By Kartik Lokhande
The latest research report of Pew Research Center
on the ‘Future of World Religions’ has once again triggered a heated
debate on growth of population leading to rise or fall of a particular
religion in various parts of the world.
The report has many
dimensions for different segments -- rising population for those crying
hoarsely to emphasise that population growth must be controlled;
concerns for leaders of religions projected to get reduced to minority
from majority in several countries; vindication for those professing for
long that growth of population of a particular religion must be
encouraged to strike a ‘balance’ in the global politics of faith, etc.
The report has come at a time when the world is already facing several
problems revolving around two keywords -- religion and population.
Here,
one would not wish to go into the details of the report findings as
those have been published widely in media only a few days ago. Still,
the prominent observations highlighted by media across the world are --
number of Muslims will nearly equal to that of Christians, population of
unaffiliated groups will decline, and India will retain Hindu majority
but will also have the largest Muslim population of any country in the
world. All this by the year 2050. Though these are projections based on
certain demographic study formula, there are several factors that may
come into play between this year and 2050 and change the situation in
different directions.
Still, looking at the current global scenario,
one thing becomes clear that there are groups and factors at work who
wish to connect religions and demographies. The reason? In my opinion,
it is politics of faith.
For instance, there are observations in the
report that India and Nepal are the only Hindu majority nations in the
world. There are as many as 159 Christian majority nations in the world
today, but the number is projected to come down to 151 with eight
countries including Australia, UK, France, New Zealand etc losing
Christian-majority status. Further, the Pew Research Center studied at
least 19 Muslim majority countries, and projected that there will be
increase in number of countries with Muslim majority.
This hints at a
very fine and subtle change taking place in demographies of various
nations. For, when majority in any country becomes a minority, or a
minority becomes a majority, the process that leads to these changes
sows the seeds of cultural and religious conflicts. When a majority
religion is on the decline in sheer numbers in a nation, the reducing
majority tends to adopt a hardline stand against growing minority.
Similarly, when a minority in a country registers steady growth towards
becoming a majority, it starts asserting itself through show of cultural
and religious beliefs in public life. In both the cases, politics is
centred around religious appeal to one group or the other.
Apart
from fuelling of desire for political control over masses -- in the form
of appeasement or hatred -- one more issue comes into play. This
pertains to control over economy and resources. With changing
demographic patterns, the race between majority and
closest-to-majority-but-
minority religious groups for control of
businesses, services, markets, technology, commerce and industry, and
resources like land, water, coal, power etc intensifies. This leads to
clashes at the level of mounting of pressure on the Government to take a
certain policy decision so as to keep away the other group from getting
benefits of the existing system.
Then, there is purely religious
dimension. With the increase in number of population of a minority, more
number of places of worship of that religion come up in almost every
town and village. Majority, too, then decides to devote more and more of
land resources to increasing number of its places of worship. And, in
the process, several of these religious institutions of majority and
minority both start running educational institutions and implementing
their own religious agenda. Through this, radicalism grows and young
minds are vitiated in order to prepare their souls for harvest at a
later time. Also, attempts are made to secure donations for these places
of worship, and to implement agendas of conversion or switching over of
religions.
A serious aspect is the emphasis of minority and
majority religious leaders on increasing population of a particular
religion, and improving fertility. This leads to deterioration in the
health of womenfolks of ‘rival’ religions, deprives younger ones with
proper resources and education, strains the existing resources.
There are various other subtler aspects that can be talked about.
Sadly,
when it comes to number game of religious groups, no one pays heed to
the human element. No one cares if a newborn is stamped immediately as a
‘fresh recruit’ to the battle of religions. No one cares if in the race
of demographic expansion, core value of any religion -- peaceful
co-existence -- gets buried under the debris of politics of faith. No
one is bothered to preserve good things from every religion so that the
all-encompassing religion of humanity is served well. No one gives a
damn if competitive increase in population is harming the Earth, the
only known place of human existence in the Universe.
It is time all
saner minds come together, practice religion at their homes without
emphasis on grabbing territories or power, place national interest above
self in public life, and become true ambassadors of ‘human existence’.
Else, only wars will be waged to change the future of world religions.
(April 5, 2015; Published in 'The Hitavada' on April 6, 2015)
Comments
Post a Comment