I was bit confused that day. Does worshipping God relieves one from the responsibilities to follow social and religious customs? I was juxtaposed what our Bishnupriya Manipuri society is becoming.
By Tridiv Sinha
I visit 'Malthep' not for religious purposes, but for meeting people. I'm
not religious, but I am very much social. A few years back, when I was in my village, I used to go to Rath Pali. The elderly persons in our village pronounced a new rule in order to resurrect the old social customs. It was made compulsory that women/girls should wear Langou-Inafi; and men/boys wear Irufi.
I'm proud to say I followed the rules along with a few others. But I was shocked one day when one of my friends, whom I knew as a very god loving person coming in Jeans n T-shirt started laughing seeing my newly adorn dress. He knew me as an atheist, and he got surprised seeing me in a traditional dress. I made him clear that even though I'm not a religious man, I do respect social and religious customs whereas it meant not-of-concern to him, although he was very religious.
I was bit confused that day. Does worshipping god relieves you from the responsibilities to follow social customs? I don't know whether this happened in many places. But I was deeply hurt what our Bishnupriya Manipuri society is becoming. I won't advocate atheists, neither do I condemn worshipping. In my opinion, we should follow our social customs above all else, because it's not the religion that keeps us united, it's the society that unites us.
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By Tridiv Sinha
I visit 'Malthep' not for religious purposes, but for meeting people. I'm
not religious, but I am very much social. A few years back, when I was in my village, I used to go to Rath Pali. The elderly persons in our village pronounced a new rule in order to resurrect the old social customs. It was made compulsory that women/girls should wear Langou-Inafi; and men/boys wear Irufi.I'm proud to say I followed the rules along with a few others. But I was shocked one day when one of my friends, whom I knew as a very god loving person coming in Jeans n T-shirt started laughing seeing my newly adorn dress. He knew me as an atheist, and he got surprised seeing me in a traditional dress. I made him clear that even though I'm not a religious man, I do respect social and religious customs whereas it meant not-of-concern to him, although he was very religious.
I was bit confused that day. Does worshipping god relieves you from the responsibilities to follow social customs? I don't know whether this happened in many places. But I was deeply hurt what our Bishnupriya Manipuri society is becoming. I won't advocate atheists, neither do I condemn worshipping. In my opinion, we should follow our social customs above all else, because it's not the religion that keeps us united, it's the society that unites us.
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE BISHNUPRIYA MANIPURI BLOG.
Hi , Tridiv
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog and thanks for posting ur valuable thought.
Well i believe that the evolution all the religious dogmas are in order to place the mankind into order and organised, provided those are followed in an unadulterated form.And believing in God is believing in some supernatural power.
Tridiv..
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog..its great to see u here..wish for more posts from ur end..nice writeup..do not get confused at such incidents..these are the so called modern lot of our community..also be prepared to face more in the near future..
best wishes..ranita
A great post by Tridiv.
ReplyDeleteI like this topic as it can give some ideas of how we have to survive from this competitive world of Identity. Religious practice can be related with an identity, but an identity is totally independent of religion. The identity ‘Bishnupriya Manipuri’ was never a religious identity, rather a cultural and linguistic identity developed through some complex steps of historical process and evolution. It is some fanatic and idiots leaders tried to make Bishnupriya Manipuri community as a religious community. But go dig the history , you’ll find what a BIG mistaken belief that was. Fundamentalism originates from the birth of fictional and unfounded nationalism like descendant of some Arjuna-Babhrubahan of Mahabharata, which was never been a history book rather than an Indian fairy tale. Will you find a stupid race in the world who claim to originated from a single man? I just pity those fanatic leaders of Mahasabha, SahityaSabha etc, they are nothing but some fanatic idiots being grouped together by a handful of stupid day dreamers dreaming for a race of fiction in the name of religion.
But does that mean everyone should buy them without verification? I believe in the days to come many of our young people and intellectuals in true sense will openly comes out from such unfounded ideas and the age old glorious traditions, customs and culture will be fully revived from religious fanaticism. We need to separate our identity from religion.
Every religion preaches evil except some teachings like this is good or this is bad. Religion is invented by human beings and you know every human is flawed. Now the question is which one of the religions is better for the overall development of human society. Hindus are same as Muslims. The societies of Hindus and Muslims are backward because they are against egalitarianism. Both these societies consider people of other races or religions as animals only fit for killing, raping or as slaves.
And my opinion is that being a Manipuri/Bishnupriya Manipuri is far better than being a Hindu. What is there to be proud about being descendant of some gay Arjuna, who was not even from Manipur? You will find hundred tribes in India who are hindu… here Bengali, Tipra, Bodo, Chakma, Muchi, Chamar, Kuli everyone is hindu. So what is there special to be feel SO PROUD about being a labeled Hindu Community? Practically in social customs, manners, ethics and senses we Manipuris/ Bishnupriya Manipuris are far far civilized and advanced than other parts of India where caste system, social nuisances etc are sucking the bloods from the brains of common people. Its all because of our far-sighted and very smart ancestors who had explored the entire world and absorbed the best of things to their own philosophy, thousands years ago.
We have to drive out all sorts of religious fanaticism and preserve our own traditional and customs of our godly ancestors, as people do things for their own.
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