Indian Secularism is Dead, No Need to Shed Tears

Over the years the secularism in Indian political context has come to mean different things to different people.  In Europe where it originated it was meant to define a societal project where in the people of different faiths had equal access to the public institutions and resources and none was denied space in the public sphere because of his/her faith.

In Indian political practice the term has come down to mean that the majority subordinates itself to the minority in the public sphere just  so that the minority does not feel insecure.   The corrupt politicians nurtured this feeling of insecurity among the minorities as it guaranteed them their votes in the elections.    Minorities got special privileges that the majority did not.   The religious and educational institutions of the minorities got financial aid but not subject to scrutiny or takeover by the government.  But Hindu religious institutions and worship places are governed by the government in spite of the constitution mandating the religion out of the reach of the government.  The liberal elite corrupted the meaning of secularism even more and they interpreted secularism as encouraging minorities to flout their faiths in the public sphere while such flouting by the majority was not only discouraged, but even criticized.  Any Hindu publicly showing or asserting his faith was labeled as a fascist.
 
For our Muslim brothers the secularism has come to mean wielding a veto power on the national policy initiatives, whether it is about improving the relationship with United States or Israel, or implementing the Uniform Civil Code. For Christian brothers the term secularism has come to mean a license towards unhindered proselytizing of their faith to erase Hinduism out of India. 

The common man is confused because none in the public sphere speaks the truth any more, whether they are in politics, media, academia or social reform movements. Politicians do not speak the truth because of the fear of loosing minority votes and thereby the election.  The many in the media are paid and contracted by people in power.  Academics are living on the handouts of the government and people in power and the elite among them are rather proud of aping the west while denigrating the indigenous traditions and culture.  Among the social reform movements there is an active cottage industry called NGO's claiming to work towards human rights and religious freedom under the patronage of western countries who contribute large sums of to keep India for ever a backward country by keeping a pliable government in Delhi.

This kind of nonsense has been going on ever since the independence.  People cannot be fooled for ever and they do wake up at some point in time.  It appears that they have done so for the 2014 Loksabha election.  Congress party is staring at a disaster in the election and the liberal elite, academics and social reformers are all screaming loud that the nation is about to face ruin if Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister.   Power corrupts but the fear of loosing power does lot worse things to people whether they be politicians, the so-called intellectual elite or the quota salesmen and it shows in their outbursts.

No wonder that secularism has become a dirty word in India.