Saving secularism from the ‘secularists’
11 years ago

Saving secularism from the ‘secularists’

Live Mint  

In 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointed the Sachar committee to study the social and economic condition of India’s Muslim community. In January 2014, in an astounding display of New Delhi’s executive interference in the functioning of states’ police and judiciary, Shinde wrote to all chief ministers asking them to set up special screening committees to look at cases where minority youths had been jailed, following up on a communication in September 2013 by the home minister that told all chief ministers to ensure “wrong arrests” of minorities were not made. In January 2014, Jains were declared a “minority” community by the government, the same month when the Union minority affairs minister said the government was seriously looking into religion-based reservations for minorities. West Bengal, also governed by the “secular” Trinamool Congress, provisioned a monthly allowance for Muslim clerics and imams, costing a near-bankrupt state government ₹ 126 crore per year. The state Congress chief G. Parameshwara said in October 2013 that it didn’t matter if minorities did not repay loans to the government and “it was part of the development process”.

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History of this topic

Book Review: In ‘Nehru’s India’, Aditya Mukherjee Counters False Narratives About India’s First Prime Minister
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Book Review: In ‘Nehru’s India’, Aditya Mukherjee Counters False Narratives About India’s First Prime Minister

The Hindu  

Published : Dec 10, 2024 22:30 IST - 9 MINS READ At a time when the forces of Hindutva are relentlessly denigrating Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to the freedom of our country and the first 17 years of nation-building in independent India, the historian Aditya Mukherjee brings welcome clarification to the debate largely by citing Nehru’s own words and expanding on …

Head-on | India’s innate secularism demolishes majoritarian myth
4 months, 1 week ago

Head-on | India’s innate secularism demolishes majoritarian myth

Firstpost  

Despite provocations, the majority of India’s 80 per cent Hindu population has not succumbed to majoritarianism. Jews fleeing persecution in Europe and the Middle East too found refuge in India’s southern states, living in peace with Muslims and Christians amid a Hindu majority. The communalisation of Goa’s social fabric was caused not by India’s innate secular ethos but by Portugal’s …

Why We Need to Redefine Our Secularism
1 year, 1 month ago

Why We Need to Redefine Our Secularism

News 18  

We are living in a time when the very idea of ‘Bharat’ as a modern nation-state has come under intense scrutiny. There is no gainsaying the fact that India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has seen a marked departure from the Nehruvian idea of secularism, demonstrating a palpable desire to embrace its ancient roots which Nehru once disparagingly referred to …

Secularism has become pejorative for those now in power: Sonia Gandhi
1 year, 2 months ago

Secularism has become pejorative for those now in power: Sonia Gandhi

The Hindu  

Describing secularism as a foundational pillar of India's democracy, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said the word secular is being used as a "pejorative" by those now in power, resulting in increased polarisation in the society. A clear understanding of these terms will help every citizen better understand India's history, the challenges of the present, and the path to the future," …

Secularism does not mean non-religious but equal respect to all faiths, says EAM Jaishankar
1 year, 4 months ago

Secularism does not mean non-religious but equal respect to all faiths, says EAM Jaishankar

Firstpost  

The senior BJP leader said the political and social changes seen in India in the last few years have partly been a reaction “at an intellectual and political level” to this sense of unfairness. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar emphasized that secularism in India entails equal respect for all faiths, dispelling the notion that it implies non-religiosity. Speaking during an …

‘Secularism is also to protect Hindus from their own orthodoxies’
1 year, 5 months ago

‘Secularism is also to protect Hindus from their own orthodoxies’

The Hindu  

Multi-religious India’s founding ideals are fast being reshaped by a majoritarian formulation of the relationship between the state and religion. Rajeev Bhargava, political theorist and author of Reimagining Indian Secularism, analyses the strengths and failings of India’s sui generis secularism. On the other hand, Indian secularism was born in response to India’s phenomenal diversity. Borrowing from the title of your …

The Great Indian Secularism: Why We Need an Indigenous Model That Recognises Bharat - News18
2 years, 8 months ago

The Great Indian Secularism: Why We Need an Indigenous Model That Recognises Bharat - News18

News 18  

The Muslim clergy, representing the gargantuan chunk of one among the six notified minorities on TV debates, claim to believe in the neologism of Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb. With the backing of the Nehruvian establishment, academics, ideologues and activists with political agendas and communist proclivities have cleverly advertised secularism and reduced it to having odious and pejorative opinions about the majority — …

