SONGSOPTOK: To what extent do
you practice ‘religious tolerance’? Since when (how long ago)?
ANINDA GHOSH: A question too difficult to reply. First
question that comes up is, what is religious tolerance? In Tata Steel
employment form, I wrote my religion as Humanism. Several of my marriage
alliances broke off, as I declared my inclination to Communism n atheism. Even
during my journey thru agnostics I started Namaj every Jummabar & fell in
love for beef, & then fell in for
Baptism. My intolerance has been conspicuous to all religions as a rationalist
leftist. As a socialist, I have never belonged to any religion , although some
protestant softness still plays with my core.
SONGSOPTOK: Do you believe all
religions are the same?
ANINDA GHOSH: My wife is a
spiritual person & sometimes, I get weak momentarily at churches,
mosques, dargahs n temples; but I tide over those reactionary trends. To me,
all religions are same venomous opium,
same toxic drug. I feel, all religions
have faith in universe as the advaita of Hindu, Allah of Islam , Dvaita of Vaishnavism, Buddhism /
Jainism’s salvation. I believe, Christianity is what Gandhi preached n
practiced & to me, Krishna is
Mohammad’s fierce manifestation of imposition of power n authority over the weak n downtrodden.
SONGSOPTOK: In case you practice religion, do you
consider all your religious beliefs to be true? What about those of others?
ANINDA GHOSH: The question does not arise at all. My wife recites Gita n Chandi
too well, despite never visiting any temple. Thru me, she got closer to
Christianity, when I used to read Bible & she used to listen patiently. Her
first 2 books show great influence of Christianity
on her writing. Both of us are too close to many Muslim friends off Bangladesh.
But, on the whole, I still believe Hinduism to be a very
tolerant religion. As ,in City of Joy Dominic Lapiere said—for Hindus,
Paygambar or Jesus can be 2 avatars. There are sarbojonin Jeesupuja I have seen
in Kabardanga as back as in 1994. It is the reactionary VHP n RSS that are
polluting the sacred strings of
Vedic religion.
SONGSOPTOK: Do you believe that all faiths are equally beneficial
and equally harmless to society?
ANINDA GHOSH: Any
stubborn faith is harmful. Catholic church that disallows abortion is so very
dangerously harmful to a pregnant mom… as per
me, every faith has an inherent indulgence to radical extremism & fanatics are always unreasoning n irrational.
As said Tagore, Religion is to impart
newer n newer lessons in life. Just go
thru a text by Romain Rolland, I understand by that—quite independently of all
dogma, of all Credo, of every Church organization, of every Holy Book, of all
hope in a personal survival, etc.—the simple and direct fact of
the sensation of the "eternal" (which may very well not be
eternal, but simply without perceptible limits, and in that way oceanic). The
sensation is, as a matter of fact, subjective in character. . . .
I, myself, am familiar with this sensation. Throughout my whole
life I have never lacked it; and I have always found it a source of vital
renewal. In this sense I can say that I am profoundly
"religious"—without this constant state (like an underground bed of
water which I feel surfacing under the bark) in any way harming my critical
faculties and my freedom to exercise them—even if against the immediacy of this
internal experience. Thus I carry on simultaneously, freely and smoothly, a
"religious" life (in the sense of this prolonged sensation) and a
life of critical reason (which is without illusion). . . .
As per Romain, Spontaneous religious sensation, intimate
sublime bond with one’s surrounding ,
was a prolonged intuitive feeling of contact with immense forces. The oceanic
feeling was connected with an energy that surpassed traditional categories of
time, space, and causality. It transcended limits, empirical boundaries, and
scientific definitions. It had nothing to do with organized religion or faith
in personal salvation. It promised to be a spontaneous source of action and
thought that might regenerate decadent Europe and the underdeveloped nations of
the world. We seem to diverge rather far in the role we assign to intuition.
