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Tributes paid to victims of religious fundamentalism
Highlights
Eminent speakers lashed out at religious fundamentalists at a calendar unveiling function held in ZP Council Hall here on Wednesday.
Guntur: Eminent speakers lashed out at religious fundamentalists at a calendar unveiling function held in ZP Council Hall here on Wednesday.
Participating in the event titled ‘Nirasana Galalu-Chaitanya Nadalu’, Prof.K Nageshwar, Editor, The Hans India , former MLC and social activist unveiled the 2016 calendar published by ex-MLC K S Lakshmana Rao.
Former MLC K S Lakshmana Rao, a campaigner for social cause who had been releasing educative calendars on social subjects for the last eight years was felicitated by the participants for his relentless crusade against religious fundamentalism and dictatorial democracy being practiced by those who claim patent rights over Hindutva ideology.
Among those highlighted in the calendar include Ken Saro Wiwa of Nigeria who was executed by its military government, Govind Pansare of Maharashtra, Taslima Nasreen of Bangladesh, Narendra Dabholkar of Maharashtra, Malala Yousafzai of Pakisthan, Nayantara Sahgal, U R Ananthamurthy of Karnataka and prominent historian Romilla Thapar who had been either victims of repression or killed by intolerant forces.
These latest victims of intolerance deserved recognition and needed to be focused due to rise of ugly head of communalism in 2015.
The speakers contended that none of them was against any religion or against those who follow the religious codes but only against religious fundamentalism and forces dictating terms to a pluralistic society of what one should eat or how one should dress or what one should believe.
They maintained that the progressive forces intolerance is only against those who are intolerant of the very idea of India. Concurring the sentiment, Prof. K Nageshwar, social activist and Editor of 'The Hans India' observed that real essence of democracy was not so much of intellectual consensus but dissent.
Democracy would be vibrant as long as one questioned intolerant tendencies. He said that unlike in western countries people were taught to be subservient, a wife to a husband, a child to his parents and teachers and elders and so on. He said that the essence of democracy was plurality of choices.
Buddhism was expelled from the shores of India because it questioned religious fundamentalism. He said that India flourished scientifically and intellectually when religion remained dormant and confined to a personal belief but lost its scientific temperment whenever religion dominated the social and political stage.
He said that dissent was an integral part of democracy and that one should agree to disagree.
Virasam leader C S R Prasad, P V Ramana of Sahiti Sravanti and others who spoke on the occasion slammed forces promoting a dictatorial democracy and their fundamentalist brand of secularism.
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