Secularism in India

Secularism in India

Secularism is one of the important features of modern society or advanced society. Society is assessed on the basis of the characteristic, secularism. The idea of secularism was very prominent during French Revolution. French society before the revolution was under the grip of religious institutions. Intellectuals and social thinkers were opposed the religious domination over the secular aspect of French society such as polity, education, culture and values. Secularism as an ideology and belief became very popular feature democratic and advanced society.

In simple words, secularism refers ideology or belief that maintains distance of religion from state affairs. Max Weber considered secularization as the process of rationalization (Ahuja, 2011).

In India secularism means equal respect of all religion that is mutual respect of all religious communities living in India. There is no state religion of India. The people have freedom of practicing their own religion.

Determinants of secularism in India:

1.      Constitution of India and its execution: Preamble, Fundamental rights and directive principles provided every possible measure to ensure secularism in India. The actual practice of secularism is dependent on the nature of execution of constitutional provisions. The secular society is dependent on the execution or ensuring constitutional provisions.

2.      Rationality: The rational beliefs, attitudes and perception of people can override the problem of religious differences and differentiations.

3.      Unity and diversity: People’s respect of diversity leads the unity, which further ensures religious unity among all religious communities. Religious bitterness can arise due to the feeling of ethnocentrism.

Obstacles of Secularism in India:

Secularism as an ideology and belief faces multiple forms of obstacles and difficulties. These are:

1.      Communal sentiment

2.      Religious ethnocentrism

3.      Use of religion in politics

4.      Involvement of religious symbols in secular matters of society

5.      Tendency of making single religious identity.

riAuthor of the essay is M Hasan Laskar, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Sociology, University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya. He is author and founder of You Tube channel “Sociology for Life”. He is also the editor of this Blog “Sociological Study”.