'Inciting in name of religion is betraying religion'

New Delhi, Apr 21: Evoking the memories of Swami Vivekananda's famous speech at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said any political formation trying to incite people in the name of religion was a betrayal of religion and India's hallowed civilisational legacy.

''Swamiji spoke of our civilisational tradition of accepting the greatness of all religions. He said very aptly, 'We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true,' '' Dr Singh said.

The Prime Minister was inaugurating the South Asian Inter-Faith Harmony Conclave organised by the Inter Faith Harmony Foundation of India in collaboration with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

''Your mission gains urgency at a time when the forces of bigotry and communalism are trying to tear apart this fine fabric of our composite culture. Attempts to divide society along religious lines deserve to be condemned with contempt,'' he observed.

Dr Singh said what was worse than religious intolerance was the deployment of such intolerance for narrow political gain. ''Any political formation trying to incite people in the name of religion, whatever religion, is in fact betraying both religion and our civilisation.'' Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, ICCR Prsident Karan Singh and Director General Pawan Verma, and religious leaders from various faiths from the SAARC countries were among the dignitaries present at the Conclave.

Describing Swami Vivekanand as the ''great son of India'', the Prime Minister said his message of ''religious harmony'' in India resonated even today and would continue to do so for all times to come.

''This is a simple but exceedingly important idea. It was not religious 'tolerance' that Swamiji valued, as much as religious 'harmony'. Of course, harmony requires tolerance, but harmony is more than mere tolerance. There can be tolerance of an unequal, but there can be harmony only among equals,'' he said.

''True harmony, I believe, is based on mutual respect and regard. Hence, I prefer the concept of religious harmony rather than just religious tolerance.'' Dr Singh said he concurred with Swami Vivekananda's thought that what made India's civilisation great was the fact that it was based on the idea of the co-existence of faiths - Sarva Dharma Sambhava.

''This notion implies that we have equal respect for all Dharmas, for all faiths. Elaborating this idea, Swami Vivekananda used the metaphor of many rivers flowing into one mighty ocean,'' he said, adding that this universal worldview was the foundation of India's composite culture.

''But we have not merely tolerated each other. We have not merely learnt to live and let live. We have in fact learnt to live together, grow together, learn together. Even as each one of us remains devoted to our own individual faith, we have learnt to respect the faith of another. This has been the basis of our nationhood,'' Dr Singh said.

Dr Singh said India's saga of building a modern nation on the foundations of social and religious diversities had great significance for the present-day world. ''Nations big and small will have to come to terms with their growing internal diversity. No modern and open society can be a monolith. Nations and societies that seek to impose uniformity will give way to those who embrace and celebrate diversity,'' he said, adding that every nation would have to learn to deal with the political, cultural and social consequences and implications of this growing phenomenon of diversity.

People in India, he said, must learn from the wisdom of their great teachers and social and political leaders like Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru, to ''preserve and nurture this great quality of our ancient but living civilization.''.

In this connection, the Prime Minister referred to a cardinal principle of the Indian Constitution -- equal respect for all faiths.

''When we say our Constitution is secular, we mean that it espouses the separation of religion from politics and governance.

Equally, it means that the Constitution accords equal status to all religious faiths.'' He said the idea of equality was important in context of any reference to majority community and minority community. ''These numerical notions are based on political and social concepts. They are not spiritual categories. They are not based on a value judgment.'' However, in a spiritual discourse, concepts like majority and minority had no meaning, he observed. ''All religions are equal, just as all human beings are equal. When we view each other as equals, we try to live in harmony. When we view each other as unequals, we try to practice tolerance.'' Dr Singh said India had been home to all the great religions of the world and would always remain so, but it was necessary for each generation to re-affirm its commitment to these values of co-existence and celebration of diversity.

UNI