Editor,
It is disheartening to read about a sort of religious-ostracisation happening in Tongseng village, East Jaintia hills district. It’s an example of an extreme form of religious fanaticism. The small group of believers wishing to profess and follow the Church of Pentecost were made to suffer the worst of human sufferings by another dominant church body, the Presbyterian Church. The village socially boycotted this group, their livelihoods were destroyed, they had no access to public transport owned or driven by those of the Presbyterian villagers. Even their right to government welfare schemes was restricted. All these blatant acts were committed just to punish them for going against the will of the dominant Presbyterian Church in that village. This is indeed the worst crime against humanity and defeats the basic tenets of any religious values.
At the time when people of the state are conscious and are showing great interest in pan India religious freedom, the religious atrocities happening in our own backyard is a cause for concern. Many national newspapers had a more detailed report on this incident than our very own local newspapers, including the Shillong Times. The news was published in an obituary size layout to everyone’s dismay. Whether this is due to lack of investigative journalism, or the inability to prioritise news which focus on such crimes, is worth questioning.
Religious crime is the most dominant underlying cause of many other crimes around the world and worse when it happens through political collusion. Unfortunately it’s the least discussed topic. People are often happy to stay blinded by their own faiths even at the cost of the sufferings and death of others of the opposite faith. People within the same village, town, and families are often treated differently just because their faith differs from that of the majority, and the incident in Tongseng village is the exact example of these narrow religious sentiments, further propagated by the intimidation and non-insightful teaching of church leaders. I believe the ethos of any religious teaching revolves around the simplest virtues i.e., unconditional love, compassion, sympathy, selflessness etc. then why do we have so much difficulty to co-exist and respect others’ space? A mere guarantee for religious freedom in the Constitution is no guarantee that we will have a peaceful and harmonious existence unless individuals integrates these values in their hearts and practice them.
The gruesome crime in Tongseng village is no justification for upholding religious values. Religious spiritualism and humanistic spiritualism are two different concepts which people don’t seem to have a clear understanding of. Even religious leaders don’t care to stress on the humanistic value of a religious teaching. Theological philosophy is often focused more while neglecting the basic values of humanism. People are bombarded with fragmented religious philosophy resulting only in one-sided religious consciousness and hence people tend to defend their religious rights first only to forget the most basic human rights. This sort of crime needs to be condemned at a larger scale and the role of media is immense in this regard in invoking the consciousness of the people to reason, question the wrongdoings and above all demanding penal action on those who are responsible for the crime.
Yours etc.,
Sonie Kharduit
Shillong-3
Listen to the grievance of students!
Editor,
Apropos the letter “Wanted better examination centres” (ST, dated 9th May, 2018) by ND Sangma, a class-12 student, I must confess that I was appalled after going through her sorry plight. I also felt the necessity to congratulate the girl for the bold initiative she has taken to make public the alleged unruly conduct of a responsible public figure. If even 50 percent of what has been alleged is true then it is really a serious matter and must be investigated by the Education Department. Unprovoked misconduct must be condemned by all right-minded people so that the evil perpetrators get no room to hide. I have come across many such people in my life who, unable to be in terms with their own lives, start targeting innocent and vulnerable people to vent their personal anger and that way achieve some sort of satisfaction. Interestingly, I have also noticed that these sort of people are very careful not to confront the powerful! Last but not least, I assert that the girl must not be left unheard.
Yours etc.,
Partha Sarathi Gupta,
Via email