Hindus, Ahimsa (non-violence) and anti-Catholic aggression

[JesuXPIPassio]

The news in recent months of oppression of our people in India by Hindu people has taken me by surprise. I thought that one of Hinduism’s most basic beliefs was ahimsa, non-violence.

AOL News is reporting that some sister who was raped by Hindu people doesn’t want to cooperate with the police because they didn’t care to help her before so she understandably doesn’t trust them. AOL lets people comment at the bottom of the page and it’s disgusting to see the really offensive things that stupid, stupid people have put there (I’m not gonna dignify them by repeating them here, but you can guess what tone they have). These morons actually think they’re being clever. The internet really is the trashbin of the world’s stupid, loudest, most over-opinionated semi-literate malcontents. They somehow have all turned into Homer Simpson.

Anyway, how is it that a religion so committed to peace could do such things? I’m sure there’s something I don’t understand or know about these particular Hindu groups who attack Catholics, so I was wondering if anyone here could teach me a bit about it.

 

[Zach_Isaiah]

Hi JesuXPIPassio,

I was recently at a Mass, where the priest spoke about the atrocities and persecutions in India. Pray for them.

Let us not be too quick to question Hindu as a religion because violence has be begotten from peace. Us Catholics are not exactly free of this crime also (remember the Crusades).

I come from a country where there is general racial and religious tolerance and understanding. And I count many Hindus, Muslims, Buddhist, Christians and Catholics as my friends.

Religions per se, are usually all preachers of peace. Some people may quote the koran/bagavadgita/bible to try and prove me wrong, however consider however the context of when the text was written. Note that all this violence comes when religion is used as a means to further a political end (Think of how the Bible was used to support slavery and racism; Read up on the early history of Islam especially where Muslims were under attack).

Religion has a strong emotional grip on people (look at some of the posts on CAF!) and politics and politicians tend to use these to their advantage (consider how the Catholic vote is being speculated in the US Presidential elections).

From what I understand, politics in India is very much tied with religion. There are parties that are Hindu in nature which advocated Hindu nationalism (Hindutva). Christian encroachment on Hindu devotees is therefore politically dangerous as it undermines a political base, so Half-truths get spread. (Another example is Malaysia, where allowing Muslims to convert to another religion threatens the role of Islamic character of the country and hence the government closes an eye when the Shariah Courts refuse to accept the conversion of some Muslims to other religions, and force an Islamic funeral on them)

Half-truths create Myths, Myths beget Anger and Anger causes Violence. We can see this everyday in the attitudes to Catholics by other Christians; the view of Muslims in the western world as a religion of hate; the radicalisation of young muslims against the west.

Hope the above is understandable