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Communalism and Secularism

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Introduction

Communalism can be explained as having a very strong attachment to one’s community. That is it is the trail of thought according to which people have a very strong sense of emotion and attachment to their religion, caste, race, etc. Basically, the strong sense of belongingness and extremist views people have towards their community can be termed communalism.

Thus communalism is definitely an evil for a diverse country like India where so many people of different communities exist and flourish together. Therefore communalism is both an issue of the core values of our constitution as well as a security issue. This is because the Preamble of our Constitution has included Secularism as a core value. The concept of secularism has been explained further in the article. The concern of security arises due to communal riots. As the name suggests, communal riots are violent disturbances of peace between people belonging to different communities. A communal riot usually takes place between two separate castes or religions. Such disturbances cause threats to the peace and internal security of the country as such displays of violence usually cause huge losses to life and property.

Some Instances of Communal Riots

Partition of India,1947:

The riots during the partition of India are one of the most well-known examples of communal riots. About 14 million people had to abandon their homes when British administrators of Colonial India began dismantling the South-Asian empire. The estimated number of people killed during the partition period ranges from 200 thousand to 2 million.

Anti-Sikh Riots, 1984:

The 1984 Sikh Massacre, also called the Anti-Sikh riots were multiple planned attacks against the Sikhs. These took place post-assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The assassination was done by her Sikh bodyguards in a form of retaliation towards the order to attack Harmandir Sahib complex, Amritsar that had been given to the Indian Army. In these riots, 3,000 Sikhs had been killed in New Delhi, with approximately 17,000 Sikhs being killed in 40 different cities spread across India. Approximately 50,000 people that were belonging to the Sikh community had to move from their hometowns across different cities.

Communalism as a Political Strategy

Now that it is clear what communalism and how communal riots are a dangerous consequence of it, it is clear that communalism is not a practice that should be promoted and instead should be avoided or even rooted out. It is, however, the unfortunate reality of our democracy that many politicians use communal tactics and strategies in order to get vote bank during elections. Some forms of communalism can be highlighted as:

The organization of Parties:

Many political parties make sure that all the party members belong to only a specific community. This may be done in order to send the message that a party shall favor a specific community and may favor it over other communities.

Selection of Election Candidates:

Political parties, in order to get voters on their side in a particular constituency, may choose a candidate of the community which is in majority in that constituency. This is done in order to get the majority of the votes from that constituency.

Voting on Communal Basis:

Most voters would vote for someone who is a part of their own community. Therefore parties may appeal to the voters of a particular community in order to get votes from them. The voters may feel that the party will work for the welfare of their community.

All of these conditions and strategies hinder the progress of democracy in our country and also go against the core values of our constitution.

What is Secularism?

Secularism has been explained as the separation of the State from religion. This means that no particular religion is followed or favored over the other religions in the country.

The Preamble has declared India as a secular country. The word Secular had been added in the constitution by the 42nd amendment of the constitution of India. The word secular was added to symbolize that the country gives equal opportunities to the people of every religion in the country and also that no one shall face discrimination because they belong to a particular religion.

Secularism in the Constitution

It grants equal treatment by the law of the State and also grants equal protection of laws to everyone irrespective of caste, race, sex, etc. in the territory of India

This article prohibits discrimination against anyone on the basis of sex, race, religion, caste, etc.

Article 16 grants equality in matters that relate to public employment. Clause 1 of this article states that there shall be equal opportunities given to everyone in government offices.

The constitution by virtue of this article has granted everyone the freedom to propagate, practice, and profess any religion freely without any interruptions.

The freedom to manage religious affairs has been granted by this article. This means that all religious communities have the right to establish their own institutions for the purposes of religious activities and charity and also manage their own affairs.

This article has made it clear that no one will have to pay any form of taxes or fees for the maintenance and promotion of their religious denomination or religion.

The contents of this article have stated that any educational institution which is run and maintained through state funds shall not provide any religious instruction. This does not however apply to private educational institutions.

This article has provided that any section of citizens that reside in India shall have the right to conserve their culture and language. It has also been provided that no educational institution which is run out of state funds shall deny admissions on the basis of sex, caste, race, religion, etc.

The minorities of the country have been provided with the right to establish educational institutions of their own choice through this article.

  • Article 51-A(e)[x]:

Clause (e) of Article 51-A which provides the fundamental duties of the citizens states that the people of the country shall strive to promote equality and brotherhood among people of the country irrespective of religion, race, caste, sex, etc.

Conclusion:

Although communalism is an evil that still exists in the country and is also used by various politicians to gain votes, the core values of the constitution and the legal framework of the country are constantly striving to make India a secular country.

The author of this article is Om Gupta, a first-year law student pursuing a BBA-LLB from the University School of Law and Legal Studies.

The editor of this article is Shreya Litoria, pursuing B.Com LLB from Banasthali Vidypaith University, Jaipur.

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Secularism in India and the Indian Constitution

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Introduction

The word ‘Secular’ means that a person is separate from religion and has no religious basis. Secularism means that religion is kept unconnected with the social, political, cultural, and economic spheres of life. Religion is open to everyone and gives an individual his personal choice to accept and follow any religion without any discrimination.

