These rationalists took a clear stand against the forces befooling the marginalised people and subjugating them. These writers simply exposed the hegemony of a particular class over religions through which this class was exploiting the masses.

They never opposed any religion or any religious belief. Rather than subduing, religious extremism in South Asia is rising with each passing day.ĭabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh in India were murdered for speaking against the superstitious and other exploiting practices among the masses. While the West has left behind its past of extremism and superstitions, some other parts of world are still grappling with this ideology of blindness, hatred, and jingoism. Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh, Salman Taseer, Sabeen Mahmud have been murdered just for their beliefs and differing views, and the sad part of the story is that these killings have taken place at a time when we have democratic forms of government in place. Humanity and rationalism take a back seat and everything is looked through an extremist religious prism, the prism which is fraught with violence.įrom Socrates to Ibn Rushd (better known as Averroes in the West), the harassment of intellectuals and scholars at the hands of extremist forces is continuing in one form or the other. Not considered as sins, these acts are committed with pride. The ideology of hate for other faiths is intrinsic here, and this is followed by harassing, torturing, and killing. It is this section of the society which has been used by vested interests, especially for political agenda, using religion as one of the tools to meet its ends.Įvery believer considers his religion pure and perfect - and there is no harm in that - but when a person uses violent means to make a point, subjugates a person of a different faith to prove his point, it falls under the category of religious extremism. Although South Asia has progressed quite a bit since the beginning of the 19th century in many aspects, there is still a big chunk of people who, instead of understanding faith in its true sense, hold to superstitious beliefs and fall victims to extremist interpretations of religion. When religion ends up being used as a political tool, it is bound to foment trouble and bring within its fold misinterpretation and misrepresentation.

But when this belief turns into a blind faith with a pinch of extremist views, it becomes too dangerous, and this anger does not remain attached to any specific area, but consumes the whole society - even crossing the boundaries of neighbours.

There is nothing bad in holding firmly and with dedication to ones religion or religious beliefs, as the constitution guarantees us so.

The forces of darkness