Dharma Files | This is how secularism has failed India
2 years, 8 months ago

Dharma Files | This is how secularism has failed India

Firstpost  

The government should immediately get out of the business of running Hindu temples, as by not doing so it violates one of the basic tenets of secularism This question can no longer be dodged. Is it a tenet of Indian secularism, that it is only the Central government which will stay out of religion, and not the state governments? According …

Strengthen secularism, save the republic
2 years, 11 months ago

Strengthen secularism, save the republic

The Hindu  

The High Court of Karnataka has not been able to settle the hijab issue. Another crucial factor which makes a theocratic state impossible in India is the complex, inegalitarian, hierarchical and oppressive social structure of the majority religion. A theocratic state functions on the basis of religious laws, which in India means the Dharma Shastras according to which only a …

Nehruvian Secularism Condemns Muslims Not as Equals but as Permanent Minority to Hindus: Kerala Governor
3 years ago

Nehruvian Secularism Condemns Muslims Not as Equals but as Permanent Minority to Hindus: Kerala Governor

News 18  

As the Karnataka high court is set to deliver its verdict on whether women students should be allowed to enter educational institutions in a hijab, Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan said he believed that the controversy is a “conspiracy”. The most fundamental folly of Nehruvian secularism is that it condemns Muslims not as equals but as a permanent minority to …

Indians, how they get ‘secularism’ so horribly wrong and how the atmosphere changed after Islam and Christianity entered India
4 years, 7 months ago

Indians, how they get ‘secularism’ so horribly wrong and how the atmosphere changed after Islam and Christianity entered India

Op India  

Indians are generally highly intelligent. Now the idea that reason, and not blind belief in one ‘revealed truth’, should guide society, took root in Europe and this lead to the demand for separation between State and Church. Though Hindu Dharma survived and never dictated terms to its followers nor to the state, ‘secular’ was added to the Constitution of India …

The unique goals and challenges of Indian secularism
5 years, 1 month ago

The unique goals and challenges of Indian secularism

Hindustan Times  

Dr Jaime Torres Bodet Director General of UNESCO Jawaharlal Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad arriving at Parliament House for the session of the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO. Most commonly, “Indian secularism” is understood to mean something like the equal treatment of all religions. However, virtually all commentators agree that India is secular—which seems unarguable given the word’s …

Secularism is a western concept, India must reconsider its inclusion in preamble: RSS ideologue
5 years, 2 months ago

Secularism is a western concept, India must reconsider its inclusion in preamble: RSS ideologue

India TV News  

"Sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic" is how India is referred to in the preamble of the Constitution. However, J. Nandakumar, a key RSS leader and All India Convenor Prajna Pravah, a Sangh offshoot, wants India to reconsider the inclusion of the word "secular", claiming secularism is a "western, Semitic concept". He argued that India does not need a secular ethos …

The return of the secular
5 years, 2 months ago

The return of the secular

The Hindu  

It was both touching and comforting to hear the reply of Nikhil, a young student from Jamia Millia Islamia, to an unexpected question put to him last week by a TV anchor — “What does Jamia mean to you?” After a long pause, he said, “It has given me tehzeeb, an understanding of the samvidhaan and taught me to read, …

CAA, NRC, Article 370 protests have called into question idea of India's secularism; answers lie beyond the Constitution
5 years, 3 months ago

CAA, NRC, Article 370 protests have called into question idea of India's secularism; answers lie beyond the Constitution

Firstpost  

Saying India is secular because the Constitution says so is an appeal to authority. The people of India deserve the dignity of an argument for secularism When the government abrogated Article 370 this year, there was a lot of conversation around the fact that the people of Jammu and Kashmir should only join India with their consent. The re-election of …

Are the foundations of India’s secular democracy crumbling?
5 years, 3 months ago

Are the foundations of India’s secular democracy crumbling?

