So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Decked up your house, shopped enough and more for the family, sent invitations to friends for a sumptuous meal, laid out plans for merrymaking? Have you had the time to think about the ones who cannot afford to do all that? ’Tis the time to be jolly all right, but to care for the less privileged would make your Christmas just right.
The popular festival falls in the northern hemisphere winter, which gives us the scope to reach out to those who are left in the cold, literally as well as figuratively. It enhances the spirit of giving to touch a life and perhaps make a huge difference. Charity tops the list in terms of contentment. Nothing beats the joy of brightening up someone's mood and making one smile. Little gestures of generosity help a great deal in achieving an enormous sense of satisfaction. That would mean you radiated brighter than that decorative star in your balcony, and were a fairy, just like the lights that glitter on your Christmas tree. Be someone’s Santa, especially this festive season.
As Christians around the world celebrate the birth of ‘Prince of Peace’ Jesus Christ, peace is what the world desperately needs right now with nations raging against another — causing a ripple effect around Earth — in these troubled times. Congregations in packed churches would pray for the same today even as they reflect on reported outrage against Christ’s followers in scattered pockets of our great nation. Against this backdrop, it is heartening to note the changing political equation with the PM making the push to reach out to Christians across the country.
It came as a shock then that Mr Modi’s outreach was seen by some as a way of the influential clergy of the Catholic Church to engage with power and thus legitimising in a way the persecution of Christians that continues to an alarming degree in some parts of the country where the push for Hindutva comes into conflict with the desire of the minority to live in peace and prosper along with the majority community.
The minority must be seen and heard too. Mr Modi has made a move in this direction and has sent out an uplifting message of inclusiveness on that front. There’s still a long way to go, but a steady start has been made in earnest. It should finish well. That should warm the hearts of many this Christmas and with the New Year around the corner, we could turn the page.
Indeed, the page must turn in a country where the situation with the minorities of two major religions is not as ideal as it should be. In fact, the larger Muslim community could be facing the same kind of persecution as the Christians through targeted violence, harassment and arrests and even ostracisation wherever majoritarianism prevails, according to citizens concerned by what they see as the domination of a few religious nationalist groups.
The RSS chief’s recent statement regarding the need to stop the hunt for the ruins of a temple under every ancient mosque is significant. There is a need to stop the divisiveness that comes with such delving into history.
As the Christians celebrate the birth of Christ in good cheer and the Muslims cry out for equal opportunities in the world's most populous country, it is time for all voices to be heard, understood and acted upon if we are to be a harmonious nation that we evolved into soon after partition rent asunder the religious unity of India!
