Laughter of Nightmares

 

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Religion has terrified me for the larger part of my life. The Christian crusades and the inquisitions of the medieval period, the endless Islamic jihads, and other historic atrocities are not the only causes. The present Hindutva versions of some of those atrocities are bigger nightmares for me since they happen in my own country – not in some distant land and ancient time. But even they are not the chief reasons why the very mention of religion sends shivers down my spine.

The most tragic things that happened in my personal life were all caused by certain religious people. First it was some Christian missionaries who took upon themselves the arduous mission of salvaging my soul from perdition. I managed to save myself from them after about five long years of hellish ordeals they put me through. A decade and a half after that came a Hindu cult with its unique style of subjecting a whole school to slow death out of sheer greed for land. This latter missionaries damaged my soul more than anyone else. They stifled the little trust I had in humanity’s potential for goodness.

What does religion mean to me today? A painful nightmare. Honestly, I’m more scared of religious people than any roguish politician or a street thug. I know what to expect from rogues and thugs. But I can never predict what the religious do-gooder is going to do.

Religion is like a breeze that caresses you softly but carries within it deadly toxins that are invisible and unpalpable. You recognise the damage done to you too late, much after the corrosion has eaten away some vital part of your soul.

This is written from my personal experience. I’m sure there are a lot of people for whom religion means totally something else. I have friends who are religious by profession – priests, for example. Most of them lead lives just like you and me except that they practise certain rituals at regular intervals. I’m not speaking about such people. They are harmless.

The harms come from those who arrogate to themselves the mission of salvaging amorphous things like souls, culture, national pride… When any individual or group sets up themselves as the redeemer of others, trouble begins. This tendency to be redeemers is irresistible to many religious people. The worst thing that can happen to a nation is when such people enter politics too. When politics and religion mingle, it is like swine stepping into slush. Just pay attention to the utterances of some of India’s contemporary politicians to understand better what I’m saying. For example, when the ruminants in other parts of the world release methane into the environment, in India they release oxygen, thanks to our religious politicians. That’s just one example. If you start observing India’s religious politicians seriously, you’ll die laughing.

That laughter is my nightmare nowadays. Once upon a time, the nightmare was a personal one: missionaries trying to redeem my soul. Then it was my school: a cult killing it slowly. Now it is my country. I have no escape from redeemers.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 395: What does religion mean to you? #ReligionForMe