Al Jazeera  

Gov’t says the controversial citizenship bill will protect minorities, critics say it discriminates against Muslims. The lower house of India’s parliament has approved a controversial law that the government says offers a home for people fleeing religious persecution but which opponents say undermines the country’s secular identity. The bill, which still must be approved by Parliament’s upper house, would bring …

Secularism is the core safeguard India needs
6 years, 2 months ago

Secularism is the core safeguard India needs

Deccan Chronicle  

As the sands of 2018 trickled away, Naseeruddin Shah’s snub to Imran Khan for daring to comment snidely on India’s minority position reminded us that Sudip Ranjan Sen, the Meghalaya judge, had the logic of numbers on his side in claiming India “should have been declared a Hindu country”. A Hindu state may not have raised much cavil if it …

Watch: Is the Indian state really secular? No, according to this Supreme Court advocate
6 years, 4 months ago

Watch: Is the Indian state really secular? No, according to this Supreme Court advocate

Op India  

UpWord, a not-for-profit knowledge platform co-founded by Ashish Dhar and Ajaey Sharma, produces well-researched content in the form of short videos. It published a new video on YouTube today, featuring Supreme Court advocate Kanu Agarwal elucidating the manner in which certain articles of the Constitution discriminate against the majority faith in the country. In the video, Mr Agarwal asks the …

Congress weakened secularism, says Asaduddin Owaisi
6 years, 5 months ago

Congress weakened secularism, says Asaduddin Owaisi

Deccan Chronicle  

Hyderabad: Citing the arrogance, politics of entitlement and arm-twisting tactics of the Congress as the reasons for the weakening of the spirit of secularism, MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said, “Muslims have high representation only in prisons, just as Dalits are represented adequately only in manual scavenging. In every institution and on all crucial criteria, they are lagging so far behind, …

Once upon a time, my school friend used to be ‘secular’, he has now turned into a proud Hindutvawadi
6 years, 10 months ago

Once upon a time, my school friend used to be ‘secular’, he has now turned into a proud Hindutvawadi

Op India  

It was the summer of 1992. Govind, though was among the most brilliant in our school, was politically neutral and truly believed in the secular fabric our constitution had enshrined. The fierce orator Govind was, in the summer of 1992 while in class V, at a district level debate competition, he gave a passionate speech about why Babri Masjid demolition …

Debating secularism
7 years, 8 months ago

Debating secularism

The Hindu  

JUSTICE VIKRAMJIT SEN, A RETIRED JUDGE of the Supreme Court, once observed during the hearing of a case in 2015: “India is a secular country, but I don’t know how long it will remain so.” A sense of exasperation might have been behind his observation, but events since then could make one wonder whether the judge’s remark was meant to …

A Saturday : One Bengali renounces Indian secularism
7 years, 9 months ago

A Saturday : One Bengali renounces Indian secularism

Op India  

Here’s a wish from Rabindranath Thakur : Chitta jetha bhoyshunyo, uchcho jetha sheer… Bharatere sei sarge koro jagorito Words from Gitanjali. No, as a matter of fact, this whole joke called “idea of India” was built on the bones of millions of Hindus of East Bengal. Why did Indian secularism throw away the lives of Hindus of East Bengal? The …

UP election results will herald a funeral of 'counterfeit' secularism in India
8 years ago

UP election results will herald a funeral of 'counterfeit' secularism in India

Firstpost  

The counter-secularism forces have registered a decisive victory in UP and this trend is likely to continue through the 2019 elections and beyond. On Saturday, when the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results were announced, I had argued in Firstpost Decode – the website’s live election day coverage – that BJP’s landslide victory will herald in the “funeral of secularism”, whose …

Secularisation of society is a long, historical process: Romila Thapar
9 years ago

Secularisation of society is a long, historical process: Romila Thapar

Hindustan Times  

In 1976, the word 'secular' was included in the Indian constitution. With this change religion became powerful both as the focus of belief, and as an authority controlling social institutions through various religious organizations. Rather than focusing on monolithic, undifferentiated religious society in general, what may be more insightful would be if we study the link between caste and sect …

Why India is not a secular state
9 years, 3 months ago

Why India is not a secular state

Op India  

The 42nd amendment to the Constitution of India inserted the word “secular” into the preamble thus making India a “secular” Republic. Here is why I assert that the Indian state is NOT secular : Different laws for Hindus, Muslims and Christians In a truly secular country, all citizens irrespective of religion would be covered by a single set of laws. …

Secularism and the Constitution
9 years, 3 months ago

Secularism and the Constitution

The Hindu  

The current winter session of Parliament was >expected to add clarity to the ongoing debate on tolerance, or the lack of it, in the country. After Union Home Minister >Rajnath Singh questioned the manner in which secularism is being used in contemporary discourse, Congress president Sonia Gandhi argued that the principles enshrined in the Constitution were >under deliberate attack. Given …

