Religion and Rebellion

It seems, that everywhere we turn to nowadays we are assaulted by news, views, reviews, postviews, discussions and what not, where giving the piece of news a religious connotation has become
an unwritten norm. We have the liberals, the leftists, the rightists, the pacifists, the so-called
seculars pushing their views on religion and religious activities down our throat. To me, my faith and
my religion is such a personal belief that all such loud and public discourses are akin to washing dirty
laundry in public. In this never ending debate on religion and the quest for personal one-upmanship,
it has become so much essential to go back to our roots and take a critical look at what made us
what we are.
Almost all of the oldest religions still being practiced today like Judaism, Hinduism and
Zoroastrianism have a strong foundation of worshipping of the elements i.e Sun, Water, Earth, Fire
etc. The people then, were in complete harmony with the nature. Gradually almost all these
religions/ faiths started including some form of idol-worship, rituals, practices and so-on.
With increasing rational thought different points of views arose which led to challenging the current
faiths and beliefs and some more off-shoots of faith and religion sprung forth. Buddhism, Christianity
and Islam have risen from rebellion. The founding fathers rebelled against the then order, influenced
followers and established a new order. New Faiths and Religions were born. This is what humanity is
all about. Humanity is about challenging the current order with rational thought, and establishing
new contemporary practices.
Change is the only constant in this world. I believe the conflict today is again between the
rationalists and the traditionalists. To everyone faith is a matter of personal choice, which has to be
respected.
In a world where media is truly responsible, we may read news like Man lynched by a group of boys.
All accused arrested instead of Hindu Man lynched by a group of Muslim boys. All accused
arrested. Another item like School boys thrashed for refusing to shout slogans instead of Muslim
boys thrashed for refusing to shout slogans. The Feminism wave has had such an impact in the
media, we have become almost gender-neutral. Words like Chairperson, Actor etc are absolutely
gender neutral. Is it not the time for the media to show similar largesse and become religion-neutral
too?
At the same time, is it not the time for us to question our own blind faiths and beliefs before
condemning the belief of every other Tom, Dick and Harry. Rebellious and brave people in the recent
history have pulled our country through strict dogmas like Sati, Child Marriages and many more.
Today, too there is a need to pull not only our country but the world through issues like Global
Warming, Epidemics and Wars. With such serious issues confronting us, we seem quite content and
happy in pointing fingers and criticizing each other religious beliefs.
Maybe the need of the hour is to completely reinvent what religion should mean to humanity as a
whole. Let all our religious monuments be monuments of history, culture and faith showcasing the
progress of humanity. Let our religion be simply our individual faith. But what we should collectively
conserve is this nature which is the very cause of our existence.
And that maybe will complete the circle and take us back to where we all came from in the first
place!
Yogeeta Deshmukh