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Introduction: Religion and secularism
in Indian context
Religion and spirituality form
essential features of Indian life and culture. In fact they provide the
very essential base of our Indian society. In India, religion is part of
society and normally an unavoidable component in one's personal life also.
This is so because here religion and spirituality are taken as intertwined
and complementary. Between them a line of separation is almost impossible
and even if traced it can be a very thin one.
India provides a unique scenario as religion, spirituality, politics, literature and society constitute factors that promote nationalism, patriotism, culture and even the very style of living of the people.
It remains an undeniable fact here that the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Gita are not merely to be taken as works of creative literature but form the very spiritual basis for the life of Indians, irrespective of their differences in matters of faith or doctrinaire theologies. Hence all the stories and characters in the Ramayana or the Mahabharata are well known to all. Dasharatha, Kaikayee, Kaushalya, Rama, Sita, Lakshman, Hanuman, Bali, Sugreeva, Ravan-all are well known characters to everyone of us if we happen to he Indians. All Indians share their pride in the sacrifice of Sri Rama and patibhakthi of Sita, devotion of Lakshmana, loyalty of Hanuman and keep their hate for the lust and arrogance of Ravana, sympathize the helplessness of Dasharatha and understand the prick of conscience of Emperor Bharat. The same is the case with the stories and characters of the Mahabharata. Kurukshetra is an acknowledged phrase for all of us. Panchali is a household name. Arjuna is admired, Bhima is loved, Dhannaputra respected, Krishna hailed, Bhishma and Drona looked on with fear and awe.
In India, religion and spirituality always assert a place in the very Indian life. Constitution or Parliament, politics or parties will never be able to have a society or a set-up in India, devoid of religion or spirituality. They have been part and parcel of Indian life. And will certainly remain so till the end of the world. This is a factual reality to be realized and accepted by all-politicians, intellectuals, administrators, jurists, lawmakers, etc.
Religious and spiritual leaders of different denominations also must realize that people have a faith in the innate values of religion, and often, if not always, the words and deeds of some of them, at least, hurt the people by their trespassing the borderlines of their spiritual Lakshmana Rekha. Religious and spiritual leaders also should be prudent and wise to understand that they also cannot take their faithful for granted. They have full faith in God, but their faith in Godmen should not get shaken either by their commissions or by their omissions.
In India secularism is a word used often out of place. It seems there have been some concerted attempts by certain quarters to mix up and confuse secularism with some sort of a denial of religion in our polity and society. Whenever the term 'secular' is referred to, often it is done so if there is a dichotomy between religion and society, or religion and state or religion and government. This may perhaps better fit in the western interpretation of secularism, but not in India, in the given Indian situation-historical, social and factual.
The term 'secular' often land us all in unnecessary troubles, as we repeatedly engage ourselves in unwarranted debates leading to unhealthy ideological suffocations on that count. Gandhiji was prophetic on many things and hence was so prudent and wise not to sue the term 'secular' even once to drive home the importance of the philosophy behind it. He always used the phrase Sarva Dharma Samabhava-equal respect for all religions. Gandhiji knew very well that there can never be an Indian without an appropriate placement of religion in his life and philosophy.
The best piece of advice given by Gandhiji still hold the ground in our Indian realities. He said: If a Hindu is a good Hindu, the one following the Hindu scriptures in letter and spirit, he will also be a good Muslim, a good Christian, a good Sikh and a good Jain. Same is the case with a Muslim. Let him be a good Muslim, living as per the stipulations of the holy Koran. He will be a good Hindu and a good Christian. Let the Christians live according to the Bible. They will also be good Hindus and good Muslims.
It was in order to stress this point that Gandhiji followed in his prayer meetings the practice of reading passages from the Gita, the Koran and the Bible.
Today what is required in the given Indian situation is giving a true trial to the Gandhian school of secularism. It is time that we assert that Indian secularism is not a non-religious nor a non-spiritual secularism but a truly pro-religious and pro-spiritual secularism.
Hinduism if we can term it so, is more than a religion. It is a culture. And the Christians have adopted a number of Hindu cultural traits through the centuries without any reservation whatsoever. When St. Thomas, who is believed to have come to Kodungallur in Kerala in 52 AD, brought the Christian faith to this land, he did not permit to have any alien culture for those who accepted the new faith. The proof of the fact lies in the cultural habits of the Syrian Christians in Kerala, which stands in no way different from that of their Hindu brethren. For 1500 years the Christian Church remained fully' Indian, with no dilution in their cultural disposition.
