict ahimsa (non-violence) and vegetarianism to permissibility of violence and meat-eating.
Some of the beliefs were contradictory to growing vedic brhamnic beliefs so there are various recorded events of religions conflict in history about sraman and brhamanic. But over the time both religions co-existed happily and prosperously.
Ashoka made the state policy and started spreading budhism in subcontinent and so the religious conflicts started rising between followers. But over the time both religions co-existed happily and prosperously.
It resulted into the formation of the Delhi Sultanate, which was finally succeeded by the Mughal Empire
Due to non-related method of worship and follow of different ideology, several incidents of conflicts are mentioned in history. Some say several temples have been destroyed, many innocents have been killed by few power hungry rulers in name of religion.
But due to efforts of rulers like Akbar over the time both religions co-existed happily and prosperously.
At that time, Sufi influence flooded South Asia with Sufi thought, literature, education, and entertainment. Sufi preachers, merchants and missionaries also settled in coastal Bengal and Gujarat through maritime voyages and trade.
There are a number of Sufi beliefs and practices that Orthodox muslim believe are "un-Islamic". Practices like celebration of the birthdays of sufi saints (Grave worshiping), Anasheed (poetry in praise of the Prophet), etc.
There are number of conflicts mentioned between orthodox muslims and sufism followers in history. But over the time both religions co-existed happily and prosperously in India.
At that time, some suspected soon there will be one more instability in country in name of religion/caste but due to efforts of our founding members of modern India like gandhi, patel and ambedkar all the communities in this country are living happily.
Modern India's social, economic, and cultural configurations are the products of a long process of regional expansion and religious harmony.
This country has seen various flavours of religions and customs during time to time. Each time it has absorbed the true meaning from the religion and thrown away the negatives.
There are various rulers like ashoka, akbar and raja ram mohan rai who helped in making this soceity in a better shape.
There were days of religions harmony in this country when people were not so educated. People were not aware of mobile phone, television, cars, pizzas but people knew the meaning of value of human life.
This country was famous for 'Ganga Jamuni' Tahjib. Those were the days when Muslims celebrated raam leela and Hindus participated in Eid.
But its sad to mention that we are going to become more intolerant in the name of development and modernization. Nowadays the religious tensions in this country are common (specially in seasons of elections).
From the previous historical records we have seen that this country have faced various religious conflicts and other issues and each time it has risen stronger than before.
India is a colourful garden of different flowers and each flower has its own uniqueness. I strongly believe Most of the people in this country are peaceful and believe in togetherness and religious harmony but sometimes brainwashed by few bad people.
Hope one day few bad people will also understand this.
I am closing this post with my favorite poem from Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri :
"Sar Zameen-e-Hind par aqwaam-e-Alam ke Firaq, Qafile guzarte gaye, Hindustan banta gaya"
Jai Hind.
I am writing this blogs because sometimes the religious extremism incidents like Dadri hurts me a lot. We are living in 21st century India because our forefathers worked hard, they did everything what they could do to make India in modern shape.
But when I hear the incidents like Indians killing Indians in name of religion/regions/customs/languages/castes/etc , i feel bad for everyone.
Before making my point let me show you the history of country name India.
What is India ?
India, a land of ancient civilization.
Its not certain what is accurate time of evolution of civilization in this subcontinent. Some say there is evidence of human activity in this subcontinent, as long as 75,000 years ago.
On records, Indus Valley Civilization is said to be oldest civilization in this subcontinent and the written Indian history begins with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization and the coming of the Aryans.
These two phases indus valley civilization and Aryan migration are usually described as the pre-Vedic and Vedic age respectively. Modern day Hinduism arose in the Vedic period, some scholars named it as vedic religion.
Vedic aryan were highly intelligent community. They mixed their religion with the local religion of subcontinent and gave the whole religion a new shape.
But still the vedic aryan religious customs were nominating in nature so local religions slowly started raising concerns and new branches of lcoal religions started emerging. One of the such branch was sraman.
