Indian religious leaders in Gandhi fast against violence

Published Date: November 5, 2009

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A Protestant prelate and a Catholic priest were among some 300 people from various religions who gathered near a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Kolkata on Nov. 4 to protest growing violence in India.

“This is just a beginning of our search for peace and protest against violence,” said Om Prakash Shah organizer, who organized the 9-hour symbolic program, UCA News reports.

“Gandhi is the universal symbol of non-violence and we wished to emulate his example to protest violence,” said Shah, who heads the Centre for Peace and Progress, a Kolkata-based NGO,

Gandhi, who led India’s freedom struggle, had fasted 17 times from 1918 and 1948, the year he died at the age of 78. His two fasts in 1924 and 1943 lasted as long as three weeks, Shah pointed out.

He also told UCA News the All Faith Forum, which organized the prayer-fast, plans similar programs in other parts of West Bengal state to encourage people to work for people and protest violence.

While some 20 people stayed throughout the program that began at 8 a.m. More than 300 people, including school children, joined the symbolic fast.

Retired Church of North India Bishop Parimi Samuel Pavana Raju of Calcutta, who joined the program, said people should not stop with token fast, but address the root causes of violence such as poverty, hunger and privation.

Bishop Raju also said peace is possible only if people have “enough to eat and live with dignity” and, for that, the government must promote development. Peace can come only through dialogue, not through violent means, he asserted.

Fr Sunil Francis Rozario, who coordinates Calcutta Catholic archdiocese’s Dialogue and Ecumenism Committee, was another participant. The Church, he told UCA News, has to reach out to people of other religions to foster positive understanding among various groups.

Abdul Aziz, secretary of West Bengal Milli Ittehad Parishad, a Muslim umbrella organization, said peace emerges when people of various religions bond together. However, peace is not possible without first fighting for justice, he added.

Aziz, however, disapproved sitting under near the Gandhi statue that cannot hear people’s plea for peace. Instead we need to sit in front of political and social leaders who promote violence, he added.

SOURCE

UCAN

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