About Religion and Indian society

I get the inspiration to write about this after reading an article by Sir Mark Tully published in some book I picked up from the local library. In one place in the article he mentioned "if religion is taken from the mass of Indian population (where 70% live in poverty) then they are left with nothing." It touches my heart and I felt for the first time in my life that a foreigner explained it so nicely which being an Indian I failed to understand for so long.
I brought up in a Hindu Brahmin family where religion was a part of life with no pressure to exercise it. My mom used to do Puja (as per Hindu faith) at home occasionally to maintain some family traditions passed to her from my grandma. My dad was never a believer in God rather he teaches me to respect humans and animals more than God. In the school or community I attended all religious festivals when it is observed be it Christmas Or Id or a Hindu festival. Since childhood me and my brother were free of religion and always paid more attention to the food served after the Puja. We were both taught to accept things only when they are properly explained. Always question whenever there is a doubt and to never obey anything or anybody if not fully convinced.
In the school I brought up with girls from other religion but they never showed any strong faith and easily merge into the crowd. Till adulthood I never felt that we have to observe certain cautions while discussing certain aspect of certain religions. In college I remember we almost forced a Muslim friend to invite the whole batch for Id. He was not only scared to call 56 rowdy young people but simply left the college and joined another. So, religion was part of life and I accepted and tolerated each and every religion which I faced during my entire stay in kolkata.

The only time I felt the tension when there was a India-Pakistan cricket match and Pakistan won it and there was a riot in few parts of Kolkata. That was before Babri Masjid demolition. One of the regions affected by that riot was a Muslim area near my school and on my way to college. The reason for the riot was that some fans hung the Pakistani Flag and after Pakistan won they started celebrating with crackers and lights. This was a regular occurrence even before that. But this time some Hindu fans objected it and then people from a near-by very prestigious Mosque (the Tipu Sultan Masjid) came out with arms and ammunitions and attacked those Hindu fans. There was no police intervention but it was retaliated by some local Hindus (leaded mainly by bangladeshi refugees migrated during partition).
The entire city was so much in shame for those Hindu fans who protested those celebrations for Pakistan. They were tagged as Hindu fundamentalists. No one raised a voice against the illegal stacking of arms & ammunitions in a religious place and nobody called the Muslims as fundamentalists. This seemed highly illogical to me. So I asked few political leaders of our college whom I thought to be intelligent, why being a Hindu is fundamentalist. The reaction was more illogical- Muslims are famous for being orthodox, we Hindus are known for being liberal. Besides we are Communists. Millions questions came to my mind: Is being a Communist mean appeasement of minorities? Is being a Hindu means never to protest? Is being a Tolerant religion means accept the tyranny of another religion? Is being a Hindu means never to protest against the lawlessness of the society? I was really depressed because of this hypocrisy. I started questioning my belief being a liberal.
Then I started looking around and found that the entire Country is religious. The entire Country is divided on the basis of caste/creed/religion. Some people are taking advantage of it and some are mere victims.
I slowly realize that Religion is the easiest and fastest way to reach the mass. Being communist in India means to tolerate all the religions with special appeasement to Muslims as they are minorities. The reason is obvious; they are sure votes because of their illiteracy and poverty. By bribing the head priest the entire community will vote for a party. It is the easiest way to motivate people.

The other side is that God can be blamed for all the failures. People don't have to try to rectify the mistakes by showing dependence on God. They can say that the God is not happy with him and so he/she is not successful or not having a baby or not getting married or not able to adjust with the in-laws. They don't have to dig into their own self for any imperfection to be the reason for this failure.

Another point is the Priest or people at advantageous position in the religious scale can utilize the position for his own benefit. He can assure his daily bread/rice by making people believe that he is performing Puja to satisfy the God. He can use that position to control the society with his divine power. He can rape a minor girl in the name of God (this practice is still rampant in some areas of southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh).
Religion is simply a tool in the hands of few to control the mass.
Then the question comes: Do I have to be religious to be a part of this society? The answer is NO. Being religious to me means a man without his inner strength. It means I am no longer capable of thinking rationally and sanely. I am just a slave of something non-existent and blaming that for all my failures. Other than Human no other living being believe in God. I really wonder are we truly intelligent species Or are we dumber than an insect.
I will only start believing in God when any or all of the above will be true for me.