Monday, October 11, 2010
State secularism in the land of religions and mythologies
Javed Akhtar, the well-known Bollywood lyricist, a self professed atheist with a Muslim name given by his Muslim parents, and a committed ‘secularist’, finds it increasingly difficult to balance himself sitting on his two-legged chair perched on a political tight-rope. His appearances of TV channel debates register his acute dilemma.
‘Lord’ Meghnad Desai in his Sunday Indian Express column quoted Javed Akhtar saying: as a Muslim he cannot be secular. (One wonders why then he is the presiding deity at a 3-man paper organization: Muslim for Secular Democracy (MSD); which is so quotable favorite of India’s English media’s Leftist journos.) To add insult to injury, Lord Desai suggested that Javed Akhtar should have added, it is not for people to prove their secularism, but leaders of political parties.
What comes out of this short exchange of views is that the Indian State should be secular, as per our constitution, though people need not be secular. In Indian context, all citizens may belong to any religion or creed or no creed, as long as in matters of state, they confirm to secularism. (Reminds me of old Henry Ford dictum: People can have Model T car in any color, as long as it is black!) So far so good. But what can be done when a miniscule minority of 3% Macaulay Brahmins, impose their will, their religious symbolism and their so called Hindu culture, on rest of the 97% non-Brahmins and get away with it.
Imagine, though Muslim kings and nawabs ruled all over India, for over 1000 years, they did not impose Islamic Sharia on the non-Muslim masses in any permanent manner or continuity. Some of the Kings may have used ‘Jaziya’ for some of the time, but only as reaction to some rebellious groups’ resistance to their rule. Many of the Muslim rulers were pioneer in creating a multi-cultural ethos widely known as Ganga-Jamni culture, for their adopted country. Except for a few exceptions and that too in the annals of communalized history, nobody can blame them for being Islamicists.
While during the watch of the ‘Macaulay Brahmin’ dominated Indian National Congress, in a short time span of mere 63 years, India has got so entrenched in Hindutva lore and culture, that the State is merely giving lip service to its Constitution, when it comes to observing ‘secularism’ in its governance and guidelines.
Creeping erosion of India’s constitutional secularism has come to such a state that even judiciary has become immune or as some may say, contemptuous to its existence.
The naked example of the erosion of our constitutional secularism is the monumental Allahabad High Court verdict on Babri Masjid title suit, after its state-supported demolition watched live by the entire world.
India must correct its course.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
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