History of religion is perhaps a history of violence and undoubtedly, religion has been the root cause of most of the violence occurring in different parts of the globe. Communal violence in India is no longer confined to Jammu & Kashmir or Gujarat, but has spread its evil tentacles to various parts of the nation.
The divisive politics which only serves the ‘divide and rule’ principle as a legacy of erstwhile British imperialists have been nurtured in due course of time only to gain political mileage. Eventually, it alarms a threat to India’s very essence of ‘unity in diversity’.
All major religions are tainted with violence, however, the present communal clash in eastern Indian state Orissa is yet another example of the growing religious hate campaign in India.
What has happened in Kandhamal and other tribal dominated bench of Orissa in past, though holds a social background of caste reservation, this time taken an ugly turn in the form of ‘religious hue’ when Christian missionaries started converting low-caste Hindus. This conversion infuriated Hindu fundamentalists and later incited them to pose an attack upon Christians disregarding the fact that religion is a matter of personal choice.
The recent flare up is solely allied to the same ground which just blazed up with the abrupt killing of Hindu religious leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, who was engaged in transforming ‘converted Hindus’ back to ‘Hinduism.’
The foreign and Indian missionaries in Orissa are attacked by those religious fanatics who consider Christians responsible behind conversion of Hindus and the cause of Laxmananda’s killing. Hindu-Christian conflict in Orissa has so far claimed more than dozen lives.