Inter-Religious Dialogue

“The Dialogue session highlighted the misunderstandings [that] people of other religions have about Hinduism and…gave me an opportunity to clarify [these] misunderstandings. I also got clarity on certain objections I had about other religions. This is helping me explain to others who have similar misconceptions.”
~ Hindu participant in the IRD

In 2007, over the course of four months, a group of eight influential leaders from the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Muslim communities in Bangalore came together in a series of ten 4-hour conversations. The Inter-Religious Dialogue (IRD), facilitated by MCD staff, challenged these leaders to speak with honesty and sincerity, to listen attentively to their counterparts, to be inquisitive and, most of all, open to unexpected learning.

Unlike other inter-faith efforts which commonly focus on tolerance and religious harmony and avoid addressing discord, the IRD was unprecedented in Bangalore in that it challenged the participants to grapple with contentious and sometimes uncomfortable issues. Participants asked questions and shared beliefs about religious identity, nationalism, conversion and fundamentalism. Apart from sharing the experiences that formed their own religious beliefs, each participant shared personal experiences that shaped their perceptions and stereotypes of other religions.

Because of the sensitivity of the issues, participants required a safe space in which to speak candidly and without fear of criticism or attack from within their own or another religious community. The Dialogue series was therefore a confidential process, not open to the general public.

Being leaders in their respective communities, all the IRD participants had studied or interacted with members of other faith traditions. Because of the IRD, however, several participants confessed to having achieved a deeper understanding of “the other” than they ever had before. Some participants came to a new awareness of the diversity of opinion within their own tradition. While their conversations may have ultimately left participants with more questions than answers, they agreed that the IRD had created a common bond of trust and a renewed commitment to work together towards addressing inter-religious conflict in Bangalore.