Religion as a Divisive factor

Religion as a Divisive Factor

Role	Name	Affiliation
Principal Investigator	Dr.Gyanendra Kumar sahu	Asst.Professor Utkal University
Content Reviewer	Dr.Gyanendra Kumar sahu	Asst.Professor Utkal University

Description of Module

Items	Description of Module
Subject Name	Law
Paper Name	Law and social transformation in India
Module Name /Title	Religion as a Divisive Factor
Module No.	VII

Religion as a Divisive factor:

Introduction

Triangular Relationship: The freedom of Religion is subject matter of triangular relationship between freedom, religion and state. The religious freedom changes from time to time.

i. During the Age of Faith it used to mean the freedom of the Church over the State and Individual.

ii. During the middle Age it was taken to mean primarily freedom of the state over both the Church and the Individual.

Iii.At Present the idea of freedom of the individual over the Church and the State. The citizen is free to choose Religion.

Meaning: Religion is a matter of faith. A religion is a doctrine of rules. It is a system of belief. The Supreme Court has defined it broadly Religion is a matter of faith with individuals or communities. The Word religion was misinterpreted for interest of some people and later on misunderstood by society itself.

Materialistic: One definition was given by one spiritual man when he was asked in foreign country what is the Indian Relegious.The man replied close your eyes and open the vision the meaning is to be rich and make rich in relation with spiritual life and not be materialistic approach. After getting the answer by the spiritual man we have to be agree we will not follow any religion.

Mughals: Long time ago the Mughals attacked India and looted, killed and forcefully converted people into Islam. Thereafter the British attacked India looted India and Killed less and he has not converted people. But they divided India by Religion,caste,language,region etc. This divide and rule may be seen in the political sphere and it is more divided by politician so religion is divisible factor.

Religion as a Divisible Factor:

Separating Parts: Divisible factor means some facts, which contributes to or has an influence in separating into different parts. A country like India has various religions, caste; Sub-castes etc these groups are common factors in India which only divided the society.

According to Marx: Religion in particular is nothing more than a human creation with its own social beginning. It gives human suffering without offering any relief. Religious institutions are social institutions which contribute to development of their religions.

Criminal Law: India has adopted to be secular State, where state does not promote any particular religion. It does not mean that India does not have any religion, but it states that India respects all the religions equally. All citizens of India are free to adopt belief and faith according to their choice. As far as regarding the Criminal Law it is secular in nature and applicability. There is no reference of religion in the field of crime. But as far as civil law concerned especially family law it is divided into five parts and applicable according to religion namely Hinmdu, Muslim,Christian,Parsis and Jews.All religion divided into schools(Groups) and schools are divided into castes and castes are divided into sub-caste.All five have their own family law concerning marriage,divorce,maintainace,succession,will,partition etc.besides this 125 Cr.P.C which are secular in nature. All religious institutions are exempted from taxes.

Castes and communalism: Castes and communalism are also getting a new lease of life, because of the short-sighted policies of power –hungry politicians and the narrow outlook of the administrators and the leaders. Instead of systematic proceedings on the path constitution the leaders favoring the community and caste passion people, with view to collect the votes and achieve their partisan ends. The politician of caste and religion and pampering of communal leaders is causing Religion became a divisive factor.

Religion as a Divisive Factor:

Religion Divide Mankind: All religious lay emphasis on love and humanity. But in practice religious make people hate another: those who believe in a particular religion does not like those who believe in other religion. This has divided mankind, and has been one of the causes of bloodshed in the world.

Freedom Struggle: The people of India during their freedom struggle became keenly aware of their religious differences and there ensued large-scale riots and bloodshed resulting in the final partition of India into 2 countries on the basis of religion.

Superior: All religions have different ceremonies, rituals, beliefs and practices. But when such a man considers himself and his co-practitioners superior, he gets intolerant of others’ beliefs and practices and starts hate them. This leads to division. In India every person thinks that his religion is supreme and other religion are inferior to his religion. They are so deeply connected with their religions and cannot depart from it.Wheras mandate of the Constitution states that India is your religion and the Constitution is your holy religious book before being Hindu,Muslim,Christian we are Indian. But contrary provisions of the various religions divide the citizens into different groups. They think the people of other religion are their enemy and they may attack their religion.This fear is one of the factor which make religion as a divisible factor.

Example of Babri Masjid demolition, where numerious Hindus attacked the Masjid and believe that it was the temple of Shree Ram but in the otherhand it is also correct that most of the people of that unlawful assembly and who do not go regularly to the temple and Masjid.The incident state that religion is the most devisal factor in society.

Election: In a national election season, religion has been one of the most polarizing factors for a country already divided by dozens of languages and by economic and social disparities. Hindus and Muslims attacked each other during the campaign. Babri Masjid Case

Sikh:  Sikh activist killed a score of candidates of various faiths in an attempt to halt elections in Punjab state, where they want to create an independent Sikh nation.Punjab was noted for union between Hindus and Sikhs, but the strands of togetherness were severed and the respected Golden Temple was used to store arms and a refuge for terrorists.

Simple acts of faith : and the intermingling of religions go unremarked in the midst of such violence. Yet, there are places where Hindus and Sikhs join each other's harvest festivals, where Muslims and Hindus seek blessings at each other's shrines or at those of a third faith such as Christianity or Buddhism.

Religious majority: Of India's 844 million people, 82 percent are Hindus. In a Hinduisim party has risen from darkness to a essential role in national politics. The Bharatiya Janata Party, creating awareness among Hindus who fear their religious majority is in danger of being treated like a minority in officially secular India.

Hinduism: Party leaders say they have no desire to establish a religious state, but also maintain that Hinduism is the essence of the country. The party's public speaking for rising popularity has encouraged violent, often deadly divisions.

Inter-religion marriage: We enacted a separate law in the form of Special marriage act 1954, where inter religion marriage is allowed. But it was not accepted by the society, If any inter-religion marriage has taken place the communities start the fights between each other.

Conclusion:

            The word religion was misinterpreted for interest of some people and later on misunderstood by society itself. We come to the conclusion after looking at various texts of religion, that none of the religions, allowed inhuman behavior with anyone.