“Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.” -Oscar Wilde
I am a secular Indian. I pay my taxes without complaint. I am a law abiding citizen and am considered to be a pillar of the local community.
Some of the following passages are from Wikipedia which I have accessed to convey the contents of this post in an unbiased manner.
The Preamble to the Constitution of India declares that India is a secular state.[1] The term secularism in politics refers to the governmental practice of indifference towards religion. Though such bifurcation is not totally possible, still, secular politics attempt to prevent religious philosophies or bodies from influencing governmental policies. The philosophy that the Indian constitution upholds is a kind of secular humanism made relevant through a historical development of the ideology within the context of religious pluralism in India.
The Hindi word that is commonly used for “secularism” in India is dharmanirapekshata (धर्मनिरपेक्षता) and which means “indifference towards religion” The usage itself denotes the understanding of secularism as more a policy of political practice than a philosophy in itself.
Here is a story about a modern Indian woman teacher from a modern Indian family and background who is facing secularism at its best, as practiced in India.
As I write this, no protests by any secular Indian has been raised and the University officials have not taken on the students’ union, because it is all about vote bank politics. Now, vote bank politics must not be a familiar term, to some of my readers as, it is perhaps not used to describe a phenomenon that is seen, but not described as such, in the countries from which my non Indian readers come. So, here is some more information about it from the Wikipedia.
I love India.
Comments are closed.