The relationship between religion and science has created problems since the time immemorial. And now there is a religious surge of people accounting religious beliefs as the causation that gave rise to the pandemic around the globe. The conservative religious figures have adopted a different strategy to deal with the outbreak, by blaming the different religious beliefs. The different ways adopted by a particular religion and the actions administered by an individual has given rise to the virus' spread.
These people further state that showing disobedience to the laws that God has put forth before us brings danger and diseases as a form of punishment. Troubled times often manage to lead to rash conclusions about how the cause might have erupted and what would have lead to the outbreak. Science and facts have managed to lay down the actual reality before us but yet the irrationality manages to seep in globally.
A YouTube channel that goes by the name Al Hind Islamic Tube has managed to make a video amid troubled times despite the government and the courts administering guidelines to curtail the fake news and personal views regarding the pandemic in India. The individual in the video has asked people to question their actions that have been the leading factor in the rise of Coronavirus. The pandemic that has been sent to the world by God.
He has targeted the communities in India. Looking at the different cases where religious tensions get incited leading to communal violence, such kind of videos are responsible for the absolute derogation that disrupt the religious ties in the country.
India prohibits hate speech under the provisions of Indian Penal Code, 1860. The following sections gives the government, the court, the absolute right to declare publications forfeited, anything that would cause tension between religious communities.
Section 153B: Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration
(1) Whoever, by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise
(a) makes or publishes any imputation that any class of persons cannot, by reason of their being members of any religious, racial, language or regional group or caste or community, bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established or uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India,
(c) makes or publishes any assertion, counsel, plea or appeal concerning the obligation of any class of persons, by reason of their being members of any religious, racial, language or regional group or caste or community, and such assertion, counsel, plea or appeal causes or is likely to cause disharmony or feelings of enmity or hatred or ill-will between such members and other persons, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.
Section 295A : Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise], insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.
The outbreak has led to several such theories and misinformation has emerged thus targeting communities around and inciting the tension within.
Author - Dyuti Pandya
