Why India should be Hindu Country and not Secular

To answer this question we will have to trace the genesis of this word little bit. As they say need is the mother of invention, this word must have come to vent some human expression or Idea. A quick check at the Merriam Webster dictionary provides the following reference.

the belief that religion should not play a role in government, education, or other public parts of society

Next imminent question is why it is important? To fully understand the context we will have to look further back in the time and the evolution of this concept.

            
      There are broadly two schools of religions, (1) Abrahmic (2) Indic. Abrahmic religions are the one which traces it’s origin around Jerusalem and consider Abraham as prophet. Judaism, Christianity, Islam are the major religions which find their genesis in this school of religions. There is another defining characteristic which makes them exclusivist, each of these religions is rooted in belief that only that religion is right and every other religion is wrong, even though it is another Abrahmic Religion. There is no compatibility between one Abrahmic religion and any other religion of the world. This in no way reflects upon the followers of the religion and their respect for the coexistence and human rights. World history is full of examples when many rulers of various countries mixed the religion and government and it caused a lot of grief and human suffering. Examples of this are Inquisition in Europe, Umayyad conquest of Hispania, various Islamic countries of past and present. Wise people in the west soon realized that mixing of religion with state was detrimental to the human rights of minority faith. Therefore they put the state on a higher pedestal than religion and made it religion agnostic. They rightly needed a word to explain this system and came up with the world “secularism”, which essentially means state is neutral of the religious affair. This way they freed up state from the religious friction and upheld the human rights and dignity of fellow human being, irrespective of their religion and treated everybody equal. It did not mean that it was the best or perfect system in the world but it worked for them, and that is more important.

           

Let’s analyze the other school of religions, Indic religions. The genesis of this school lies in the fact that these religions originated in India. Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism are some of the religions subscribing to this school. Out of all these religions Hinduism has been there since the beginning of the civilization and had great impact on the philosophy and evolution of other religions of this school. Hinduism needs little bit more analysis to understand the culture, heritage and philosophy of the Indian subcontinent. It is interesting to note that this religion was not called Hinduism till about a thousand years back. Also, this name was given to it by the people of Persia and is based on the name of river “Sindhu”, so they called all the inhabitant of the land east of this river collectively as Hindu. This name got stuck with the people and eventually came to define the religion of the people of this subcontinent. Next imminent question is what was this religion called before it was rechristened as Hinduism? There is no clear answer to this. Some call it “Sanatan Dharma” meaning “The Eternal Law”, such as honesty, mercy, purity, self-restraint, tolerance among others. Sometimes it is also called just “Dharma”. Refer to the definition of Hinduism on Wikipedia here. There is no single founder or prophet who established this religion. Various philosophy and beliefs fused under this overarching religion, which includes monotheism, polytheism, even atheism as long as a person believed in the eternal law, he was considered to follow Dharma. By extension for all purpose and reference, he could be called Hindu. What made this fusion of belief, sometime directly opposing each other possible? Tolerance, respect and accommodation of various thoughts. One of the core principles of Hinduism is, there are many paths to reach the almighty and one should select the path according to their own preference and choice and no path is superior to the other.  It also advocates of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbkum”, which means a person who follows Dharma treats entire world as his family. This is where it differs from the Abrahmic religion and rather than exclusive it is inclusive. This trait was inherited by all the other religions which came into being at a later stage in the school of Indic religion which includes Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Therefore you will see a Jain or Bodh(followers of Buddha) visiting a Hindu temple and paying their respect and vice versa, with clear conscience because there is no restriction in their religious text to prohibit them from doing so. You can always see a Hindu visiting a Sikh Gurudwara (Sikh Religious place) and neither Sikh nor Hindu has any problem with that. You will also see a Sikh paying respect in a Hindu or Bodh temple. Not only that all the Indic religions celebrate each other’s festival with absolutely no issue. These Indic religions have flourished side by side for thousands of years without experiencing any friction. This has been true even when ruler was a Bodh (Ashoka) or Sikh (Ranjit Singh) and majority of their subject was Hindu. There was never an attempt to subdue, persecute or humiliate one religion by another. Ask the follower of any Indic religion whether the other religion is wrong or whether the follower of other religion is going to hell after they die? He will surely reply in negative and will agree that it is decided by their deeds in this world and not the religious path that they take.

Therefore the Hindu belief of inclusion and tolerance is at a higher pedestal than secularism and poses no threat to the follower of any religion. It is inclusive and tolerant to every faith and religious belief. If India respects its own culture, heritage and philosophy there is no reason to downgrade it to a lower level of secularism. Making India as Hindu Rashtra is actually elevating it to higher level and making it more inclusive rather than neutral. Indic religions are completely compatible with it and there is no friction what so ever. But as the modern rulers of India blindly copy everything western, copied this secular concept of west without giving due thought and respect to Indigenous philosophy. Therefore they declared India as Secular which is demeaning and insulting to the indigenous philosophy of inclusion and mutual respect.

Let’s not stop there and analyze it further, the question now is, whether India is really secular? India has special civil code based on the religion so it has Hindu Civil Code, Christian Civil Code and Muslim Civil Code. Hindu civil code is applied to all the followers of Indic religion including Hindu, Bodh, Jain and Sikh, no surprise here. Last two codes are applied to Christians and Muslim respectively. Here, Muslim Civil Code is particularly interesting; it aligns with Sharia law. Let’s take another example, Muslims are given subsidy by Government of India to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform pilgrimage of Haj. Everybody knows about Shah Bano case, when Indian Government passed a legislation to overturn the judgement of Supreme Court because Muslims refused to accept it. These are only a few of the numerous examples of the way government practices secularism in India. Now you be the Judge, whether India is truly secular?

Let me just try to summarize it, India should be a Hindu Country which promotes the religious inclusion and tolerance. Politicians in their zeal to ape west decided to make it secular which is already insulting and demeaning for the Indian culture. But actually they did not even made it secular in true sense, but what they ended up making it is a communal country with no equality of its citizen in the eyes of law.  This makes India outright violator of human rights, which discriminates against its own citizen on the religious basis.