Religious pluralism
When a baby is born, if it is born to a Christian family it is baptized, if to a Hindu family then the family has a mundan ceremony, if to a Muslim family he is circumcised and the list of rituals goes on as per the religion. But the question is did the baby herself chose her religion??? No. It was just imposed upon her. This very child grows up learning about the rites and rituals that accompany her faith and grows to fall in love with it. This learning contributes to the individual that she turns out to be and this individual upholds her religion with utmost respect.
But somehow this honor and respect vanishes for someone else’s religion. Many turn out to be quite intolerant about other people’s faiths and their beliefs. They disregard what matters the most to others, make them the butt of all jokes, sneer at them and expect them not to react to any of this. This is the amount of tolerance one human being has for another’s beliefs! Many people uphold their denomination in high esteem and think themselves to possess absolute religious truth. They view other denominations as somewhat error prone or completely opposed to the truth.
We all pride ourselves at who we are, where we belong to, our caste, customs, sex, colour and what not. To the extent we restrict ourselves to marrying people within the same community because we fear what religion our children would adopt, we fear them not wanting to accept the religion which we have grown up with and more importantly we do not want to adjust with our partner’s beliefs. All across the world we know how one man’s hatred for the Jews led to mass murdering of innocent people and for what reason? Just because they chose to follow another God’s teachings??? We shiver at the very thought of the concentration camps started by the Nazis’, we hate the American government for what they are doing to Iran and Iraq, we cried along with the Americans when the twin towers came crashing down like a house of cards, we outrightly condemn the riots that go on in our country but do nothing to change the way people think. We think as long as we aren’t a part of it, it doesn’t matter. Well, it does matter.
This is where Religious Pluralism steps in-a small community on Orkut started by Supriya Tyagi (the owner of many communities on Orkut). Religious Pluralism is a loosely defined term which means tolerance towards other people’s religion. The aim of the community is to bring together people from diverse cultures and backgrounds on a common platform to share and discuss what they believe in. Although a small community, the message it sends out is quite large- to be respectful of one’s feelings and to sort out differences amicably.
Finally, I have just one thing to say. Not everyone is intolerant or insensitive. They are many great human beings who look beyond such petty issues. But unfortunately there are those who are still caught in the shackles of society. So the next time you decide to make fun of any one or be biased towards someone just because they chose to worship a different God or have a different set of beliefs, just ponder over this for a minute-what if you were born into that faith???
Link of the community Religious Pluralism
