Skip to main content

A Lesson from History



Religion or Strife? A Lesson from History

In 15th century al-Andalus was an Islamic state in which the three religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism had been coexisting peacefully for over 600 years.  Even when the Jews in many other countries were facing the terrible problem of pogrom, al-Andalus allowed the Jews there to flourish. 

It was then that the King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, were inspired by their religion.  They believed that their religion was the only true religion and their god the only true god.  They established the notorious Spanish Inquisition which sought to unify the nation under the one true god and one true religion.  Thousands of people were killed labelled as heretics. 

Courtesy: Jonmrichardson
The religious zeal of the King and the Queen extended to al-Andalus.  They led a war (which they called a crusade, holy war – religion can make even a war holy!), defeated the Sultan and started persecuting the Muslims and the Jews.  Many people sought to escape the torture by converting themselves into Christianity.

We would normally expect peace to return when everyone belongs to the same religion.  But that seldom happens.  In fact, religions are not known for promoting peace and harmony. On the contrary, they have created strife and wars most of the time.

The converts of al-Andalus were despised by the ‘old’ Christians.  The converts were called “pigs.”  Many of the converts lost their new faith soon.  They went back to their old faiths secretly.  What followed were more Inquisitions and more brutal killings.

I brought this here just to take a lesson, one of the many available, from history to show that forcing religion on people or trying to unite people with the help of religion won’t work.  Leave people to their own creeds and gods.  Use science and technology to improve the nation.  There is no other way.

Comments

  1. I agree. There is always a new thing to learn from your posts.

    Also what is the use of development if one cannot go beyond such pre historic notorious activities perpetrated by religions and cults.

    Modi took leverage of development agenda but he has become infamous as a soft Hindutwa leader.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What happened after all those tortures and inquisitions was still worse. Many of the Jews went underground. More became atheists. Many left the country. Both Ferdinand and Isabella were sad because the last thing they wanted was to breed atheism or underground religious activities.

      I'm still wondering why PM Modi doesn't change his tactics and take India along development which he promised again and again.

      Delete
  2. Very very thoughtful, hope the world realise this..even the cow slaughter ban is now a religious issue..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is the present situation in India that made me write this.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

Dopamine

Fiction Mathai went to the kitchen and picked up a glass. The TV was screening a program called Ask the Doctor . “Dopamine is a sort of hormone that gives us a feeling of happiness or pleasure,” the doc said. “But the problem with it is that it makes us want more of the same thing. You feel happy with one drink and you obviously want more of it. More drink means more happiness…” That’s when Mathai went to pick up his glass and the brandy bottle. It was only morning still. Annamma, his wife, had gone to school as usual to teach Gen Z, an intractable generation. Mathai had retired from a cooperative bank where he was manager in the last few years of his service. Now, as a retired man, he took to watching the TV. It will be more correct to say that he took to flicking channels. He wanted entertainment, but the films and serial programs failed to make sense to him, let alone entertain. The news channels were more entertaining. Our politicians are like the clowns in a circus, he thought...

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...

Dine in Eden

If you want to have a typical nonvegetarian Malayali lunch or dinner in a serene village in Kerala, here is the Garden of Eden all set for you at Ramapuram [literally ‘Abode of Rama’] in central Kerala. The place has a temple each for Rama and his three brothers: Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. It is believed that Rama meditated in this place during his exile and also that his brothers joined him for a while. Right in the heart of the small town is a Catholic church which is an imposing structure that makes an eloquent assertion of religious identity. Quite close to all these religious places is the Garden of Eden, Eden Thoppu in Malayalam, a toddy shop with a difference. Toddy is palm wine, a mild alcoholic drink collected from palm trees. In my childhood, toddy was really natural; i.e., collected from palm trees including coconut trees which are ubiquitous in Kerala. My next-door neighbours, two brothers who lived in the same house, were toddy-tappers. Toddy was a health...