29 August, 2022
Hello friends, Here I am going to write a blog on Religious fervour and A Tale of Tub. Which is assigned by Kavisha Alagiya ma'am.
A Tale of Tub
∆ The regressive rituals and progressive rational thoughts :
Hinduism is not just a religion in India. It is a way of life. In Hinduism, rituals are performed to bring spirituality into human life and inculcate feelings of devotion and religiosity. Rituals are not only celebrated during life but continue after death, including burial and cremation practices.
Earlier, many Hindu rituals focused on the importance of performing the duties associated with one’s stage of life.
India is known for its diversifies cultures and they have enough belief on their system. and they can never bear any remark on their belief system. But the problem is lies on the fact that is their belief can help India what India actually wants? No doubt, India is the country where everyone free to practices their system in their ways but there are many people in the country who blindly follows such belief and eventually they have got wrong consequences like lost their beloved one at the cost of such belief rather care to any medical machinery.
However, the whole world has their own belief system but they are more scientific in nature especially countries like U.S. Therefore, the country like India needs to avoid such illusions and dogmas in order to become an advanced. India needs to incorporate scientific beliefs rather cultural beliefs. Because it paves the path of realities and reasoning.
There is needs to the revolutions in the educations, providing scientific training and research for development so that people could able to take rational decisions and forge own fate himself.
India is a society with diverse cultures and traditions practiced for a very long time, and thus, these practices, some of them being highly superstitious and scientifically debatable like astrology and vastu-vyavastha, have assumed high significance in almost all the strata of our society.
However, superstition in India is considered a widespread social problem. Most of these culture beliefs are contradictory to the claims of modern science.Sati system for example was a belief for getting heaven if a widow would give herself to the funeral ceremony of her husband. This not only meant a socially vulnerable women, but also meant a major deterrent to the indigenous economy.
The patriarchal mindset which believes that women should be confined to the four walls and be responsible for household activities has been a reason for the slow economic growth as compared to the potential growth.
Due to ritual traditions preserved in normative texts from Vedic times until the present, but also due to its great variety of local and regional practices, South Asia offers a vast richness of textual and ethnographic material on Hindu rituals. Since the Hindu gods are not always present at fixed places, they have to be invoked and addressed, and rituals and prayers are the favorite means for that. In nearly every Hindu household, people, mostly women, worship “their” gods daily; in cars, Gaṇeśa is invoked, while shopkeepers adorn a picture of the goddess Lakṣmī with flowers and incense. Along with this lively everyday religiosity, there are special religious occasions for rituals—festivals, pilgrimages, or life-cycle rituals. There are elaborate rituals with a long tradition involving many well-educated Brahmins, but also a great number of small, folk rituals performed by individuals; there are old Vedic rituals that are still performed today,
One of our Fundamental Duties obligates us to develop the spirit of scientific temper and learn critically questioning the established facts and beliefs. So, our Constitution also vindicate the need of rationality. India need to bring in changes in the education system to inculcate analytical and rational values among the students, as only effective education can help us out.
∆ Try to connect your understanding and interpretation of such religious practices with Swift's work.
Introduction :
So, we're talking about Jonathan Swift. He's actually one of the most famous satirists of the Western literary canon. He held political positions and religious positions in a variety of institutions in both England and Ireland, and that gave him lots of great material to work with.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), the greatest satirist of the Enlightenment Movement and of all times, worked as a churchman over 30 years. He was ordained Anglican priest, obtaining a small parish in Northern Ireland for about a year. Swift became Chaplain to Lord Berkeley and was instituted as Vicar to Laracor, Agher, and Rathbeggan just outside Dublin. Swift was appointed Dean of St Patrick’s in Dublin, and stayed in that position until 1742, when he resigned due to poor health. As a cleric, he was devoted to his duty, preparing his sermons arduously, serving his congregation full-heartedly, and defending the Church of Ireland militantly. However, his attitude toward church and religion was contradictory. Christianity to him, besides being a profession, was more like a choice in dilemma. An unwavering Enlightener, he never gave up his right of criticizing religion, especially the evil practices of churchmen and dissension among different branches. His criticism can be seen in his religious essays, as well as in Gulliver’s Travels, a mastery satire of all the time.
Satire is a literary form in which the faults of society are exposed, often through irony, exaggeration, and ridicule. The aim of satire is to improve society by causing individuals to re-examine their values and social organizations in order to make improvements.
Satire is used in many works of literature to show foolishness or vice in humans, organizations, or even governments — using sarcasm, ridicule or irony. In particular, satire is often used to comment on and even influence the political or social events of the time.
Satire is a broad genre, incorporating a number of different approaches. It is sometimes serious — acting as a protest or to expose — or it can be comical when used to poke fun at something or someone.
Satire exposes abuses, vices and negative deeds in the society but humorously or ironically, it mostly deals with politics. The main aim of the satire is for shaming the government or individuals in the society who engage in bad behaviours so that they can change. Swift happens to be the best satirist since he laid the best foundation of the satire from his novel ‘’a Tale of Tub’’, the novel was meant to criticize western Christianity especially the; leaders of the church. In his novel, he criticized the public figures who were highly involved in the political matter. He had to publish his work under Pseudonyms because of the pressure it brought from the politicians to the citizens. He had a position in the church and this made him close to powerful individual. He used his power to satirize the bad characters in society and people rejected him.
In the end underlying all of Swift's religious concerns, underlying his apparent conservatism, which was really a form of radicalism, was his belief that in Man God had created an animal which was not inherently rational but only capable, on occasion, of behaving reasonably: only, as he put it, rationis capax. It is our tendency to disappoint, in this respect, that he rages against: his works embody his attempts to maintain order and reason in a world which tended toward chaos and disorder, and he concerned himself more with the concrete social, political, and moral aspects of human nature than with the abstractions of philosophy, theology, and metaphysics.
Conclusion :
The Criticism of Swift experienced an enlarging and deepening process: from accepting one sect of Christianity with conditions, to admitting only its social function, to negation of all religions, the sword of his satire is thrust deeper and deeper. That is closely related to his Enlightenment thinking. After all, which religion can withstand the scrutiny of such a thorough and sharp critical mind?
Thank you...
