Author Name:   Tanu Rathor

Article is based on the name of religion. Special emphasis is given on Saharanpur Riots.

Religion: Nurturing Crime And Ravaging Humanity

‘Before Becoming, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Sikh or a Christian let’s become human first’ - - Guru Nanak Dev Ji

Origin of Religion
Every religion is divided into theory and practice. According to Sankhya philosophy, the combination of three things composes nature, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas.

Sattva is the quality of balance, harmony, goodness, purity, constructive, creative, building, positive, peaceful, and virtuous.

Rajas are excellence in passion, activity, neither good nor bad and sometimes either, self-centeredness, driven, moving, individualizing, and dynamic.

Tamas is the quality of imbalance, disorder, chaos, anxiety, impure, destructive, delusion, negative, dull or inactive, apathy, inertia or lethargy, violent, vicious, and ignorant.

Some believe religion was derived from element worship others thought that religion was derived from ancestor worship. In the whole world, religion is the only science where there is no guarantee because it is not taught as a science of experience. Nevertheless, there is always a small group of men who teach religion from experience. They are called mystics, and these mystics in every religion teach the same truth and speak the same tongue. This is the real science of religion. They are all similarly constituted and situated. Their same experiences become laws.

Religion under our Constitution
The term ‘religion’ is not defined under our Constitution and indeed it is a term which is hardly susceptible to any rigid definition. The Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976 has inserted the word ‘secular’ in the Preamble. This amendment is intended merely to spell out clearly the concept ‘secularism’ in the Constitution. There is no mysticism in the secular character of State. In India, a Secular State was never considered as an irreligious or atheistic State. It only means in matters of religion it is neutral. The ancient Doctrine in India is that the State protects every religion but interferes in none. In a Secular State, the state is only concerned with the relation between man and man. It is not concerned with the relation between man and God. It is left to the individual’s conscience.

In the leading case of S.R Bommai v. Union of India the Supreme Court had held that

“Secularism is a basic feature of the Constitution. The State treats equally all religions and religious denominations. Religion is a matter of individual faith and cannot be mixed with secular activities. Secular activities can be regulated by the State by enacting laws. Justice Ramaswami observed that ‘Secularism is not anti-God’. In the Indian context, secularism has a positive content. The Indian Constitution embodies the positive concept of secularism and has not accepted the American doctrine of secularism, i.e., the concept of erecting ‘a wall of separation between Religion and State”.

Article 25(1) guarantees to every person the freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practice, and propagate religion. The Right guaranteed under Article 25 (1) like other Constitutional rights is not absolute. This right is subject to public order, morality, and health and to other provisions of Part III of the Constitution.

Communal Clashes
Saharanpur has been in the hold of caste violence from past two months. On 24 May 2017, one person died of gunshot wounds and at least 20 people were injured in conflict. The members of Thakur and Dalit Community are creating violence in the Uttar Pradesh. The clashes started on April 14 when BJP MP Raghav Lakhanpal and other party leaders took out the ‘Ambedkar Shobha Yatra’. The population of the village is 8,000 among which 25 per cent are Dalits. The Ambedkar Jayanti Shobha Yatra is a non-religious procession which is organized to celebrate ‘Ambedkar Jayanti’ which was not allowed to be taken out in the village for a decade because the area was seen as communally sensitive. Like previous years, the local police had not granted permission for the yatra this time as well.

In last December, in Dhulagarh, a town in Kolkata has faced communal clashes that saw people’s houses and shops were set on fire and 69 Muslim people were killed by Hindu mob. According to a report, 65 people were arrested. On the night of 12 December, 2016 two groups (Hindu and Muslim) clashed, they hurled the bomb at each other and the angry mob also looted and torched people’s home. “My house, shops were set on fire. This entire lane was set on fire. The temple nearby was attacked with at least 25 bombs. This went on for 3-4 hours,” Khara stated (resident of Dhulgarh). The court called it a “darkest day in the history of civil society”.

Only 30 per cent of cattle are slaughtered for the purpose of meat rest 70 per cent is used for the trading of the carcass. Most of those 30 per cent is Buffalo because the cow is totally banned except in five states. Cow vigilantes are the people, who address themselves as cow protectors (gau rakshaks) and saviors of Hindu religion. A 50-year Pehlu Khan was killed by the mob, while he was transporting cows for his dairy farm. He was beaten up mercilessly and he died of his wounds after two days.

There are various such clashes, which occur almost every year or many in one year in the name of religion. It is quite impossible to believe that people in the 21st century still favor religious obligations rather than humanity. People are killing each other in the name of God. Although many legends have taught us there is nothing over humanity, but still, people fail to understand and try to act as protectors of religion.

Institutionalized Riot Systems
According to Paul Brass (1997), the causes of riots are because of ‘institutionalized riot systems’. Institutionalized Riot System explains the dramatic production of riots invented by Paul Brass. He has divided it into three phases, preparation, activation, and explanation. There are informal networks that functions on ‘established links of communication’ nevertheless the community is aware of roles that will play by each person during the riot. Even those rioters are certainly known by the police and local authorities. Sometimes the local authorities are politicians, who usually do such things to assert opposition party. There are the miscellaneous set of ‘specialists’ who take on different roles like fire tenders, who await the chance of riot by keeping the level of communal relation in the state of tension and another who work at disseminating rumors and inciting violence among the general public.

The two major massacre after independence India – the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 2002 anti-Muslim Gujarat riots – are stellar examples of ‘riots’ that were well-organized and also the involvement of local authorities. However, the police either played mute spectators or were themselves involved in the riots.

Conclusion
According to World Report 2016, many Dalit and Muslim men were killed by Hindu vigilant groups across the country, over suspicions that they had slaughtered the cow or have stolen beef. A 2016 report on caste-based discrimination by the UN special rapporteur on minority issues noted, that, caste-affected groups continue to suffer exclusion and dehumanization. It also stated, “The violence took place amid an aggressive push by several BJP leaders and militant Hindu groups to protect cows and ban beef consumption.” The question is not about BJP leaders or Congress leaders, it’s about political leaders. Why political leaders provoke mob to go against another caste or religion? Nevertheless, our Constitution is completely a secular constitution but why these politicians aren’t secular? Every party favors one caste or religion only to make votes. However, not all riots involve this degree of organization and even organized riots take on ‘spontaneous’ actions.

ISBN No: 978-81-928510-1-3
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