Blastphemy

Following the recent string of blasts in India, starting with Bangalore and ending (hopefully) with New Delhi, has been a harrowing experience. The fact that my dad lives in New Delhi, has only compounded the anxiety factor.

But it got me to thinking...When did it all start? What was the trigger? Why do these blasts keep reminding us with frequent morbidity that differences exist in our society and the way some people deal with them is by killing people. Killing people doesn't necessarily kill the problem or the differences, does it?

It is interesting to note the most prominent terrorist attacks (I am loosely grouping riots and terrorists acts into one) since 1990 have all been religiously motivated - the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Mumbai serial blasts, Gujarat riots, Parliament bombing, Coimbatore blasts and now the latest ones. They also seem to alternate between the two prominent religions in the country, each trying to take vengeance for the earlier act of cowardice by the other. As these acts of tit-for-tat, an eye-for an-eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth continue into perpetuity, the country will soon be blind, toothless and eventually dead.

Following this trail of terrorist acts, I cannot but point at the demolition of Babri Masjid as the seminal moment in terrorism in India. It is hard to trace any other act of violence before or after (including the Sikh riots in 1984 and the riots following the partition in 1947) that has influenced the thinking of the nation, more so that of a few select people, more than Babri Masjid did.

A thoughtless act of destroying a place of worship that was allegedly usurped by a ruler belonging to another religion 300 years ago, has sown the seeds for almost two decades of bloodshed. What led to it? Religion? Communalism? Simmering feelings of hatred that simply boiled over in a momentary lapse of reason? Politics? It is hard to point the finger at one reason. But the unavoidable yet common thread that connects all potential factors mentioned above seems to be...God.

So, what if there was no God? Well, is there God, in the first place? The second is a profound question that has been the point of contention between theists and atheists for ages, which I am not willing to answer.

But the first question is easy to answer. Without god will there be religion? No. Without religion will there be religious animosity? No. Would there have been the Crusades? No. Would there have been the Holocaust? No. Would there be Jihad? No. Would there have been the Gujarat genocide? No. Would there have been the Babri Masjid Demolition? No. Would there have been 9/11, 12/6, 12/13 and 3/12? Never.

Why then, do we need God? Irrespective of his existence, if the most devastating acts of terrorism/genocide in our country, and the world in general, could have been avoided without him, wouldn't the world be a much better and safer place to live in without God? Aren't we better off without the notion of this all-powerful, omnipresent and omnipotent concept that seems to have gotten a few of us obsessed enough to kill. Aren't we better off seeing the God in fellow men and women than in the few names that we address him by? Aren't we better off following our conscience regarding the rights and wrongs of life than the preachings of the so-called messiahs? Aren't we better off without God?

Yes.