SECULARISM: MYTH OR REALITY

Secularism, which was goal to achieve, now becomes catchword and populist term for creating a political sensation. India a sleeping giant of economy is running with limping step on the part of modernization, yet still trapped into false identity of atavistic religiosity and chivalric secularism and in the play of cultural nihilism. The game pseudo-politics is being played in different Parts of India by master political juggler. Not only has the Ruling Party’s Hindutva phraseology rather the Opposition Party also camouflaged the pseudo-game of soft Hindutva.

India is a country, which is called ‘Bharat’, has been place for the experimentation of numerous socio-cultural variations. Its neutrality and exposition towards alien culture from its antiquity given her a mystical posture. India from its beginning has been conduit for ideological transformation and socio-cultural accommodation. Our common plight and past sultry struggle against British Thralldom canalized our strength into the bound of Indian-ness and nationhood. As for the Indian identity, no other identities such as Christianity, Islam and Hinduism have privileged position our identities associated with other communities.

In India the term ‘secular’ was adopted and coined in preamble by the 42nd constitutional amendment act of 1976. Secularism in India unlike the west never been born out of the conflict between the church and the states. Rather it emerged out of India’s own past history in response to her values of pluralism. It is utilitarian ethics of social equilibrium for the socialization of political culture. As encyclopedia Britannica defines ‘Secularism as utilitarian ethics, designed for physical, spiritual and moral improvement of mankind which neither affirms not denies the theistic premises of religion’. In India Gandhi and Nehru the two prominent spokespersons of Indian secularism raised their voices for national unity and integrity. Gandhi’s philosophy of secularism advocates the states neutrality towards religion.

While Nehruvian notions of secularism notched for more rational and scientific paradigm, which is also the western features. Though, the western society follows the scientific enquiry and rational notions for the development and progress, while lacking spiritual and moral standard. The idea of ‘secularism’ in the West emerged out of the conflict between the Church and the States. Since then any religious propaganda considered to be setback to progress and hindrance to the path of modernity. In India, two sets of ideologies are at loggerhead- one is rationality, progress and various developmental charters for prosperity while the other is terror of communalism, religiosity, revivalism, and chauvinistic nationalism.

In India secularism is no longer sacrosanct ethics of state policy, rather reduced to an ideology to burn the flame of minority-ism alive and merely as the policy of electoral plank to allure the public mandate. The face of secularism is so distorted and rhetorically concocted that it is enough to equate religiosity with fundamentalism and secularism with anti nationalism and fundamentalism with terrorism and modernity with capitalism. Though very often, in our common parlance, secularism is considered to be polar dichotomy to communalism. The vices of communalism once again are resurfacing their revivalist visions of past aggrandizement. Our politics is a pseudo game where only those are skillful master whose tendency is camouflaging. In this pseudo-game of seek and hide not only the Congress is the master juggler rather the BJP is also seasoned master. The Ruling Party representing majoritarian mandates, now shrinking to minoritarian sensation. It shows how our political parties learning towards ideological compromise. Though linguistic parochialism, regionalism, ethnicity are unavoidable cultural fabrics as well as indispensable proposition of society. However, secularism in Indian context is none theocratic and as such states does not have its own religion.