“true religion is not a narrow dogma .it is faith in god and
living in presence of god.”
Mahatma
gandhiji had said these words a many decades back when this deeply religious
country was fighting for its independent and sovereign existence .he was living
in such a time when science had started coming out from labs and influencing
day to day life of an ordinary man and womanlike by ways of telephone or
printing press.at these crossroads,he viewed religion in its wider perspective
,certainly that perspective having path of reason embedded into it,which is
itself a cornerstone of science.but its quite imperative to point now that whether
these ideas and perspectives exist even today or we have lost in floods of
superstition and modernization?
Religion is a concept having in its ambit, a person who profess,practice
and propagate the ideas of his or her conscience.depending on that idea of
conscience,person may belong to any religion like Hinduism,islam,bahai and many
more.while science is all about making the hypothesis and then testing it on
the altar of reasoning. An ideal religious person gains his idea of conscience
only when that idea confirms to his own reasoning and from these starts the
path where religion and science not only coexist but catalyse each other.
There
happen to be certain events in india which bringfore the idea of coexistence of
religion and science.last year,there was huge conglomeration of crores and
crores of people at sangam of Allahabad for mahakumbh.this year,nearly about a
lakh people have gone to haj.on the other hand,india became first country to
reach to mars in its maiden attept.not only this,our Indian constitution
embodies religious freedom as fundamental right while promotion of scientific
temper as a fundamental duty.isnt it the coexistence of religion and science
that india is witnessing?certainly yes but with some riders.
First and foremost area in which religion and science have shown
coexistence in india is its historical development specially the age of
enlightenment and renaissance which happens to be the first half of 19th
century.religion then provided the base on which scientific reason was built by
many great personalities like raja rammohan roy,ashwini kumar data,iswar
Chandra vidyasagar,gopal ganesh agarkar etc.an apt example would be that of
practice of child marriage.while raja rammmohan roy argued that none of shstras
mention about utility of child marriage ,ashiwnin kumar data took it in medical
perspective when he argues that such a marriage puts burden on the body of a
child which results in deterioration of her health.due to resonance of such
ideas in society,british govt was forced to pass child marriage restraint act.
Second area
where religion and science have reinforced each other is the political
sphere.religion has given the ideaological binding to the people of this
country while science have given the means and modes of new vistas of life
which has woven the country into fabric of materialistic well being.nothing can
be more prudent example of this than that many of our neighbouringf countries
whose existence is on the basis of single religion have got divided because
they had retainbed the fruits of scientific development on one part of their
territory compared to another.
Thirdly it’s the democracy which has the imprint of religion and science
in itself.a true religion favours democracy not because of its populist
propaganda but because democracy offers the freedom of conscience which is a
bed rock ofreligion.science is conjoined with democracy because the democracy
offers the freedom to fairly criticize what is not as per the reasoning of
average human mind upto the last man of the society.nothing can be a more
forceful example of this than Indian democracy which is a multireligious
country marching on its path of scientific development.
Fourthly it’s the social sphere where religion and science overlap each
other.social sphere is all about dealing with others and with oneself.in Indian
society,it will not be exaggeration to say that religion is part and parcel of
life of an Indian.but this religious association many a time have scientific meaning
as pointed and being discovered later on.for example ancient Indian texts
mention about the importance of mother’s milk as an amrit while the recent
scientic studies have pointed out the benefits of mother’s milk for her baby as
its rich in all sorts of essential minerals.its importance get more exaggerated
in recent Indian society in light of fact that 42% of Indian children are
underweight.other social sphere examples where religion an science catalyse
each other are like yoga or prayers or recently discovered wonder herb which is
having immune booster properties.
Fifithly it’s the economic field where religion and science together
have bring wwonders in the lives of many.there are lots of religious places in
the country where millions of people visit ought to sense of devotion.this is a
kind of religious tourism which provides livelihood opportunity to local
populace..science has helped in religious tourism by providing improved means
of transport and communication.result of this combination is that the number of
tourist visiting the religious places have increased multifold opening up many
opportunities for local population to transform into microentrepreneurs.this
trend has picked so much so that recent budget also announced for increasing
tourism in some religious circuits by improving connectivity further.
But in the world of mortals,nothing is perfect and ideal.if religion and
science coexist as multifaceted partners then side by side in many areas,there
existence is deemed as threat to other one.
