Taboos constitute a huge part of the belief system in a society like ours. People are more aware of what is not acceptable than what is. It is believed that in today’s India there are two types of people- one who still believe in what has been going on for ages and refuse to question the conventional ways of the functioning of the Indian society, and others who are sick of the conventional ways and want to bring in a revolution. The sad part though, is that the former often overpowers the latter and India, as a country, is unable to detach itself from the taboos.
The ancient belief – The belief that one should not marry a person out of his/her religion still continues and haunts people who are unwilling to change with time. People feel that it is unethical to marry or even get into a romantic relationship with someone of a different religion. Indian Youth need to stop sticking to the old beliefs and embrace the new thoughts because moving forward with the time is the best thing to do.
Unwilling to challenge – Most of the people still lack the courage to challenge the conventional ideas of living. Certain thoughts and ideas have been fed to them and they fail to question the system. They also enjoy living in oblivion and decide to turn a blind eye to the current progress. Challenging the conventional ideas will help us get a better picture and we will be able to see right from wrong. Old doesn’t always mean right and modern doesn’t necessarily mean absurd.
Acceptance Issue – Everybody feels that their religion is somehow superior to the other religions. Most of us are still being taught that our religion is the best and that the traditions of the other religions are absurd and outrageous, this has embedded fanaticism in the minds of the young. We all need to realize that all the religions are equal. We are all human beings and good and bad are characteristics of an individual and not of a religion as a whole.
Unity in Diversity? – Unity in diversity in the real sense is still a distant dream because when it comes to issues like marriage, love, sex with another religion or even caste, people gape at the person who doesn’t stick to his/her own religion with mouths wide open. We need to change the way we think about and look at new things. If we can’t accept each other, then the world will never accept us. The country needs to be strong and united to claim a place at the global level.
Image – People want to protect their image and they often tell their offsprings to shut up when they openly admit they want to get married into a different religion. Forward thinking and accepting the person without questioning his/her religion is a far-fetched idea even today for us Indians. To break away from this notion, we the youth should tell our families how the time has changed, how nobody cares about what you do anymore, and how everybody will be happier living a carefree life.
No matter how modern we consider ourselves to be, no matter how many space missions we complete, and no matter how short our clothes become, our thinking is still back there, in the darkness. Questioning the ethics and the belief system seems like something that cannot be done, but if we need to progress we really need to don our thinking hats. India will be a product of our thinking and we need to take it forward by changing the way we think. We need to start thinking about the future too, and it is not necessary that whatever is new and modern is definitely bad and unethical. Let’s change our outlook towards things that we need to accept and accommodate in our culture. Let’s make India better and wiser!
Blame the stereotypes or the reflectance of the Indian society, inter religion marriages are still a taboo in our society. We may be secular by the constitution but we are not at all secular in beliefs and the faiths. How many of our political leaders who claim to be secular are ready to let their kids marry in a different religion? Forget religion, not even in the different caste! Surely, not many. But we are none to blame just the politicians, we are a part of this society too and must give up this stereotype attitude to let the love win.
Humanity is the true religion,if people get to understand this, then all other stuff like caste ,khaps,rich-poor, etc. Will not matter and make no sense , and living life would be like heaven on Earth.