Every religion seems to claim that there once was a perfect society where people followed the religion perfectly and hence now they claim to take the current society back to such a perfect society. It is always the initial period of the religion which they claim was perfect but then for some reason people stopped following the religious ‘way of life’ and hence we have the current society with all its evils. However, they never say why a perfect society disintegrated to such an evil society. If a perfect society existed, how is it then that it could not protect itself from disintegrating.
While I look at different religions, my claim is that each perfect society if at all it existed under any religion, disintegrated because of the rigidity imposed by the people following the religion. Any religion makes a certain section of the society very powerful, those who claim to understand the religion, who claim to implement it amongst the general public. If a perfect society existed, then the way it would disintegrate is when such people who became powerful thanks to the rules of the religion used it to their own advantage to keep their position of power, thus polluting the society and the religion.
Here I should add a disclaimer that while making such a claim, I am assuming that a perfect society as governed by the religion existed in a certain past. I ignore the claims made by many that religion itself was created to keep the powerful in their position of power.
Now, if you agree to the premise that the perfect society disintegrated because the powerful people misused it to keep their position of power, then couple of questions definitely arises.
Firstly, if a perfect society existed due to following of religion, then how is it that it could not protect itself from the very own people it made powerful through its rules. Can such a society claim itself to be perfect society that it cannot itself control the people whom it gave the power.
Secondly and more importantly for those who make such a claim of perfect society of the past, what are the rules/dogmas added in the religion by the people in power to keep themselves in power. How do you identify between the true tenets of the religion against the ones inserted by the people to suit their needs? Is not it important to make such a study if you are trying to bring back the concept of perfect society by making use of the religion.
Caste system followed in Hinduism seems to be a perfect example. Now many followers of Hinduism and apologists of caste system, claim that caste system was more based on work rather than by birth. There is no doubt that it is one of the most corrupt system designed to keep the power of the society in hands of only certain sections of people. Can a follower of Hindu religion, claim to have come out of the caste in which he/she was born into. If not, then how can he/she claim to implement the perfect society of the old times without fixing the very basic tenets which corrupted the system.
Tag: caste
