Secular India A Myth

Religion is surely a personal matter, in which politicians, legislators, and bureaucrats do not belong. Our current variety of insipid secularism has only led to abuse by our politicians, violence on our streets, and mischief in our courts.

The 42nd amendment to the Constitution of India inserted the word "secular" into the preamble thus making India a "secular" Republic. But is India truly a secular country?

 
The most commonly accepted definition of secularism is "separation of religion and state". By this definition, I would say that the India of today is not a secular country at all.

The Hindu majority has now risen against years of over-accommodation of the Muslim minority. This puts the country at risk of losing its tolerant and pluralistic democracy. India today desperately needs a new definition of secularism, one based on freedom of religion, equality before law, and separation of religion and state.The lack of separation of religion and state has eaten away at India’s religious amity. Governments engage in all sorts of religious activities and play favorites. 

Many of India’s founding fathers opposed  government involvement. They wanted to place separation of religion and state provisions in the Constitution, but were ignored. Without any constitutional restrictions on state sponsorship of religious activities, Indian secularism turned into a puppet for governments to do as they pleased. They began exploiting religious communities with special treatment, sops and populist slogans.

Today, the BJP wave among the majority community has shattered the Nehruvian concept of secularism. And for good reasons; Nehru’s approach was impractical in its denial of all communal identities, and it was open to abuse by governments. Now the majority is flexing its muscle and taking revenge for years of minority appeasement. This makes it all the more necessary that India adopt real secularism, lest the situation will reach beyond control, and allow chauvinism to take over India’s democracy.

The most current dictator-ism is changing names of the cities. Re-naming Allahabad to Prayagraj could just be the start. News reports bare the future disasters waiting to unfold. Political perverts’ narrow-mindedness peaking to such an extent that they do not wish to hear or see or even glance at any of the ‘Muslim names or even the Muslim sounding names’ of our centuries -old cities, making these politicians all too frenzied, their allergic reactions compounding by the day. Needless to say, this  will wreck the already dented and damaged system. 

To be a truly secular State, India must ensure equality under law for all its citizens. It must also stop State funding for all religious purposes and mandate that children are given a proper secular education. If people who claim to be secular also preach special treatment for specific segments of society based on religion they must rethink how India's secular fabric is impacted by this. Do these privileges strengthen Indian society or do they only increase the division in our already polarised society?

No particular religion is Bhartiyata. At the end of the day, India must become a truly secular country where the state treats all citizens equally irrespective of their religious beliefs. I am not asking for the majority community to receive preferential treatment - just that the State of India make no distinction between its citizens. Is that too much to ask for?