"All Lives Matter"

On 25^th 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.

(Fire Temple in Yazd, Iran built by Indian Parsis and their main Fire temple in India is at Navsari)     

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 (4^th century BC), Cyrus (5^th 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 6^th to 7^th 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 7^th to 9^th 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 6^th 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!” 

Satish Gundawar
27-Sep-2020