Religious conflicts between sraman and brahminism
The source of Sramana tradition is mentioned in 8th-century BCE in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, but the term later evolved to mean a variety of heterodox Indian religious traditions such as Jainism 6th-century BCE and others such as Ajivika.The Sramanic traditions have a diverse range of beliefs, ranging from accepting or denying the concept of soul, fatalism to free will, wearing dress to complete nudity in daily social life, strict ahimsa (non-violence) and vegetarianism to permissibility of violence and meat-eating.
Some of the beliefs were contradictory to growing vedic brhamnic beliefs so there are various recorded events of religions conflict in history about sraman and brhamanic. But over the time both religions co-existed happily and prosperously.
Religious conflicts between budhism and brahminism
The 2nd century BCE saw the unification of India under Ashoka, who had converted to Buddhism, and it is in his reign that Buddhism spread in many parts of Asia.Ashoka made the state policy and started spreading budhism in subcontinent and so the religious conflicts started rising between followers. But over the time both religions co-existed happily and prosperously.
Religious conflicts between muslim and hinduism
In the eighth century Islam came to India for the first time and by the eleventh century had firmly established itself in India as a political force.It resulted into the formation of the Delhi Sultanate, which was finally succeeded by the Mughal Empire
Due to non-related method of worship and follow of different ideology, several incidents of conflicts are mentioned in history. Some say several temples have been destroyed, many innocents have been killed by few power hungry rulers in name of religion.
But due to efforts of rulers like Akbar over the time both religions co-existed happily and prosperously.
Religious conflicts between muslim and sufism
Sufi mystic traditions entered in India during the 10th and 11th centuries of the Delhi Sultanate. A conglomeration of four chronologically separate dynasties, the early Delhi Sultanate consisted of rulers from Turkic and Afghan lands.At that time, Sufi influence flooded South Asia with Sufi thought, literature, education, and entertainment. Sufi preachers, merchants and missionaries also settled in coastal Bengal and Gujarat through maritime voyages and trade.
There are a number of Sufi beliefs and practices that Orthodox muslim believe are "un-Islamic". Practices like celebration of the birthdays of sufi saints (Grave worshiping), Anasheed (poetry in praise of the Prophet), etc.
There are number of conflicts mentioned between orthodox muslims and sufism followers in history. But over the time both religions co-existed happily and prosperously in India.
Partition of India in name of religion or greed of few power hungry people?
In 1947, one more time few power greedy people proposed the two nation theory, Most of the muslims didn't prefer to go to pakistan because they loved this country like their mother land.At that time, some suspected soon there will be one more instability in country in name of religion/caste but due to efforts of our founding members of modern India like gandhi, patel and ambedkar all the communities in this country are living happily.
Modern India's social, economic, and cultural configurations are the products of a long process of regional expansion and religious harmony.
This country has seen various flavours of religions and customs during time to time. Each time it has absorbed the true meaning from the religion and thrown away the negatives.
There are various rulers like ashoka, akbar and raja ram mohan rai who helped in making this soceity in a better shape.
There were days of religions harmony in this country when people were not so educated. People were not aware of mobile phone, television, cars, pizzas but people knew the meaning of value of human life.
This country was famous for 'Ganga Jamuni' Tahjib. Those were the days when Muslims celebrated raam leela and Hindus participated in Eid.
But its sad to mention that we are going to become more intolerant in the name of development and modernization. Nowadays the religious tensions in this country are common (specially in seasons of elections).
From the previous historical records we have seen that this country have faced various religious conflicts and other issues and each time it has risen stronger than before.
India is a colourful garden of different flowers and each flower has its own uniqueness. I strongly believe Most of the people in this country are peaceful and believe in togetherness and religious harmony but sometimes brainwashed by few bad people.
Hope one day few bad people will also understand this.
I am closing this post with my favorite poem from Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri :
"Sar Zameen-e-Hind par aqwaam-e-Alam ke Firaq, Qafile guzarte gaye, Hindustan banta gaya"
Jai Hind.
