As a nation we have been pandering to religious sentiments for too long. Right from the days of Partition, the various riots, the demolition of the Babri Majid, the Gujarat riots and beyond, the trail of violence and loss of lives and properties caused as a result of religion is too large to document. Even the father of the nation was eliminated by religious fanatics. Religious bigotry did not spare artist M.F. Husain who was forced to seek asylum. Rationalist Sanal Edamaruku is in self-imposed exile after his criticism of a miracle. Salman Rushdie had to be in hiding for several years. There has been the physical elimination of intellectuals such as Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. The ‘graded inequality’ among people of the same religion imposed by the caste system — and despite legislation banning it — continues to inflict unspeakable misery on a significant section of the people to this day. It is shocking that a Central Minister implies that students should accept god without critical examination. Non-believers are dubbed as being immoral or evil. It is time that we started exposing our children to rationalism so that they can evaluate its merits and choose for themselves what to believe in. ‘Forget god, consider man’ is good advice as humanism is the only way which will take mankind towards peace and progress.
K. Natarajan,
Madurai