Indian Secularism _ An interview with Sanjay Subrahmanyam, historian

[Nacchinarkiniyan]

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An interview with Sanjay Subrahmanyam, historian


?Indian secularism is about mediating between different communities? - The Hindu

In India, we are dealing with a situation where for a very long period of time, ever since the establishment of the first Muslim polities, you had a kind of shifting equilibrium between many different communities. Since there was no such thing as a constituted Hinduism with defining institutions, nobody ever saw the problem as extracting the state from religion as such. It was actually the problem of mediating and finding a balance between different communities and groups. The metaphor was often that of the king as the doctor and the kingdom as the body, where the doctor balances the humours in the body.

Real understanding.

 

[prasad1]

From the link
Indian secularism will always be clouded by the tragic events of
partition. There is no denying that the leadership of the Muslim
community in pre-partition India, for reasons that are as
complicated as they are tragic, divorced itself from the Indian
polity and successfully created Pakistan. That the creation of
Pakistan is no panacea is an undeniable fact that subsequent
event have proven(Shia-Suni conflict, Bangladesh, Balochistan,
Taliban) beyond doubt even to Pakistanis. For India, the idea of
a divorce based on religion was a non-starter, so she has
continued to develop despite all manner of challenges. What she
cannot afford to do is to allow obscurantist politicians on the
Muslim side in particular, but the Hindu side as well, to
dominate the national debate on what it means to be an Indian.


from: CS Venkat

 

[vgane]

Indian secularism as practised by our politicians (left , left of center and central), recognizes Muslims and Christians..It treats these groups as a milch cow for votes and in turn is showered with all types of privileges and subsidies

It would like to give a separate tag to Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs too

But speaking about Hindu unity or Hindu ethos is taboo for this brand of Indian secularism! It prefers to divide these communities to create vote banks! What a tragedy?

 

[Nacchinarkiniyan]

We are a Secular Democratic republic. Secularism is viewed by different people in various ways as we have discussed in this forum often.


I am not really bothered by what out politicians think. But I would like the younger generation to have a correct idea of what secularism is in the Indian context.


IMO Sanjay Subrahmanyam has given an excellent interpretation and also explained it.

 

[sangom]

The hindu social system thrived historically on division and segregation as its major theme. The Britishers became aware of this and did their best to utilise this fundamental disunity, to their advantage. When they at last decided to leave India for ever also they paid us back in the same coin and I personally hold our leaders of that time responsible for it.

It will be interesting information for at least some that the Muslims of Kerala have an interesting origin. The saamoothiri of Kozhikode (Calicut) issued a royal edict requiring every (hindu) family to bring up one male member as Arab or Muslim and such muslims were invariably required to perform duty as the Samoothiri's naval guards and ensure that the ruler and his kingdom did not suffer any losses, thefts or piracy in its maritine trade with many other countries like Portugal, Dutch, etc. Thus the Kerala Muslims had their clear footprints in the rigid caste system of the hindus. It is only very lately that the Muslims have started forgetting such "roots" but even now, in matters like marriage, they are very selective.

 

[sarang]

The term secularism was added in the constitution by indira gandhi. Time we delete all amendments and restore original constitution.