Pew Research Centre Study `Global Restrictions on Religion'

The western Intelligentsia and the Research Institutes seldom made sincere efforts to study the Indian Milieu in right spirit and in earnestness. The recent study titled `Global Restrictions on Religion' by the Pew Research Centre - an American think tank- is no different from the similar studies damning the republic in a clear case of negative research bias against India. A fair-minded study cannot take the names of India, Iran and China in the same breath. India cannot be next to Iran when it comes to social hostility and religious discrimination among the 198 countries it studied. The report admits that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have more religious practices restrictions with less social hostility. Admittedly, Pakistan and Saudi are theocratic states, which do not accord equal status to the practitioners of other religions. The study reportedly chooses to under-report this state bias and underplays the resultant social hostility widely prevalent in the society even towards the co-coreligionists like Shias. Maybe the relations between the majority and the minority religions in India are fraught with mistrust. Maybe occasionally social tensions erupt in India thanks to mindless acts of the right-wingers and the pseudo secularists. Maybe the caste system in India is still subliminal in some urban and rural parts of the republic. However, these are likely in a country of India’s size and enormity. More so, in a democracy like India of multi-linguistic and multi-religious composition. These are also likely because of the age old practices and ill advised traditions the country has been having for decades together. Then the checks and the balances in the system are working efficiently. The rule of law and the writ of the state are seldom compromised in India. It has a thriving media of both vernacular and English language to report on any aberrations. The prevailing system has been successful in ensuring secularism among the one hundred crore plus citizens in spite of all the negatives the Report has pointed out gleefully. The social engineering plans have been working enviably smoothly. Furthermore, social hostility is not limited to India alone. Even in the so-called western countries like Australia, England, etc Migrants silently undergo social hostility and religious discrimination perpetrated by individuals and groups. In fact, the modern states are modern only on paper and in the state web sites. When it comes to the reality in the streets, all societies are anarchic alike. Social hostility propagated and practised by individuals and groups remains deep seated in the human psyche. The west should not single out India, which is a victim of media hostility perpetrated by the individual think tanks and collective think tanks. In social issues, India is more sinned against than sinning.