ROLE OF RELIGION IN DEVELOPMENT
JAGJIT SINGH
Religion without welfare of the mankind has little relevance
in the contemporary world. Underlining the importance of
religion in ameliorating the sufferings of a common man, the great philosopher Swami Vivekananda had said, "I do not believe in a religion or god which cannot wipe a widow's tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan's mouth."
All religions and their Holy Scriptures talk of god, tolerance, compassion, peace among men, societies and nations, etc. The distressed humanity needs the balm of compassion and sympathy which only religion can give. Then is not it strange that in the name of the same religion hatred and societal wedge is created, communal feelings are flared up against the believers of other faiths and orgy of violence is unleashed thus undermining the very foundation of the religion? It could be a matter of investigation for any researcher to find out as to how many people lost lives in
religious strives so far.
Peace is vital for development. But peace in the society or in the world is not possible without peace among religions. And the peace among religions can be established only through continuos dialogue among them. They can play a vital role to create world opinion on different issues. Though limitedly and area specifically, the religious leaders have, in the past, acted decisively to create the public opinion against piling up of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. They also raised voices against hunger, wars, injustice etc. They stood for human dignity and against apartheid. Inter religion conferences have been at the forefront of mobilizing support for the different aspects of the environment—hitherto considered to be an entirely non-religious issue.
But despite these positive signs, some religious leaders have on many occasions, used the religious faith and sentiments of their believers to instigate their feelings against the people of other religions and allowed their interests to be superlative to the common human interests.
Religion is eternal but not its definition and the same keeps on changing or has to be changed in accordance with the contemporary requirements and demands. Evidently, those religions are bound to be left behind in the race of civilization which do not put themselves on the scale of the contemporary issues of human survival and address these question to themselves: how much or how far they are concerned with the problems facing the society, the nation and the world? To what extent they have fulfilled their holy responsibility to get rid the mankind of those problems?
We have already ushered into the twenty first century with a number of serious and unresolved problems and challenges relating to the social development. But unfortunately, most of the religious organizations and leaders in the world are still confined to the four walls of the religious establishments or shrines, with their eyes shut to the present day problems of poverty, illness, illiteracy, social disintegration, environmental degradation, wars, etc. as if they have no role or responsibility towards these vital issue of human survival and it is for the politicians or the bureaucrats only to tackle them.
The religious leaders still enjoy the highest respect among the masses. People respond with fervour and zeal to the exhortations made by them in religious matters. Thus they have the potential and ability to mobilize opinion and resources to resolve any and every problem ranging from national/international dispute to the environmental degradation threatening the very survival of the mankind. Our holy men therefore, should read the writing on the wall regarding their role and responsibility towards the development of the distressed, disadvantaged and deprived sons and daughters of god and rise to the occasion to ameliorate their sufferings thereby giving three newDs. i.e. definition, dimension and direction to the religion, in the new century at least.