The harsh reality is that, it’s high time that religious people realised one basic truth – every religious text & tradition is offensive, blasphemous & heretical to the followers of other religions & sects – period! Thus the right to critique & the right to offend are an inalienable part of the right to religious freedom & free speech! In fact, ironically, this is more to the benefit of religious believers, than those who really do not have a strong religious belief system.
In our modern times, this ancient tradition of challenging Sanatan Caste hegemony, has been led by reformists such as Mahatma Jotiba Phule, Mahatma Gandhi, Ramaswami Periyar & Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar to only name a few. In today’s vituperative, volatile & highly polarised climate, their writings will be deemed as blasphemous and offensive by many. Thus a law that supports Blasphemy will prove to be highly damaging for the Dalit/OBC/Adivasi religio-cultural movements, as they challenge the dominant Manuwadi historical & religio-cultural landscape of Indian society.
Thus to simply just state that all religions share the same values, is just not true, never has been. Yes, there are certain fundamental commonalities, but there are certain fundamental differences as well. The various religions arose at different periods of humanity, in different regions and religio-cultural-socio-economic-political contexts, thus the teachings will differ, at times also oppositional, and so will the texts and scriptures.
On the other hand to only speak of mere religious tolerance too will not suffice. It’s not about tolerance, but acceptance. The time has come for people across religions to accept that apart from their own, there are other paths to salvation. That the path that we have chosen to walk along, is just one among the many paths that will lead humanity towards our collective salvation. Even as we each undergo that journey, let us continue to debate, critique & even offend each other, helping each other on our way………
12/06/2022
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