Durban - As I drive along Durban’s St Thomas Road on my way to work, I often wonder about the uproar that would have come from the Berea’s Blue Rinse Brigade - the elderly women with traditional, conservative views.
The bridge-playing, gin-and-tonic swigging senior citizens would have been sure to grumble, groan and gripe about disturbances from a mosque to be built at the corner of St Thomas and Stephen Dlamini roads in the Musgrave area.
Intolerant, anti-Indian ratepayers in cities and towns throughout the country have been known to lodge strong objections to the azaan, the Muslim call to prayer, which is recited over loudspeakers at mosques five times a day.
However, plans for the construction of the mosque in Musgrave, which was not too long ago a swanky whites-only precinct, have been advancing smoothly, thanks to the progressive and reformist thinking of the trustees.
There will be no call to prayer at the proposed mosque and at least 100 parking bays will be developed within the grounds of the place of worship - thus dispelling any concerns some of the chronic moaners may have harboured.
In any case, it would have been narrow-minded to complain even if the new mosque did have loudspeakers.
Within a 200m radius of the mosque site are at least five churches and nobody complains about the cacophony of their bells.
For the two decades I have worked in this area, I have not once been bothered by the bells, which ring three times a day, at 6am, midday and 6pm, summoning the Christian faithful to recite the Lord’s Prayer.
I grew up in a suburb where the azaan could be heard a good few kilometres away from the mosque. I never regarded the call to prayer as discordant or a disturbance.
On my visits to Delhi, I have always enjoyed the calming and peaceful azaan of the Jama Masjid in a city where Hindus constitute 85% of the population, with the remainder comprising Muslims, Sikhs and Christians.
In fact, listening to the azaan any time, anywhere also reminds me to address a prayer to my God.
However, the trustees of the new mosque that is to be built in Musgrave must be commended for doing away with the azaan.
While many conservative Muslim worshippers may regard the abandoning of the call to prayer as sacrilege, those who took the bold decision must be credited for being rational, realistic and sound (pun unintended) in their thinking.
I am sure they took into consideration that devout Muslims don’t have to be reminded to pray.
With cellphone technology available to communicate with worshippers in the Musgrave area, there is no need get the non-Muslim neighbours all upset by blaring the azaan through powerful loudspeakers.
It is refreshing that even India’s staid and stuffy legislators are adopting new ways of thinking and are open to social reform in the realm of religion.
Last month, the Delhi High Court supported a call for the removal of loudspeakers from all religious structures on the ground that their use is an encroachment on a person’s “right to be left alone”.
A social activist Sanjiv Kumar claimed loudspeakers were not intrinsic to any religion.
He traced the advent of all religions in India to say: “Hinduism is 4 000 years old, Jainism is 2 600 years old, Buddhism is 2 500 years old, Christianity is 2 000 years old, Islam is 1 400 years old, Sikhism is 500 years old, and yet the loudspeaker is not even 100 years old.
Thus, loudspeakers were never a part of any religion and there can be no argument against this.”
Last year, the Madras High Court castigated the practice of using loudspeakers at religious places of various religions, causing noise pollution.
The court commented that it appeared that places of worship of different faiths perceived that the blessing of God cannot be obtained unless there is loud noise.
The judge said prayers for all religions have been going on from ancient times even when sound amplification systems did not exist.
Law enforcement authorities were ordered to immediately carry out inspections of all places of worship and ensure action against noise pollution.
Ironically, a major contribution to noise pollution in the streets of Indian cities and town are the campaign messages that spew forth from loudspeakers mounted atop cars and vans by various political groupings.
Local temples should start taking a cue from India’s hardline stance against noise pollution.
In recent years, electric drums with bells have been introduced into many temples and the sound is amplified to near deafening level with a microphone.
With such a racket, one cannot even hear one’s inner voice, so what chance is there of fixing the mind on one’s chosen deity.
While India sometimes takes one step forward in terms of religious reform by peeling away the encrustation of long years of error and misunderstanding, it also takes five steps back by often reinforcing the fallacious and mythical additions that have piled up with time.
Take, for example, the shutting down of the main runway at Trivandrum International Airport in the Kerala capital city last week and rescheduling flight operations to allow a centuries-old temple procession to pass.
This must be the only airport in the world that rearranges flight schedules twice every year as part of the annual festivals of the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, when the temple idols are carried through the main runway. A case of modernity meeting tradition.
The procession moves through the airport runway as the area is part of the traditional route through which it has been passing for several centuries to reach the beach.
My mind boggles as to why, with conservative estimates that the temple’s vaults reputedly contain gold and other treasures worth more than one trillion dollars, a new route that will avoid the airport has not been built.
It is also confounding that while India remains the fastest growing economy in the world, it also displays ultraconservatism on some fronts.
Debate has resurfaced in recent times in several states of India over whether non-Hindus should be allowed into Hindu temples.
Hinduism does not have rules barring non-Hindus from entering temples.
Yet, some temple elders fail to understand and respect the tolerance and acceptance the Hindu religion has for other religions.
There are many temples that have signboards prohibiting entry by non-Hindus. A dichotomy between thought and action, I would say.
I cannot help but declare that my personal belief that Hinduism is ultra tolerant and embraces all religions and spiritual paths, has allowed me to have no guilt pangs when I enter temples with biltong stuffed in my pocket.
Another case of religious dogmatism made headlines in India last week when the Uttar Pradesh government issued an order declaring Vrindavan and Barsana towns in Mathura district as “pavitra teerth sthals” - which means they are sacred pilgrimage sites.
Thus, no meat and liquor shops will be allowed in these towns anymore.
The government said in a statement: “Vrindavan is the birthplace of Lord Krishna and Balram and is a world famous site. Barsana is Radha’s birthplace. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit these places.
Keeping in mind their importance and in view of tourism, these are declared as holy pilgrimage places.”
While Radha is worshipped as Lord Krishna’s consort, Hindu texts also portray Lord Krishna as some kind of playboy on a superficial level - that is if you do not delve deeper into the philosophical meaning of the deity’s flirting with the Gopis or village maidens.
Could this be the proverbially hedonistic life of drinking, sexual pleasure and carefree entertainment adapting into: no wine, have women, no sirloin?