The founders of Indian constitution ate the bullet of religious hatred & saw unparalleled bloodshed, looting, killing, raping & divide of the most ancient Nation in name of religion. From the very beginning they were determined not to let it repeat again. So they made it made sure that constitution remains neutral to all religion. Agreed; they did not add word “Secular” there but in spirit a very religious neutral constitution was made. Mrs Indira Gandhi got “Secular” word added in constitution later on. Since then, long & endless debate is going on “Secular” & “Secularism”. In fact, our political thoughts too evolved around this word “Secular” & shaped either for or against it, leaving all important agenda, unfortunately just for vote bank. With the advent of Sh. Narendra Modi as BJP PM Candidate, this debate may take more violent turn in future seeing impending Assembly & General Elections, again just for vote bank. In this post we will learn that what "Secular, Secularism and Secularization" mean & how does it affects India & Indian politics.
In older days, religion use to have direct control over executives & state, even used to have control Kings too. There are many examples, when Kings were disposed off when they wanted to go against religious dictum. Few times religion had indirect control with religious principals as it became basis norms of society & justice, like how marriages should take place, some time setting different norms for ladies & gents of the society. In nutshell, some religious laws were mandatory for executives & societies and some laws ware flexible. It happened in India subcontinent where Hindu, Buddhist religion dominant. It happened in Middle East countries where Islamic is/was dominant.
So was the case of western countries where Church used to have considerable control over its rulers & executives. Idea of Secular State took birth in western countries as many Kings, States & executives resented religious control because having power to control without responsibility was costing doom. Churches were not ready to give up power because they were controlling mind of innocent citizen & have laid many ruling as to how state has to be run, as how King & executives have to behave, how important event of a human life is to be governed. But society is not a dead bull. It progress with time, knowledge & technology. It started resenting Church control over its life. The same idea passed to state which also started ignoring church dictum. A revolution, a near war started soon against churches. After much bloodshed over this issue, Churches control was diminished nearly zero. The process stared from England & soon took over France & other western countries. US too got it free from Church power. In this context words “Secular, Secularism & Secularization” took birth. But you can see these “Words” were/are used related to state not related to Society or individual.
Any society has always three types of people 1) Religiously very tolerant, 2) Moderately religious tolerant & 3) Intolerant. Number of each category varies from society to society, time to time. Let us also understand that "Secular or Secularism or Secularization" does not apply on a society or individual as we are given to understand by our Indian Political Parties who are themselves confused about it.
Secular State is not meant as a State which is “Dharm-Nirpeksh” or have “Dharm-Sambhav” or keeps “Nation First” or a “State with no religion” as we are told day in day out. It simple means “A State which does not draw power from any religion” or “A State which is not controlled by Religious Authority’s dictum.” In fact there are many-many nations which have a particular religion as State Religion but they are Secular State in letter & spirit such as UK, France, USA, Canada etc. It is also possible to have A State without religion but not a secular state.
Now let us understand “Secularism & Secularization”.
Although secularism and secularization are closely related, there are real differences because they do not necessarily offer the same answer to the question of role of religion in society. Secularism is a system or ideology based on the principle that there should be a sphere of knowledge, values, and action that is independent of religious authority, but it does not necessarily exclude religion from having any role in political and social affairs.
Secularization, however, is a process which does lead to exclusion. To achieve secularization, all the institution of state & society including political outfits should be removed from religious control.
Whatever the case may be, either those institutions are simply taken away from religious authorities and handed over to political leaders, or competing alternatives are created alongside the religious institutions. The independence of these institutions in turn allow individuals themselves to be more independent of religious authorities- no longer are they required to submit to religious leaders outside of the confines of a church or temple.
Secularization & Religion-State Separation
A practical consequence of secularization is the separation of religion and state. In fact, the two are so closely associated that they are almost interchangeable in practice, with people often using the phrase "separation of religion and state" rather when they mean secularization. There is a difference between the two, though, because secularization is actually a process that occurs across all of society, whereas the separation of religion and state is simply a description of what occurs in the political sphere.
What the separation of religion and state means in the process of secularization is that specifically political institutions - those associated with varying levels of public government and administration - are removed from both direct and indirect religious control. It does not mean that religious organizations cannot have anything to say about public and political issues, but it does mean that those views cannot be imposed upon the public, nor can they be used as the sole basis for public policy. The government must, in effect, be as neutral as possible with respect to divergent and incompatible religious beliefs, neither hindering nor advancing any of them.
Religious Objections to Secularization
Of course, secularism has not always been so neutral in its intent. At no point, is it necessarily anti-religious, but secularism does frequently promote and encourage the process of secularization itself. A person becomes a secularist at the very least because he believes in the need for a secular sphere alongside the religious sphere, but more likely than not he also believes in the superiority of the secular sphere, at least when it comes to certain social issues.
Thus, the difference between secularism and secularization is that secularism is more of a philosophical position about the way things should be, while secularization is the effort to implement that philosophy - even sometimes with force. Religious institutions may continue to voice opinions about public matters, but their actual authority and power are restricted entirely to the private domain: people, who conform their behavior to the values of those religious institutions, do so voluntarily with neither encouragement nor discouragement emanating from the state.
You can see our own Indian Secular, Secularism & Secularization in light of above explanation & draw your own conclusion.
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