On 25th May 2020, George Perry Floyd Jr., African
American, resident of Minneapolis was arrested for giving counterfeit $20 bill
in one convenience store. A white police officer, Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s
neck dangerously for a prolonged period and Floyd died on the spot. US wide
protest and loot started after that under the banner of “Black Lives Matter”.
The protest was definitely not spontaneous as US has long history of
discrimination against African American population. This incidence triggered the
simmering unrest among American black population. The communist/Left in US
instigated it further and made it a nationwide protest. But the wider question
comes in mind that racial discrimination, apartheid, inter religion conflicts, inter
race conflicts, conflicts between sects of the same religion, smaller religion
persecution by bigger religion, caste conflicts are common across the globe and
hardly any country is an exception to it. Love, peace, compassion, harmony, brotherhood,
equality, mutual respect, secularism, liberalism, so called tolerance are just
words. Floyd was a black Christian and Derek was a white Christian. But is
there any harmony between black and white Christians in the US? Remember Rwanda
genocide which happened in 1994. 70% of the Tutsi tribe was massacred by the Hutus
tribe. Both these African tribes are Catholic Christians but Christianity could
not bring in respect, brotherhood and harmony within them. The whole world
closed their eyes on this just 26 years old genocide and today it is completely
forgotten. Few days back, huge anti Shia rallies were organized by majority
Sunni Muslims in Karachi, Pakistan. Both are sects of Islam and their feud goes
back to the inception of Islam.
History of a few thousand years is full of such tribes,
caste, religious, racial, ethnic conflicts, genocide, forced conversions. Several
such examples can be cited. However, I still strongly feel that modern history
of the world especially post World War 2 is relatively peaceful than ~2000
years of history before WWII. The world has seen complete eradication or
genocide of some ethnicities by major religion during that period. The Pagans
were living in Middle East, Eastern Europe for thousands of years. Today, there
is not a single Pagan living on this earth. Some religious, ethnic groups were
fortunate and could manage to protect, flourish their religion and belief
system. There are still over hundreds of such sects, religion, ethnicities
across the globe which are not part of top 4 or 5 religions of the world. They
are still trying to protect themselves onslaught from larger religion, race or
ethnicity. I am highlighting 3 such religious/ethnic groups in this blog.
Samaritan, people of Samaria (current day West Bank and/or Israel) is pre Christianity, pre Islamic and contemporary religion to Judaism. Some say it is part of Judaism. There are few similarities between them. But Samaritan is different from Judaism and they still maintain that difference. Their estimated population in the Samarian region before Christianity was over 1 Million. Earlier, they were persecuted by the Jews and then by Muslims and Christians.
Today, this religion is on the verge of extinction. Total
population of this religious group is just ~800 people. They grew from ~100 in
1900 to present day ~800. Today they live in two cities of Israel and under the
protection of Israel. Their holiest place is Mount Gerizim in present day
Israel. Israel has set up a town there for them called Kiryat Luza and some
people are living in Holon near Tel Aviv.
The next such
religion is Zoroastrians (Parsi in India). We Indians know them very well. The
Tata’s, Godrej, Poonawala, Aga and the list goes on. Parsis of India have made a
profound impact on India’s freedom fight, Military, Judiciary, Industry, Art,
Literature, Music, Films etc. In short, there is no sphere remained untouched
by the Parsis of India. The great emperor Xerxes (4th century BC), Cyrus
(5th century BC) who expanded their Kingdom to Europe and Middle
East were Zoroastrian emperors. It was one of the major religion of East Asia,
Middle East ~1500 years before Christianity and ruled Persia (present day Iran
and Iraq) for almost for a thousand years.
Their main religious text is Avesta and Gatha which includes the
teaching of Zoroaster. Their religious philosophy believes in Ahura and Daevas.
Water and fire have important significance in this religion.