Firstly it’s the area of religious superstitions and wrong beliefs where
scienitific explanation is seen as interference in religion by ardent
supporters of such beliefs.there are lot of examples in this regards.for
example that of witch hunting practice in which the young girl is being bitten
up by self professed godmen in lieu of taking the witch out of girl.but as per
science,all this disordered behavior of a girl is because of some mental
disorder like schizophrenia and not by influence of any ghost.some people
believe such ideas as interference in their inner sphere.the killing of narendra dholbole in Maharashtra
in broad day light points to the
resistance offered by such fanatics against reason.secondly it’s the area of
social ills that prevail this society from many centuries.a dangerous trend
seen in this respect is that these social evils use to be defended by tenets of
religion on basis of their mention in a religious text.for example the practice
of untouchability and conditions of those who faced it.this practice is
centuries long and followed even till now because as per the opinion of some higher castes ,it got the religious
backing as mentioned in ‘chaturvarna order’ of religious texts.but science is
all out opposite to it because of its very existence on pillars of
liberty,equality and fraternity.when these explanations come face to face,then
there is rise of bhoomihar senas or alit panther movements.
Thirdly
it’s the women,her condition and her life which becomes an arena of struggle
for superiority in between religion and science so much so that an Indian
commentator commented”body of women is the battleground of all ideologies.”the
various practices regarding a woman like sati,widow neglect,child marriage and
polygamy and many more are reared up as commands of a religion.recent incident
from rajasthan where a girl buried into ground ,hile still she breatrhs,is a
testimony to this fact.science have always opposed it and will oppose it
because any person with sound mind capable of making reason cant accept such
practices which more relates a person with life after this life ,not seen by
anybody till now.
Fourthly it’s the mistrust that develops in a religion with regard to
some othere religion.this tendency isreferred to as communalism and its extreme
form is the one in which religious communities start seeing each other as
enmical to their existence.india suffers from this so much so that every year
nearly 100 people die because of the riots that follow such communalistic
attitudes.on the other hand,science look to the solution of this enmity not in
violence but in increasing production and productivity so much so that
interests of religious communities get linked with each other.
There are
many other issues where religion and science take a different path like the
issue of religious minority where science preaches there equality in all
respects or the issue of monotheism vs polytheism.but if there are
problems,there must also be solutions to these problems and these solutions
should not only cure the symptoms but the disease itself.
First and foremost solution to all the animosity and divergence between
religion and science is through the way of reasoning.this needs to be instilled
right from the childhoodwhhen the mind is able to print on itself the teachings
taught by elders.this ability can only be gained if child is free to
contemplate his views which might or might not be in consonance in prevailing
one.this is a difficult task which can be easily accomplished by the
participation of parents and teachers.but this is like a chain reaction as any
reasonable person will spread themessage of reasoning to everyone he or she
comes in contact with.
Second solution for making religion and science confirm with each other
is by teaching young minds,the knowledge of all religions.the ultimate root of
all religions is same as said by swami vivekanada”the basi truth of all
religions is the love and welfare of mankind”.this will in long term binds the
nation not in small groups of different religions,but in the larger group of a
religion binding each individual in its faith.
Third strand of solution pertains to making it a reality that fruits of
scientific progress become available to every faith and religion.in india,this
willinvolvee interregional and intra regional development as well as improving
the quality of life of religious minorities in this rapid paced urbanization
phase.this will need motivation as well as more funding for such communities
who have been left behind.india has many successful examples regarding that
like elimination of polio which involved the participation of many religious
leaders to call for vaccination of newborn.such things need to be used more and
more because these affect a lot in very short span of time.
Fourthly its the idea of dynamic secularism that this country needs to
be followed .in india unlike west,religion is not separate from state but is
under protection of state irrespective of its type.the concept if got coupled
together with thrust on research and development in science can work wonders
for this country.though india has followed it partially till now,but
complacency and satisfaction with the progress till now will only breed
inefficiency and so this concept needs not only be followed but implemented as
swami Vivekananda had said “one ounce of practice is worth twenty thousand
tones of big talk”.
Having said that though
religion and science complement each other in fields of democracy,political
unity,economic well being,social practices and historical achievements yet
these contradicts in other fields like of superstitions,condition of women,communalistic
tendencies and many more.but there solution lies in preaching and implementing
religious tolerance in life,teaching basic tenets of all religions and
development and welfare of all.
The very issue of
religion and science’s coexistence in india is the very basic issue of
existence of humanity on this ancient land.humanity,which is coupled with life
of each and everyone till the last one standing in the row,hold importance very
much than that in the past.the words of Socrates express the crux of whole
issue when he said that “the unexamined life is not worth living”
Finally,it
can be said that if religion is the path to liberation then science should be
taken as means to achieve that very end.the narrow dogma of religion attains
its width only when it got science by its side on the way to prosperity and
development of all in this great country.
