Thus, the normal term of secularism is meaningless in India. Politics, Government, education etc cannot be separated from Dharma ( principles of life and growth) !! We should not call the concept of Dharma, a Hindu concept, because there is nothing like "Hindu Religion". Its a misnomer. What we loosely call "Hindu Religion" is just Dharma( principles of life and growth) and it cannot and doesn't exclude Islam or Christianity. Becasue, the concept of Dharma is embedded in Islam and Christianity too. At the most, we can say that there are different opinions, but Dharma is always ONE and cnnot be MANY. Any sane person, who understands spirituality, can never say that Prophet Mohammad's, Christ's and Krishna's teachings are different in fundamenatals. Rasul, Krishna,Sri Ram, Jesus, Buddha etc are all Prophets, the greatest exponents of Dharma on this planet. They have shown the way to growth and development of individual, family, society, nations and humanity at large.They do not belong to any single community or group. But to all of us. Insult to one is insult to all. So,Dharmik is that person who follows priciples of life and growth.& others are anti-humanity
In India, dharma doesn't mean just rites-rituals and acts of worship. Because, for Indians every work of life is an act of worship. Whatever we do, we must make sure that that work doesn't hamper existence and furtherance(growth) of ourselves and any other person. Anything which seems good for me but bad for others CANNOT be good for me. Hence, that is against Dharma.
So, Government, politics, economics, education, indusrty and everything must be according to Dharma ( the priciples of life & grwoth).
Then, how can be Dharma and politics or Dharma or anthing be separate ? We talk about sepearating Politics from Dharma, because we use the concept of religion (where religion just means rites & rituals). Even if we include the concept of God, Indian tradition doesn't view God as some separate entity sitting in the sky !!! Our concept of God is that whatever is there, physical or non-physical, is a manifestation of God. "Rupam Rupam Pratirupo babhuva:-Rigveda... " All forms are HIS reflections"! Put simply, God in India means that which is the ultimate building block of the creation. Thus, all laws whcich are as per Nature are "dharmik". The rest are adharmik.( Cont>>
I would like to point out an oft repeated problem when individuals discuss Hinduism. They invariable confuse Hinduism with Brahmanism. This is not just true with the secularists (of any variety) but also the Hindu right wing.
Brahmanism is only one sect out of the many that can be loosly put together under the heading of Hinduism (as we humans have to call things by names). In the 20th century Brahmanism suddenly got a shot in the arm with the loss of other aspects of Hinduism, but this is just a sea-saw that has been happening for the past 3000 years since the rise of Brahmanism.
Part-I The author has,indeed,tried to look at the issue of secularism from a rational point of view, without any bias.
However, this entire issue is a product of Western-type mindset. All the problems have arisen because we use the term and concept of 'religion' in India, which is not proper at all. The Indian concept of 'Dharma' is very different from the Western concept of Religion.
The term "Dharma" comes from the root "Dhri" of Sanskrit, and it means "That which upholds". Upholds what ? Existence and furtherance (Being and Becoming). Here, it does not mean any ritual or worship or puja-paath stuff. Definition of "dharma" is " Jeevanam vardhanam chaapi dhriyate sah dharmah "- That which uphold life and growth is dharma.
According to Indian thought, no action, thought or deed is "dharmik" or "adharmik" (non-dharmik) in itself. It depends upon the purpose for which it is being used ! For example, killing a person is called murder and is non-dharmik. But killing the enemy when attacked, and where there is no other option is available to save oneself, is perfectly "dharmik". ..... (continued in Part -II)
Thanks To Mr..Sengupta for putting a topic whch needs serious discussion.Though I Fully agree to what he meant ultimately,I do differ in some points.
Whatever be the definition of secularism,the concept diffes from person to person,no matter he belongs to the goup of antagonist,revisionist,highly religious etc.So there is no point in finding out who is a real secularist.Rather than doing this we must define the relationship between the government and religion.
The government should neither run any establishmens related to any religion or caste,nor it should provide any kind of reservations based on his/her religion.It should also scrutinize the activities of religion to find out whether any kind of violations of human rights are taking place under the disguise of religious rituals or any public nuisances.Severe punishment must be given to the people involved in such practises.
The reservations should be there for the underprivileged in terms of financial background,place of living etc.
Some words to the comments of my intolerant friends who strive for their religion.All the social evils (related to religions) like Sati(i agree it is not in practice nowadadys),child marriage,dowry,brahmin dominance,Burkha....etc..cannot be found on any scriptures of religions.The real culprit is the people who develops and practices it.It took centuries for us to realise and fight against sati.
So please realise the evils of our society and country,not of other religions only and make our country proud of its people.
But for our great leaders and politicians,these problems and social evils must be there to play their appeasement strategy and get a seat in the parliament and its associated luxuries.After all a majority in our country is not enjoying the soveriegnity,socialism and democracy that we claims to have.So why should secularism be spared
1. the Indian Constituition recognises linguistic and religious minorities and provides them freedom to pursue and promote their language and religion. There are no rights to job reservation, reservation in educational institutions (except minority institution) or political reservation only for being minority. This provision in the draft constitution was expressly deleted.
2. The Constitution provides for reservation in education and jobs only to SC/ST and backward classes of non-sc/st communities in Hindu society and all non-Hindu communities ( the creamy layer is to be excluded from the non_sc/st categories), only because of the backwardness under 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution and not because of being minority. Reservation of BCs is deliberately confused with reservation for minorities by the politicians who want to create community - specific vote banks. This is nothing but communalisation and against the interest of the minorities.
RE:Who needs Secularism. Comments
by Sid on Aug 28, 2005 09:03 PM Permalink
If Islam (or muslim) are against objectification of muslim, then why you put them in Burkha. Does not make sense to me. I think Alla must have told women to wear burkha to protect them from uncivilized muslim men. I have many so called devout muslim friends and I was really shocked with their opinion about women.
It looks like sense does not prevail when you talk with a person blinded by faith(?) and right now it looks like you are.
