Religion and Politics

 

Religion and Politics

There are different views about politics in religion and religion in politics. As there are several religions like Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc., so  are there several political systems like democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, dictatorship, etc.    

            In secularism, States do not represent any particular religion. Here, a citizen is free to practice any religion.

            English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) says : “For forms of government, let fools contest/Whatever is best administered is best.”

            Cutting short my theme about intermixing  religion and politics, I want  to emphasize only one  thing and that is one’s  relationship with God.  

Here is a relevant view by American orator and statesman Daniel Webster 1782-1852). He says: Political and professional fame cannot last forever , but a conscience void of offence before God and man is an inheritance for eternity. Religion, therefore , is a necessary, an indispensable element in any great human character. There is no living without it. Religion is the tie that connects man with his Creator, and holds him to his throne. If that tie is sundered or broken, he floats away a worthless atom in the universe, its proper attractions all gone, its destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing but darkness, desolation and death. A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe in so terse but terrific a manner, as ‘living without hope and without God in the world.” Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away from the purpose of his creation.”

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G. R. Kanwal

4^th March 2024