Don’t distort secularism: Rajnath
9 years, 3 months ago

Don’t distort secularism: Rajnath

The Hindu  

The discussion in Parliament to commemorate the Constitution and its framer, Dr. B.R. In a reference to film actor Aamir Khan’s statement that his wife had once considered leaving the country owing to the rising intolerance, Mr. Singh said: “Dr. 'BJP supports job reservation' Mr. Singh said the BJP was a supporter of reservation for backward classes in government jobs, …

The need for a new agenda
9 years, 8 months ago

The need for a new agenda

The Hindu  

Secularism is often understood in the narrow confines of religious tolerance. However, inter-religious harmony and tolerance are an important element of the larger concept, which concerns us today, of the “idea of India”. Indeed, for this very reason, given the Left’s visionary commitments to the long struggle for freedom, its role is absolutely central to the realisation of the idea …

Believe in secularism based on insaaf, insaniyat: Rajnath on Muslim apology
11 years ago

Believe in secularism based on insaaf, insaniyat: Rajnath on Muslim apology

Firstpost  

We have always taken all communities along. BJP President Rajnath singh talking exclusively to Firstpost, has blasted the UPA government’s purported move to bring nine laws via ordinance including four corruption bills that Congress Rahul Gandhi has been pushing for. They let corruption flow freely and now when they have no face to explain their conduct before the people, Rahul …

Manmohan uses secularism to hoodwink people, says Modi
11 years, 5 months ago

Manmohan uses secularism to hoodwink people, says Modi

The Hindu  

The BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday hit out at the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying for some people secularism has become a way to “hoodwink” common public. The Prime Minister on Tuesday said said secular forces must come together to “stop the onslaught of people like Narendra Modi.” Addressing a gathering of students here, Mr. Modi said …

India First - Who is afraid of Narendra Modi's definition of secularism?
12 years ago

India First - Who is afraid of Narendra Modi's definition of secularism?

India TV News  

‘Secularism' basically is a western concept that separates government institutions and functionaries from religious institutions and dignitaries.It basically means that the state has no religion of its own and that it will neither influence religious institutions nor will get influenced by them.The constitution that India adopted post independence did not include ‘secularism' in its Preamble. After the country was partitioned …

For me, secularism means India First, Modi tells Indian disaspora in the US
12 years ago

For me, secularism means India First, Modi tells Indian disaspora in the US

India TV News  

Washington, March 10: Denied a visa to visit US, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today took to video conferencing to address Indian-American community, saying his idea of secularism is "India First". And if this happens, secularism will automatically run in our blood," the Gujarat Chief Minister said.Modi was denied US visa on the issue of human rights violation.Last week, the …

Secularism the basis of India's existence: Bhardwaj
12 years, 1 month ago

Secularism the basis of India's existence: Bhardwaj

India TV News  

Bangalore, Jan 26: Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj on Saturday said secularism was the basis of the country's existence and highlighted the importance of a disciplined democracy. In his address after hoisting the national flat at the Republic Day celebrations in Bangalore, he reminisced Mahatama Gandhi's comparative message of disciplined and prejudiced democracy.“Democracy disciplined and enlightened is the finest in the …

Why Equality, Democracy, and Social Justice Are Essential for a Secular Society
13 years, 1 month ago

Why Equality, Democracy, and Social Justice Are Essential for a Secular Society

The Hindu  

I have known Prof. Romila Thapar for about 45 years, most of it as a colleague at the Centre for Historical Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Nehru told Malraux that the secular project in India was not limited to the creation of a "secular state in a religious society, but the creation of a secular state in a …

Salman Rushdie & India's new theocracy
13 years, 2 months ago

Salman Rushdie & India's new theocracy

The Hindu  

In 300CE, the historian and cleric, Eusebius, fearfully recorded the rise of a new “demon-inspired heresy.” “From innumerable long-extinct blasphemous heresies,” he wrote, the new religion's founder “had made a patchwork of them and brought from Persia a deadly poison with which he infected our own world.” Manichaeism, a new religion which posited an eternal struggle between good and evil, …

Gautam Adhikari on The Intolerant Indian
13 years, 11 months ago

Gautam Adhikari on The Intolerant Indian

Hindustan Times  

Renowned journalist and writer Gautam Adhikari's book, HT Image The Intolerant Indian: Why We Must Rediscover a Liberal Space delineates how extremist ideologies obliterate the concept of Liberal Democracy. The perspicacious book deciphers the esoteric meaning in India's version of Secularism and how religious fanaticism has time and again, resurrected the deprecating arguments against Pluralism. The Indian state appeases all …

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