Securalism in India

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Hi friends today I would like to share the essay about secularism in India, as per our Indian constitution India is a secular country we should abide by it. Our Constitution doesn’t acquire its secular character merely from the words in the Preamble, but from a collective reading of many of its provisions, particularly the various fundamental rights that it guarantees. Let us discuss this topic in depth in the below essay,  prepare well thank you friends.

Essay on secularism in India

Indian secularism is fundamentally different from western secularism. It does not focus only on Church-State separation and the idea of inter-religious equality is crucial to the Indian conception. There was already a culture of inter-religious 'tolerance' in India. Tolerance is compatible with religious domination.

"The fact remains that secularism is inherent in the indian system, in the indian ethos and culture, india cannot but be secular"

These words by our former president Mr. Pranab Mukherjee tells that secularism in india is inborn. The 42^nd 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? While the merriam-webster dictionary defines secularism as "The belief that religion should not play a role in Government, Education, or Other public parts of  society", the most commonly accepted definition of secularism is "separation of religion and state". By this definition it put a little doubt on indian secularism.

Different laws for hindus,  muslims and christians in a truly secular country, all citizens irrespective of  religion would be covered by a single set of  laws. In India, however,  people of different  religion beliefs are covered by different laws. While Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists are covered by the Hindu code  bills (Hindu Marriage Act,  Hindu Succession Act etc.), Muslims are covered by Muslim Personal laws and Christians are covered by Christian Personal laws. So, Hindus,  Muslims, Christians and Parsis inherit property differently,  have different rules for marriage, divorce and adoption among other things.

"I do not expect India of my dreams to develop one religion, i.e., to be wholly Hindu or wholly Christian or wholly Musalman, but I want it to be wholly tolerant, with its religions working side by side with one another.'' So said Mahatma Gandhi.

Different laws for minority schools and "majority" schools. Though minority schools (not all, but many)  receive money from the government in the form of grants/aid, they need not comply with the regulations of the right to education act?  while the government has clearly not spared even private schools that receive no money from the government, from rte regulations that force schools to reserve 25 % of  their seats for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds  (reimbursed by the govt.),  it had not dared to go any where near minority school schools. Note that Hindu schools receive no such exemption. 

one law for “minority” schools and another for "majority" schools - exemplary secularism!

Subsidies for haj but not for amarnath yatra. The concept of the state funding a pilgrimage using tax-payer  money rather strange. A truly secular country would not subsidize any pilgrimage- period!  However, the Indian government spent Rs 836 crores on Haj subsidies in 2012. The Supreme Court passed an order that directed the government to phase out this subsidy within 10 years.

If the state were so keen to subsidize pilgrimages, shouldn't it subsidize the pilgrimages of all religions?

What makes this a whole lot worse is that political parties and large sections of the media are seen as being over-eager to win the favour of the minority communities. Take for example, the unfortunate and condemnable Dadri  lynching episode during which Mohd. Akhlaq was lynched by a mob.

But we have more positive side of secularism. we have a history with multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-racial, multi-cultural society. Indian religions are known to have co-existed and evolved together for many centuries before the arrival of islam in the 12^th century, followed  by mughal and colonial era. Ashoka about 2200 years ago,  Harsha about 1400 years ago accepted and patronised different religions. the people in ancient South Asia had freedom of  religion, and the state granted citizenship to each  individual regardless of whether someone’s religion was Hinduism,  Buddhism,  Jainism or any other. Ellora cave temples built next to each other between 5^th and 10^th centuries, For example, shows a co-existence of religions and a Spirit of acceptance of different faiths after the arrival of  islam during Akbar regin we see Akbar sought to fuse ideas,  professed equality between Islam and other religions of India,  forbade forced conversions to Islam, abolished religion-based discriminatory jiziya taxes, and welcomed building of Hindu temples.

During the control of East India Company and the British Raj. The colonial administrators did not separate religion from state, but marked the end of unequal hierarchy between Islam and Hinduism, and reintroduced the notion of equality before the law for Hindus, Christians and Muslims. The British Empire sought commerce and trade, with a policy of neutrality to all of India’s diverse religions.

The 7^th Schedule of Indian constitution places Religious Institutions, charities and trusts into so-called concurrent list. The overlap of  religion and state, through concurrent list structure, has given various religions in India, state support to religious schools and personal laws. Secularism in India, thus, does not mean separation of religion from state. Instead, secularism in India means a state that is neutral to all religious groups.

If you do not support equal treatment of all citizens under law, if you do not support a secular education designed to inculcate rational thought instead of dogma, if you do not support neutrality of the State and a bar on state funding for any religion, you are not secular. 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. Two basic electoral reforms are imperative if secularism is to be strengthened. The first is making voting compulsory. The second is making 50 per cent plus one vote necessary to win. A great deal remains to be done if secularism is to become a way of  life in India. "secularism must be interpreted to believe India first."

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