The philosophy of secularism that moulds our Constitution is nothing but the philosophy of Indian culture. Search for truth remains the main plank for India and one of the essential conditions in the process of finding the truth is to concede that sometimes truth can be possibly on the other side also. It was this essential sense of humility of the Indian society that made tolerance one of our basic traits. But in India it was not mere tolerance towards other faiths but what the majority had done here was permitting and even promoting other faiths all through the centuries.
In India, to admit honestly, the minorities enjoy much more freedom and privileges than that enjoyed by the minorities in those places where the Muslims or Christians are in a majority. It is often testified that non-Muslims are not enjoying many fundamental freedoms in the Gulf countries or at least in some states in the Arab world.
In England, we read from media reports, the Catholic minority is often subjected to discrimination and church-goers are even physically assaulted by their Protestant brethren.
In Ireland the story is the other way round. There the Catholic majority is depriving the Protestant minority of their fundamental religious freedom. Catholic militants even shot at Protestant brethren on their way to their churches on Sundays. And both sides claim that they believe in the same God and share the same faith.
If we, the Christians can free ourselves from the clutches of blind prejudices and if we refuse to fall a prey to those who purposefully try to create bad blood between the religious majority and the religious minorities here, I am sure we can convince ourselves that the Christians in India enjoy more freedom here than the freedom enjoyed by the non-Christian minorities in Christian majority nations.
In spite of all what we feel, find and experience; it has to be conceded that the condition of the Christians in India is not at all as bad as some motivated people try to make it out otherwise. India has no other option left to her but to preserve and uphold her true traditions of religious harmony and fellowship, proving her secular credentials. This is India's real strength as a nation founded on the principle of Sarva Dharma Samabhava.
These days the issue of conversion has also become a controversy conversion in its positive concept is a right bestowed by the Constitution on every one of us. But it should be conversion without co-ercion-people shouldn't be lured into changing their faith. Conversion has a meaning before God or men, if only it happens as a voluntary act on the basis of one's conviction. It is wrong to prompt anyone to have a change of faith through temporal temptations of money, job or anything of that sort.
True conversion should signify a change in the philosophy of one's life, a change in one's approach to life and a change of attitude on the part of that person.
Mass conversion can be dangerously and justifiably provocative in an otherwise peaceful society.
There are several avenues of understanding, co-operation, trust and harmonious coexistence, which can be, and which have to be, made use of to provide a positive climate for the various religious shades to co-exist and prove to the world our experiment as a very sound one in the given Indian context.
The avenues of affinity between the majority Hindu community and the Christian minority happens to be much more in number than those marking their differences between them.
The very fact that Christianity came to India almost the same time it went to Rome or Antioch, and here it remained and survived till date provides ample testimony of the positive principle of secularism India has been practicing from the very beginning. The Constitution has only given its stamp of approval to a system that was in vogue though without any formal constitutional stipulation on that count earlier.
If secularism means tolerance in the western disposition, it means respect and reverence for all faiths in the Indian frame of it. Tolerance is: just a negative term whereas respect is certainly and undeniably positive in meaning and dimension.
Culturisation in the Church even in prayer and ritual ay prove a helping factor in promoting the cultural identity of the Christians with that of our Hindu brethren here. I remember how Cardinal Joseph Parakkattil insisted on nuns taking Indian names.
In the given Indian situation the Christians have to assert their identity as Indians and Christians by scoring three points, which are:
1) We Christians are Indians by birth and will not permit anyone to question our identity as Indians, at any cost.
2) We reassert our identity that we are Christians by faith and worship and will uphold our identity as Christians in matters of faith and worship.
3) We feel only proud of the fact that we are Hindus by culture as we have lived here as Indians and as Christians for the last 1950 years, sharing with our fellow Indians the same cultural values and the same cultural identity. We are genuinely proud of this legacy, preserved and bequeathed to us by our forefathers through the two millenniums.
(The writer is Vice-Chancellor,
Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala. The write-up is based on his
speech delivered at His Grace Most Rev. Juhanon Mar Thoma Metropolitan
Memorial Lecture-2002 in New Delhi recently.)
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