IS INDIA A SECULAR COUNTRY?
APOORVA ANAND
CEP- B
ROLL NO: 24
From time immemorial, India has remained a nation of diversity in all forms, habits, cultures, traditions and finally, religions. Due to the vast number of religions practised in our country, it became essential to not adopt any one religion as the universal one that has dominance over the rest. The Indian Constitution hence, defines secularism, as the equal treatment of all religions in the state and no pressure to any citizen to follow any particular religion and no interference from the state or government in the religion followed. Underlining secularism, our constitution provided some rights to all citizens including equality before law, equality of opportunity in matters of public employment and prohibition of any other kind discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste etc.
In a secular state, religion is expected to be a purely personal and private matter and is not supposed to have anything to do with the governance of the country. If religion is not separated from politics, the religion of the ruling party tends to become the state religion. This seems to be coming true in India today. Religion seems interwined with politics in all senses. demolition of the Babri Masjid, anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and other places in 1984, horrific riots in Mumbai in 1992 and 1993, unbelievable atrocities in riots in Godhra and other cities in Gujarat 2002, and banning of cow slaughter by the BJP government all prove examples, leading to the curtailment of freedom of persons about what to eat and restricting their freedom to carry on any profession and trade. This is not what a secular state must stand...