Individual must come before religion

An enlightened state, that is based on values of liberty, hence democratic, should provide primacy to individuals. Whatever maybe the claim of society over individuals it really cannot have right over it. Individual, the human, his/her rights, the human right is paramount. It also means children, the most fragile member of the society, also have rights and it is duty of the State to protect these. It is being taken for granted that children are the property of parents or guardians, therefore have the right to indoctrinate with whatever they think is appropriate.  It maybe argued that parents have best interest therefore would be inculcating the best possible values. The realities in most cases is far from ideal, indeed families by extension societies are hotbeds of prejudices, biases and deviant norms established as traditions and argued as culture, sometimes these even percolate to wider society as benign nostalgia that needs protection. While the rightwing persuasions point to greatness of past, the liberal brethren too point to past as the ideal. The difference being the matter of timescale, for rightwing past is ancient, bordering mythical, wherein India’s greatness was legendary. It doesn’t really stand any scrutiny, although one may agree there were pockets of brilliance which is common in any society. Further, the idea of peninsula as cumulative society is absurd, even now societies within the region called India have wide and varied understandings that in many ways contradicts what is pushed as mainstream narration. Most significantly the society at large was entrapped within heinous squatter’s framework, as most people were marginalised and brutalised, it cannot by in any stretch of imagination signs of any great society, far from it this region was quite a primitive place to be in. The liberal brethren masquerading ideas of India seems to be hinged on recent past, I am not sure of the demarcation but there seems to be an attempt on idea of India. It is being claimed that this being violated. I am not sure what is being claimed and what is violated, it is made complicated -though it is quite clearly hinged to realities and trivialities of pretentious elite, hence if their fragile world is touched they cry foul. Hence the ideas of India we are told are crumbling. The reality being the so-called independence from colonial rule was nothing more than power transfer, the social systems and its intent remains primitive. Framework of apathy, manipulative brutal ways have seeped into every democratic institution. Insidious nature and camaraderie has helped elite section consolidate their gains, insisting garb of merit and competition. The trickle down, if ever, comes devalued and inopportune. This construction of reality of taking past as standpoint for goodness, whether its rightwing or miserable liberal, is questioned and is clear doesn’t stand the scrutiny. Egalitarian values generally emanates from awareness of contexts of common people -as they seek faith in whatever that could imagine as god and help ameliorate, hence secularism. Saints and seers gave values to compassion. These were constantly threatened by squatters as they seek to codify, subjugate and exploit. The present elite is the direct beneficiaries of these miseries, hence their claims of protecting values smacks of habitual hypocrisy. These status quoist beneficiaries of feudal realities have consistently scuttled land reforms or efforts to reforms inherited transactions. Their patronising attitude towards egalitarian efforts makes mockery of it. What makes it grievous is the attempt to represent and usurp compassion that is innate in society.            

It is therefore duty of the State to see that children are exposed to all kind of philosophies and religious thoughts. These should be mandatory, particularly in socalled religious minority schools. Children cannot be born into a religion, sect, ideology or section, they must be given choice to explore and choose whatever they desire. They are humans. That is the meaning of human rights, and that is what egalitarian State must strive and stand for. Religious rights are seen as absolute and sacrosanct these days, the pretentious elite encourages these to show themselves as agent of goodness, most significantly it also prevents primitive home truths. A child cannot be and should not be allowed to be indoctrinated. These narrow worldviews create prejudices, biases and violence. It gives space to obscurantism and dogmatic outlook, in the long run these cause much destruction. An education system can be religious or community based but it should have mandatory study on all religions and atheist worldviews. Religion cannot have right over children, hence create foot soldiers of misery.  State must intervene and prevent these human right violations. Individual must come before religions. There is something more fundamental than religion.  

Post script: depraved Kasturi&Sons aside, I am shocked that a man with views as primitive as Jayakanthan should even be considered for Jnanpith awards. It is also telling that of all his contributions Kasturi& Sons chose to highlight amazing nonsense, severely denting the writer’s credibility. They also sought to play mischief on iconic Periyar. Periyar deserves more than Bharat Ratna, wonder why Dravidian parties never insisted on this. What is more shocking is that these 'prestigious' literary awards don’t seem to be properly scrutinized or else only a particular section seems to be favored. It reflects their attitude and intent. What prevented Muhammad Basheer, one of the best known writer (indeed my all-time favorite) and great humanist, ever considered for these awards. It shows how trivial these people are.