In India secularism does not only imply to a) neutrality of the state, but it also embraces another two enabling principles; b) celebratory neutrality and c) reformative justice.
Celebratory neutrality:
The state supports the maintenance and upkeep of famous religious places, like ‘Jama Masjid’, ‘Somanath Temple’, ‘Golden temple’ and important churches etc. The state actively helps Moslems to perform ‘Haj’; Hindus to go to Manosarovar and Amarnath and makes very elaborate arrangements for ‘Kumbha mela’ and other similar religious gatherings and celebrations.
Religious fanatics, belonging to the majority community, try to depict any such adherence to the principle of ‘celebratory neutrality’, where a minority community is the beneficiary, as minority appeasement. The spin doctors of the communal parties go extra lengths to fabricate statistics to support their claims and by completely ignoring the benefits accruing brand our brand of secularism as ‘pseudo secularism’. If they had pointed their fingers at any anomaly, which are likely to crop up with immature handling by biased law makers and administrators, and wanted to veer state secular practices towards a better secularism it would have been a contribution; instead they make a case for whole sale abandonment of secularism and ushering in of a theocracy in its stead. Jehadi- religious fighters- ideologuess of Kashmir have been doing the same in Kashmir very successfully and intermittent atrocities of the Indian armed forces are blinding the logic of the general public.
It is also pertinent to mention here that this principle, like any other enabling principle, can also be abused, if ulterior motives are imputed into it and there are occasions where the ‘vote bank’ politics has definitely colored the discretion of the law makers to abuse this principle. The ‘Saha Bano case’ and granting of ‘Haj’ subsidy without any coherent policy are examples of the same.
Hence what do we understand is that, as the name suggests, the state has to remain neutral and without compromising on its neutrality it comes forward to celebrate for its subjects.
Reformative justice:
Our brand of secularism, which prides upon the religious faiths that make our nation rather than just ignoring them, also includes an aspect called ‘reformative justice’. This can also be called the purging mechanism. The state is guided by secular values and hence humanitarian values always rank above religious values and where religious values are in conflict with humanitarian values and the conflict comes to the open space and requires judgment then the state is guided by the humanitarian values to resolve the dispute. And that is why the supreme court awarded alimony to Saha bano – a Moslem divorced woman – even though it was in conflict with the religious laws of Islam; which governed the plaintiff and the defendants.
What is more, even if a religious community practices something well with in its communal boundaries, yet such practices militate against normal human values, like the practice of ‘Sati’ and ‘untouchabilty’ among the orthodox Hindus, then also the state is required to, and it has, step in and help the community get rid of such evil practices.
Though to an uninitiated eye it might appear as interference in religious practices, on closer examination we would notice this coupled with the principle of ‘celebratory neutrality’ has been the quintessence of Indian brand of secularism, which prides upon its multi-culturalism and tolerance.
For clarity’s sake, there are two distinct approaches to secularism; a) Dharmanirapekshyata- where secularism means the state has nothing to do with any kind of religious beliefs and b) sarva dharma sama bhava- where the state aspires to accord equal respect to all religions.
The French model is that of the ‘Dharmanirapekshyata’ and goaded by its underlying principle the French government banned head scarves for sikh and Moslem girls in their schools; for they wanted school uniform to be uniform across the faiths and concession to religious minority seemed in conflict with the values of their brand of ‘secularism’.
Both the approaches have their relative merits and demerits.
So in India, we have gone two steps ahead in perfecting a model of secularism, which can best be described as ‘sarva dharma sama bhava’ and there by retain the beauty of our culture through the continuity of our tradition, which are mostly religious, and there by made this process a living one!
We can truly pride upon the fact that secularism is gradually becoming ‘a way of life’ with the Indians and this way of life does not offer just a bland and theoretic existence rather this enhances our exuberance by giving better expressions to our emotions. Its becoming more common to see Moslems inviting people of other faiths to celebrate ‘Id’ with them and the same is true with regard to ‘Christmas’ and ‘Deepavali’.
Religious syncretism, goaded by the practice of our brand of secularism, has brought about a beautiful mosaic, where vibrant religious practices produce harmony rather than discord, as exemplified by the above examples. Contrast this with the ruthless religion stripping of the puritan communist states and it seems we have given a ‘humane face’ to an abstract concept that secularism is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
