Why India is Secular or any nation is secular?
By MANISH K RAO
@mkrnex (785)
Bangalore, India
October 8, 2015 4:15am CST
I came across a unique answer in Quora which made me think the reason behind Secularism. The question was " Why Indian Muslims are not killed in India like Hindus are slaughtered in Pakistan? He also gave statistics which are true unfortunately. The percentage of Muslims in India has raised from single digits to 22% in 2015 while in Pakistan the percentage of Hindus have dipped from 15% to 1.5%.
So, general answer was - If India follows Pakistan then what will be the difference between the two and India is secular because of its constitution.
But the unique answer was- India is not secular because of constitution. India is secular because of the ideology followed by the majority people here. Hinduism has a history of secularism whereas Islam has a long history filled with bloodshed and intolerance. The answer further says Indian Muslims don't have a hand in successful secularism in India. They are no different than Pakistan muslims. They are just here because there is economical advantage.
The answer further says if at any point in future Muslims become a majority in India then India will no longer be secular!
The answer also gives a suggestion to maintain secularism in India below as follows:
For sake of the longevity of our hard earned secularism- we need to become a bit irrational. Because,
If India remain Hindu majority nation, it will remain secular.
If India become Christian majority nation, it will still remain secular.
If India become Sikh majority nation, it will still remain secular.
If India become Buddhist majority nation , it will still remain secular.
If India become Jain majority nation, it will still remain secular.
If India become Zoroastrian majority nation, it will still remain secular.
If India become Jew majority nation, it will still remain secular
BUT IF IT BECOMES ISLAM MAJORITY NATION, IT WILL NOT REMAIN SECULAR.
Prevention is better than cure. So, we need to clear the cancer before it spreads
So, what do you feel about it. Is the above answer true or just an imaginative theory?
2 people like this
3 responses
@skysnap (20153)
•
8 Oct 15
India is not secular. People are hypocrite here. Unless they have personal benefit they are not going to change. Secularism in india means being opportunistic and taking advantage of people who have trust on the system or the religion or the politicians.
1 person likes this
@mkrnex (785)
• Bangalore, India
8 Oct 15
You are generalizing the issue here. Politicians don't constitute 1.2 billion Indians. In Indians other religion people are not terrorized or killed. In my neighborhood and state all neighborhood people live in peace. Some unfortunate riots take place during elections masterminded by some politicians not general people. These take place very few very rare like you can count in your fingers. But why in Pakistan Hindus are killed and other religions are not tolerated. No Christian nation kills Hindus for example see western countries they are peaceful with high level of tolerance.
@skysnap (20153)
•
8 Oct 15
@mkrnex Not generalizing. I have seen one woman recently on road taking video footage of the accident and later she showed the same on YouTube and Facebook. she could have went ahead and helped the people but she didn't. see? Each person thinks of his own ways of living life and then demands government and other people to act straight. This is what happens in secularism. People who are conservative are forced to play fair but those who are playing secular end up acting like opportunistic.
@Kchitij2007 (445)
• Pune, India
8 Oct 15
The above answer stinks of a skewed mindset of an Hindu extremist in the making. The rift between Hindu and Muslims in the south asian region would not have come to be had it not been the work of Aurangzeb and later the British! We forget that some of the best individuals the country has known were/are muslims- APJ, Zaheer Khan, SRK, etc. Religion has no bearing on the mindset of the people, the literacy and rationality accompanying that mindset is! Muslims don't just persecute other religion people, they are known for Sunni-Shia conflicts too which have taken the form of ISIS lately! Hindus did the same to the dalits and other backward classes for ages! Its all about supremity! And the same provisions and restrictions that are holding the current govt from declaring it a Hindu nation will hold a muslim govt too!
Those who blame the muslims for being violent forget that the source of this violence was constant intervention of Western forces for their self-gratification ( Afghanistan, Middle East, Iraq, Pak, etc ). An illiterate and poor majority would almost always turn to the minority to lay the blame for their fate! That is the hard fact! Literacy and development is what determines if a country can truly remain secular. Anything less pushes a country into an abyss of violence which almost always takes a communal color like Pak.
@mkrnex (785)
• Bangalore, India
8 Oct 15
ya, may be true. But we are Hindu majority but Muslims are not oppressed or slaughtered here. It only happens during elections which is a sponsored one. But I have a serious doubt will it remain so and Muslims won't stamp their authority as soon as they are majority.
