People don't see the benefits of secularism because its most visible and audible propagators are the politicians and NOT the people. Considering that the said politicians then bend the concept to their ends, it maligns and completely distorts what secularism means. Lack of an ability to understand nuances causes issues too, for example no one is actually secular in terms of their diet, or their personal preference, or who they are going to marry and how the marriage ceremony is to be conducted etc. They don't need to be either- there is no law which states that that is necessary- secularism is required in matters of policy, implementation and laws- not personal life.
Why? Well its simple- Secular:- That which is removed from religion, is not related to religion and not influenced by it. An individual would have to be an atheist to be secular in his personal life.
Ergo when a Mantri says, "ki mai secular hoon"- he can only be truthful if he is implying that his political/professional/policy related views and actions are not based on religious tenets of wrong and right. AND that he is not a religious fanatic.
Every US congressman claims to be devoutly religious, in fact one wouldn't be capable of winning a senate seat there without burnishing one's "religious credentials". So, is the said Congressman secular?
The answer is simple- the same Congressman is NOT secular when he says that his religious views stand against birth control and abortion and ergo a law must be made to render them unlawful. The very same Congressman, if he states that yes personally he may find certain activities to be unacceptable according to his religion but he will not enforce his views upon the people through legislature is indeed secular- after that he can go and spend the rest of the day in a Church, Mosque, Mandir, Synagogue it doesn't matter. Being religious does not make a leader communal or not secular- letting his/her religion/religious prejudices seep into his/her politics does.
In fact by the above parameter the erstwhile RSS member and ex-PM of the nation Vajpayee jee was the MOST secular leader we've had. One needs to understand what secularism means in the context of governance, politics and legislature.
In India the form of secularism that prevails is at best inter-communal tolerance in its benign form (as found in the general communities, and no this does not mean hugging and clapping each other on the backs- it means sharing the same space with compromises on BOTH sides and sans conflict) while on the other hand of the spectrum we have the politicization of the term secularism in order to propagate vote-bank politics- this is the sinister form.
These kind of people who do not have any idea about other religion just bashing it for the sake of it.. People do not understand that only the religion came from outside, the people who follow it are born and bought up here.. People are blaming other religions because political parties are playing pseudo-secularism.. Secularism is a beautiful concept and I am proud our nation have it..People do not understand the benefit of secularism and democracy in our country..
but typical hindutvas are still not happy. They want more from NON-Hindus.
You really deserve the Jn Think Tank tag!! Hope to see more posts from you outside Nawsar..
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