Understanding Secularism

There are many practices that people practice in our neighbourhood like going to temples and Gurudwaras, Satsang, Reading Namaaz, Saying prayers and many more.

Yes, all these things clearly indicate that India is a secular country and the Constitution of India grants religious freedom and equality.

Yes, the government of our country will intervene if some religious group says that their religion allows them to practice infanticide. It can be justified on the basis of the following reasons:

(a) Murdering of an infant is not allowed or written in any religion. Every religion whether Hindu or Muslim whether Sikh or Christian all promote non-violence.

(b) No righteous man will support the system of sacrifice. It was promoted by superstitions and selfish religious leaders in ancient times.

The answer of following table is discussed in the following points:

(a) Every religion or community honour our country’s constitution and cause of it one community does not dominate other. Our constitution grants right to equality and right to freedom to all.

e.g.: If we look in U.S.A, in government schools every children have to begin their school day by reciting the ‘Pledge of Allegiance’. This pledge includes the word ’under God’.

(b) Freedom to choose any religion is the Fundamental right of the citizens of India which is being provided by our constitution.

e.g.: There are many countries in the world like Saudi Arabia which is an Islamic state and here religious freedom is not allowed.

(c) Establishment of equality among different groups and communities is very important in a secular country like India.

e.g.: If we look the time before India became Republic than the upper caste Hindus believed in untouchability. The people belong to low castes were discriminated on the basis of the caste.

Holidays related with Hindus:

(a) Lohri

(b) Pongal or Makar Sankranti

(c) Vasant Panchami

(d) Ravi Dass Jayanti

(e) Shivratri

(f) Holi

(g) Dulendi

(h) Ugadi

(i) Ram Navami

(j) Baisakhi

(k) Raksha Bandhan

(l) Krishna Janmashtami

(m) Ganesh Chaturthi

(n) Anant Chaudas

(o) Dusshera

(p) Valmiki Jayanti

(q) Diwali

(r) Govardhan Pooja

(s) Bhaiya Dooj

Holidays pertain to Islam or Muslims:

(a) Id-ul-Zuha

(b) Moharram

(c) Milad-ul-Nabi

(d) Id-ul-fitr

Holidays pertaining to Christians:

(a) Good Friday

(b) Christmas Day

Holidays pertaining to Sikhs:

(a) Lohri

(b) Baisakhi

(c) Guru Nanak Birthday

Holidays pertaining to Buddhism:

Buddha Purnima

Holidays pertaining to Jainism:

Mahavir Jayanti

From the above list, we can say that India is a land of religious diversities. This land is a land of festivals and celebrations where different festivals are being celebrated every year. Being a secular country, everybody is free to follow own religion.

Despite all diversities many festivals are celebrated by people of more than one religion. This indicates the “Unity in Diversity” in India.

There are many examples of different views with in the same religion. Some of these are as follows:

(a) Firstly, let talk about the Pongal which is celebrated by the Hindus in South India while Makar Sankranti is celebrated by the Hindus in North India.

(b) All sections of Hindus and some Sikhs celebrates Holi.

(c) Followers of Lord Shiva celebrates Shivratri.

(d) Followers of Lord Rama celebrates Ram Navami.

(e) Ravi Dass Jayanti and Ambedkar Jayanti are mainly celebrated by the Dalits throughout India.

There are many examples which makes it clear that Indian State keeps away from interfering in religion. Some of these are as follows:

(a) India State has no religion of its own.

(b) Promotion of any religion by displaying anything from government institution is not allowed.

(c) Government schools are not allowed to promote any religion in their programs or functions.

(d) No community is dominated by other in our country.

Some examples of interference in Religion are as follows:

(a) Untouchability is banned in order to end the age-old religious exclusion and discrimination against lower castes.

(b) Sikhs have been permitted not to wear helmet as asked by the law as wearing of turban is essential to the Sikh religion.

(c) Some seats have been reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Schedule Tribes in government services and educational institutions.

Every human wants peace in their life and it is loved by all. Peace, non-violence, humanity, brotherhood etc. are preached by every religion. Peace is needed for the sake of security, property protection and for living with honour. Peace is a human phenomenon which is for the protection of all.

A picture or painting can be drawn in which celebration of some festivals like Diwali, Holi is being celebrated together by people of more than one religion is shown.

In my opinion, retaliation is not at all a proper response to this problem because even if we retaliate towards it, the problem is no where going to suppress rather it will strengthen its roots more deeper which will create a even worse situation.

Hence, rather retaliating we must fight against this and demand for a law that would eliminate this problem forever.

In case if various groups started following this path than the complete world would turn out to be a discriminating system where the word ‘Equality’ would be erased and the minority sections present everywhere will suffer.

: Yes, there are different views that are followed even within the same religion.

Let us understand them with the help of some examples:

(a) In the Hindu religion there are hundreds of deities worshipped by different people.

(b) Similar is the case in Muslim community where there are Shiyas and Shunnis.

(c) In Jains, there are Shwetambar and Digambar sects.

(d) While in Buddha Dharma, there are Hinayaans and Mahayaans.

The answer given by the teacher in the above storyboard is according to the law of our country. As the celebration of the religious festivals within the schools would have been a violation of government’s policy of treating every religion equally. According to our constitution government schools cannot promote any religion but this law is not applicable in the private schools.

Government should not promote any one religion because:

(a) Since, in the constitution of our country there exist a word called ‘Secularism’ which gives freedom to every citizen to possess the religion they want and government schools are strictly based on the constitution. Hence, if they do so they would be violating the constitution of our nation.

(b) If any school promote any certain religion it would be a sort of partiality with the students of other religion which will again violate the law of constitution which says that every citizen and their respective religion should be treated equally.

The recent example in which the secular ideals of the Constitution were violated and persons were persecuted and killed is the banning of beef by Indian government.

The government of our country should not have imposed the law on beef as it violates the religion of Muslims. This decision should be taken by the people whether they should eat or not because. Due to this law many people were killed as they were caught carrying beef with them.