CHAMAAR TAB AUR AB

THE CONTROVERSIAL INDIAN |  COLUMNS The empty rituals of daily lives Tabish Khair Just as religious rituals move the practitioner away from the immensity of faith, secular rituals move citizens’ attention away from real issues Serious religious thinkers have tended to distinguish between ritual and religion. Some, of course, have distinguished between spirituality and religion too, mostly because they have associated religion with rituals. Now, rituals have their uses, as long as we employ them in the full awareness that they are arbitrary and man-made. This applies to secular matters as well as religious ones: I like my ritual of a morning cup of coffee with a biscuit or two, but I do not assume that this is god-ordained or that my day will not commence unless I have my cup of coffee. So, I am not talking of rituals of this sort. I am talking of rituals that are made ‘essential’ to either religion or secular life. The matter with religion is clear enough. The reason why religious ...