By John B Monteiro
Mar 28: Are courts set to intervene and police out to control the noise levels radiating from religious places like mosques, temples and churches? A Pandora’s Box on the subject has been opened with a petition in the Karnataka High Court by a Bengaluru resident aggrieved by the blaring of prayers through the loudspeakers of a mosque located near his house which had robbed him of his health. A division bench of the court, on March 25, has widened the scope of its intervention by seeking to know from the government whether mosques, temples, etc, which use microphones and loudspeakers, obtain prior permission from the police as required. The subject of religious noise bristles so much with controversies that within a day of Daijiworld uploading the news, it has attracted 111comments (at the time of writing this article) – mostly recriminatory. In view of this it is interesting and relevant to highlight the background to the subject and to offer a likely solution.
First, let us start with the Muslim call for prayers, called azan, which is given to the faithful five times a day and is the subject of the petition in the High Court. It is given from a high perch on the mosque minaret so that it is heard far afield.
The Muslim calls for prayer follow the tradition of Jews and Christians where the bell was, and still is, in vogue. While the church bell peeled with the ringer working on the rope connecting the bell hung from the lofty belfry, the Muslim priest exhorts his flock through his sonorous voice praising Allah. Essentially he proclaims that he stands witness that Allah is the greatest, is the only one worthy of all worship and Mohammed is a true prophet of Allah. He calls them to perform the prayer and achieve salvation. During the pre-dawn azan, the priest adds that “prayer is far better than sleep.”
Azan’s predecessor and today’s companion is the church bell, mounted on a lofty belfry, high above the church ceiling and competing with the steeple. There are often multi-bells and certainly multi functions compared to the Muslim azan. They call for prayers, morning, noon and evening. They also invite the flock to the church to attend its services. It is rung with joy for christening and weddings and with sadness to announce death and funeral. In Christian countries, they were/are peeled with gusto at coronation of kings and to welcome victorious armies on their return to the realm at the end of war. They rang with alarm when the church was/is in danger and called the faithful to its defence.
The bell was a soothing sound as writers and poets down the ages have recorded. They have noted the jingling and tingling of bells, their musical melancholy sounds, their welcoming the new born into the church, the bridal party and their farewell to the dead. When Queen Mother died, the bells rang 101 times in honour of her age.
As an aside, not all bells have lofty perches and sublime quests. Dinner bells made familiar by white sahibs and military brass stimulate the taste buds of the bosses but are bane to the cooks and butlers. And there are school bells which are welcome to the students at the end of sessions and are dreaded at the start. Finally, there is a bell, invented by Alexander Graham Bell, which holds sway, despite the arrival of Internet, and its latest avatar - mobile.
The original bell is a neutral and lay instrument. The bells call others, but themselves not enter into the church!
While the azan is now taken to court for its alleged collateral damage in terms of noise pollution, there are also instances of its collateral blessings. An appeal for help by a local Muslim priest via the speaker of a mosque saved the lives of many people inside the Mangaluru-Chennai Mail that fell into the Kadalundi River in Kerala in the last decade. He called for rescue volunteers instead of the call for prayers. Local residents responded to the distress call and rushed to the accident site for rescue work and saved many from impending death.
Let us look at the likely scenario via the court route. It is likely to be rediscovered that there are already in existence noise control laws and rules applicable also to religious premises. These rules surface in the context of festivals like Ganesh (in mid-Mumbai giant pandals) or Durga Pooja in Kolkata or Muslim Urus or Christian festivals like Christmas. But, the police are reluctant to enforce the laws and rules – and look the other way. The late Alwyn Fernandes, leading journalist and communicator, had a long struggle with the police to take down a complaint by the police to prevent from letting off crackers during Christmas in Mumbai suburban church at Marol. Nearer home, an anti-noise Christian activists has complained against use of mikes during the night outdoor Christmas Mass in a Mangaluru city-centre church on the ground of disturbing the patients in the nearby hospital. It is not known what came out of his letter to the Bishop on the subject. It may be recalled that the Supreme Court ruled some years ago that all religious structures abutting public roads should be surveyed and demolished; but not much has happened at the ground level. The deadlines for curative action have died a natural death.
The answer, therefore, is voluntary surrender of irritants. Mother Teresa had said: “Give till it hurts”. This could be modified to read: “Surrender till it hurts”. Let us say that the religious/community leaders sit in the court chamber table in Dakshina Kannada DC’s office, with the DC taking the chair. Every side should get involved, like in an auction, in a competitive surrender of what they consider to be their rights, real or perceived, or what the opposition might want done. To start with, all the communities should dump their king-size personal and collective egos as also bottled up anger and hatred. There are many concrete areas.
For instance, as noted above, one of the roles of church bell or azan was/is to tell the faithful about the time for prayer or service. That originated at a time when there were no clocks or watches and communities lived in exclusive clusters – like oasis in Arabian deserts. Also, at the time of the origin of azan there were no loudspeakers to amplify the voice. Today, clocks and watches are widely in vogue. And there are mobiles all over to show time or even to ring an alarm. In the context of noise pollution, bells and prayer calls are great irritants to senior citizens, ailing patients and shift workers catching up on sleep. It applies to temple bells as well, specially as they have no fixed timings and get activated by visiting devotees. One can have symbolic, low decibel bells that please the gods/deities without disturbing irritable humans. Such competitive surrender of irritants can be infectious and lead to sustainable noise pollution control, peace and harmony.
Veteran journalist and author, John B Monteiro now concentrates on Editorial Consultancy, having recently edited the autobiography of a senior advocate, history and souvenir to mark the centenary of Catholic Association of South Canara and currently working on the history/souvenir to mark the platinum jubilee of a chamber of commerce & industry.