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By Nina Rai: Plz note this article was written by me on 7th Oct,2008 (not published) as a backdrop to the riots which took placedue to the desecration of religious shrines of a particularcommunity in Mangalore, Karnataka in 2006 and later again in 2008.But the lessons learnt from that incident is still very muchrelevant to all sections of society, in present times. A lesson wemust never forget in a hurry. Hence a reproduction of the saidarticle for readers. Major attitude shift required by all communities Reaffirming National Pride Over Personal Religious Identity Reams of newsprint have already been exhausted, so much has beensaid, discussed, debated and condemned since the church attacks andsubsequent violence which erupted in various parts of the city andother parts of Karnataka. The only consolation in these unsavoryepisodes was that there was neither loss of human lives nor anysevere casualty. And just as the unbelievable good news broke outthat the hatchet had been buried between the two communities namelyCatholics and Hindus at a peace meet initiated bydistrict-in-charge-minister J Krishna Palemar, came reports ofvaried so called ‘secular groups' and even human rights wingstrying to vitiate the atmosphere with a barrage of harsh, negativewords which had the potential of jeopardizing the chances of longterm peace and harmony in the city. Credit in no small measureshould be given to all communities who are basically peace-lovingdenizens of the city, for not getting caught in this cross firedespite much provocation and inflammatory remarks by politicians,NGOs, pseudo secularists and so called leaders of different hues. What is significantly required by us now, is to do some deepintrospection and soul searching, as to where exactly ‘WE'are going wrong, irrespective of our religion, caste, personalbelief, ethnic identity and affiliation. Since several weeks allover we found various newspapers or websites or the visual mediagiving lop-sided versions of one community or the other, with eachpointing finger and blaming the other as being brutally victimizedand traumatized vis-à-vis one's hurt religious sentiment.But what is the end result of this kind of blame game or for thatmatter criticism made of the efforts made by both communities toreach a peace accord. How can an amicable long term solution befound for this vexing problem? There is calm now like an uneasylull after the storm and it looks like things are back to normal.However, scratch the surface and there is deep rooted simmeringdiscontent brewing between both communities Hindus and Catholics inthe district, which needs to be addressed without delay. Developing a broader perspective, a vision of a thriving secularprogressive India much beyond the narrow tunnel mindset we have allcreated, is the only way out for us today. Only then can we trulyaspire to get out of this self created, dead-end moral abyss, whichif not rectified immediately, in all probability may spin out ofcontrol in the near future. This is by no means an attempt toeither undermine or dispute the loss, pain, suffering and traumaundergone by countless women, aged, children and men in the pastturbulent weeks gone by. In fact, our heart and soul goes out toeach one of our fellow victims irrespective of their religion,caste, creed or social distinction. And from this turmoil of thepast has arisen the desire to find a way out of the impasse. It'simperative now for us to rationalize and let saner, wiser voicesprevail. The weeks gone by has seen a lot of finger pointing andgaining brownie points as to who has been victimized more. The deedhas been done. And any kind of postmortem on the matter will onlyadd to the problem, becoming counter productive and defying anysolution. The daunting task ahead is that of healing and bridgingthe rift between the communities, who for centuries have beenliving in communal harmony and amity here. While a semblance of normalcy has returned and we have tried to putout the senseless mayhem behind us, there is in this a stern lessonand dire warning, as to what can happen when things go horriblywrong. It does not always happen in other's backyards, it comescreeping into our homes and hearths too. We need to come out ofthis trauma and crisis as better, stronger human beings and startthinking with a different perspective. We need to think in terms ofnational building, proclaiming our pride in our nation and think asone and work towards the larger good. We need to whole-heartilyensure and support the State administration in bringing all theculprits responsible for the violence in the city, to book and endthe matter. What is largely needed is a major reshuffle in ourthought process beyond parochial, regional and sectarian thinking.Unless we do so as soon as possible, we will end up becoming ourown enemies. See the amount of division taking place all over Indiain the name of ‘religion' whether in Kashmir, Gujarat, Orissaand all over. And see the advantage other hawkish neighboringstates are taking of our infighting and even stroking the innerfires and the resultant damage to our economy and our collectivepsyche. That is because we are giving them the opportunity andplaying directly into their hands with our infighting. The only way we can think and remain as one in a relativelypeaceful state of living, is by thinking in patriotic terms as thisbeing our country, our nation and working towards the larger good.Of course, all this cannot be achieved in one day as the sayinggoes ‘Rome was not built in a single day'. But we need tostart today and now. For this we need to at least lay the pathway,as we are now coming out afresh from this moral turpitude and painwith a bitter lesson learnt that in any kind of strife and turmoilthere are no victors or gainers...all are losers. Most importantlythe loss here is one of an INDIAN not a Catholic or Hindu or Muslimor any other ...and with that goes a yeoman loss of human potentialcovering various fields. Most importantly, we need to ensureseparation of religion completely from politics in the long run.It's a personal space which is sacred inviolable, pious and needsto be respected, cherished, protected and honored at all costs bothby the individuals and the state machinery. And no action andmeasure taken in this regard can be considered as minimal. In view of the above, it is an impassioned and unbiased appeal toall peace-loving people of Mangalore city as well as CoastalKarnataka, lets all look beyond this narrow chimera of petty gainsand make a conscious attitude shift to look at the larger pictureand work towards making India a country to be reckoned with in theworld, in times to come. This will ultimately ensure freedom for usto practice our faith and religion in peace, amity and happiness asper our heart's desire. It's only through economic prosperity wewill be in a better frame of mind not to be influenced by anyone tocreate friction and dissensions between us and thereby ensurecordial and amicable relations of brotherhood with all. This innut-shell, I sincerely believe is also the heartfelt desire ofmajority of the human beings, irrespective of whether they areliving in Mangalore, Karnataka or for that matter any other statein India or for that matter any part of the world. Do check other Mangalore News: A peep into the world of teen girls in Mangalore City. I am an expert from carton-machinery.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Carton Packing Manufacturer , China Automatic Carton Machine, Semi Automatic Machines,and more.
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