It's human spirit that always wins

T

he Port Town of Mangalore has finally limped backed to normalcy, after witnessing a spate of group clashes for a few days. The peace loving people of the city are divided over the cause behind the triggering of these unfortunate incidents. The escalation of the situation, though, is attributed to some “unforeseen hands”, political parties should be blamed for feeding the communal cauldron all these years.

     When people were gripped with fear and insecurity, political parties, as usual, were playing dirty politics. They were busy tarnishing the image of one another and also the organizations except those with which they were associated. Every party seemed to gain some mileage from the unfortunate incident, while it is well known that community organizations flourish under the patronage of political parties. Their intention is nothing but to build a strong community-based vote bank.  Such organizations are pitted against one another as an attempt to divide common people.

     Despite this, ultimately it is the human spirit that wins.  Amidst torching and damaging of properties, there were incidents such as people irrespective of religion contributing to rebuild a shop that was gutted and people of different communities forming peace committees as well as participating in one another’s worships. These certainly appear as a glimmer of hope in a society that was engulfed in communal fire. Such incidents should be made more visible in order to build solidarity among people. During the two-hour relaxation of the curfew, at a grocery shop owned by a Muslim, I also witnessed Hindu boys attending the customers.

      These instances show that it is not Hindu or Muslim, who is bad, but people are bad. Ultimately, we are human beings first. Haven’t we come across good Samaritans in all religions? Don’t we have good relationship with our neighbours though they belong to a different community? While closely guarding our faith in our hearts, we should respect but not hurt the sentiments of others. Let us live and let live.