Religious Diversity in India
Introduction:
India
has no state religion, it is a many religious secular state. It is the land of
where almost all the major religious of the world are practiced by their
respective followers. Nevertheless the religious diversity has been a major
source of disunity and disharmony in the country. This is because in India
religious affiliation appears to be overemphasized and many a time people seem
to forget the national unity and express their loyalty trust more towards their
own religion.
The glaring example of such feeling
is the partition of our country due to the development of the two nation
theory. But the matter has not ended there. (The communal feeling among
different religious groups still persists). Among the major religious in India
are : (Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikkim, Buddhism, and Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Bahaism
are the religious with lesser following.
Hinduism:
Hinduism is the religious of the
majority in India. It comprises of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and pre-Dravidian
religious elements. (The follower of Hinduism believe in the doctrine of
“Karma”, “Dharma”, rebirth, immorality everlasting of soul, renunciation and
salvation. Hinduism allows a number of possible conceptions of God. It also
prescribes various alternative paths of attaining God. The sakta, the Saiva the
Satnami, the Lingayat, the Kabirpanthi,
the Brahmo Samaj, the Arya Samaj etc. are different sects of Hinuism.
Islam:
Islam does not believe in idol
worship. It professes the fatalistic acceptance of Allah’s will a person
believed to have been sent by God to teach people abouthis and considers
prophet Mohammed as the greatest intensions a person to promote new be live,
predictor prophet. The Quran sacred book of Islam, ordains five primary duties
of a true and devout Muslim, Such as
belief in God (Allah), prayers five times a day, the giving of alms, a month’s
fast every year, and a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in the life time of
Muslim.
Christianity:
Christianity came to India through
the work of St. Thomas, a follower of Jesus. He converted some Nambuthiri,
Brahmins to Christianity. It is believed that St. Thomas has landed in the
ancient port of Miseries in 52 A.D However in the 16th Century the
Portuguese arrived in India for trade and
established Christian church.
All Christians believe in Jesus
Christ as their savior. In 1542, Francis Xavier arrived in Goa and began his
work among the fisher-folk in the coromondal coast. The Dutch followed the
Portuguese in the process of colonization. But they were not interested in
spreading the Christian faith. The Britishers followed the Dutch. They had to
Spresd Christianity through missionaries.
Jesus was born to virgin mary. they also belive
that Jesus is the son of God. The Bible is the sacred book of christians. The
christions believe that the universe has been divinely created and that man is
sinful. they also believe that Jesus was sent to earth to reconcile men and
God. All christians have faith in the day of judgement which must come after
the closure of human history. On the day of judgement People will either be
rewarded or Punished according to the type
of life they have led. At present 20.5 million people or 2.43 per cent of the
total population practise christionity in india.
Sikhism:
Sikhism had its orgins in the
wider religious revolt called bhakti movement which was directed against the bigotry and caste
based narrowism practiced in hinduism. Guru Nanak founded sikhism in the 16TH centuary A.D Guru Nanak held that God is
formless, timeless, all powerful master-creator who is not influenced by
feeling of jealousy and discrimination.
Sikhism is strongly a monistic
religion. Therefore the sikh Gurus, in spite of being held in utmost reverence,
are not equated with God. The Gurus play an inevitable and instrumemtal role of
realizing God. The “Gurudwara” is the place of worship for the sikhs. It
literally means the Guru’s abode.
Jainism:
Mahavira was the son of katak’s
sister. katak being the king of vaishali, katak’s
daughter
had been married to bimbasara, and therefore, mahavira was related to the kings
of magadh and vaishali. he was born in 599 B.C in a small village named kund.
mahavira was born in to the family of
siddhartha who was a kshatriya chief. Mahavira was the last theerthankara of
jaina religion, and he managed to put the religion on very strong footing
before his death.
“Jainism does not “belive in God”
as a creator , survivor and destroyer of the universe. However jainism does
belive in God, not as a creator, but as a perfect being. when a person destroys
all his karmas, he becomes a liberated soul. he resides in a oerfect blissfull
state in “Molssha” . In Jainism, godliness is said to be the inherent quality
of every soul.
sufism:
sufism is a mystic and ascetic
movement which orginated in the Golden
Age of Islam, from about the 9th Centuary to 10TH
centuary.
The traditional view is that sufism is
the mystical school of Islam and had its beginnings in the first centuaries.
most sufis in the world today are muslim and many of them would consider a
non-Islamic sufim impossible.
Buddhism:
Siddhartha Gautama was the
founder of Buddhism
Eightfold path:
1, Right vision
2, Right Resolve
3, Right Speech
4, Right Conduet
5, Right Livelihood
6, Right Effort
7, Right Mind fulness
8, Right Concentration.
Conclusion:
The message given by the
founder of the religion is the essence of
the teaching of that religion.
the message that Jesus gave to the world is that all men are brothers and that
the way to reach heaven is to love one’s neighbour as one loves onself. The
vedhas emphasise the oneness of humanity, universal brotherhood, harmony,
happiness, perpetual love, affection, unity and commonality of goals. so there
is no room for conflicts among the followers of different religions.
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