The Art of Secularism

Author: Antriksh Mishra, 3rd Year student of IIT Law School, IIT Kharagpur.

"India is my country and I am proud to be its citizen"—one thing which no Indian will think twice before speaking. Now let’s change the parameters a little–"Hinduism is my religion and I am proud to be a Hindu." Now that is something people think twice before speaking. It has happened to me and to many others I know. 

In this post I would try to dwell the reasons for such hesitation. Let’s begin with Art. 25 of the Constitution of India, the famous "Freedom of Religion" clause. Firstly the clause allows "all persons" to "practice", "profess" and "propagate" their religion. This would include all individuals whether or not citizens of India.

The words "practice", "profess" and "propagate" cover any and all religious activities, even asking other persons to join your religion (as long as such joining is without force or consideration) is allowed (as mentioned by K. Santhanam during the Constituent Assembly Debates). And this beckons the question, "Why the hesitation?"

One might say that the answer is more of a psychological nature than legal. I would however respectfully disagree. The answer is more related to Indian Polity and Law than to Psychology.

Let’s start from the common understanding of the word secular and try to answers some fundamental questions.

1. Is being secular the anti-thesis of being religious?

The answer to this is a quite emphatic “No”. If being secular were the anti-thesis of being religious, both of these could not have found place in our Constitution. Secularism as referred to in the Preamble and religious freedom as referred to in Art. 25, as propounded by The Keshvananda Bharti Judgement, find their place in the basic structure of the Constitution. (Notwithstanding my objection on the way the Keshvananda Judgement was delivered, and how Justice HR Khanna's opinion was not similar to that of the other three majority judges, It is still the law of the land.)

2. Does being religious mean you must follow all preaching of a faith?

Again the answer would be an emphatic a “NO”. Take for example Galileo or Darwin, both of them asked questions and were subjected to great persecution, but today Christianity has evolved and accepted (to a certain extent) their theories, while they were devoted Christians till their dying breath. Now for the legal stand lets read Art 19 and Art 25 together, I have the right to free speech (which allows me any question on any religion) and Freedom of religion (which gives me freedom to choose religion), so no one has the right to doubt one’s faith in a religion, or stop him from practicing a religion based on questions raised by a follower. Religion (in theory) must welcome and clear doubts.

3. When one calls oneself proud to be of the Hindu faith does he become a zealot?

And again the answer is  a ”NO”. What faith you follow is a personal question, whether you choose to be vocal about it is a personal choice. As long as you don't hurt another faith how can there be a question of being a zealot. And this is where Politics comes into the picture. Hinduism in India seems to have become synonymous of RSS or BJP or the Babri Masjid incident. But frankly it is not. Not withstanding the fact that RSS ( the then Hindu Mahasabha) was the only organization other than the Muslim league to not take part in the Quit India movement and their chief in 2006 claimed that Quit India Movement was a failure.  In all fairness the public services done by RSS, Hinduism and Hindu extremists are two different things,just as Muslims are different from Muslim extremist. One does not equate the practices in Muslim majority State of Turkey to that of Saudi Arabia then why isn't such a differentiation available for the Hindu faith. As per the principle of equity Hindus have the same rights and responsibilities as the other minority classes in India. And by virtue of being the majority, the Constitution does not bestow upon them, a higher degree of responsibilities than the other faiths.

I am proud to say that I am religious, I am proud to say I am a Hindu and I am proud to say that I am a Bhartiya, an Indian, a Hindustani (which is actually derived from Indus, but Hey! propaganda is spread by use of selective dissemination of facts, as recently) and still I am secular. I respect other faiths, I ask questions about other’s and my own faith and I wish to leave my faith to future generations, evolved, than what it was when I had it. In this regard I agree with Mahatma Gandhi's views.

Disclaimer: This blog or any post thereof is not to be considered to be in any way associated with the official stand of IIT kharagpur or RGSOIPL on the issues being discussed in the said post. The opinions on the blog are the authors own and should not be considered as legal advice.