Religion and National Secularism

Religion, according to its diction­ary meaning is ‘the expression of man’s belief in the reverence for a super-human power recognised as the creator and governor of the universe-a bond between man and God’. Religion is also defined as ‘a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe especially when considered as the creation of a super-human agency or agencies; usually involving devotional and ritual observations, and often having a moral code for the conduct of human affairs. By another definition, religion is spe­cific and institutionalised set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects which, on one level, distinguish one religion from another.

Religion, or religious faith and ardour has been the strongest motivat­ing force, stronger than even national­ism or patriotism, for the highest aspirations of the human spirit, its fortitude and forbearance manifested in heroic acts of sacrifice, martyrdom and stoic monasticism. The trend reaches its creative imagination, vis­ible in the houses of worhsip constructed for the faithful, the majestic cathedrals, mosques and temples with steeples, spires and domes and mina­rets rising towards the heavens, in the cave paintings of Ajanta, and in the divine melody and poetry of religious hymns, psalms, sermons and devo­tional music.

Paradoxically, however, religious faith, perverted into bigotry, fanaticism, and fundamentalism, has also been responsible for much bloodshed and evil, the Crusades supposed to be holy wars undertaken by European Christians between the 11th and 14th century to recover Jerusalem from Is­lam, in which millions of Christians and Muslims were killed and Asia Minot and Palestine soaked with blood; the bestial brutalities of the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century; the Wars of Religion in France between Protestants and Catholics, two sects of the same religion, resulting in large scale massacres, and, in the 20th century, the massacre of Armenian Christians by the Turks, the blood bath at the time of the partition of India, and the recurring communal trouble in our country fanned and aggravated by religious fanaticism and misuse of religious fervour and faith for narrow political gains. Ignorance, superstition, obscurantism and rigid ritualism, even terrorism are other sinister aspects of religious fundamentalism and unholy mix of religion and politics.

I personally believe in what the eminent historian Arnold Toynbee said in one of his essays in Civilisation on Trial that:

Every human being has a personal religion, and every human com­munity has a collective religion whether the personal community is aware of this or not. Each of us does, I believe, have a religion even if he denies that he has one and denies it in good faith. Spiritual nature, like physi­cal nature, abhors a vacuum. If we succeed in repudiating the religion we have inherited, we shall invariably acquire a substitute for it, and this substitute may be both more evil and archaic.

Prof. Toynbee described, himself as an agnostic, but in real sense, he was a deeply religious man. In his insightful survey of the majestic move­ment of men and nations, civilisations and religions over the millennia, rising and falling and passing on, he dwells on the predicament of the contempo­rary Western Man:

‘The spirit of fanaticism that has been part of Christainity’s and Islam’s heritage from their parent religion, Judaism – boiled over into the hideous 16th century and 17th century Catholic and Protestant wars of relig­ion. The atrocities that had been committed in the name of religion shocked the most sensitive and en­lightened souls in the contemporary western world so deeply that, before the close of the 17th century, some of them were, beginning to. repudiate Christianity and indeed religion itself in any form. The Westernising non-western intelligentsia also repudiated their own respective ancestral relig­ions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastri­anism and even Islam. There was the gradual emergence of the ‘secular outlook’,  which, according to Western concept, pertained to the temporal rather than the spiritual - a political or social philosophy that rejects all forms of religious faiths. In the Indian con­text, however, it has a different mean­ing as I shall show later in the course of this paper.

With the advancement of sci­ence, exploring the forces of nature and exploding many superstitions and the subsequent Evolutionary Theory in the 19th century, faith was further on the decline in the West, and many felt like Matthew Arnold as ‘Wandering between two worlds, one dead / The other powerless to be born’.

According to Toynbee, the spiri­tual vacuum that had been created was filled with new ideologies such as Nationalism, Individualism and Communism. The enormities that have been perpetuated in the name of each of these three post-Christian ideologies have been, if possible, more wicked than the worst that have ever been perpetrated in the name of Christianity. The two World wars are a grim reminder of these, German National Socialism i.e. Nazism, and nationalism; wrought unprecedented havoc in Europe and parts of Asia. Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore’s Japan lec­tures in 1916 are a strong and coura­geous denunciation of Nationalism. It is a curious irony that the champions of capitalism and democracy in the West, America, England and France, allied with U.S.S.R the bulwark of Communism, to defeat the Nazis and the Fascists, and then to parcel out, divide, and devour the vanquished nation states, to extend their sphere of influence and political and economic power. The world was still not made safe for democracy.

