Persecution is outdated

The world’s two largest religions by population grew large and mighty under persecution.  Both Christianity and Islam suffered much persecution in their toddler years.  Religion has a peculiar ability to convert torture into a virtue for the believer.  That’s why persecution is not the way to eliminate any religion.  Just the opposite.

That’s why BJP and its allies are making a terrible mistake in India.  They are persecuting the minority communities in a variety of rather unimaginative ways like cow protection and women protection (anti-love jihad).  Neither the cows nor the women are protected and that’s not the purpose either.  The goal is to victimise certain communities of people in the name of cows and women.

The ultimate goal is Hindu Rashtra.

Is the strategy good, however?  History shows it is not.  The Right wing in India should invent more imaginative and effective methods for achieving their objective. 

During a free period today at school, I was reading a book by a Catholic priest, Fr Sebastian Kappen.  I showed the following paragraph to one of my colleagues.

From 'Ingathering' by Sebastian Kappen  

After reading it my colleague who is a Christian said nonchalantly, “Do you think the new generation bothers about sin and such things?  Religion is merely practical affair for them just to belong to the community and little more.”

That’s how the world has changed.  Religion is merely about a sense of belonging to a community.  Gods and sins, rituals and idols hardly mean anything to the younger generation.  But that sense of belonging may mean something to them.  And that sense usually grows stronger under threat.  Hence the Right wing should stop the air of threat that they have created in the country if they want to weaken the perceived enemies. 

Take away fear and you'll find religions weakening, as Kappen says.