By Susantha Hewa –

Dr. Amir Ali’s article titled “Battle for the Parliament” published in Colombo Telegraph of September 29, 2024 is encouraging because it has a strong appeal to all those who wish to see the unity of all Sri Lankans belonging to different faiths.

It is no news that religious and ethnic differences have been a major cause of social segregation. And, these artificial divisions had served the crafty politicians who had ruled the country in the past. They had exploited, among other things, religion and ethnicity as a way of preventing the electorate from understanding their common problem of widespread poverty, which had nothing to do with their religion or ethnicity.

The two labels of ethnicity and religion that are stamped on us at birth, depending on where we are born, have not served any useful purpose in human civilization. A new born baby, no matter where he or she is born, is invariably labeled as belonging to this or that religion and ethnicity. No child can escape this branding, which, however is purely circumstantial with regard to the variety. No empirical test would identify any newborn baby to be intrinsically Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu or whatever. It is the way the infant gets conditioned by the immediate social environment, which happens to be the family that gradually initiates the newcomer into its religion and ethnicity. Any baby, irrespective of his or her biological parents, would grow up acquiring the two labels of ethnicity and religion of his or her guardians. Just to give an example, a baby of “Tamil Hindu” parents would be an ardent “Sinhala Buddhist” if he were brought up by a family bearing the latter label, and vice versa. It’s nothing but a matter of chance but their stamp is permanent and potentially divisive, and, what’s more, you are hooked for life. Human history would have been much less bloody had it not been for these two socially imposed stickers.

Let’s take religion. In any society, religion is supposed to be the major repository of moral values. Of course, the mere mention of the word religion brings to mind all good values – love, sympathy, generosity, etc. However, ironically, the plural form of religion is quite disappointing and even scary. That is, “religions” would automatically be associated with segregation, aggression, hatred, persecution, bloodshed, war. Very rarely is the term “religions” associated with peace and harmony. The very term “religious harmony”, which indicates the need for the reconciliation of different religious communities, is ironical in that all religions are supposed to make us better humans, isn’t it? If our religions had made us more sensible and sensitive, we should have been able to say with regard to religions, “the more, the merrier”, right? However, our history is strewn with examples that prove the reverse of it, which is, perhaps, “the more the scarier”? And, all those who are ready to fish in segregated waters, it would be “the more, the easier for us”.

The point is, it’s nothing to do with the moral dimension of religions. Generally, we have no quarrel over moral issues, no matter what religion we have inherited. We all are touched by kindness, sympathy, gratitude, honesty, generosity, etc. etc. And, we all oppose injustice, selfishness, cruelty, cunning, don’t we? Sam Harris, the neuroscientist and author, in his “The Moral landscape” says, “Just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, we will see that there is no such thing as Christian or Muslim morality…” The same applies to Buddhist, Hindu or any other “morality” available in society. When someone does an act of kindness, can any of us classify it as Buddhist, Muslim or Christian variety?

In fact, the element of estrangement owes to the entrenched habit of religious indoctrination in childhood, which denies the child the right to “learn” any religion or religions of his choice as an adult. It’s not surprising that a method which so patently violates children’s right to remain unaffected by his parents’ religion till they are intellectually strong enough to understand religion in all its subtlety, is highjacked by sneaky politicians to keep us artificially divided as a means of distracting us from the real issues that have kept us locked in poverty and ignorance. It’s time that lawyers and human rights activists thought of this culturally entrenched brainwashing of children which violates their right to choose their religion at an appropriate age. After all conditioning of young minds to impose the religion of their parents’ choice is against the freedom of religion ensured by the constitution (Articles 10 and 14(1)(e) state: “Every person is entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice”). A tradition, no matter however sanctified it may be, should not be blind to its negative consequences with respect to social cohesion.

Why allow religion to be a tool of unnecessary social alienation in the hands of scheming politicians? It is a pity that we are made to think that programming of young children is the best and only way to create people with better empathy.

*The writer taught English at Moratuwa University for 24 years and got retired as a senior lecturer in 2020.