Karl Marx, who inspired the Communist ideologies, considered re­ligion as the opiate of the masses. The Communist state and the totalitarian regime (the dictatorship of the Proletariat) which assumed power in Rus­sia in 1917 under Lenin, dethroning the Tsar, also, dethroned God and Religion, and proclaimed a policy of uncompromising atheism. The period 1928 to 1939 in the U.S.S.R was a decade of ruthless repression in this respect, when Muslim clerics in the Islamic Republics, intellectuals, com­munity leaders suspected of religious beliefs or opposition to Moscow, were murdered. Islam was repressed in the same way as the Russian orthodox faith in the northern region. The number of mosques in the Islamic Republic was reduced by deliberate demolition from about 26.000 to 500. No wonder, the Muslims rushed to join the Nazis and Fascists when Hitler invaded Russia. In 1931, Stalin razed to the ground the most majestic amongst the Russian churches, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, in central Moscow. But after the fall of Communism, and the disintegration and dismemberment of the U.S.S.R. there are signs of a strong religious revival in Russia. It was recently re­ported that hundreds of men and women gathered for a religious service commemorating the 125th birth anni­versary of the last Tsar at a small, make-shift, wooden chapel in Kropork­inskaya, at the very spot where once stood the grand Cathedral of Christ. The Russian orthodox church is fast becoming a rallying point for millions of Russians, and Kremlin church bells have started pealing in the Red Square.

I have dwelt at some length on the history of religious and political vi­cissitudes in the West, with a view to drawing a parallel or a contrast in my dealing with the question of religion and secularism in India. In the West, during the last three centuries, there was a gradual weakening of the hold of religion, which was once dominating. The advance of science and technol­ogy, competitive individualism and materialism, industrial revolution, unbridled nationalism and imperialism in the name of Patriotism, the spread of communism with Marxist ideology resulted in many nations freeing themselves from theological control and acknowledging secularism in its west­ern concept as a fundamental prin­ciple of political and social life. It is so even today, inspite of the fact that in the post-war world in the West there has been a resurgence of faith, of spiritual quest and re-emergence of old historic religions. In the U.K. Christianity is formally recognised as a state religion, yet the state is secular and consideration of the present well­being of mankind predominates over religious consideration in civil affairs or public education. Secularism in the West came to mean complete separa­tion of the Church from the State.

This concept of secularism is not applicable to a multi-religious and multi-racial society as the one we have in India. Secularism in the Indian context does not mean indifference to religion or irreligiosity, but tolerance and respect for all religions, a social philosophy which believes in the peaceful co-existence of different relig­ions. This concept of secularism has been deeply ingrained and inextricably woven in the ethos and the fabric of our ancient society. India was never a theocratic state. The concept of Rajdharma implied king’s duties, not state religion, and even the Muslim kings largely adopted the policy of Jahandari and not Deendari (impos­ing of one’s religious views on others). Centuries ago, Jews, Parsis, Muslims and Christians found a home in India where the majority of the population consisted of Hindus. As Prof. Nurul Hasan, who, apart from being an eminent historian, was the embodiment of the finest elements of the composite culture of India, has pointed out many, distinct religious communities: Bud­dhists, Jains, Sikhs, many cults, philosophies, systems of beliefs, sects such as Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj developed and flourished under the vast umbrella of Hinduism. Even when the kings were Muslims, the subjects were not forced to embrace Islam. Babar’s injunctions to his own son Humayun. were to ‘respect, protect and understand the religious mores of his subjects’. Muslim Kingdoms, both in the north and south, attracted and recognised the services of talented Hindu soldiers, statesmen, scholars and poets. Shivaji was not a religious bigot; he had respect for other relig­ions. Maratha power was not Hindu revival. Peshwas gave protection to Mughal kings.

Secularism was thus not any exotic plant on the Indian soil. The Sufi and Bhakti movements of medie­val India, the writings, poems and songs of Kabir, Guru Nanak, Tukaram and Mirabai, the Indo-Persian style of painting and architecture, the Muslim influence in customs, dress, cooking, festivals and fairs were vibrant strands of the composite culture of India. The Gandhian concept of secularism, which was the basic Indian concept implied equal status to all religions. He himself was deeply religious, be­lieved that Godis God,though in dif­ferent names: but he was against the rigidities and the formal and ritualistic manifestation of religion. Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, one of the pioneers of our freedom movement, and the first Education Minister of free India, was a staunch follower of Islam: yethe was secular in outlook, regarded himself as a part of the composite culture of India which cannot be divided, and even though a votary of religion, placed nationalism and patriotism higher than religion.

The British tried to undermine the spirit of Indian secularism by their policy of divide and rule, yetit found its forceful expression in the struggle for Independence.

It was inevitable, therefore, that secularism should be the basic prin­ciple of the Constitution of Independ­ent India, even though the word ‘secularism’ was not specifically men­tioned in it at first.

The preamble to the Constitution assured all citizens ‘liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship’.

Articles 25 to 28 of the Constitution guarantee to all citizens ‘freedom of conscience and the right freely to pro­fess, propagate and practise religion (subject to public order, morality and hea1th), and the right to maintain institutions for religious and chari­table purposes.

