Indian Secularism under threat
First it was in Orissa in 1967, followed by Madhya Pradesh in 1963, Tamil Nadu in 2002, Gujarat in 2003, Chattisgargh in 2005, and Rajasthan in 2006 – all these States have enacted anti-conversion law and are in full force. They commonly share characteristic of fanning communal tension in the line of religion. They are notorious for infamous religious riots that have claimed many innocent lives. It is hard to forget Orissa’s crime on Christians in the past years and yet again the same fang of venomous hatred on Christians has struck again creating pogrom.
Far from being contained and arrested the virus of communalism in India – one of the disintegrating elements that would fragment Indian nation prophesized by the prophets of doom – has continued and is back with even more vigorous attack on the religious minorities, particularly Christians, threatening secularism in India . In this trend of rising tide of communalism wave the principal element of liberal democratic vision of secularism uphold by the founding fathers is being obscured and seems losing ground to the obscurantist. This seriously poses a question on our professed secular foundation of the constitution as Indian nation opted for a secular State and not for a ‘Hindu’ Theocracy since partition. Today Indian secularism is under threat and the religious minorities are being pushed to the wall.
The founding fathers of the Indian Republic are all believers in free air. They carefully promoted and nurtured national integration through consistent ideological and political endevours by adopting liberal views of nationalism in the making of free-modern India . Mahatma Gandhi, in his preparation for country wide movement of non-cooperation in 1920, call for unity and asked all “patriots to overcome the barriers that divide them from one another”. Fully aware of the communal divide among Indians he warned the danger of it at the Nagpur Congress (1920), “an Empire which has set the Hindus and the Muslims against each other will not hesitate to create enmity between the Antyayas (untouchables) and the rest of the Hindus”. Rabindranath Tagore, a nobel laureate, in his fight for freedom from foreign rule also call for harmony between the Hindus and Muslims, and eradication of untouchability. He exhorted for liberal view in the making of Indian nation. B.R. Ambedkar in his address at the constituent Assembly of India in November 25, 1949 warned that Indians must never be content with what he called “mere political democracy” and said “in politics we will have equality and in socio-economic life we will have inequality”. Denial of this he warned, “will put our political democracy in peril”.
After the first general election mandated by the constitution, Jawaharlal Nehru, acting both as prime minister and as the leader of the Congress waged an all-out war against communalism and pointed out several times, “if allowed free play, communalism would break up India ”. He identified communalists as the chief enemies and made this ringing declaration, “if any person raises his hand to strike down another on the ground of religion, I shall fight him till the last breath of my life, both at the head of the government and from outside”.
To go by the liberal views of the founding fathers and constitutionally speaking the secular credo embedded in the constitution guarantees the citizens the right to freedom of religion and the right of religious denominations to manage their own affairs, and that of the State to pay equal respect to all religions. In true sense secularism separates religion from politics and especially religion from the State. It virtually relegates religion to the realm of the private and respect for all religions.
But this is not what Indian secularism in reality is today as we see the religious minorities are being oppressed by the dominant group – the Hindus. It is a pseudo-secularism we see in practice in India as indicated by the free play of communalism in those States where anti-conversion law has been enacted. It proves that religion is not a private realm but a State controlled policy. Secularism crisis in these States lays in the tension between the conception of the State as an agent of socio-religious reforms and that of the minority rights. The free play of communalism perpetrated by the Hindu communal force against Christian minority in Orissa is un-secular.
Since the communalization of Indian politics the minority religious groups have been the end recipient of the more expression of violence unleashed by the Hindu militants. In all communal riots it is the lowest section of the poor who suffers the most as they become the soft target. They suffer economically from the negligence of the State in its socio-economic welfare programme, and vulnerable to the oppression and violence perpetrated by the majority group buttress by the State policy for vested political mileage.
For instance, communal riots in Mumbai, demolition of Babri Mosque, Gujarat pogrom, and recent hatred against Christians in Orissa unleashing extreme religious intolerance in killing, burning of bibles and destroying churches and sacred antics are stark free-play of communalism in India . Religion intolerance such as these in a professed secular nation-State is horrifying and what is more disturbing and diabolic is the hate ideology ardently espoused and fanned by certain political partyedausing worst humanitarian crime in the name of religion.
The Hindu communal forces like the VHP and Bajrang Dal are a threat to religious minorities. These forces – right wing of the RSS – have fascist agenda of massive propagandistic influence of promoting Ram as a national hero. Since inception they have throughout attempted to destroy all living folk culture and homogenize Hinduism around Ram cult. What is most fearful in the agenda of the Hindu communal forces is that it claims to represent the entire Hindu space eclipsing all other religious minorities.
Communalism was and continues to be a major threat to Indian unity. The principle of secularism, well thought over and nurtured by the founding fathers, keeping in mind the existence of plural religions in Indian nation is under threat today. Down the past years there have been deep wounds caused by the religious riots and these religious intolerances have sullied international image of Indian democracy.
India adopted democratic form of government which suited best to her nature of pluralism in caste, creed, and religion. But the ugly head of communalism is still rising. The recent case in Orissa where many Christians were killed proves that Indian nation has lost her secular credentials.
