India has become home to all major world religious traditions, says Dalai Lama

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Sunday participated in an interactive session hosted by Bollywood actor, Aamir Khan in Pune where he called India a home of all major world religious traditions

The event was organized on the occasion of the birthday of spiritual leader, Dada J.P Vaswani.

Amir Khan hosted the event and the Dalai Lama spoke about the role of religion in one's life and lauded India as many traditions from the across the world were found here.

"I think in the last seven centuries India has surely become the home of all major world religious traditions in totality," Dalai Lama said.

He also denounced the religious conflicts in the name of religion.

"Traditional conflict in the name of religion is unnecessary. For the survival of an individual's choice of religion the other religions don't fight," he added.

He urged the religious leaders to take upon themselves the task of educating the people of the country.

"The religious leaders should take more active role, educate people and then also there are some drawbacks in this country like caste system. Although constitution provides equal rights but still some have bad habit, some are poor people," he said.

Beijing considers the Dalai Lama a violent separatist, who fled from China in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama said he is merely seeking greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

China has defended its iron-fisted rule in Tibet, saying the mountainous region suffered from dire poverty and brutal exploitation until 1950, when Communist troops 'peacefully liberated' it.

Currently the Dalai Lama resides in India but many Tibetans fear that Beijing will simply appoint its own replacement to him, a scenario that will almost certainly cause violent protests in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama has suggested that his incarnation might be found outside of Chinese-controlled territory, and has said that the succession process could break with tradition either by being hand-picked by him or through democratic elections.