Mindless violence in Orissa

Entry for August 27, 2008 Recent outburst of violence in Orissa following the brutal and cowardly killing of an Octogenarian Swamiji demonstrates once again how inhuman humans have become. Conversion to Christianity was the alleged cause of the violence. The deceased Swamiji , was against such conversion and dedicated his life for the cause of Hinduism. Who killed Swamiji? It is still a debatable and contentious issue. It led to wide spread violence across the State and a hapless Hindu girl who was a Volunteer Worker in a Church was burnt to death. Such brutality deserves strong condemnation and our great Hindu leaders are silent. They donot value lives of common and poor people and I also condemn the mindless religious conversion under the guise of upliftment. But, the question we hindus (and so called great Hindu leaders) should ask ourselves is that what forced or are the reasons for such conversions? Our social structure is such that the under provileged or tribals are sledom accepted into the mainstream and mostly branded as unwanted or undesirable. This has been going on for centuries and still it continues, rather covertly. First of all, are any of the tribals aware that there is a religion called Hinduism? or do they know that they are also Hindus? My guess is that they do not know. They have their own customs and practices which the Hindu religious practcises may not accept. The concept of religion, as we understand, would have been unknown to them till they came into contact with the modernity. Unfortunately none of Hindu acharyas ( except perhaps a handful) did ever try to bring them to the mainstream Hinduism, for obvious reasons. This was taken advantage of by the Churches and indulged in mass conversion without due regard to the sentiments of the Society at large. These conversions were a rude wake up call for the Great Hindu Leaders and the selfish politicians took full advantage of the situation to flare up communal feelings in the name of religion and community. In this sordid game of one upmanship, the developement and upliftment of downtrodden was neglected. It is high time the leaders of the nation, including the religious leaders, think beyond petty religious issues and concetrate on nation building. Of course, I do not advocate religious conversions if they are done with the motive of populating their religion and done without taking consent of the people involved nor telling people the merits of their religion(not monetray benefits) over their existing religion.