India is facing the worst kind of ‘socio-communal' polarisation, with the civil society radically divided on caste and communal lines. Apart from fracturing the social fabric and mutual harmony, it is threatening our internal security too. It’s time that decisive steps are taken to liberate our society from this malady
Perhaps for the first time since independence, if there’s any issue that bagged the stardom to settle personal or political scores, it is none other than ‘secularism’. It has been driven to such an extreme that all actions, whether good or bad, particularly the latter, are not only given a communal tinge but also summarily sentenced with tainted verdict — the sad killing of Gauri lankesh is a painful case in point where vested groups, instead of mourning the tragic loss, hurriedly fixed the blame and, thus, initiated the ‘politico-communal’ battle under the garb of ‘secularism’. Now, an unprecedented influx of Rohingyas has given fresh fodder to the self-styled seculars to improve their vote-bank.
Starting with the basics, the word ‘secular’ means “an action not concerned with or connected to any religion”, whereas the term ‘secularism’ implies “religion and religious considerations should be ignored or excluded from social and political means”.
Before even touching the ongoing agony, and in order to have an objective analysis, it is pertinent to go through the historical annals. The word ‘secularism’ was first coined by a British, George Jacob Holyoak, in 1851, to promote social order separate from religion. Subsequently, in Europe, this concept was used as a principle to immunise Government institutions. Even the US used the concept of ‘secularism’ to separate the state from the Church. In nutshell, the purpose of ‘secularism’ was to insulate Government functionaries and religious institutions from each other’s interference.
In the Indian context, historical developments reveal that the British, during their rule, in contravention to the policy of their mainland, adopted divisive policy and enacted separate laws for all religions, resulting into disintegration of social fiber, leading to the formation of non-uniform civil society. It thus sowed the seeds of the current imbroglio, thanks to the current crop of politicians who have infinitely exploited it and brought the nation to such an socio-political impasse. Subsequently, during the freedom struggle, two schools of thought with regard to adopting secularism for independent India emerged.
One, the agnostic concept advocated by Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Two, the pluralistic approach put forward by Mahatama Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad. However, the latter was supported by the majority. Accordingly, while enacting the Constitution of free India, this aspect became the corner stone of our national policy and was highlighted in the Preamble, which reads as “prohibits discrimination against particular religion,caste,sex and place of birth”; thus implying equality to all religions and intra-religion castes and cultures. later, to further consolidate this belief, the word ‘secular’ was inserted into the Preamble.
In contrast, post-independence events highlight that successive Governments, to achieve their myopic political objectives, shredded its core spirit to the extent that instead of doing anything good for the society, particularly the minorities and the downtrodden, the slogan of ‘secularism’ became a political tool or the brahmastra for political parties, particularly the Congress, which adopted it for political gains, which soon evoluted to ‘appeasement doctrine’ and resulted in creating perennial void between religious communities and the recurring communal riots we have been facing (the Antony Report fixing appeasement being the major cause of Congress debacle in 2014 elections reaffirms it).
Similarly, monumental episodes of the Shah Bano case, non formulation of ‘Uniform Civil Code’ and the demolition of Babri Masjid made us hapless spectators to the indiscriminate deterioration of secularism. These incidents lead us to believe that we are actually practicing communalism under the guise of secularism. Additionally, blatant and politically motivated misuse of Article 25 of the Constitution, which “grants freedom to practice religion of choice”, whether we accept or not, has resulted in overt, covert and lured conversions. Recent revelations of incidents in Kerala are but a few instances.
This cambrian explosion, besides disturbing the demographic set up has further spiralled the communal acrimony and rampant mushrooming of communal bodies, who in order to pursue their agenda, are resorting to harbouring anti-national elements and pitting religion against the Constitution. Open defiance to the Supreme Court verdict on triple talaq is a case in point.
To further complicate the issue, a new angle is added by the ‘cow vigilantes’, who under the garb of cow protection and by defying strict orders, are unabatedly targeting innocents.
The cumulative manifestation of all these factors has brought the over hyped secularism at the cross road, and has been hijacked and relegated to just a tool of political convenience to the extent that any action against the majority community is the incarnated version of modern secularism. Appeasement is preferred over national security, clamouring for permanent settlement of Rohingyas in India by the so-called seculars, is a living example of compromising security.
We are facing the worst kind of ‘socio-communal’ polarisation with the civil society radically divided on caste and communal lines. Apart from fracturing the social fiber and mutual harmony, it is threatening our internal security too. It is time that decisive and tangible steps are initiated to liberate our society from this malady. For once, rising above political ambitions and ideologies, appeasement and vote-bank policies, parties must espouse nationalistic approach and fool proof laws over divisive policies. Election code of conduct must be made more stringent against parties promoting religion/caste-based sops and making inflammatory speeches. Concomitantly, due hearing must be given to the Uniform Civil Code if it brings in equality to all, we have been longing to achieve then why notIJ
(The writer is a retired Infantry Officer with vast operational experience)