Posted On: 2021-04-07 07:07:53
India is a diverse country where people of different beliefs, cultures, and traditions live together. Religions are always a significant part of Indian culture. India is the birthplace of many religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism based on the concept of Karma, Dharma, and Atma.
The majority of citizens living in India are Hindu. They make 78-80% of the total population of India. According to many scholars and vedas, Hinduism is the first religion of the world dated back between 15th to 5th century BC and now has become a way of life for its followers across the globe and currently is the 4th most followed religion in the world. Keeping these religions aside, India is home to people believing in different religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Bahá?í Faith, and other religions (Kirat, Mundhum, Sarna Sthal, Bon). The concepts of Atheism and Agnostics are followed by some too. These religions are the cause of the caste system and segmentation of the society in the name of minorities, communities and privileges that exist in India.
Geographically speaking, India consists of 28 states and 8 union territories. Every person living in India is different from the other, each neighbor follows a different culture but carries India in their spirit. It is the second most populated country in the world with a population of 136.64 crore among which are Hindus (79.8%), Muslims(14.2%), Christianity(2.3%), Sikhs(1.72%), Buddhists(0.7%), Jains(0.37%), Atheists and Agonists(0.24%) and others(0.67%) according to the census of 2011.
What makes these religions differ from one another?
Each of these religions has a different culture, a tradition, a cuisine, a language, a festival, traditional wear, and even an Idol or spirit that represents their beliefs. These religions can be categorized by their caste system too.
Religious Disputes and Crowdfunding
Charity and belief are always at the core of every religion. For a long time, the people believing in the existence of the almighty took part in philanthropic activities through religious places. The religious followers supported the causes without wanting proof, as they had blind beliefs and trust on these holy places. Crowdfunding too works on the system of belief where to raise funds for a particular cause the donor has to have belief in the campaigner’s cause or need. In short, a platform has to be transparent and accountable which makes a donor and the campaigner have faith in the platform.
Funds for the construction of a religious place can be raised through crowdfunding platforms where a devotee or a trustee of the place can raise a campaign on a crowdfunding platform and the amount for the construction cost can be met by the donations done by the devotees. This type of crowdfunding is known as faith-based crowdfunding. There are various platforms dedicated to faith-based crowdfunding.
Though one of the barriers faced in faith-based crowdfunding is in most of the cases the donations made for a specific religious place for example a church is done just by people of the Christian Community and not by people following other faiths.
The conflicts between the people of two different religions can be seen in the making of the Ayodhya temple. Ayodhya is known as the birthplace of Hindu Deity 'Lord RAMA' according to the Indian epic poem 'Ramayana'. But during the Mughal rule in India, Emperor Babur built a Mosque in his name known as ' Babri Masjid' in 1528. This made the Hindus angry but they couldn't do anything because of the Mughal rule. Even after the end of the Mughal rule, this issue was not the major concern of the people. But during the riots between Hindu and Muslim within northern India in 1990 lead to the storming of Hindu Nationalists in 'Babri Masjid' with the intent of making a temple in the mosque's place. This matter was brought down to the Indian government but two years later, as no action was taken by the government the three-story mosque was destroyed by Hindu Nationalists in a rally. This act lead to riots all across India and Pakistan as 'Babur masjid' held great importance to the Muslim community. After years of conflict on the matter, in 2019 the verdict was passed in the favor of the Hindu community and the land was handed to the Indian Government for the construction of Ram Mandir, and the Muslim community was given 5 acres of land for the construction of Mosque 22km away from the site of Ram Mandir.
The construction of 'Ram Mandir' started in August 2019 and the estimated cost of construction was 1100 crores Rupees. This amount was collected by offline crowdfunding through donations soon by the end of 2020. To raise a safer amount for the temple, in January 2021 the trustees of Ram Mandir raised a campaign for the construction of the temple on Online crowdfunding sites which raised about 1500 crores. The total amount raised through online and offline crowdfunding is estimated to be 2500 crores.
Various religious places turn to crowdfunding for the maintenance of the religious place, like Kunzang Palchen Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center that raised a campaign on a crowdfunding platform to obtain the cost for the maintenance of their flooring. 44 donors came together and donated $21,000 to the center and the goal was met.
Even some religious places raise funds for the betterment of society like New Camaldoli Hermitage in California, which raised a campaign on a crowdfunding platform to help with the reconstruction of roads and buildings destroyed due to mudslides and heavy rains. The target amount of $300,000 was soon met by the generosity of the donors.
The need for a new religion
The advantage of the prevalence of the small fights between Hindu and Muslim took by Lord Curzon by separating Bengal into two different states named West Bengal with a majority Hindu population and East Bengal with a majority Muslim population. Though the reason for partition was given as not to divide Hindu and Muslim but was to make ruling the province easier. But the people saw the real reason and called it Curzon’s "Divide and Rule policy". The people of West Bengal disagreed with this partition and started a movement of ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Boycott’ British products. But the Bengali Muslim community of East Bengal agreed to the partition as they saw an opportunity for the betterment of the Muslim Community as Lord Curzon promised them a university in Dhaka.
The advantage of the fight between two religions was taken by the third one and it led to the partition of a great mega State into two different states affecting the fight for freedom in India. Destruction of Humanity mostly occurs when a person loses his sense of basic righteous acts and gets blinded by the wrong preachings of so called religious leaders.
Through the ages, various riots and disputes have occurred between various religions due to religious differences mainly during the partition of India and Pakistan. Thousands have been killed during these riots. In the name of religion, many people and organizations brainwash people into sacrificing themselves or killing someone else mainly of the other religion . In some of these religious places, people have been exploited in the name of God. Many politicians spread hate among their followers. People are made to feel guilty or even killed as they love a person of a different religion or the same gender. This needs to be stopped and Humanity should be given a higher value instead.
There are always times where people forget the differences made by religion and fight together as one. Maharashtra was hit with heavy rainfall in 2005 and even the busiest city Mumbai, the commercial capital of India was flooded. This was the time where every person irrespective of their religion was showing humanity to one another. The day where the extreme doors of the mosques, temples, Churches, Gurudwaras were opened to all. When a Hindu was praying in Mosques and Christans praying in Gurdwaras. Every individual just prayed as one for this horrible time to get over. The time when Humanity had a higher value than any false preaching that spreads ate. Even at the borders every soldier fights for India and fights as one. And protecting their nation without any hesitation. This is the real meaning of being religious and having the sense of righteousness.
Every life is respected and treated important when Humanity is given a higher value than blind beliefs. Humanity should be accepted as a new religion where a human respects the other human and respects their life. The youth has started to accept it and it is time for everyone to do the same and accept humanity as a new religion.
“Religion may be a part of one’s personality but it shouldn’t change the way you treat another human being. ”
Author : Hritika Singh
Ready to Start a Fundraiser ?