Sanjose A Thomas

The term ‘Secular’ is often one of the most widely used and misused term in the Indian context and it has become almost obvious that it has entered all parlours of our public discourse used and reused repeatedly that it started losing its sheen and real meaning. The term ‘Secularism’ had its origins in the European socio cultural and political context way back in the post renaissance era when Europe started initiating a process of de-religionising its socio cultural circles by increasingly making it free from religious usages and fervour and by making it secular in the real sense of the term. This process also had a political ramification which involved the separation and shunning of religion from political affairs and delimiting it to the personal or family circles of the population. Christianity had a great role to play in this progressive democratization of Europe especially the way it started secularizing itself in the 16nth and the 17nth centuries. The aftermath of this process was the weakening of religious consciousness and the reaffirmation of secular spaces especially in the public domain. This process had a deep and profound impact on the colonies especially on India as well as other British colonies who had the first taste of this process when they came in direct contact with the colonial administration and its values. Indian leaders who received English education has become the primary beneficiaries of this process who felt like implementing the same in a nation sunken deeply in the myriad seas of casteism, communalism, fundamentalism and irrational and fallacious beliefs and inhuman social evils like sati, child marriage, human sacrifice, polygamy, female infanticide etc. They conceived democracy and secularism as an antidote to these fissiparous tendencies and the instilling of which shall resolve these problems once for all in India and may contribute to her all round progress in the decades after Independence. But the real challenge lies in how much effectively and effectually we could cherish and uphold these values which later became our constitutional ethos upon which we started running our democracy. In the long run this uncompromising commitment for secular credentials got diluted every now and then and often parties and political outfits in power started making compromises on the same. Many people even argued that the Indian version of secularism unlike European is positive secularism which involves the progressive association of all religions with statecraft and not restricting it to the private or familial life of the individual. This neo version of secularism created a state of confusion and dilemma in the minds of ordinary citizens who got easily mesmerized by the involvement of religion in many public and state sponsored affairs almost unfettered by the constitutional ethos. We saw our Honourable PM conducting ‘Ganga Arathi’ almost immediately after assuming power and participating in the foundation laying ceremony of the controversial ‘Ram Mandir’ at Ayodhya. We also saw another leading politician known for his pseudo secular credentials pitching for printing pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses in currency notes for increasing its monetary value and many other similar moves by politicians belonging to various political outfits. Here the very foundation of a secular republic is threatened every now and then and at times even weakened by such moves made in the name of religion with an intention to woo supporters and voters. The wrong and misguided message conveyed by all these and similar political drama for the younger generation has to be taken seriously by our policy makers as well as by our constitutional experts. The text books published by various central boards including NCERT and various state boards also at times carry religious symbols and even attempts to portray certain communities in a bad light which easily enter the perspective and perception of our younger generation and malignates them. Democracy will never survive in India unless all its ancillary and supplementary institutions and mechanisms work properly which include secularism, socialism, equality of all forms and various other constitutional safeguards. Diluting one will eventually render others useless and futile and may hamper the proper working of our parliamentary democracy in the long run. So it is our responsibility to work collectively for protecting our national interests based on our constitution and to shun all those attempts to compromise on it especially in the contemporary context. Let us remember the great sacrifice of our freedom fighters who laid their lives for a secular India in the making.