Secularism Class 11 Notes Political Science Chapter 18 - CBSE

Chapter : 18

What Are Secularism ?

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Secularism is a kind of normative doctrine whose primary aim is to ensure a secular environment within a territory and the people living in it.
It is against the idea of both inter-religious and intra-religious domination in the society and found it discriminatory. It promotes the idea of freedom within and outside the religion and promotes harmony between them.
It aims at providing justice and same opportunities to the people belonging to the different religious domination. It enables the state to show a common behaviour in granting and protecting rights of the people belonging to different faiths in the society.
There are several ways to prevent religious domination of a single group in a nation are: A state should not be ruled by the heads belonging to any particular religion. Such states are known as the theocratic states where the power are possessed by one religious group.
Theocratic states are governed by the priestly order. Some of its examples are the medieval papal states of Europe and at present the Taliban group in Afghanistan.
Under theocratic states people of different faiths are allowed very less freedom and live under severe
restrictions. The separation of the religious institutions and state institutions are thus very important for the development of a secular state.
A secular state should make no distinctions between the people belonging to different religions in terms of their social, political, cultural and economic rights.
The American model has established a principle of mutual exclusion for the establishment of a secular state. In this principle there is a separation of religion and state. The state do not interfere in the matters of religion and the vice versa.
Both the state and religion have separate spheres of influence and separate jurisdiction. There should be no policy of the state that should have exclusive rationality with the matters related to the religion.
The religious classification cannot act as the basis for the formulation or implementation of the public policy.
Any involvement of the state in the matters of the religion is said to be the intrusion of the state in the matters of the religion.
Kemal Ataturk came to the power in Turkey after the end of the World War II. Ataturk was determined that to westernize the nation the traditional thoughts and practices in Turkey should be ended. He decided to adopt an aggressive policy for modernising the state of Turkey. The traditional cap worn by the Muslims known as the Fez was banned in the state through the medium of the Hat Law.
There was encouragement of the western clothing for the men and women in the country. On the other hand the Gregorian calendar of the west replaced the Turkish calendar. There was adoption of the new Turkish alphabets in the modified form of the Latin.
Jawahar Lal Nehru gave the idea “Equal Protection by the State to all the religions.” He deemed of a state
that gave protection to all the religions and did not favour the one at the expense of others.
He was against the idea of the state religion and supported the existence of all religions with communal harmony. Nehru did not believe in the idea of complete separation between the religion and the state. He felt that the state can interfere in the religious matters for bringing the social reforms.
Nehru played significant role in bringing laws that ended caste discrimination, dowry and Sati system from the society, thus granting social rights to the women.
Nehru was completely against the idea of communalism especially that of the majority community. He held it dangerous for the national unity of the nation.
Indian Secularism is different from western secularism in variety of ways: The Indian Secularism does not only focus on the distinction between the state and the church like in the western world.
The Indian Secularism gives primacy to the idea of inter-religious equality and this idea was present in the Indian society from hundreds of years. People from all the major religions of the world inhabited the land of India.
The western people brought the idea of intra-religious equality to India as there were numerous caste distinctions in India in the same religion. This led to the development of the idea of inter-religious as well as intra-religious harmony in the country.
The oppression of dalits and women in the Indian society was condemned by the Indian thinkers who have received modern education and all these things became important subjects during the independence movement in India.
There was also the generation of a protective ideology which ensured that the minority religious communities are protected by the majority groups.
The Indian Secularism receives criticism on several grounds: The Indian secularism is often said to be anti-religious which is however, not correct.
It is also said that secularism threatens the religious identity, however, this is not true as it provides religious freedom and equality which in turn protects religious identity. Some of the sections of the Indian society think
that the state should not interfere in any aspect of the religion in India and therefore, leave the religious
matters solely independent to the religious organisations.
There is another criticism that compares the Indian secularism to that of western fervor. However, this factor cannot be taken seriously as there are numerous western influences in India ranging from foods to other domains.
There have been several events that took place in India which affected the communal harmony in the nation: In the year 1984 large-scale violence took place against the Sikhs in Delhi after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards. A large number of innocent people died in this massacre.
During the early 1990s, the rise in terrorist activities in Kashmir led to the forced migration of the Kashmiri
pandits from the region. It’s been more than three decades and still, they are not able to return to their original homes.
In the year 2002, large-scale violence took place in Godhra against the Muslim community after a compartment of a train caught fire in which most of the Hindu families died.
There are several reasons that made religion as the opium of the masses: There are several aspects of people’s lives for which they don’t possess any answer like matters of birth and death, sorrow and happiness and several other feelings. These things made them believe in the religion.
The use of arts, religion and philosophy is done to define the things which are beyond the understanding of a man. The idea of secularism also understands this principle.
The tendency of conservatism is high among several religions of the world which do not want to have dissent in religious matters. In recent years in the middle-east and several other parts, the rise in religious fundamentalism is observed.
Indian secularism mirrors the future of the world. A great experiment is being carried out in India watched with razor-sharp eyes and with great interest by the whole world.
It is doing so because with the migration of people from the former colonies to the west, and the increased movement of people across the globe with the intensification of globalisation, Europe and America and some parts of the Middle East are beginning to resemble India in the diversity of cultures and religions which are present in their societies. These societies are watching the future of the Indian experiment with keen interest.