Author Topic: India Secular? (Read 3361 times)

LondonPunjabi · « **on:** February 23, 2011, 09:54:18 PM »

Is India really secular?

It is a well known fact that Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism all took their birth in India. Dozens of millions Christians also live in India and one of the oldest Jewish communities outside Israel is also in India. Even conservative estimates will put the population of India as having been made up of at least 80% followers of Hinduism. Interestingly enough is the fact that there is at least one state of India where one of the other faiths reaches a near if not outright majority. Nagaland for example is predominately Christian; the Sikhs have a narrow majority in the Punjab although that is probably decreasing rapidly due to all the “bhiya” labourers arriving from UP. For all of its troubles J&K is Muslim.

Just over 60 years ago, whilst keeping a relationship with its old colonial masters through the Commonwealth, India became independent from the British. India’s first PM Mr Jawaharlal Nehru is on record as saying one of the greatest difficulties he faced was "Perhaps, too, creating a secular state in a religious country."

The following is the opening statement of the Constitution of India.

“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

So after all this time, is India still secular? Does it indeed portray itself as secular? I suppose on paper it does. The question arises though, why did it take until 1976 for the word “secular” to be added to this document. And what exactly does it mean? There seem to be no explanation to this and the evidence for it in practice is not blatantly visible. Is it an explicit instruction to the reader to understand clearly what India is or at least is meant to be?

I ask the above questions because even the Supreme Courts don’t really have an explanation for it nor does the Indian Parliament display what is meant, in India’s case, by “secular”. The problem being that India has many religions, many faiths, many languages and above all many customs. It also goes without saying that the Caste system is still widely practiced, especially by those in the majority religion. Constitutionally, no one religion is supposed to have any superior claim over another. One religion can not claim political power in a state over another.

So what is this Constitution based on? There is indeed a visible influence of the American Constitution, there is also the influence of the “old masters’” language; English. Of course there would also be the wish to please the watchful eye of the world when a new country, or should I say republic, is born. Yet if you compare its structure to that of some Western models you will see that, especially France, have deliberately separated religious following (organised or not) and the State. One of the most ardent of these is France.

But in India, there is no such glaring division between the religions and State. The French banning the Burqa and the Turban is evidence of France’s hard line adherence to their idea of secularism. But in India the State and Courts prefer not to be on any side, they would rather be neutral. In France the State is Anti religion; that is why it would ban religion from Government and public office. Interestingly, and controversial it might be to the outsider; especially to the English speaking world; it does seem to work, well to a certain degree any way. Some might say it does if you are a Hindu, but those still waiting for justice for the crimes of 1984 will say it doesn’t.

But how long will it last? There is a perception that secular though it might be, the Judiciary, the Police and organisations such as the RSS favour above all Hindus. Many Hindus already refer to Christians as Hindu-Christi, to Muslims as Hindu-Mohamadi’s and to Sikhs as the Armed Wing of Hindusim. Add to this the communal violence against Muslims in 2002, the Sikhs in 1984 and regular anti Christian unrest it is obvious that there would be distrust as the minorities feel that organisations such as the BJP and RSS have undue influence over the dhoti wallas in power. This would leave any one from Indias minority religions feeling insecure and believing that “secular” India is not really secular.

“The RSS-BJP try to make Savarkar’s term Hindutva even more inclusive than Savarkar intended. They claim that any Indian who “identifies with India” is thereby a Hindu. A Muslim who satisfies this condition (what Gandhians called a “nationalist Muslim”) should call himself a “Mohammedi Hindu”. As L.K. Advani explains: “those residing in the country are Hindus even if many of them believe in different religions.(…) those following Islam are ‘Mohammedi Hindus’. Likewise, Christians living in the country are ‘Christian Hindus’, while Sikhs are termed ‘Sikh Hindus’. The respective identities are not undermined by such a fonnulation.”5 in this sense, they would be just as much at home in a Hindu Rashtra as a Vaishnava or Shaiva Hindu.”
(from http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/books/wiah/ch4.htm )

Muslims of India probably have the biggest axe to grind. After all, they are amongs the worst off communities of India. Their average life expectancy lower than the rest, their literacy is lower than the rest too and their ghettos are growing. The Christians are not far behind with similar figures. But for a secular country the Indian State does give subsidised air travel to Muslims travelling to Saudi to do hajj.

It seams India is developing its own idea of secularism. But the interesting thing is that Secularism has taken on two different unwritten definitions. One is that of the religious perspective as that adopted by Ghandi and the political one as adopted by Nehru. On the other side of the coin is the fact that many will tell you that the most senior politicians of India come from diverse backgrounds and different religions.

So is India really secular? Feel free to add your thoughts.

I am at the moment looking at the Constitution its self, there are many oddities in it which I hope to discuss with any one wishes to discuss it soon.

Author Topic: India Secular? (Read 3361 times)

LondonPunjabi

India Secular?

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