Secularism in the Indian Republic

The matter of secularism in contemporary India can be best appraised with reference to its independence on 15 August 1947 as the watershed event. It was on this day that British India emerged as two independent nations, India and Pakistan created on ‘the two-nation theory’ which the former resisted and the latter insisted upon. This theory propounded that the Hindus and the Muslims owing to their religious, cultural and social diversities and distinctness cannot have a common nationality. The Indian National Congress (INC) formed in 1885 with the objective of obtaining a greater share in government for educated Indians and ended up spearheading the movement for freedom of British India, never subscribed to this pernicious concept of nationality. At the instance of the British colonial government in India under its ‘divide and rule’ policy aimed at perpetuating or at least prolonging its exploitative rule, the All India Muslim League (AIML) was brought into being in the first decade of the twentieth century as a counter to INC and its growing movement. At the insistence of AIML and under acquiescence of the British Indian Government, the masses of India having an enviable record of living in unity under diversity for centuries were sought to be divided first under the peculiar principle of ‘separate electorates’, leading ultimately to the partition of what was India under the Mauryan empire of Ashok, under the Mughal empire of Akbar and even under the British empire of Queen Victoria on the outrageous ‘two-nation theory’. Understandably, this act was attended with one of the bloodiest and heart-rending mass migrations of people in history. This is rather ironical that a country which won its freedom from one of the mightiest empires through a path of non-violence was immersed in violence on attaining it. While Pakistan declared itself an Islamic republic, the architects of freedom and leaders of free emergent India having a large Muslim population and sizable populations of other faiths such as Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Jains, apart from the dominant Hindu population, dispersed through out the vast country went to great lengths in stating and maintaining its secular belief and credentials. While drafting its Constitution, the supreme law of the land, the people resolved to constitute India into a “sovereign democratic republic” and to secure to all its citizens ‘liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship’. Through various provisions made in the constitution, which came into force on 26 January 1950, it was ensured that no special favour was conceded to any religion or faith, nor was any religion or faith stood discriminated against. In order to further reinforce its secular credential, the Constitution was amended in 1976 through its 42nd Amendment to explicitly include ‘secular’ in the declaration made in its Preamble to “constitute India into a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic”.
In spite of all these constitutional proclamations, provisions and credentials for secularism in India, politics as practiced in India is far from being neutral to religious or communal considerations. While all political parties profess to be secular and it is difficult to challenge their claims on the basis of their written or formal documents, some parties castigate some other parties as being communal, overtly or covertly, and project themselves as secular parties. This castigation or projection, however, is patently to influence votes in elections, rather than to expound secularism as a principle of political functioning. In fact, the predominant ‘religion’ of all political parties in India is to capture power. As nothing is said to be unfair in love or war, so it is in this power-centric politics, subject only to any inviolable constraints of the Election Commission. The ‘citizens’ of India are blatantly regarded as ‘voters’ by all political parties, giving rise to what is commonly understood as ‘vote bank politics’. The voters are considered, or instigated, to be divided on the basis of caste, creed, community, or even gender by the political parties, their professions and even manifestos are insincerely tailored accordingly and the game of vote bank politics is played to the hilt. In this game of politics, communal feelings of the voters are exploited, appealed to or excited, patently religious issues are taken u p on the political agenda of the parties and championed, to the utter neglect of vital issues affecting voters of all communities and sections. Policies and pronouncements aimed at appeasing the minority communities are resorted to without much regard to their wider impacts. Participation in religious festivals and visits to religious places of the minority communities, often donning dresses of the devouts, are undertaken by politicians seeking elective positions, ensuring media coverage for popular consumption. All in all, the communal identities of the voters are cultivated, kept alive and even stoked in a negative and divisive manner in pursuit of power by the political parties. While the communal identities of Indian citizens as sportsmen, entertainers, scientists, etc have traditionally been indistinguishable indicating the essentially secular characteristics of Indian people, their communal identities as voters have become more strident over the years since independence.
The moot question is why this aberrant behaviour with respect to secularism afflicts Indian politics and not other sectors of the Indian scenario. Does it have some thing to do with our politicians of the day or is the problem systemic? Considering the sparkling secular credentials and commitments of our political leaders at the time of independence in spite of the forced imposition of the abominable two-nation theory and gradual degradation of Indian politics over the decades, one must conclude that the problem is systemic rather than with politicians. In this connection, it is instructive to remember that the colonial government of India, which was definitely secular, played the communal card to keep themselves in power. It is the same behaviour which is displayed by the present day political parties in power or in pursuit of power. The commonality between the colonial government of India and the government of the Indian republic is the system of governance. The Indian republic adopted essentially the same system of governance as was used by the British government for exploitation of a colony. This will be dealt with more pointedly in a later post under this Blog.