Interrogating the viability of Secularism in the Nation-building Exercise

Instead of allowing the continued use of Secularism as a convenient carpet to brush the reprehensible minority-appeasement policy of the corrupt politicians under, how the principle should be trimmed and tweaked to make it a viable input in nation-building is the question that currently begs an answer

A nation is always in the making, and nation-building is a continuous process. For a constant and massive exercise such as nation-building to be a success, stability at home and safe external borders constitute a sine qua non. A country’s territorial integrity could not be more in danger than when its defence preparedness loses out in priority to out-of-sync foreign policy, attuned to an archaic dogma such as non-alignment, which is no more viable than deadbeat concepts such as imperialism, colonialism or apartheid, in the changing world order.

Likewise, in a vibrant democracy such as Bharat, surrounded by hostile neighbours and unstable partners in development, the importance of a fine-tuned domestic policy of religious and spiritual matters can never be exaggerated. That is because such a system keeps the diverse bodies of religions, faiths and cults counterbalanced and thereby ensures the prevalence of harmony and goodwill among the people.

Why Secularism?

A significant fallout of a thousand-year occupation of our country by Muslim invaders and European colonial powers was the conversion of substantial numbers of its original inhabitants to religions that had their origins outside Bharat. Aside from the beliefs introduced by the invading forces, Bharat has a large body of indigenous religions that have managed to survive the onslaught of foreign invasions. It is essential that notwithstanding their place of origin and manner of introduction, all these religions be accorded their due place in the society and all Indians be allowed to choose the religion of their choice and live in peace without fear of persecution.

At the same time, it is equally vital for the State not to favour or be biased against any religion in the course of providing excellent and clean governance. Besides, adoption of a non-meddlesome policy in the religious matters would instil confidence in the citizens of our country concerning the free and fair dealings of the government in an atmosphere devoid of fear or favour, which is the very basis of inclusive growth and development. Hence, Secularism is accepted as a cardinal principle of the Indian Constitution. When rightly applied and practised, Secularism should do the nation proud.

However, till recently, the ground realities reflected by the social indicators in matters such as religious harmony, economic and social development without animosity and hatred between the people of different communities presented a different picture altogether. The social fabric, which had been left in tatters by the partition, still needs much mending. The communal harmony that happily exists among the people of different communities exhibits signs of an occasional glitch or provocation, instigated by the enemies of the nation from both within and without. Nationalism is the most effective bulwark against communal discord and needs to be vigorously promoted.

Pseudo-Secularism

Secularism is the fig leaf, which the quintessential Indian politician proudly wears and flaunts, in a fly-in-the-face fashion, pushing the nation’s integrity and the upliftment of the less fortunate of his countrymen to the backburner. The motivating factor behind the projection of Secularism as a critical policy is to brandish one’s political correctness, especially on the hearing of the bugle for a forthcoming election. To the corrupt politician, nationalism, nation-building, patriotism, and inclusive growth and progress are passe.

During the 60-year reign of the Indian National Congress and its allies at the Centre, Secularism was recast by the powers that be to suit their narrow ends. Good governance, progress and development figured nowhere in their agenda. The more natural way out was to divide the people along communal lines, as the British had done during their rule, to create vote banks and cobble up the isolated communities in the name of Secularism.

In the absence of a genuine policy of non-discrimination between the religions, independent Bharat witnessed uncertain periods of time, marked by communal tension and riots. There was an obvious slant on the part of the government of the day

Minority appeasement became the order of the day, reducing the State policy of Secularism to pseudo-Secularism. The irony of the disturbing development was that those who practised minority-appeasement for the sake of votes and abandoned Secularism in favour of pseudo-Secularism branded BJP, which had sought to set right the imbalance between the minority and majority communities, a communal party, with the aim of turning the minority communities against it.

Although this ploy benefitted the Congress and its allies in the short term, it started working against them in the long run when both the minority and majority communities realised that neither of them was the beneficiary of economic progress or social development during the Congress reign despite the tall promises made on the eve of polls. On the contrary, the minority communities in the BJP-ruled states discovered that communal tension and riots had become a thing of the past, they enjoyed the patronage of the ruling party in return for their political support and became beneficiaries of the inclusive development of the State.

All they had to do for the sake of communal harmony, economic progress and social development, was to swear by nationalism and become equal partners in the task of nation-building, the same as was expected from the majority community. Realisation also dawned on them that a rule by strong State and Central governments by a party of principles and ideology was far more beneficial and conducive to their security than control by corrupt men, marked by empty promises, scams and scandals.

The Fallout

When minority appeasement was the order of the day, and pseudo-secularism ruled the roost, the stability of our nation continually came under severe attacks, with the enemies of the nation succeeding in causing a dent here and a jolt there across the country. Such occurrences weakened the security apparatus, demoralised the people, thwarted democracy and helped the external enemies from across the border to deal blows to the territorial integrity of our country. When our defence personnel fought overt and covert wars across the border and in the troubled border States, intelligence agencies and paramilitary troops had a tough time, carrying out sporadic campaigns against terrorists, Naxals and jihadi outfits, and monitoring the activities of separatists operating in the ruse of political and social activists.

A major casualty of these interesting developments was Secularism, which had run out of steam and was replaced by pseudo-Secularism. This development went unnoticed by a large section of the unwary public.

The recent political events and happenings in our country like the court rulings in matters such as access by all parts of people to the Shani Shingnapur and Sabarimala temples, bans and restrictions on the celebration of Hindu festivals, and construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya impinged the Hindu religious sentiments. These decisions have had a salutary effect on the majority community in their outlook and attitude towards the so-called Secularism.

