Greetings on the first full moon of the year 2014! Happy New year:
All world religions including sects are comparatively new.
Before all religions, there were only diversely evolving Human Ways.
These human ways evolved from Might is Right, to the use of the human intellect to apply its discretion in the contexts of sustainable development, human rights and ethical scientific inquiry.
While the human race has evolved to include into some of its practices, the prevention of cruelty against animals, and the regulated killing of other creatures, it, by the very fact of each individual existence of each discerning human being, does, implicitly, approve of the primacy given to human life over other life.
This Human Way is reflected in documents such as the Dynamic Spirit of the Constitution of India (for example), as well as in international conventions that pertain to sustainable development and human rights.
In India, this includes the recognition of the rights of tribals to follow the path of their own intellects (faith, non-faith, both, neither, etc. etc. etc.), and is not restricted to codified law, as long as all practices are in a position to withstand the scrutiny of the fundamental rights and safeguards that the Constitution provides to each individual citizen (with reasonable restrictions).
While many tribes in India are on a Scheduled list of tribes as per the Constitution for the purposes of affirmative action -and some denotified ones as well-...that does not mean that other NON-scheduled tribes don't exist on the subcontinent...and they might not even be interested in being declared as Scheduled Tribes. Furthermore, in the international context, when the word Indigenous is used, India describes all Indians as being Indigenous.
Against this backdrop, to achieve World Peace, one needs to look at how various religions view these pre-religious ways when they are not either trying to convert them or assimilate them: The Hindus might think the whole world is Sanatam Dharm; Christians might think everyone else other than themselves (and before Christianity?) is Pagan (small window of opportunity for Pagans: what is the Church of Satan?); Islam says that Allah is everyone's God, not only of Muslims; Science confirms that energies and dimensions exist, and promotes experimentation.
So, on the whole, world religions (and non-religions), are quite well inclined towards the non-religious tribal whose practices are monitored by the rule of law.
It becomes the duty of such tribals to keep their ways just, humane and evolve in keeping with Best Practices.
So, for example, although no tribal complains if Hinduism embraces the tribal ways, if this is done in a manner which introduces negative influences of Hinduism into tribal practices, course correction through peaceful and legal means would be good.
The immediate mega case that comes to mind is the Puri Lord Jaggannath which is originally associated with the Savara tribals of the Eastern Ghaats. (And now thought of as an additional incarnation of Lord Vishnu by the Hindus from their mythology). A discussion on the Hindu-driven casteism associated with this and other temples merits debate in this landmark year of the Nobokoleboro. (Incidentally, 2015 is a once-in-twelve-years Nobokoleboro year, during which the heart device of the Jaggannath idol is transferred to another shell).
Furthermore, a relook at all Hindu personal law (as codified into statutes by the Indian parliament), in order to ensure the Right to Equality for the girl child and unmarried single woman, and the right of an individual to choose his or her own religion without being impacted by circumstances of birth would be most useful.
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