Is Jefferson's "all men are created equal" really self-evident?

Of late there has been many cases of" honour killings" in north India. "Honour killing" takes place in situation where relatives object to a boy and a girl of different caste or religion wishing to get married. The Supreme Court of India on 19 April, 2011 declared that there is nothing honourable about honour killing and added that the institution,  the 'caste-council', that pronounces such judgment is illegal, and therefore must be ruthlessly stamped out. The Bench further observed, " Over two centuries have passed since Thomas Jefferson wrote those memorable words, which are still ringing in history, but a large section of Indian society still regards a section of its own countrymen as inferior. This mental attitude is simply unacceptable in the modern age, and it is one of the main causes holding up the country's progress". Furthermore, the Bench expressed anguish over the two-tumbler system prevalent in various places. The two-tumbler system is that in many tea shops and restaurants there are separate tumblers for serving tea or other drinks to Scheduled Caste persons and non-Scheduled Caste persons because giving the same cup/tumbler to both the persons would considered to be "polluting" the latter. 

In pronouncing the judgment the court quoted Thomas Jefferson in the American Declaration of Independence, 1776, saying, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator by certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But is this truth that all men are created equal really self-evident? The cases stated above prove that this truth is not self-evident. At least it is not self-evident in India even today. How did Thomas Jefferson then arrive at such a conclusion?

We know that Jefferson was a deist. And for a deist God is wholly transcendent and he never communicates with the human world. So Jefferson could not possibly be informed of the profound truth he propositioned by his religious belief. In 1780s one British  politician by the name William Wilberforce led a campaign against the British slave trade as he felt deeply moved by his religious belief that all men are equal and slavery is immoral. For Wilberforce his belief was deeply informed by his understanding of the God of the Bible, whom he believed has created all human being. Wilberforce campaign for nearly 30 years eventually led to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Even on the other side of the Atlantic, Jefferson was living amongst those religious people who believed that God, who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, created all men equal and that they are endowed with certain rights. And it is this belief that informed Jefferson that all men are equal!

Is there any religious belief that originated in the Indian sub-continent that teaches equality of men. Well, Sikhism that began in 16th century does teach equality of all its adherents.  The titles "Singh" for male and "Kaur" for female are mandatory for adherents of Sikhism, and they are  to erase the caste based title/surname that they had before they came to Sikhism. But Sikhism is a minority  in India. Christianity and Islam though considered to be "foreign" religion do teach equality of all as well.

" God is one; and we call him by different names"

" God is one; and we call him by different names" is a common line in India. Those who worship Vishnu may express their worship to the deity by names like Ram, Krishna, Gautama Buddha and so on. So for such people to say the line may sound so correct and appropriate. But those who worship Allah or Jesus as Muslims and Christians do respectively will find the line problematic. As a follower of Jesus I can agree that God is one, but to say that Vishnu is same as Jesus or Jesus is same as Gautama Buddha or Ram and Allah are one is not true. For example, in Purana, Vishnu would incarnate over and over again; but Jesus of the Bible was born as a human person just once, and incarnation will never repeat; whereas Allah that Muslim worships will never take human form. 

The other way to look at it is to ask whether all religions are just the same or not. Christians are to marry just one person; Muslims can have upto four wives. Christians and Muslims can eat beef; Hindus cannot. Observing a day of rest and worship once in 7 days, specially Sunday, is an essential part of Christians way of life; Hindus do not have any such particular day. There is no holy land for Christians just as Muslims revere Mecca. All these various codified practices or lack thereof indicate that there are deep differences. One can also say that behind all these differences in expressions even deeper differences lie in doctrinal beliefs. Bible teaches and thus Christians believe that salvation cannot be earned, but is received as God's gift. And this  is different from Hindus way of gaining salvation through gnan (knowledge), bhakti (devotion) or karma (work). Quran teaches and thus Muslims believe that Jesus is one of the prophets, but Bible does teach that Jesus is more than a prophet; that Jesus is God incarnate. Hindus believe in reincarnation; but this is not true for Christian and Muslims. This sort of difference in beliefs lead to differences in practices. 

Religious differences have engender violence in various part of the country and of the world. It may look appealing to bring all these differences and bring them under one religious umbrella. Well, Christians and Muslims believe that such time will come in future; but that will be God's working and not by human strength and knowledge. However, in spite of such differences it is much more honest and respectful to others in admitting genuine differences and dialoguing with another for mutual understanding and respect than covering up the real differences. I do not think such superficial patch up work will bring genuine respect and peace. Genuine religious differences do not just provoke people to violence; nor does similar religion just unite people. There are external factors like greed, mistrust, fear, lust for power etc that act upon religious differences to fan the flame of violence.