Unnecessary haste and interference by the police in the matter of church bells should not be allowed to disturb religious harmony. If church bells are banned, bank calls should also be banned, not Namajapa through the mesmerizing of temples. When the note of CASA is discussed, I wonder if this is Kerala itself. One has to wonder what happened to religious harmony in Kerala.
CASA can also read the Facebook post
Unnecessary haste and interference by the police on the matter of the church bell should not be used to break religious harmony!
For the Malayalis who grew up listening to church bells, bank calls, nama japa in the temple and punarkala suprabhata, all these are part of life, and no one has seen any of that as a problem till now… But on the basis of one person’s complaint, the police stopped the church bell ringing twice for 20 seconds on Sunday mornings in a Christian church without following any procedure. Doubts are raised whether the moves and unnecessary interventions on the part are not causing the breakdown of religious harmony.
St. Thomas Malankara Catholic Church located at Muthupilakkad on the Mavelikkara to Kollam Bharnikav route is 75 years old and the complainant is a non-religious person living adjacent to the church for the last 20 years.
He had filed a complaint with the Pollution Control Board in 2022 asking them to stop ringing the church bell.
Till date neither the church committee nor other church authorities have received any notice regarding this matter. Moreover, no one had ever come to check whether the decibel (DB) of the sound of the church bell was more than the limit. But last Friday, as a directive from the Police and the Pollution Control Board, the church authorities were asked to stop the bell.
If such an order is to be issued, it is the authority of the Pollution Control Board, and that too after listening to the opposing parties and carrying out inspections, if it is a violation of the law, such an order should be issued.
Although the order came, bells were rung for the last day’s mass and mass was held. All this time, a police team was stationed near the church in a vehicle,
but they did not create any particular obstacle. It was also learned from the parishioners that they have advised the church authorities to lodge a counter complaint demanding that the chanting of names and morning prayers through the microphone of a Hindu place of worship in the same area be stopped.
Looking at all this, it is understood that someone is trying to create unnecessary problems in that area where Hindus and Christians live together……..Some politicians tried to take advantage of a complaint filed in Palakkad demanding to stop the electric bell of a church in the same way a few days ago by turning it into Hindu communalism.
Church bells are used all over the world and no one has yet said that their sound is unpleasant or that the ringing of those bells means that only their religious beliefs are correct. Should be banned.
Currently, a petition filed by a person named John Nareth, who lives in a house next to the Muslim Masjid near the Alappuzha AR camp, is still pending in the Alappuzha District Court, demanding a ban on bank calls through the microphone for 5 times. A decision should be made even more. And the metal megaphones (columbs) which have been banned by the court are still being used in many places of worship in violation of the law.
But if the authorities intend to stop only the church bell of Sentomas Marthoma Church without being prepared for any of these, then others will be forced to complain against other places of worship.
The position of the church committee and the diocese is that the church bell, nama japa and bank calls should remain the same as they have been all this time, so the church committee and the authorities have held a meeting on the matter and decided to deal with the matter legally and have started moves to file a petition in the High Court.
When the grass in the field of the complaining brother grew up and came towards the church, the church authorities cut it down because he was not ready to cut it, and it was heard that resentment was behind such a complaint. We have to comment on this issue for the time being that Chetan will have to return to his old place of residence.