Philosophy of Indian Secularism

The term ‘secularism’ is like the Vedic concept of ‘Dharma nirapekshata’ which means the State’s indifference to religion. It has two principles: 

1) Religion should not interfere in the administration and policy-making of the state. 

2) People of all religions are equal before the law, constitution, and government policy.

This model of secularism is adopted by some western societies where the govt. is completely unconnected with religion.

Indian philosophy of secularism is connected to “Sarva Dharma Sambhava” (it means to treat all the religions with the same emotions, same zeal and zest irrespective of the religion a person follows and more than that it gives the idea of mankind and humanity) which suggests the same context for all religions. 

This concept was embraced and promoted by great personalities like Swami Vivekananda and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and they called it ‘Positive secularism’ that reflects the dominant ethos of Indian culture.

India has no official state religion. However, different personal laws are there on matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance, alimony, etc. which vary with a person’s religion.

Indian secularism isn’t an end in itself but a way to deal with religious plurality and to achieve the peaceful coexistence of various religions.

Secularism and the Indian Constitution

The core ethos of India has been a synthesis of fundamental unity, tolerance, and even faith. It’s an undebatable fact that thousands of Indians belonging to diverse religions lived together through the ages, marred through sometimes by religious revolts, economic exploitation, and social suppression being often at the rock bottom of it all.

India is the birthplace of 4 major world religions: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Yet, India is one among the foremost diverse nation in terms of faith and religion. India is a country that is built on the foundations of a civilization that’s fundamentally non-religious.

The purpose of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution is to make India a Sovereign, Socialist, Democratic Republic. The 42nd Amendment Act of the constitution added the terms such as socialist and secular. The entire constitution is summarized within the preamble. This mirrors the spirit of the Constitution. The arrangement of words in the preamble is also very important. Indian society is a multi-religious society, it is having different caste, religions alongside several religious diversifications. So, all of these are divisive features somehow and if not handled carefully then it can cause a threat to the unity and integrity of the state.

All the basic principles of secularism are included in the various provisions of the Constitution. The word ‘Secular’ was added to the preamble by the 42nd Constitution Amendment Act of 1976. The Constitution emphasizes the fact that constitutionally, India is a secular country with no state religion and that the State shall recognize and accept all religions, shall not favor or protect any particular religion.

  • Article 14 guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the laws to everyone, Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
  • Article 16 (1) guarantees equality of opportunity to all citizens in matters of public employment and appointment and that there would be no discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth and residence.
  • Article 25 gives freedom of conscience and of practicing any profession or religion.
  • Article 26 gives every religious group or individual the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes and to manage its own affairs in matters of religion.
  • Article 27 says that no citizen shall be compelled by the state to pay any kind of taxes for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious institution.
  • Article 28 allows educational institutions maintained by different religious groups to impart religious instruction.
  • Article 29 talks about the protection of minorities’ interests. 
  • Article 30 provides rights to minorities to administer and establish educational institutions.
  • Article 51A talks about Fundamental Duties that obliges all the citizens of India to abide by the constitution and respect its institutions, ideals, national anthem and the national flag and to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood and therefore to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture.

Threats to Secularism

Even though the Indian Constitution declares India to be absolutely neutral to all religions, our society is submerged in religion.

The union of religion and politics has threatened Indian secularism, which seeks to mobilize voters on the basis of fundamental identities such as religion, caste, and ethnicity.

Communal politics operates through the communalization of social space by spreading myths and stereotypes against minorities, attacking rational values, and practicing divisive ideological propaganda and politics.

The politicization of any one religious group leads to the competitive politicization of other groups, thereby leading to inter-religious conflict.

One of the manifestations of communalism is communal riots. In recent times also, communalism has proved to be a major threat to the secular fabric of Indian politics.

The rise of Hindu nationalism in recent years has resulted in mob lynchings simply because they suspect people of killing cows and eating beef.

In addition, forced closure of slaughterhouses, campaigns against ‘love jihad’, conversions or Ghar-wapsi (forcing Muslims to convert to Hinduism), etc. reinforces the communal tendency in the society.

Islamic fundamentalism or revivalism emphasizes the establishment of an Islamic State based on Sharia law which directly contradicts the notions of a secular and democratic state.

In recent years there have been sporadic incidents of Muslim youth being inspired and radicalized by groups like ISIS which is very unfortunate for both India and the world.

Conclusion

It needs to be understood that just by writing the term ‘secularism’ in the books, any state cannot be truly secular. Thus, the whole ideology should be recognized with grace and should be applied equally to all people. And there should be a check on the governmental bodies for propagating any unfair practice of religious groups to acquire power.

Bibliography

  1. Dr. J. N. Pandey, Constitutional Law of India.
  2. Secularism, https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/secularism/.
  3. Secularism and Constitution of India: Unity in Diversity, http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/1964/Secularism-and-Constitution-of-India.html. 
  4. Secularism, https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/paper1/secularism-1.
  5. What is secularism, https://www.secularism.org.uk/what-is-secularism.html.

This article is written by Priyanka Choudhary, currently pursuing BALLB from Mody University of Science and Technology, Lakshmangarh, Rajasthan.

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