Author: Roshan Attrey
Publication: The Charlotte Observer
Date: April 21, 2003
URL: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/opinion/5679830.htm
A wide array of faiths find acceptance,
respect and constitutional protection
A land of a billion people, speaking
in 15 major languages and a thousand dialects, worshipping in eight major
and countless minor religious traditions, India offers a compass to the
world, especially to the Middle East, showing how to restrain the sword
of religious- political fundamentalism and how to coexist in relative harmony.
After centuries of foreign rule,
India has emerged as a unique model of secular democracy and pluralism
in the post-colonial world. Fifty-five years ago, 565 princely states and
13 British-ruled states became united into one sovereign nation, with a
secular democracy as its constitution's primary guiding principle.
The single-most defining element
of the Indian democracy is the acceptance of all religions in the nation's
constitution, granting explicit freedom to all its citizens and residents
to practice their faiths without violating the others' right to do so.
It is from this explicit freedom that citizens experience other freedoms
necessary to realize their lives. In stark contrast to some 90 percent
of the nations of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, India
guarantees that right.
More importantly, the Indian democracy
provides mechanisms, available in a secular democracy, to temper extremism
and intolerance inherent in most religions; it leads diverse religious
communities, especially the Hindu majority, to accept that the well being
of all human beings consists in respecting the others' religious (and civil)
rights, particularly that of minorities.
Despite many difficulties, such
as communal and fundamentalist violence in Punjab and Gujarat and the cross-border
terrorism in Kashmir, India has managed to focus on the people's development,
harnessing their energies for industrial, scientific, technological, and
educational development, thus emerging as a vibrant democracy and a major
economic power in Asia.
India is home to all major religions
of the world -- those born there: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism,
and those brought from outside by missionaries, colonial rulers, invaders
and immigrants: Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Zoroastrianism.
Hinduism, the majority religion,
has evolved over the millennia in response to internal changes and external
incursions. Striving to find a common ground with all other religions,
barring recent flare- ups of Hindu fundamentalism, it has effectively negotiated
transitions to modernity and western secular democracy.
Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, minority
religions, remain linked to Hinduism to the extent their followers in India
have considered it valuable. These religions have developed -- and are
presented as related to or independent of Hinduism -- according to their
leaders' and theologians' sociopolitical and religious agendas as well
as their religious and secular experiences.
Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak as
part of a large Indian protestant movement in 15th century, became militant
under Guru Gobind Singh, 10th and last guru to defend India and Hinduism
against increasing oppression by Muslim rulers. Preaching God's unity and
equality of all human beings, Sikhism remains committed to the nation's
secular democracy.
Buddhism and Jainism, founded long
before Christ, have influenced India and Hinduism with their extraordinary
emphasis on compassion and nonviolence; they remain free from conflict
with the majority religion.
The greatest challenge to India's
faiths and culture came from immigrant religions.
Foreign incursions and invasions
brought with them religions from the Middle East, Iran and the West. Though
proven divisive to India, these religions have become rooted in the soil
of India and provide meaning and guidance to the millions who follow them
and also conform to the concept of pluralism and a secular democracy.
Christianity landed on the shores
of India through the Disciple Thomas. Jews too settled in India from very
early times. Over the centuries the Judaic-Christian religions have come
to feel at home in India; Mother Teresa and her gospel of selfless love
are as Indian as Gandhi and his nonviolence.
The Zoroastrians, known as the Parsi
community, left Iran or Persia over a thousand years ago because of Muslim
invasions and settled in the Bombay area. Famous Parsi names, such as Tata,
General Manekshaw, Homi Bhabha and Zubin Mehta, remind us of the success
of Indian pluralism.
Of all non-native religions, Islam
has impacted India most.
It brought about centuries of Muslim
rule and a massive conversion of the native population, leading eventually
to the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh as Muslim countries. However,
choosing secular democracy and embracing all religions and ethnicities,
India has the second largest Muslim community in the world.
After centuries of ongoing negotiations
with the native religions and culture, Islam has blossomed in India, becoming
part of the Indian way of thinking, music, art and architecture. Zakir
Hussain, Mohammed Rafi, Shabana Azmi and Shahrukh Khan, to name a few,
dominate the Indian arts, music and film industry and have become icons
for Indians of all stripes.
This is secularism and pluralism
at work. Indian Muslims are different, as Thomas Friedman argues, from
those of other countries largely because of the democratic institutions
that have developed in the country. They are progressive and conform to
pluralism and secular democracy.
Eventually, India has become a truly
multicultural and multireligious society. Barring occasional religious
and communal conflicts, a billion people continue to live quite peacefully.
Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians
and all others share a common bond of Indianness and find secular democracy
as the only viable institution that can rein in religious-political fundamentalism
and hold the nation together.
(Roshan Attrey is chairman of the
Department of English at Livingstone College and a member of the Mayor's
International Cabinet in Charlotte. Write him at rattrey@aol.com.)