Your mystics rely on it to teach them how to solve the riddle of the universe;
we believe that it cannot reveal to us anything but primitive, instinctual
impulses and attitudes—highly valuable for an when correctly interpreted, but
worthless for orientation in the alien, external world.[8]
Religion was, to him,
soul’s mystic fantasy with the whole ,
the universe…And a child, thrashed to
Ramkrishna Vivekanadism , I grew a penchant for
a great Hindu heart till I passed Secondary exam. As I joined college,
religion turned to a bane to me from a boon of bounties.
SONGSOPTOK: Do you believe all religious groups are
equally beneficial and equally harmless to their followers?
ANINDA GHOSH: I grew up in the vicinity of RK Mission,
Bharat Sevashram, Mohananada, Anukul Thakur, Anandamargee, Onkarnath, Ram
Thakur & Anandamayee. Later on, I met with the groups of Ramdev, Sri Sri
& South’s multiple sects. Some prevent bleeding
ladies from entering temples , they wear black dresses for months, do
not take non veg n liqour & go on pilgrimage to Ayappaswamy temple inside
dense forest. There are different Lingayat sects , whose godmen are worshipped
by all sect people. Then there are Iyers vs Iyengars. When I was studying CA Finals n after I
passed, India was divided by Mondalites & upper castes. I saw those
hatreds, I saw Ranveer sena killing Harijans & revenges. I saw the madness among CAs that
made them radical Hindus devoid of rational
thinking, who all spake the VHP n RSS
language of Hindus winning over Muslim atrocities in Kashi, Mathura,
Aurangabad…When in 1st year
of B.Com, I saw our neighboring Sikh family carnaged by
wildly lunatic Congress hooligans . Last
few years , I have seen enough
atrocities on scheduled castes n tribes n found many tribal girls going to last
red light refuges. Over years I have seen several close aboriginal families
losing land, livelihood, everything….and I have seen Taslimadi running in fear
of life from 1 country to another & WB CM patronizing radical Muslim hooligans for cheap electoral
gains. I have seen all the blood oozing in streets of Dhaka to Karnataka n
Maharashtra , where a Lingayat rationalist
is murdered for speaking against the clan’s vices.
Nowhere I could find benefits & harmless nature of any religious
group. I personally escaped from attacks by fanatic tribal Christians
when Bible was burning , just because we protested against the fanatic
Christian fathers preaching faith healing of blindness , deafness, dumbness, paralysis…yaa, ABVP guys
saved us.
SONGSOPTOK: Should members of any given religious group
refrain from criticizing religious practices of others?
ANINDA GHOSH: I feel so. There should be a limit. We have to
admit that Brahma sect came with greatness of Islam & Constantinople renaissance..
Widow marriage & end of Sati were great social revolutions. But when vices
are not so horrible, UR Anathmurthy’s utterance
of humiliating stances against
Hindu sects may not be correct. I
also visit Gods in temples , but find it
humorous to stand in long queues to offer pujas, but is it possible for
an individual to stop stampedes at kumbhs, where people die while assembling in lacs for an
early moksha just by bath!!!! I could
not change my mom’s superstition that
daily sinners’ sins can be washed
off by 6 visits to Puri/ Varanasi /
chaar dhaams. A movement is needed on a large scale to obliterate all such
superstitions. Ghar wapasi started off with a bang of serial tortures on SC/ST Christians &
Muslims . And why to restrict the dialog to religious curtains?? Dalits
in India are disallowed to touch high caste wells’
water, dalit students need to sweep / scavenge sewages, dalit girls
are raped left n right without reporting. Dalit administrators are
humiliated by caste Hindu ministers…Veg culture of caste Hindus are imposed on lower castes, who love non veg. As a nation India is too poor in world giving
index & world happiness index; we should
have minimum tolerance towards diversity , without imitating Saudi/ Iran/ Pakistan, to uphold
the secular structure, as people do in times of natural calamities.
SONGSOPTOK: Do you usually refrain from talking about
your beliefs to others? Should you be ignoring your own religious ideas?
ANINDA GHOSH: I have
no defined positive religious belief. I feel, even
Vivekananda was a Marxist & all religions should prima facie aim at an egalitarian society’s equitable demography. Prior to Feudalism,
religiocracy had a more equity in society.