These fire worshipers fell to religious persecution since Islamic invasion from 6th to 7th century in Persia. The religious persecution is still continuing in Iran. After Islamic revolution in Iran 1979, atrocities against Zoroastrians increased once again. As a result, there are hardly ~25,000 Zoroastrians live in Iran today. Once the emperors of Persia are now minuscule religious minority in their own land. We all know that Indian Parsis have migrated to protect themselves from Islamic persecution and landed in Gujarat from 7th to 9th century. It is believed that they first settled in Sanjan (in Valsad district) under the protection of Raja Jadi Rana. They assimilated with Hindus while keeping their traditions and religious teaching. Today, 1.2 to 1.5 lacs Zoroastrians remained in the world and majority are still in India.
(Yazidi Temple Entrance.
See the Snake at the entrance)
Another such religious group is Yazidi. Ethnically similar
to other religious groups in Mesopotamia (present day part of Iraq, Iran,
Syria, Turkey, Kuwait etc). But many believe that they are ethnic Kurd. There
are estimated 1 Million Yazidis in the world mostly in Iraq, Syria, Armenia and
even in Russia and Germany (probably fled community). Today, most of them live
in northern Iraq under the Kurdish control areas like Nineveh and Dohuk
district. The origin and founder of this religion is unknown. But many believe
that it may be ~7000 years old faith even before Zoroastrian religion of
Persia. Yazidism is a monotheistic faith similar to many other religions originated
in Eastern Asia or Middle East region. They believe that there are seven angels
who take care of the world. The first one among them is Melek Taus (pronounced
as Malik Taus) means Peacock Angel.
The Yazidi template in Lalish in North Iraq is their Holiest
pilgrimage site. They have recently built one more temple in Armenia.
The symbol of peacock angel is a Lamp post shown in the
photo. It is called as Sanjak. Yazidi parades this Sanjak during their holy
season. It is interesting to see the similarities between this lamp post with our
Hindu lamp post. Peacock and cobra are not native to their region but then they
are their holy symbols. Their temple has similar architecture as Hindu temples.
Yazidis worship Sun three times a day. They believe in reincarnation. Religious
traditions are transferred by oral tradition and no one knows who is the
founder of this religion. This leads some Indians to assume that Yazidi may be
some ancient Hindu sect in Mesopotamia region. Anyways, that is not the topic
of this blog. Yazidi believes that they
are the direct descendants of Melek Taus who refused to bow down to Adam as he
was made by God himself.
This is where it has some similarities with Quranic story of
Iblis. Therefore, Muslims of that region believe that Yazidis are devil
worshipers and hence are subjected to atrocities, persecution for centuries.
The latest one started since inception of ISIS in Iraq. Genocide of Yazidis by
ISIS is a major concern in that region and the world must take a note of it.
They have experienced 74 such genocides throughout the history. Once one of the
major religion of Mesopotamia, now a tiny persecuted minority who are trying to
keep their identity, culture, belief and religion preserved.
Genocide of religious minorities or ethnic minorities do not stop here. Romas of eastern Europe, Lakotas and Mayas of the American continent, Maoris of New Zealand, Yorubas of Nigeria and the list goes on. All are victims of Conquer and Convert policy of the two major Abrahamic monotheistic religions viz. Christianity and Islam. Black lives definitely matter but more importantly ‘All Lives Matter’ is more encompassing theme world must practice. This will happen only when people, sect, religion, ethnicity who believe in ‘वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम’ and ‘एकम् सत् विप्राः बहुधा वदन्ति’ lead this world. There is a good news! Bringing all such small sects, religions, ethnicities together started in 1994 by International Center for Cultural Studies (https://www.iccsglobal.org/) which was started in Nagpur. ICCS is now a global movement under the leadership of Bharat. These groups meet in India in every three years. The first such conference was held in Mumbai in 2003 and the 6th conference and gathering of elders was held in Mumbai in 2018. I wish these collective efforts will help these groups to retain and flourish their religion, believes, culture and traditions and the world will learn a lesson of “All Lives Matter!”
27-Sep-2020