To emphasise the secular nature of the Republic in the midst of growing communal tensions and the menace of religious fundamentalism which had started showing its ugly head, here and abroad, the word ‘secular’ was added to the preamble of the Indian Constitution through the 42nd Amendment (Act 1976), Fundamental Duties, in part IVA enjoined on every citizen to promote harmony and com­mon brotherhood transcending religious diversities.

But, this Amendment specifically adding the word ‘secular’ to the pre­amble of the Constitution has not resulted in any change in the communal polarisation and disharmony that started, and has been on the increase since Independence. A few words in­scribed in the Constitution and even laws enacted for the implementation of fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution, cannot, by themselves, bring about the desired social and economic changes, remove inequalities, and provide social justice to all, unless there is a basic change in the minds and hearts of people, and strong political will on the part of all political parties to preserve and protect the constitutional obligations.

Democracy implies the rule of law. The majesty of law lies in the power of the state to control the existing political organisation that permits civilisation to exist. But as one of the main characters in an American politi­cal novel, which I read the other day, who is a professor of Law at Harvard, and subsequently becomes the Presi­dent of the United States, says in his opening lecture, “The law can be twisted out of shape to serve a wicked civilisation. The rich can escape the law.....Some lawyers treat the law like pimps treat their women. Judges sell the law, courts betray it. All true. But remember this, there is no other way we can make a social contract with our fellow human beings”. These com­ments by the fictitious character Francis Xavier Kennedy refer to the state of law and judiciary in the U.S.; but they are applicable near home also.

The multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural char­acter of a pluralistic society such as Indian society, should have been its source of strength rather than its weakness, if the fissiparous tendencies that began to grow, soon after political Independence were curbed with a strong hand in the initial stage. But, unfortunately, in politics, the earlier idealism gave place to increasing op­portunism and unscrupulous quest for power, and the electoral process to win and retain power encouraged and fos­tered all those very evils which continue to plague Indian society, which needed to be eradicated. Casteism, communalism, militant separatism, manifesting itself in terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir, ethnic conflicts in Assam and the tribal regions, and stark and unabashed religious fundamentalism seem to flourish with impu­nity. Casteist and communal organisa­tions are pampered, and flourish, because - they provide vote banks for political aspirants to draw on.

Religious fanaticism - fundamen­talism - has been appeased for politi­cal gain as in the encouragement to Bhinderwala in the early stages to meet the Akali agitation, (which cre­ated a Frankenstenian monster), as in the position taken by the Central Gov­ernment in the well known shah Bano case.

There is much sanctimonious hypocrisy and double talk in our po­litical professions, between what is preached from public platforms, and what is actually practised in the political arena.

Voices of sanity are still there, crying against religious bigotry and fanaticism, against criminalisation in politics, against use of religion in poli­tics; but they have uptill now remained voices in the wilderness. It is, however, encouraging to find that these voices are getting louder, that the nation is getting gravely concerned about the dangers of the misuse of
religion in politics, and the Central Government proposes to bring in a Bill before parliament seeking to delink politics from religion. It is a step none too early.

In India, with its 800 milllions, its rich heritage, its multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual com­position, there can only be one cul­tural climate – that of national secularism. To achieve and strengthen it, education should be made a potent instrument of social change (instead of being given the lowest priority as at present); and there should be strong political will and bold action on the part of all political parties, irrespective of their political affiliations, to defeat the forces of reaction and disintegra­tion, placing the survival and integrity of the nation above narrow and selfish; political ends.

We are living in times of great turmoil, flux and transition, as if, ‘on a darkling plain / Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight / where ignorant armies Clash by night! The world over there is a rapid erosion of the old, cherished moral and ethical values. Things fall apart - The centre cannot hold! In India, inspite of cer­tain advances we have made, we still have many complex problems, rapidly increasing in their complexity, defying any attempts at a stable solution, because the method and manner of present day politics, and of most poli­ticians, is unable to meet the challenges. In fact, politicians are fast losing their credibility. The present political culture breeds hectoring bullies on the one hand and power-brokers and slimy sycophants on the other, touching feet and ever ready with recycled flowers and garlands for a respectful welcome to those in power. These are the parasites of Indian politics. Smugglers and scam­sters, Big Bulls and Small Bulls continue to be at large, unafraid and unashamed, highly publicised, sensational, heroes of the media and the press; with an easy outreach in the corridors of power.

The scenario is gloomy, yet one lives by faith. There are still in this country men with integrity, idealism and vision, a few even in politics; who can lift politics, which at present is largely manipulative power politics and political brinkmanship to a higher ­plane of courageous and fair govern­ance and statesmanship, to end the stresses and strifes, and wipe the tear from every eye. Let such people get all our support to rehabilitate the strife torn nation and build it into a strong political and cultural entity in a plu­ralistic society.

Yet, one lives in faith and faith, they say, can move mountains.