Instead of allowing the continued use of Secularism as a convenient carpet to brush the reprehensible minority-appeasement policy of the corrupt politicians under, how the principle should be trimmed and tweaked to make it a viable input in nation-building is the question that currently begs an answer. As such, all future elections will be fought, with this question featuring predominantly in the minds of the discerning voters.

(The article Interrogating the viability of Secularism in the Nation-building Exercise is published in ‘Organiser’ )

93 thoughts on “Interrogating the viability of Secularism in the Nation-building Exercise”

  1. Nationalism is the best cure to curb any misuse of the word secularism. State must infuse nationalism in every Indian soul and heart. They should take pride in their national anthem and flag.

  2. Clean governance, prudent decision making and sensible policy decisions need a wise prime minister and his/ her cabinet. If religion comes in between, it only impedes the pace of development.

  3. You are correct when you say that in the name of secularism and minority appeasement many political parties have further deteriorated the conditions of minority classes. They are nothing but pseudo seculars.

  4. Hindus are long waiting for a Ram Temple to be built on a grand scale in Ayodhya which was His birthplace but now even courts have started delaying rights of Hindus.

  5. True nation builder can come from any faith and he can either be APJ Kalam or B R Ambedkar. Secularism needs to be relooked and reinvented in modern India.

  6. Not only in India, everywhere around the world from UK to US, protectionism and renewed focus on religious and colour majority groups have seen a rising trend. This will dominate politics from now on.

  7. In the Republic of India as envisioned by the makers of our Constitution, there lies no place for adoption oof any religion by the ruling government. In its functioning, it should be secular and socialist.

  8. Only after BJP won a landslide victory in 2014 lok sabha polls and then in almost every state of India the opposition realised what true secularism is. Till then they were disrespecting Hindu sentiments.

  9. Nation-building must be merged with the concept of unity of all religions and respect for followers of all faith. Once the country is free of violence the nation can shine bright in the global scene.

  10. It is absolutely true that the concept of secularism has been distorted in India by almost every other political party that wants to appease either minority or majority only for the sake of grabbing votes.

  11. Hi there. I simply would like to give you a big thumbs up for your great information you have got right here on this post. I will be returning to your website for more soon.

  12. What I have seen so far is brilliant and everyone involved should be congratulated. I can see me spending the rest of the evening perusing the site. Just when I thought I would like an early night.

  13. Fantastic put up, very informative. I wonder why the opposite experts of this sector do not understand this. You must continue your writing. I am confident, you have a huge readers base already.

  14. Congratulations Dr Gupta in the setting up of your attractive, informative and very professional website. Well done.

  15. Hello very cool website. Man .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your website and take the feeds additionally.I am glad to search out numerous useful information here within the publish, we need work out extra techniques in this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .

  16. Chayan Mazumder

    Greetings. Very useful advice in this particular post. it is the little changes which will make the most important changes.Thanks for sharing.

  17. Bhaskar Muniswamaiah

    This is really interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your great post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks.

  18. Hello there. This blog post could not be written much better. Going through this article reminds me of my previous roommate. He constantly kept talking about this. I will send this information to him. Fairly certain he will have a very good read. I appreciate you for sharing.

  19. I was extremely pleased to find this web site. I need to to thank you for ones time due to this wonderful read.. I definitely really liked every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to look at new information on your website.

  20. Balachandar Gettala

    I love looking through an article that can make men and women think. Also, thanks for allowing for me to comment.

  21. An intriguing discussion is definitely worth comment. I do believe that you ought to publish more on this issue, it may not be a taboo matter but typically people do not speak?about such topics. To the next. Cheers..

  22. Hello, its my first time to commenting any post. But I could not stop myself from commenting on reading through such a sensible piece of writing.

  23. Great web site you have got here.. it is difficult to find high-quality writing like yours nowadays. I truly appreciate people like you. Take care..

  24. I am often to blogging and i really appreciate your content. The article has actually peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your web site and keep checking for brand new information.

  25. Good day. I just would like to give you a big thumbs up for your excellent information you have right here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.

  26. Hi there, yeah this post is genuinely nice and I have learned lot of things from it on the topic of blogging. thanks.

  27. Hello my friend. I wish to say that this article is awesome, nice written and include almost all important infos. I would like to peer extra posts like this .

  28. You ought to take part in a contest for one of the most useful blogs online. I am going to highly recommend this blog.

  29. Parimal shirwadkar

    Hi friends, nice piece of writing and good arguments commented at this place, I am in fact enjoying by these.

  30. Just spent a few very enjoyable minutes looking at the site. Excellent. Well done. Overall very good: clean, easy to navigate, informative and, importantly, interesting.

  31. Ahaa, its pleasant dialogue about this piece of writing at this place at this weblog, I have read all that, so at this time me also commenting here.

  32. Devanshu chaterjee

    Quality articles or reviews is the key to attract the users to go to see the web site, that is what this web page is providing.

  33. I do accept as true with all of the ideas you have introduced for your post. They are very convincing and will certainly work.Thank you for the post.

  34. Can I just say what a relief to discover someone that actually understands what they are talking about over the internet. You definitely understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important. More and more people really need to read this and understand this side of the story. I was surprised that you aren?t?more popular since you most certainly possess the gift.

  35. You definitely realize how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people should read this and understand this side of your story.

  36. I am very happy to find this web site. I wanted to thank you for your time due to this fantastic read. I definitely liked every little bit of it and i also have you saved to fav to see new information in your site.

  37. I recently had a good fortune of reading your article it is really well written with updated information. I will be returning here often now.

  38. Sabyasachi Mukherjee

    The site looks absolutely fantastic. Well done to all involved. Very professional & the navigation is great too. Cheers.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *