Then & now: Beyond belief
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.1934-35: Imprisoned by the British for political activities, Jaharwarlal Nehru, later to become India's first prime minister in 1947, wrote of India's religious problems in his autobiography:
'India is supposed to be a religious country above everything else, and Hindu and Muslim and Sikh and others take pride in their faiths and testify to their truth by breaking heads. The spectacle of what is called religion . . . in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror, and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seems to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition and exploitation, and the preservation of vested interests. And yet I knew well that there was something else in it, something which supplied a deep inner craving of human beings. How else could it have been the tremendous power it has been and brought peace and comfort to innumerable tortured souls? Was that peace merely the shelter of blind belief and absence of question, the calm that comes from being safe in harbour . . . or was it something more? In some cases certainly it was something more.'
11 December, 1992: Following five days of nationwide Hindu- Muslim violence in which about 1,000 people were killed, Indian Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao said he would launch a pro-secularist campaign with like-minded parliamentary groups. Mr Rao said he and secularist allies would work out 'a large campaign to educate the people to fight against the forces of communalism'.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments