SO100 Reflection Essay 2: Perspective 3

Ashana Prasad
s11124209

Religion and its effects in my society.

Religion is a precise system of faith and worship while a society

consists of people living together in a methodical community.
According to sociologists, religion enhances social solidarity
(“Solidarity”, 2018) and acts to bind people together as one by kinship
or similar beliefs and values. Sociologists also believe that religions
promote a “moral community”, which is a term used by Emile
Durkheim and is characterized by a set of shared beliefs about
morality and behavior.

Religion is important in all societies and so is in mine. I, come from a

traditional Indian backdrop society, which strictly follows Hinduism
and we are called Hindus. Hinduism is one of the most ancient
organized religions in the world, which is also one of the most diverse
and complex religions, having millions of gods and deities and the
main texts used in my religion are Mahabharata and Ramayana. My
religion has taught me a lot of values and beliefs and has also
provided a substantial foundation to lay my faith and hope, however,
upon growing up, I have noticed some drawbacks of my religion,
which is affecting my society negatively.

Firstly, facing the ugly reality of racism. Historic Hinduism, which was
founded in India in the early 1500 BC, promotes racism by
differentiating people into castes, judged by skin color and not content
of character and skill. The darker your skin, the lower your caste and
rank in the Hindu society. It is still being practiced in my society till
date in dramatic ways like, fair Hindu girls are being more approached
for marriage proposals while, darker Hindu girls are asked by their
moms to use fairness products in order to accomplish a fairer
complexion. Secondly, ancient Hinduism developed this cruel practice
of burning a widow alive on the funeral pyre of her husband (“Sati
(practice)”, 2018) and if she willingly did not jump into the fire, she
was thrown into it by the mob gathered to watch her burn to death,
which I, think is a hoax practice as, religions aren’t supposed to be
causing pain and distress; it’s meant to give everyone hope and show
the light in the darkest of days. Gradually, this practice was discarded
in India on 4th December 1829; ever since women empowerment and
women safety regulations came into power. In my society today,
widows mourn the death of their husband and are not entitled to wear
colorful clothes and should dress themselves in either white or light
colors.

Lastly, the never- ending conflicts between Hindus and Muslims have
caused a lot of commotion in my society. Muslims and Hindus did not
meet eye to eye in the past and even though, we are in the 21st
century and westernized, some members of my society still have
issues socializing with Muslims or approving intermarriage between
Muslims and Hindus. This idea that Muslims and Hindus aren’t
supposed to be mixing around in a healthy fashion makes me
question the basis of my religion. I believe that religions are supposed
to bring people together, however, the latter is witnessed, which
deeply saddens me.

To conclude, I think that, we need to rewrite modern religion and

discard negative traits of ancient religion as the discrimination
between religions are causing so many problems in the societies
today. Religion needs to create a bond with the society and should
assist in keeping the society in order and not cause hatred and crimes
in the name of religion.

References:

i) Sati (practice). (2018). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2 April 2018,

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)

ii) Solidarity. (2018). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2 April 2018, from

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity