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Indian Polity, Entrenchment of Sanatan and Secularism (Published at The Jaipur Dialogues)

 


Indian Polity

Without any doubt, the ‘India’ we live in is more than just India i.e. the nation-state. As the Article 1 of the Indian Constitution precisely surmises: ‘India, that is Bharat’, India derives its colour from Bharat, i.e. the civilisation of this land, thus transcending mere politics and geographical lines.

Bharat is based on the lines of the Hindu civilisation i.e. it follows the Hindu way of life, without any shadow of doubt. The very ideals of equality and discourse that have been cherished throughout Bharatiya History, and that now find importance in the Indian state, have been derived from the vast practices within this Hindu dharma.

It follows, thus, without doubt that the Indian state, based upon the premise of Bharat, is entrenched with the ideals of the Hindu way of life. More than just saying this, let us discuss examples on how these ideals actively shape the Indian state today and find way into machineries that drive policy-making and justice.

Entrenchment of Dharma

Before the Muslim-appeasement politics and the need for erasure of the Hindu Dharma from the state machinery for the sake of western-secularism arose, it serves as the most powerful of reminders that the very pages of the original Indian Constitution, illustrated by Nandalal Bose and his pupils, contained illustrations of Lord Krishna at the beginning and those of the Maryaada-Purushottam (the best among honourable men) Lord Ram on the first page of the chapter describing the fundamental rights of Indian citizens.

Which ‘Dharma’ do these mottos, that drive the wheels of policy-making and justice, refer to if not Sanatan? Thus, to think that the Indian state is not deeply rooted in the BharatiyaHindu Dharma would be a blatant error and, unfortunately, that is the narrative that has been sold by many left-historians over the past decades.

So, if the Indian State, much like the Bharatiya civilisation, is based upon ‘Dharma’, what is secularism and how does it figure into the system?

Secularism

Secularism, needless to say, is a western concept that imposes an absolute separation between church (or any religious institution) and state. However, while the west has espoused secularism, they have, themselves, kept aloof when it comes to adopting its ideals. With the recent G7 meeting attended by the Pope alongside world leaders, or the promises of being a good Christian-American in the American elections, this much is pretty clear. Thus, the imposition of secularism on India, from the era of the British colonialism, has always been Christian-secularism i.e. the west’s ability to retain Christianity within their state machinery while calling themselves secular.

Secularism, as a concept, has never been a part of Bharat; equality, however, is. Thus, while the rulers could themselves be dharmic, and the state machinery was clearly Hindu in nature, all people would be treated equally. This is how Bharat became the melting pot where any refugee could arrive and be treated equally irrespective of their religion. Since Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, respecting the existence of others’ Gods was not an issue. Since no distinction was required to be made between Hindus and non-Hindus as per Hindu scriptures, there was equality even though there was no secularism under Hindu rulers, or rather because of its absence. Secularism was equally absent under other rulers such as the Timurids (popularised as Mughals). However, as is obvious with hindsight, the Timurid rulers cast a distinction between Muslim subjects and non-Muslim subjects.

It is because of this understanding of the nature of the Bharatiya civilisation and society that while drafting the Constitution of India, the committees, in their extensive debates on the Preamble, did not include the word ‘secular’ in the Constitution, and that it was only crammed into it by a rump parliament during the Emergency.

Even then (it is needless to point out to the reader), the Indian state was never truly secular: religious institutions were selectively controlled by the government and milked as cash cows, Hajj subsidies, Hindu Undivided Family benefits, salary to maulavis etc. clearly indicate that!

Swami Vivekananda pronounced that ‘each nation has a destiny to fulfil, each nation has a message to deliver, each nation has a mission to accomplish’ and he aptly said that for Bharat, the most important thing was its culture and way of life. Secularism, arbitrarily imposed upon this civilisation, especially as it has been in the past- with its perverted meaning, tends to destroy the very fabric of Bharatiyata i.e. the qualities of belonging to Bharat.

I ALSO HOPE THIS ARTICLE SERVES AS A KIND REMINDER THAT WHILE THERE HAS BEEN A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO TRY AND PAINT A PICTURE OF HOW THE INDIAN STATE HAS SLOWLY LEFT ITS SECULARISM BEHIND, I FIND THAT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE INDIAN STATE TO HAVE DONE SINCE THERE WAS NONE TO BEGIN WITH!

Picture Credits: Aditi Joshi, The Jaipur Dialogues



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