The moving finger writes.............

In the wake of several developments over the last four decades, the religious situation in India has changed. We all know what the incidents are .We remain a secular nation, but the faultlines have deepened. Hindu,   Muslim, Christian, Sikh- all religions have been drawn into this religious debate. I can’t say much about other religions, though I have read and practised a bit of Christianity , Buddhism and Sufism   in addition to my own, namely Hinduism, and still do. What I can say is about my own religion, with conviction, clarity, certainty, born of a thought process that has varied in the past between atheist, agnostic, would be convert ( yes, I used to wear a cross made with matchsticks in my childhood and speak against idolatry) to a firm adherant of my own faith today. “ I respect your faith if you respect mine” is my norm. I see certain Hindus , especially Bengali and Malayali Hindus revelling in beef consumption , as if it were amritam , so to say. A confessio...