World-renowned Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen, has condemned the slogan of ‘Jai Sri Ram’. Furthermore, he said that it is in no way associated with Bengali culture. He cited that the slogan is used as ‘a pretext to beat up people’.
He portrayed his concern while speaking at Jadavpur University.
Amartya Sen maintained that it is indeed ‘Maa Durga’ who is all-pervasive in the lives of Bengalis.
“I haven’t heard Jai Shri Ram earlier. It is now used to beat up people. I think it has no association with Bengali culture. Nowadays, Ram Navami is celebrated more in Kolkata which I haven’t heard earlier,” Amartya Sen quoted.
Furthermore, he explained how Maa Durga’s and Bengalis’ lives are bonded together, “I asked my four-year-old grandchild who is your favorite deity? She replied that it is Maa Durga. Maa Durga is so much omnipresent in our lives. What I feel is slogans like Jai Sri Ram are used as pretexts to beat up people.”
This speech by Amartya Sen comes after the rising tensions between Trinamool Congress and BJP workers over chanting of the slogan. Moreover, in a very recent incident, a video went viral in which a man is being forced do to sit-ups and chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’.
Such forceful acts condemn the secularism of the country’s democracy
Is there a toleration limit on such acts? The man in the video was later beaten up for not voicing the slogan of his perpetrators.
How does one find such goons and put a full stop on their acts that rape secularism? Furthermore, how justified it is to politicise religion whether in defense’s shoes or attacking ones? Share your views in the comments section below.
