Interreligious organization warns against politicizing religion

Published Date: September 24, 2009

Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Muslim representatives have warned that people forcing political goals on religion are hampering the already fragile peace process in Nepal.

Kul Chandra Gautam lights a lamp
to inaugurate the interreligious forum

The representatives, including a Catholic priest, discussed the role religions could play in fostering harmony in Nepal. Peace has remained an unrealized hope here since Maoists who waged a decade-long armed insurgency joined mainstream politics in 2006.

Religion and Peace Academy Nepal (RAPAN) conducted the forum to mark World Peace Day, Sept. 21, in Kathmandu.

Indira Manandhar, the organization´s president and a Buddhist, charged that too much interference by political interests in religious affairs is “destroying” religion and having a negative effect on Nepal´s people.

The Nepali government that forced Gyanendra Shah, Nepal´s last king, from power in 2006 declared the country secular soon after. The Maoists joined mainstream politics the same year after signing a peace accord with the government.

However, political instability, the inability of the Constituent Assembly to start writing a new constitution and a rise in criminal activity have provoked concern at home and among the international community.

These concerns have grown in recent months as the Maoists threatened to go back to war and Hindu extremist groups used violence to back their demand that Nepal be restored as a Hindu nation. Churches and mosques have been bombed.

On May 23, a bomb at Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Kathmandu killed three Catholics and injured 14 others. A shadowy Hindu group, Nepal Defense Army (NDA), claimed responsibility.

Father Robin Rai, from the church, told participants at the RAPAN forum that every human craves peace.

“Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of God. There is a challenge in front of us to spread love and brotherhood among different religious communities in Nepal,” he said.

Chintamani Yogi, principal of Hindu Vidyapeeth (school), warned that communalism is on the rise. “Different ethnic groups are trying to divide the country and create their own states,” he said.

He decried that “mobs led by political parties are beating up priests.”

Yogi was referring to a row at Nepal´s biggest Hindu temple, Pashupatinath, in Kathmandu.

The temple has traditionally recruited priests from southern India, but after two arrived recently, people demanding that Nepalese priests replace them stirred unrest.

A protesting mob, allegedly led by Maoists, beat up the Indian priests and paraded them naked.

Yogi also said religious leaders must play an active role in the peace process and not restrict themselves to talking about it.

Muslim speaker Allaudin Ansari said political and even religious leaders have been using religion to pursue their own ends when they should be using it to establish lasting peace in Nepal.

In his view, the only solution is to conduct a “comparative study” of all religions and promote the ideals they have in common while discarding differences.

Kul Chandra Gautam, former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and chief guest at the forum, stated: “Nepal used to be known to the world as the land of peace. Peace was the religion here, but now violence has gripped the country and has institutionalized itself.”

RAPAN secretary, Chirendra Satyal, a Catholic, told UCA News he has invited Yogi to the Assumption church to talk about Hinduism in the near future.

RAPAN, the national chapter of the World Conference for Religion and Peace, was established after the fourth Asian Conference for Religion and Peace assembly was inaugurated by King Birendra Shah in October 1991.

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