A fringe group of so-called secularists has done the greatest damage to secularism-in-practice for ages in this country. It has tried to enforce its own innovation of political-secularism alien to India. This has helped not even the minorities
US President Barack Obama’s parting nasihat has gladdened the hearts of those who were feeling miserable during his visit, privately lamenting their inaction, lethargy and policy paralysis of a full decade and the rise of US-India bonhomie within months of Mr Narendra Modi taking over the reins of Government of India. Mr Obama stated only the obvious: “India will succeed so long it is not splintered on the lines of religious faith.”
He, in his own way and for his own reasons, referred to what the makers of the Constitution of India had very clearly included under Fundamental Rights in Article 25: “….All persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion.” Those overjoyed in this context must also recall how they themselves have connived and indulged in machinations of every possible hue to ensure just the opposite of what the Constitution would have liked them to strive for.
When they went to the extent to change the very Preamble to the Constitution of India, and included the term ‘secular’, their hidden agenda was clear to one and all. Consistently, and persistently, these so-called secularists just wanted to add another dimension to their efforts to mislead the minority communities, particularly the Indian Muslims. Their intentions were never transparent, what to say of being pious.
The Hindi translation of the Preamble contains the word ‘panthnirpeksha’ and not ‘dharamnirpeksha’, which they would have loved to include but had to bow to the inputs provided by erudite scholar and jurist, lakshmi Mal Singhvi. The professed secularists continue to use the term dharamnirpeksha, maybe because of lack of appreciation of the difference between the two!
The manner in which history writing has been subjected to ideological compulsions by the leftist historians and their political patrons, deserves a very objective and incisive scrutiny. Why should every child in India not be proud of the fact that the Indian civilisation had given ample historic proof of its maturity and wisdom on issues like equality of all faiths, everyone’s right to practise their own religion and ritualIJ
In the welfare of one and all, was the internalised objective before everyone. Yajurveda (Vajasaneya Samhita, 36. 18) very clearly indicates the level of Indian civilisation: “Revered One, make me strong. May all beings look on me with friendly eyes. May I look on all beings with friendly eyes. May be look on each other with friendly eyes.”
It is this evolved culture and civilisation that welcomed Christianity at the shores of Kerala in its initial years. The same treatment of equality, respect and acceptance of diversity of religions was also extended to Zoroastrians and Islam. The trouble began when looters and religious fanatics invaded India. Unfortunately, there is a fringe group of intellectual and scholars that would, if it had a full say, just not mention ancient India or ancient Indian civilisations.
It is this school of thought that has done the greatest damage to secularism-in-practice for ages and has tried to enforce its own innovation of political-secularism. Over the years, people, particularly the Muslim community of India, has realised that they were being taken for ride and given nothing except assurances and electoral promises. It has created total confusion, which led to distrust amongst the two major religious communities. It is this distrust that leads to serious clashes even on frivolous grounds.
It results in loss of life and adversely impacts social cohesion and religious amity. One could cite blatant examples of brazen and blatant double speak to allure the minority community. Who can forget the U-turn in the Shah Bano caseIJ Was it in the interest of poor Muslim womenIJ It was a clear case of politicians going to any level to protect vote-banks.
People of the minority community are still languishing in Muzaffarnagar camps but their self-styled protectors and flag-bearers of secularism enjoy the glamour and glitz in Saifai! The Government of India found the Batla House incident to be a genuine encounter, but a Congress general secretary was vocal in declaring it as fake. People have seen through this game, and it certainly was not a small factor that has thrown the political-secularists out of power.
The challenge before the nation is known to one and all. The British tried their best not only to create a religious divide but consistently widen it. They succeeded and the country was partitioned. The unprecedented transfer of population resulted in unfathomable loss of life and misery for millions of families who had been uprooted for no fault of theirs.
Those who came to power had a great chance to let both the communities realise the criticality of religious harmony and communal amity. They could have worked in the spirit of what Mahatma Gandhi had taught them all along during the freedom struggle. They could have paid heed to his words: “I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. I believe that they are all god-given and I believe that they are necessary for the people to whom these religions are revealed.
And I believe that if only we could all of us read the scriptures of different faiths from the standpoint of the followers of these faiths, we should find that they were at the bottom all one and were all helpful to one another.” They also had, before them, the words of wisdom of Swami Vivekananda, who could endear the Western world purely by the strength of his thought, word and articulation that repeatedly emphasised:
“Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy — by one or more of these — and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.”
The British achieved their goals to subjugate India through education by de-linking Indians from India. The least that was expected after their departure was a determined focus on education that would restore the confidence and pride of every Indian in India. It required an acceptance of the reality that every nation has to evolve its own model of knowledge creation, dissemination and utilisation. We should have a system of national education rooted to culture and committed to progress.
In such a system of education, none would be forgotten and nothing shall be neglected. learning about the basics of all religions should not be a taboo in schools Children would know the commonalities and learn to respect the differences. Then, India too can impart lessons to the US and Europe on how to reconcile to diversities.