SECULARISM: THE INDIAN VERSION
- (Relevant for Sociology Syllabus: Paper 1 – Religion and Society ; PAPER-2 – Politics and Society )
- (Relevant for GS Syllabus: Paper 1- secularism.)
Politics and religion mixed is the headiest cocktail ever invented. — Norah Bentinck
- The Oxford dictionary meaning of the word secularism is – ‘the belief that religion should not be involved in the organization of society, education, etc’.
- The word ‘secularism’ which suggests that India has no official religion and respects all the religions was brought by the Indra government during the emergency period when many of the opposition leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Morarji Desai, Jayaprakash Narayan and many more were in jail.
- The concept of secularism started with the political motive of appeasing the people of the Muslim religion. India has always been a big home for people belonging to different religions and castes but the political parties have always tried their best to create an environment of discrimination and class-based system in the society.
- The 42nd amendment added the word secular in the constitution’s preamble and made India a religion-free state but the reality is much different.
- The political parties make the innocent population their puppet to fulfil their personal agendas. There are parties which support the ‘green’ religion and there are those which support the ‘orange’ one.
- These political groups have made a mockery of the whole concept of secularism by showing their love and support to the people on the basis of the religion they follow.
- All this support is not confined to the fake political promises these parties make to the public, they even incite violence which leads to deadly riots.
- India has been a ground for massive religious riots since ages, whether it was about partition or about the Ram Mandir issue, every religious issue has seen deaths, but who gained from these deaths, the big monstrous politicians.
- Governments have played with Muslim personal laws to appease the Muslim male population and have brought the concept of reservation for OBC to appease the Hindu population, numerous things according to the ruling party’s support to the religion have taken place since years and years but nobody has ever tried to remove this distinction.
- There are personal laws for every religion, there is no uniformity. People even convert to other religions to take advantage of these laws.
- All this has nothing but a negative impact on the society and the generations to come, the UCC (Uniform Civil Code) is the need of the hour. UCC has always been in the Constitution in the DPSP (Directive Principles of State Policy) in Article 44 but now it has to be officially adopted as a binding law with well-defined principles.
- There are conversion groups working in India who try to convert the innocent poor public in return for some cheap benefits, such forces should be dealt with the law instead of making them another political issue.
- There should be awareness programs to teach young girls to stay away from those who lure them to marry them and to convert them for money.
- The country needs to wake up from this noxious religious opium which these parties are giving since the independence.
- Especially the liberal youth who try to prove everybody wrong should start acting like real seculars instead of being some politically controlled puppets.
- At this time, in this 21st century of iPhones and electric cars, the Indian population needs jobs, safety, good health, and not the politically controlled high pitched religious debates.