INTER-FAITH HARMONY

ACROSS much of the world today, people are faced with what for many is a new phenomenon — of people from different religious backgrounds living together. Consequently, many conferences and seminars have been held on this subject, devoted to discussing inter-faith harmony. But despite the large number of such conferences and seminars, the actual problem remains just as it was. The fact is that conferences and seminars of this sort do little, if anything, to achieve social unity at any level.

The reason for their failure is that their underlying perspective and analysis is itself not proper. The truth is that the problem that they seek to address does not have anything to do with inter-faith harmony. Rather, it is basically about the question of harmony between, and among, people of faith, or believers in different faiths.


The 'unity of faiths' and 'social unity of people of different faiths' are two different and distinct issues.

In other words, the problem is basically social, rather than theological. And so, to solve the problem, we need to discover an appropriate formula for social unity between people of different faiths. The issue of religious unity is a different question, which has no relationship with the issue of social unity.

There is no need for us to invent a new formula to promote unity between people of diverse faiths. We simply need to go back to the time-tested formula of peaceful coexistence. According to this formula, people of different faiths respect each other and unite together for the larger societal interests and welfare.

The fact is that the 'unity of faiths' and 'social unity of people of different faiths' are two different and distinct issues, and inter-community harmony can only be promoted by observing that distinction.