Securarism v/s Hinduism

Last evening I was reading an article from one of my net friend on the Kashmir conflict.

Though I dint agree her views on Kashmir, she sure made me to rethink my stand on secularism.

I don’t agree with the basic idea of secularism. Though it sounds ‘being separate from religion’, on a personal level being ‘secular’ person is like being ‘tolerant’ towards other religions. A tolerant society can loose its tolerance and start erupting hatred even on a little provocation.

This is where Hinduism stands tall against secularism.

The foundation of Hinduism is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.” Only a Hindu can say that the whole world is his family. That’s why Swamy Vivekananda could address the Chicago gathering as ‘My dear brothers and sisters’.

The pillars of Hinduism being: “Sarve Jana sukhino bhavantu”. (सर्वे जाना सुखिनो भवन्तु )Only a Hindu can pray for the well being of the entire mankind.

Just from these two phrases, Hinduism gives utmost freedom to a person to practice any religion he/she may want to practice. To be more precise, it does not compel anyone to praise or, worship any one single god or creator. Even a non believer is also entitled to be happy and content under Hinduism.

Any and everybody, irrespective of cast and religion can be a Hindu. Instead of tolerating, it (Hinduism) teaches one to respect other religions. There is a hell lot of difference between tolerating and, respecting. Where there is respect, question of intolerance doesn’t arise. In fact it doesn’t hesitate a bit in absorbing good from any religion. This is the reason why a Hindu can go to Ajmer sheriff, Haji Ali, as he goes to Amarnath and Thirupati. He can light a candle at any church as he lights incense sticks at a temple. For doing so, the creator does not reserve a place for him/her at the hell.

It’s very sad that some people want to bring down Hinduism to the level of a religion. For All those people I want to scream and announce that Hinduism is not a religion. It’s a way of life. It’s a culture which was and is being practiced form the time of ancient Indus Valley civilization. Hinduism doesn’t have fixed boundaries as a religion. Sarvapalli Radhakrishan observes Hinduism as not "just a faith", but in itself related to the union of reason and intuition. He explicitly suggests that, it can not be defined, but is only to be experienced.

So I feel immense proud in claiming myself as a Hindu, rather than a secularist.

We the people (part 1)

Authors of our constitution, while drafting the outlines for our constitution had dreamt of a strong and leading nation. Indians are always obsessed with ‘Ram Rajya’ (राम राज्य )

Independence opened the doors to convert the dream millions in to reality.

Before the British, India (Hindustan) was never really under any one ruler. Apart from local kings, we had number of Mughal invaders. When the Mughals had become weak and the local rulers were fighting for their existence we had British and, Portuguese.

An average Indian was exposed to (or some times compelled to follow) traditions and cultures alien to him/her.

The authors were well aware of the fact that two persons who are practicing same Ism might have two different traditions!

The authors were equipped with one invisible thread. The name was Nationalism. The task was to tie 50 crore people with different culture and tradition with this invisible thread!

60 years back, every single Indian could feel this nationality tied tightly around them. The same nationality had brought India to the door of independence, which opened in to the house of democracy.

The authors thought that the same nationality can keep all this diversified Indians together if they are given a free atmosphere to practice their choice of Ism.

The soul of India is हिन्दुइस्म. It should not be difficult for an Indian to practice secularism. It is in his/her blood. (See my blog ‘Hindu versus secular’ )

Thats the reason why the committee dint include the word secular in the preamble of our constitution. By not adding the word they in fact had taken the right step towards secularism. (Its notable that they dint declare India as a Hindu nation.)

But what the constitution authors’ didn’t realize was the fact that those 2 decades of British rule has contaminated our politicians also. They dint realize that this ‘secular’ stand could prompt our politicians to revoke the British’s ‘divide and rule’ policy.

After 60 years of independence, India is more divided than ever. Politicians are safeguarding terrorist outfits in the name of secularism. On an account of this India has become the most bombed country. Terrorist outfits are growing like mushrooms. It’s shocking to know that even some medical students are involved in this activity.

The worst part is decades of negligence are giving way to Hindu extremism.

We the citizens are also equally responsible for this situation. Nationality is relevant for us only on 15 Aug and 26 Jan. Rest of the days we forget that we are Indians.

We all condemn police and the government officers when others bribe them. But when it comes to us, we are the first to offer them the bribe. We all criticize a politician for all his miss deeds and at elections we vote to the same follow just because he/she is of our cast!

The bottom line is “We the citizens of India (specially the politicians) have worked over night for sixty years to defeat the basic idea of secularism in our constitution.”