A Numb Chalk

Roshan Sajan
6 min readSep 4, 2020
My Visit to one of the pioneering educational centers in India, situated at the heart of India.

“The strategic adversary is fascism. The fascism is in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love, power to desire the very thing that dominate and exploit us”

This I happen to listen to a learnt researcher’s talk, a subject generally which I tend to ignore.

Fascism if looked in appropriate outlook is a form of secular politics born of the convulsions of modernity whose belief in the nation or race rather than God’s Word as the foundation of reality makes it in theory the antithesis of fundamentalism.

Another critical issue humanity globally faces is the rise of religious fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalism is a global religious impulse particularly evident in the 20th century that seeks to recover and publicly institutionalize aspects of the past that modern life has obscured. Religious fundamentalists take their cues from a sacred text; they maximize the distinction between humanity and religion.

How the two (fascism & fundamentalism) can become inextricably bound up with each other to a point where a genuine hybrid seems to occur, defying neat categorization. The potential for a superficial affinity and even substantive kinship existing between the two phenomena resides in their shared urge to put an end to the radical pluralism of values and lack of faith characteristic of “modern” life in secular, “Westernized” societies and in their conviction that the (perceived) decadence of the contemporary world is destined to give way to a comprehensive rebirth or “palingenesis”. This is a Biblical term (see John, Ch. 3, Verse 7), which derives from the Greek palin (again) and genesis (birth), and has been used to describe religious, biological, and socio-political transformations. In times of acute social crises palingenetic myths which present the contemporary period of (perceived) decay and disintegration as about to give way to a new era, a new order, and a new man naturally can come to exert considerable appeal once modernization is felt to be eroding the (imagined) homogeneity of many “traditional” religious and national communities. Paradoxically, the origins of both fascism and fundamentalism in intransigent resistance to the decay of “traditional” communities bound together by unquestioned beliefs and certainties makes them both manifestations of the modernity against which they rebel.

The religious dichotomy which leads to tolerance of faith or ideology often leaves a cold fingerprint of the realm of its identity in this socio-political world. When religion is seen through the lens of faith, it gives us an understanding of an opportunity to think whether an individual should continue in a particular religion and help sincerely in the religious life. Whereas with ideology on the other hand is seen on the grounds of communal disharmony. At times, it is the cost of our identity that a need for a community should be created for a better tomorrow, which can pioneer the roots of faiths. Even if the religion asks us to be inhuman in our lives, we should betray our religion for the sake of justice and peace in our well being. It is through deeper understanding of the religious texts and scriptures that a balance can be maintained by tacking the unjustified notions of interpretation.

Why faith?

Faith of some form in the Higher brings a balance to one’s thinking and behavior and a quiet confidence and claim. But it should not be a blind belief which will only lead to superstitious. It should be a faith tempered with understanding. Faith is like the heat of the flame. The heat of the flame makes the letters of the scriptures with their message clear. Our faith in God should be combined with our best effort and also be combined with love and humility. Devotion of such faith can be projected as practical, useful and self empowering rather than a guilt-creating and fearsome one. The idea must be to enable the youths of tomorrow’s who would follow the footsteps of discipline and policies guided by this socialized and stereotype society to become “God-loving” rather than “God-fearing”, basically a traditional approach. Power of faith serves the wonderful equilibrium support or satisfaction to all ages especially to children as they grow and also the aged. Faith is often projected as a confidence-builder. Some of the world’s most famous and successful people have had God as a partner in all what they did. What is important is to make clear whether rationality is needed to be opposed to faith? One can have both, with the awareness as to when to use them.

We need to perceive real co-existence between each other’s religion. In today’s modern world, people have more social interaction with each other than ever before. Tolerance of believers in one religion to another is an essential need. Every religion with its fundamental ideas on God, human and the world has its followers, carrying their faith. If they reject the provisions in others faith, it is prejudice.

Interfaith is a beautiful train with many Boggies and compartments. Each compartment has group of followers of one religion so Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhist, Sikhs are all there. One person goes into each compartment and listens what they say and discovers that everyone says the same. He does not find any difference in fundamental ideas and teachings of various religions. So message of God is one and all prophets have brought the same message. The inter-religious relations and religious resources of the world must be conceived as the common property of the whole humanity. All religious experiences and traditions are simultaneously ours. We do not have any one particular religious tradition alone as our own and others as belonging to others. It is a religious perspective in which while remaining in one’s own religious faith-experience; one can consider other faiths as one’s own, as the common property of humanity, for an increasingly blessed and enriched life. It should be noted that if one is intimately familiar with one’s own religious system alone, that is a very religiously poverty stricken condition. We need to create better understanding among people of different faiths and look forward for facilitating the process of reconciliation and dialogue. The efforts should be grounded in the contemporary context of the generally prevalent inter-religious misunderstanding and even violence, and the consequent need to undertake activities that remove prejudice, resolve conflict and increase trust and cooperation between individuals and groups. This is where the role of youths is necessary; the young eager minds of tomorrow, both young men and women who want to be reasons for others should come into effect.

Women should understand their potential to form opinions and engage in interfaith dialogue and cooperation. This includes interfaith meetings, seminars, workshops and interaction with local religious groups. It involves in identifying women’s perspective in underlying issues in existing conflicts especially in the context of the places covered in the women’s interfaith journey. It is also important to explore alternative models of conflict resolution and peace building that arises out of women’s experiences and collaborations.

Investing in today’s youth is about investing in future both for country and the world. It needs to be reiterated that investing in the youth is investing in the future and not doing so is the surest recipe for spread of social tensions. As it is well known, religions are different roads to the same destination that is, different religious talk of values aimed at achieving the general good of society. There have been several religious leaders who have echoed this again and again. Morality, justice and love form the cornerstone of the major religions of the world. There may be different ways and means to reach the ultimate God but spiritual quest has been unhindered over the years though material culture and values have pervaded our social fabric.

The love and understanding propagated in all major religions have sometimes been misinterpreted to put one group against the other. This has led to hatred and violence amongst religious groups, giving a bad name to religion and its lofty values.

In fact, the culture of intolerance has pervaded our society where each religion believes in the extremist and hierarchical God which alone considered the true god while others are false. The superiority of a particular religion’s god is emphasized and there is a tendency to impose this on others some of them forced. The teachings of the scriptures need to be popularized to enhance inter-religious understanding. The cohesiveness of society needs to be strengthened. How this will be done keeping in view the aggressive attitude of most religious groups, sometime with direct or indirect political backing, the moot question of the day.

What is earnestly needed is to reinterpret our scriptures for a society meant for all where living together is possible regardless our identity. Inter-religious and inter- cultural beliefs as also the underlying theme of all religions of truth, love and sacrifice. At the end, the religion is a noun which brings fruits of adjective and takes the shape of a verb for a harmonized society.

Awake my mind by the sacred shore of India’s sea of humanity (Tagore in Gitanjali)

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Roshan Sajan

Impact Analyst & Trainer| Creative Niche & Content Dev. for Marketing Strategies | Projects & Training Dev. | Human Rights CSR Engagements & SDGs Collaborations