Understanding Secularism

Secularism is a concept that a government is free from religion or religious beliefs. It should exist in parallel with every religion without affecting each other in any form. Though secularism in India usually revolves around the idea that people are free to choose their own religion and government cannot force any religion on any person. Secularism is also a move away from the traditional religious beliefs that have been a part of a past easily forgiven. Secularism as we took it from the European countries was based on the simple thought that religious leaders should not be involved in government affairs.

Stating the obvious was the easy part. Now we know that when India is called a secular country this is what is assumed from it. Now to state the truth. Religion has become the way of politics. People in the government are looking for every reason to use religious beliefs to aid them further in their cause. Ayodhya issue has been just such a example that turned Avery and caused just the destruction secularism would have prevented. Another reason India lacks secularism is that it allows people from one religious circle to be the part of government. Even now the opposition has been attempting to get a famous religious personality into their party. Involvement of these spiritual leaders though is good for public unity often becomes reason for diversifying society.

Secularism though an initial condition for peace and prosperity in the multicultural society as in India is still a long way from reality. The simple reason is that it was a defined policy in the constitution for4 the government never a policy for the people. The masses never tried to adopt secularism in their life. Every place we go we have the tendency to see a person's religion first and then seek his habits. If people would remove religious biasing from their thinking no form of government would be able to use it to harm society. Religious tolerance is something that should be made compulsory in education, every child must know about every religion and taught to respect them. If we could not protect ourselves maybe the second generation can be protected. As religion has been inarticulate part of our life. We have lived with our religion and learned about its superiority to others being proud of our religion. It is this that protects us and binds us but also the reason we divide the society we live in into multiple classes. It is only our hope that the new developed India that we are imagining may be a secular one. this hope can be achieved through the right step in the right directions only.