Each religion has a unique concept of love, harmony, forgiveness and beauty. They are the center of religion and its practice is the powerful healing fragrance to our world.  In 1893 Swami Vivekananda at Chicago religious parliament mentioned in his speech, that he was proud to belong to a Nation that gave safe refuge to several persecuted communities of the world.  To be true it is not that Hindus   just accommodated these refugees but also gave them the freedom to practice their respective faiths.  The teaching of the Upanishads that "the whole world is like a family and we are the members of that great family" has been followed in letter and spirit in this land. The Indian philosophy of tolerance and its cultural climate have always attracted the rest of the world.  India is the home to Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and several other religious traditions. The rise of politicised religious fundamentalism and politicised secularism has threatened the very fabric of tolerance and peace in India.

Third Freedom Struggle

(Concept of Peace India Movement)

Manav Sharankhla

India now witnesses with the rise of the politicised religious fundamentalism. Religion is being used to spread hatred to capture political power.  It is enslaving the very soul of India. Therefore to free from these so called religious watchdogs India needs to declare the 3rd freedom struggle to free soul from the hands of these ruthless users of religion.

This freedom struggle is quiet different from the other two. Unlike India’s first war of independence of 1857, this shall not be fought on any battlefield but in the hearts and minds of the people. Unlike the 2nd freedom movement of 1947, this is not aimed at ousting any group of people from the country, but to free the mind of the people from the clutches of these religio-cultural politicians.

If  religion can be used to divide people, why can’t it be used to bring people together? So the objective of the third Freedom Struggle will be to bring together the true religious leaders on a common plat form to preach message of peace , brotherhood and unity.  This freedom struggle will be to free India from the hands of those power hungry politicians who use religion to ascend to the throne. This 3rd Freedom Struggle will be called the “Peace India Movement.”

The people of India are basically religious and a few religious pretenders try to capture the spirit of true religious values. The religious values and cultural values are similar and identifiable to each other. The basic message of all religions is one and the so-called political values are stems of the same principles of religion but corrupted by the  religious pretenders to gain power by any means. If all these are acceptable then why don’t we all try to bring together the true religious followers?