When India became a sovereign republic in 1950, we choose to be secular in our leaning. We have fundamental rights guaranteed in our constitution that guarantee every citizen the right to freedom of religion. But, is the noble intent outlined in the constitution really implemented in both letter and spirit? This is what I will try to delve into in a little more detail.
Firstly, no country in the world is secular in the true sense of the term. The religion of the majority will definitely influence the policies of the country. I am not saying that is bad, but knowingly or un-knowingly this changes the colour of secularism. In most of the countries the people belonging to minority religions do get heard but whether this gets translated into policy measures is a big question mark.
In India, the policies of the government have been more than accommodating by making exceptions to the minorities, especially with regard to personal laws, which, according to me, instead of benefiting the minorities is working against their progress!
As a country, in order to make sure that everyone is treated equal, we should have a common set of personal laws irrespective of religion. It is only then the country will be able to guarantee religious freedom to everyone. Otherwise, each religion will try to hold a given set of people to ransom by chaining them to their religion-specific principles interpreted wrongly for the benefit of some people while the rest suffer. This is what, we, as citizens should fight for. Instead the fight mostly ends up taking a communal colour.
Secondly, what most people in India, especially the intellectual folks, are not ready to accept is the fact that the secular fabric of India was destroyed beyond repair much before independence! We could blame the leaders at that time for this situation, but we are better off in trying to figure out how we can have uniform personal laws so that some section of the society does not suffer at the cost of the other.
The role of religious institutions in destroying the secular fabric of the country is not understood very well, courtesy the partisan media. Each media house in India is associated with some political party or the other. This distorts the focus of their reporting and the viewers don’t get the correct picture. Whenever some religious clashes happen in India, which generally have some political backing, I have not seen a single instance when the media has tried to get to the bottom of it.
In conclusion, is India, as a country really secular or is leaning to the right or left? I am tempted to conclude that we are right leaning at heart, but publicly claim that we are left leaning. This dichotomy has to change if we have to prosper as a true democracy. I am not even sure if this can happen in this century!
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