We all have had amazing text books during our school days, which repeatedly repeated about India being an example of “Unity in Diversity”. Sometimes it repeated so very often in a text book that I used to be confused if I was reading the same chapter yet again (I did read quite regularly and sincerely back then, was so damn studious).
And after all of this we kids were left scarred for life on encountering the reality. There was not a single mention of the word “relatively” in “example of Unity in Diversity”. With all the violence and riots that we go through for every amazing diversity that we are owners of, we were shocked to see how fatally flawed our education system was (is), right.
And now to once and for all prove that we are people showing and setting an example, indeed, of Unity in Diversity – we have all of our religious leaders standing up for one cause.
After the July 2, 2009 verdict of Delhi HC of changes to Article 377 of Indian Constitution that would legalize Gay Sex, we have almost all of our major religious groups standing in the same frame and for a change this time not against each other but beside each other.
My personal view is – I am fine with the HC verdict. This is a very individual choice and a very personal one – a choice in which he/she is comfortable with, of being a homosexual. And as long as every act (irrespective of what your choice is) is confined in the privacy and between four walls everything should be fine with everybody else. (And this is not being modern in outlook – it is just giving space for others to live by, you need not be modern to be a well wisher for others, right).
But, the take by most leaders seem to be that homosexuality is a disease (some say it is mental – but do you know – psychiatric help has not made much of a difference), that needs to prevented. And all of a sudden they get to choose and define what is moral and immoral for the society, they decide who is a pervert and who is not, they decide who is sick and who is not, they decide what the majority want and what it does not (few hrs back while I started drafting this I had more things to go here – now it has all evaporated). Some even speak of being worried about – “where would the future race” come from, (hello, what is rest of human kind doing – you see that is where the diversity exists – and we are not begging diversity just for the heck of it, but that is the way it is)? And if God is what he is explained to be – one who loves each and everybody and all of us being his creations – why would he ever differentiate between any of his creations.
The problem arises from the view that something not being in majority makes it a threat to the majority. This generalization can safely be applied almost anywhere (with hardly any exceptions). How many times have we seen parents forcing a left-handed kid to perform activities with his/her right hand (famously put – write in right).
News Articles:
Gay is bad, chorus maulanas, saffron brigade & Church
It’s a ‘black day’, Sikh clerics slam ruling on gay sex
