New age India: The decline of secular values

New age India: The decline of secular values

Imane Ouahrouche

On an early morning of July 2023, Muhammad Asgar Ali left his home set in Jaipur, Northwest India, and his wife and four children, to board a train for work.

The next day, Muhammad’s family was devastated by the news of his assassination on a railway train. Muhammad was among the three Muslims shot by a railway security official. His family was left without their breadwinner, feeling helpless and clueless.

The children, in particular, couldn’t understand what had happened to their father, and most importantly, why it had happened.

Muhammad Asgar Ali’s story is just one among thousands of stories of suffering experienced by religious minorities in India. The last decade has been marked by hate crimes and religious racism, particularly between Hindus and Muslims. There hasn’t been a single day without reports of violence or riots between these two communities.

But the main issue is that nobody is truly trying to solve these political and social problems. Today, it seems that neither the government nor politicians or the media are attempting to do anything about it.

Are the secular values under threat?

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“I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism … our innermost prayer should be a Hindu, should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian.” —Mahatma Gandhi (Young India: January 19, 1928)

India today had enormously changed, not just economically but politically as well. Nevertheless, these current social issues are not happening by coincidence, they are the result of many interlinked factors. After its independence in 1947, India declared itself as a “secular democracy”, and that is also referred in the constitution as well.

As the 42nd constitution amendment act of 1976 states; “ India since its independence in 1947 has been a secular state. The secular values were enshrined in the constitution of India. India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru is credited with the formation of the secular republic in the modern history of the country. [1][2] With the Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976,[3] the Preamble to the Constitution asserted that India is a secular nation.[4][5] However, the Supreme Court of India in the 1994 case the fact that India was secular since the formation of the republic.[6] The judgement established that there is separation of state and religion.

It stated “In matters of State, religion has no place. Any  State government which pursues nonsecular policies or nonsecular course of action acts contrary to the constitutional mandate and renders itself amenable to action under Article 356″.

However, secularism has always been something special and cherished in India. But all the policies and inferences in religion show that India is not entirely a secular state.

India started developing rapidly from every aspect, population growth, economy, press freedom, industrialization, cinema and culture.  And today India is the world’s fifth largest economy, and poverty reduction rates are among the highest in the world, with more than 270 million people lifted out of poverty in just a decade.

Nevertheless, religious tensions weren’t as clear as they are nowadays, people used to live in one India, and one Bharat. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and everybody lived in peace. They celebrated Eid, Holi, Christmas, Diwali and everything together despite the religious differences.

Many people around the globe who had visited India once, say that the most beautiful thing about India is its impressive diversity. But somehow this prosperous, diverse India got lost in a crossroads and become unrecognizable to those who loved her diversity once. Maybe it’s the violence and religious racism and riots we see every day on newspapers, or maybe it’s just something that had changed in the social-economical structures.

However, what most people don’t realize is that riots are costing India a lot economically every year, The Global Peace Index (GPI) produced by Sydney-based Institute of Economics and Peace notes the country has a dismal rank of 72.

The 2020 violence has cost India $646 billion, enough to fund most of its budget expenditures and welfare programs. Its ranking improved to 126 in 2023, but then various flare ups happened in the country since Karnataka.

And as Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest men of all time said, “My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realizing Him.”

Mahatma Gandhi was an anti- violence person and believed in liberty and peaceful co-existence between religions. Nevertheless, both Hindus and Muslims were united, and because of this special unity India got its independence.

But in our recent times, this unique social unity is almost over, and it is threatened massively by the decline of the Indian secular values and rising religious intolerance among people.

References: Aljazeera, Indian national congress , The Arunachal times, Business insider India

(Imane Ouahrouche: Training journaliste, Casablanca, Casablanca-Settat, Morocco)

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