I personally feel, what was
practiced in USSR / China in terms of restriction on religious practices /
rituals , should be partially imposed in India.
Surprisingly, any boy/ girl getting a chance in an engg/ medical college
thru quota is ostracized &
surprisingly Salman Rushdie is not allowed in any litfest incl Jaipur,
while leftist & rational film makers & literary achievers refuse
invitations. There must be freedom for me to adhere to my atheism/ different
religious faith & all rationalists
must have courage to stand up( like Mahasweta Devi with her 1084’s mom novel ,
against the mass murders of Naxalites) against
irrational laws post Shah Banu verdict. Muslim n Christian fanatics must
not be allowed to make riots at the drop
of a tiny hat against Mohammed/ Jesus. If Shariat is banned in several Islamic nations, it must be banned in India.
Surprisingly, leftists & rightists alike fear telling anything against the
maulavis. My personal choice is a free n
fair dialog n debate on people’s multiple faiths.
SONGSOPTOK: What are the
different ways religious tolerance, including secularism, can help (or hurt)
the demands of a complex world?
ANINDA GHOSH: Secularism can be defined by the following Khajurao structure
in Indian context. According to Vivekananda, religion is the manifestation of
the Divinity already in man. He also told, religion is the idea which raises
the brute unto man, and man unto God. As I already said, Secularism in
India means equal treatment of all religions by the state. Unlike the
Western concept of secularism which envisions
a separation of religion and state, the concept of secularism in India
envisions acceptance of religious laws as
binding on the state, and equal participation of state in different religions.
A
19th-century Hindu temple in Khajuraho India, incorporating a Hindu spire, a
Jain cupola, a Buddhist stupa and a Muslim style dome, in place of the usualshikharas
West is more tolerant n stands higher in giving index because
its belly is full n not hungry. India is illiterate
SONGSOPTOK: Should ‘religious tolerance’ be a part of the
school curricula?
ANINDA GHOSH:
The seed is put in the ground,
and earth and air and water are placed around it.
Does the seed become the earth;
or the air, or the water?
No. It becomes a plant,
it develops after the law of its own growth,
assimilates the air, the earth, and the water,
converts them into plant substance,
and grows into a plant.
Similar is the case with religion.
and earth and air and water are placed around it.
Does the seed become the earth;
or the air, or the water?
No. It becomes a plant,
it develops after the law of its own growth,
assimilates the air, the earth, and the water,
converts them into plant substance,
and grows into a plant.
Similar is the case with religion.
This piece by Swamy Vivekananda
& Ramakrishna’s theory of all beliefs leading equal ladders to
salvation are to be inculcated in the brains of teachers.. A
child is taught in this nation to hate
another caste’s / religion’s child &
95% Indian households do not believe in inter-religion/ intyer-caste
marriages. Even so called secular govts have never tried to bridge such gaps.
SONGSOPTOK: Religious acceptance and bigotry appear to be
the two sides of a coin (unbiased). People are equally likely to choose one
over the other. Do you agree with that observation? Please explain.
ANINDA GHOSH: As you are born into a family in a 3rd world nation, where sanitation is not a way
of pure life, religion becomes immature
refuge of your scoundrels to thrive on
your illiterate emotional idiocy.
Basics of Manubaad come in much bigger package compared to
Chaturbarna & you are shckled under
wheels of religious rituals n
fanaticism, be it Raamkatha, Keertan or Shivjagna…. The
great Vaishnav heart is gone, where love is the only human
religion, Lalon is not loved, Kabir is not adored & people start believing YSR died only because he challenged the
richest deity of d world. People start believing, Ganesh drinks milk. Such
fanatics lead to bigotry & all
riots…. Dadri carnage of killing a poor muslim in sheer doubt of his eating / stocking beef.
We sincerely thank you for your time and hope we shall have your
continued support.
Subhodev Das
(Chief Advisor: Songsoptok)
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