Citizenship and Religion ... 2014

It has been over twenty years since I acquired U.S. citizenship, relinquishing Indian citizenship, which the Govt of India subsequently insisted that I formally renounce. Citizenship is a person's involuntary characteristic, and typically is not a matter of choice. The giving up of one citizenship and acquiring another is a serious matter, involving matters of a new allegiance, the willingness to bear arms on behalf of the new country, participate in their judicial system, etc. Yet, I experienced congratulatory messages from members of the incumbent country as well as the new country.

Contrast this with the religion that I was born into. Unlike citizenship, religion is not certified by a legal document (that is, there is no religion-equivalent document like a passport or naturalization certificate). Long before the citizenship change possibility presented itself, I was questioning the merits and demerits of the religion label that society had bestowed on me on the basis of heredity. When I realized that my personal value system had become sufficiently divergent from the practices of my incumbent religion, I started being vocal about my values and shedding completely the skin of the incumbent religion. Unlike (the Indian) society's unflinching acceptance of my change in citizenship, the shedding of my religion is a hot potato, that has caused me to go "back into the closet", so to speak, and be more discreet and wise than right.

First, there are several who find it sacrilegious that I am religion-less. It is labeled either as pseudo-intellectualism (I don't mind this term even with the prefix, because the users use the prefix as an after-thought), or they tell me that being a rationalist is tantamount to belonging to the rationalist religion. Clearly, this latter view flies in the face of the dogmatic nature of religions that I reject, and demonstrates a discomfort relative to the state of being religion-less. A physics analogy would be to call vacuum a type of matter, or darkness a type of light!

What would be perceived to be worse is if I were to adopt another religion. That would almost amplify my action from that of sacrilege to one of treason.

It is not the intent of this blog post to ask the concerned society to accept me. It is, rather, to bring out the extreme emotion that is associated with religion, that has caused more harm than good around the world over centuries. It is to bring out how what needs to be a very personal, internal subscription, becomes an ivory tower imposition on others. It is to bring out how much energy is spent in minding other people's business rather than introspection and personal growth.

The carefully drawn up US Constitution with the freedoms it provides its citizens, and conforming to it by the citizens in allowing other citizens have the freedoms for the most part, has a thing or two to teach the other nations in upholding the identities of individuals.