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layout, title, date, comments, categories
| layout | title | date | comments | categories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| post | The Cost of Sustaining Religion in India | 2012-11-13 12:38 | true |
Disclaimer: The views are the author's alone. The reader is advised to adopt an open mind.
When I came to IIT-Roorkee, I was an agnostic-turning-to-atheism, hoping that I would be guided the right way. However, meeting so many people with so many different views to life made me move away from religion, if anything. The more I tried to understand faith, the more it got away.
India, as a rich and diverse country, has its own share of religions, superstitions, and weird laws that come with these religions. For instance, changing your religion is illegal in several states, while some others may require you to give a one month notice or else face fines. India is one of the few secular countries which governs several laws based on religion. We have different marriage laws for different religions.
Are you worried about politics in India mixing with religion? I’m worried about the lack of atheist support in India. Our most recent census does not include a section for atheists, and assumes all Indians are believers. At the same time, we have many of our politicians swearing oaths as atheists. Our first Prime Minister was openly an atheist, and having another such is unthinkable at times like these. Recently, a pic doing the rounds on the internet argued that the theoretical taxing of religious organizations in the US would lead to enough budget($71 billion/year) for NASA to send 28 Curiosity rovers per year, forever to Mars. Taking on a similar hypothetical question I wondered: “How much could India benefit, if India suddenly embraced atheism”. As it turns out, the answer is a lot.
Keeping economics in track, we might see a shift from religious donations(which are the majority of donations in India) to charity being given to other NGOs and such. Tirupati, Shirdi Baba, and the top 10 temples of the state earn a huge sum every year, which is non-taxable at the moment. Some of it might even trickle down to help our economy.
The next moot point has to be the huge toll of deaths that religion inadvertently takes each year. A few hundreds die in religious clashes throughout the country every year, with an additional few dying in pilgrimages to various shrines. Blame it on bad management of crowds, but the death of 67 of the most devout followers in just 16 days of this year’s Amarnath yatra still cannot be justified.
Haj subsidy would reduce to zero, leading to an additional Rs. 878 crore available cash for India. (Supreme Court of India has already ordered to stop it completely by 2022.)
What about real-estate? With whole of India becoming a heathen state, we would surely not need all these temples and churches, leading to so many hectares of real-estate back in market( architectural marvels can obviously be left out ). The top 5 temples in India have a net worth to the tune of 10,000 crore rupees.
What about the thousands of self-proclaimed religious gurus , their money-swindling for-profit organizations? Baba Ramdev(who started out as a yoga guru) tops the list with an estimated net worth of 1,100 crore (Some reports suggest a figure ten times this). Others add this figure upto 10k crore, which can do wonders for our country.
Let us also not forget the stampedes, which result in a loss of 100-500 lives per year. And what about the expensive firecrackers that India buys for diwali, not to mention the terrible working conditions in firework factories, or the colors India uses up in Holi. Surely all that hard-earned money might be put to put to better use in a non-believing India. Even our production levels will go up(may be I am being absurdly cruel here), as we might have lesser religious holidays.
The amount totalled would be quite high, although it would stand nowhere near the political scams of the day.
India as a secular country gives us the right to follow any religion of our choice as long as it does not conflict with the constitution (people tend to forget the second part). I, as an atheist, try to reason what is it that religion really offers us? Other than the lives and the money lost, what is it exactly that a person can get from his faith? Do people expect miracles, longer lives, or a peace of mind, or is something else entirely. Are you just following Pascal’s Wager and hoping you are right in your beliefs?
If you’re still following a religion just because you were born to, think again. For me the journey to atheism was a learning experience. Many of you have already given up on religion. Just take the next step, and dive into a much better world, where people, not Gods are held responsible for their own actions.
Abhay Rana 1V year, P&I