You can see they don't vote for development based govt but religion based govt. Their leaders preach they have to become majority as soon as possible to show Hindus their place! These things make me fear about future. As birth control and population control policies of govt are only followed by few communities. While the rest are just interested in outnumbering the majority!! I mean where India is heading ?
@mkrnex (785)
• Bangalore, India
8 Oct 15
And I have problem with the term minority. In a secular nation all are equals then minority appeasing and using minority for political reasons should be stopped. I guess even when then percentage comes to hindu - 50 and muslim -45% these politicians will still call them as minorities for their power game.
@Kchitij2007 (445)
• Pune, India
8 Oct 15
@mkrnex Your fears are well-founded but you must understand that religion based voting is not exclusive to just Muslims but Hindu as well ( BJP Is the political offshoot of RSS and caste based politics is the norm in Bihar! ). Hindu religious leaders have spewed the same fire ( Yogi Adityanath at his crazy best and other RSS members advising Indian women to bear 4-4 kids ). One other thing, the kind of majority BJP won, had major givings of the muslim community as well! They all are realizing that religion and caste based politics doesn't pay! Development is the only criterion for fighting poverty ( Majority of Muslims in this country are poor as opposed to Hindus).
Yes, traditionally Muslim communities are adverse to family planning and contraceptives ( a muslim women on avg has 3.5 kids as compared to Hindu women- 2.4 kids ) but that is exactly the reason why they also suffer from child undernourishment, are poor and remain backwards. This shall continue to be so unless- Education and not Elimination of muslim community takes place!
The minority card played so frequently is not just limited to muslim community but also the SC, ST, OBC, etc ( again, bihar politics ). Sadly, the only way this will change is when people as a whole start calling off these shady politicians' bluff ( Lalu in Bihar and Owaisi in Hyd ).
@humanity_revisited (92)
• Mumbai, India
9 Oct 15
I agree to certain extent vthat history of Islam involved bloodshed and intolerance . But this doesn't mean that all other rligions have been totally non violent. Christianity is also been involved in extremism. In no religions is bad . the of religions that thepeople are bad. Each and every religion has a history of violence band bloodshed at some point of time or other. Also not all Hindus are secular. There is a lot of extremism in Hindus. Also IChristians and Jews have a history of intolerance and mass killing towards each other But that's a thing of past. We should forget all these as we are living in a modern era. And I don't worry if India has Muslim.majority or Hindu or Buddhist majority. What worries me is the extremism and intolerance in any of these religions. And about the answer of quora which you haveposted I think that person is being misguided like most of the Muslims are misguided in middle eat in the name of jihad
@mkrnex (785)
• Bangalore, India
9 Oct 15
@humanity_revisited Maybe you are right. But I was surprised to know one of my friend's views! He is a Muslim. But he was saying how Muslims are becoming majority and by 50 years they will catch up as they breed more than us. He was seeing it as an accomplishment. I was oblivious to this but after seeing the quora answer I am in a confusion will the peace prevail as you can see no muslim country is secular or peaceful.
@humanity_revisited (92)
• Mumbai, India
9 Oct 15
@mkrnex@mkrnex I would say he is a representative of religious extremism view. These type of view is held by people of all religion. All want domination. You must be aware of various extremist Hindu organizations in Maharashtra and karnataka. Similarly you must have heard about Muslim extremists propaganda by some people in Hyderabad. I will not take their names. common man is innocent. It's the religious leaders and politicians who polarize country on communal lines. We are represented by mang versions of history.Hindu groups claim about Muslim terror during mughals and Muslim groups claim about their benevolence towards Hindus during mughals. No one knoy exact history.And there is no point in knowing exact history because in past each and every religious group has tortured each other. what matters is present. and various Hindu and Islamic scholars are creating this atmosphere of hatred between two different communities.
2 people like this
@humanity_revisited (92)
• Mumbai, India
9 Oct 15
@mkrnex@mkrnex I would say he is a representative of religious extremism view. These type of view is held by people of all religion. All want domination. You must be aware of various extremist Hindu organizations in Maharashtra and karnataka. Similarly you must have heard about Muslim extremists propaganda by some people in Hyderabad. I will not take their names. common man is innocent. It's the religious leaders and politicians who polarize country on communal lines. We are represented by mang versions of history.Hindu groups claim about Muslim terror during mughals and Muslim groups claim about their benevolence towards Hindus during mughals. No one knoy exact history.And there is no point in knowing exact history because in past each and every religious group has tortured each other. what matters is present. and various Hindu and Islamic scholars are creating this atmosphere of hatred between two different communities.
