Secularism in India - Pledges and Practice | YE DAAGH DAAGH UJALA | EPISODE 12 скачать в хорошем качестве

Secularism in India - Pledges and Practice | YE DAAGH DAAGH UJALA | EPISODE 12

Arguably the most contested idea in contemporary Indian public life today is secularism. This is the subject of the newest episode discussion series on the state of the republic of Karwan e Mohabbat, called Yeh Daag Daag Ujala. In this episode Harsh Mander tries to delve deep into the idea and practice of secularism, with two leading voices in India’s intellectual life – feminist activist and writer Syeda Hameed and philosopher Rajeev Bhargava. What emerges is a memorable discussion of wisdom, care, pain and hope – about the resplendent Indian idea of secularism and its faltering practice. The discussion first dwells on the Indian idea of secularism. It underlines that the idea of Indian secularism is modern but is distinct from various western models. It moves away from the model of secularism developed in the context of country with a single dominant religion to one relevant to a multi-religious country in which no one religious group has the right to dominate the others. Rajeev Bhargava speaks of “principled distance” of the state from religion(s), of “critical respect” of all religions, and of “ethically sensitive” engagement with the religious beliefs and practices of all people. Syeda Hameed reflects on in the early decades after freedom, to what extent and in what ways did the practice of secularism work on the ground. She shared memories as a child when India became free, as the daughter of a senior civil servant in Delhi at that time, of the early decades of relative idealism and hope, when the country and its people were building the new free India. Rajeev Bhargava responds to a critique we increasingly hear from some quarters in India today, that the word “secularism” was not included anywhere is the draft of the Constitution written and approved by the Constituent Assembly. According to this view, secularism is not an essential feature of the Indian Constitution. He underlines that the word secularism may not have been included in the first text of Constitution, but it was central to its morality and imagination. Syeda Hameed, as an Indian, a woman and a Muslim, evaluates the practice of secularism in the India of today. She talks about both the practice of secularism by the Indian state, what Rajeev calls “political secularism”; but also the secularism of society, of the way that ordinary people of diverse faiths and identities relate to each other, how they deal with “difference”. She explains with personal anecdotes how much India’s practice of secularism is faltering. At a time when the principles but also the practice of secularism is under such grave attack, she speaks of the mood within Indian Muslims of fear and loss, of despair and betrayal, but still among Indian Muslims - women, men, young people - hope about their future in an India in which secular democracy is visibly dismantling. Rajeev Bhargava agrees that the crisis that I observe in India today is of the growing radicalisation of men and women, including young people of Hindu identity, their rejection of the secular idea, and their attraction to ideologies of hate. This indeed is a central threat to Indian secularism. In the end, all found hope most in the practice of secularism of ordinary Indian citizens.