Is secularism a bad idea in India?
Interesting question that Tomichan posses here. secularism is no doubt an idea.
Merriam Webster says secularism is indifference or rejection of religion and religious consideration.
This in itself is an oxymoron, when we reject something we accept that it is. Let’s look at every civilization that in human history , an element of sacredness is recognized, to which the civil authority is bound. This sacredness is acknowledgement of a moral boundary that is neither circumscribed by us nor can we find an ultimate reason for it. It is an realization that binds us as a society this lies beyond us. we also have an inherent value that cannot be arbitrarily limited or denied by political or economic social power.
Despite of flaunting and turning Gandhi into God, his devotees seem to forget a very salient point he made I quote him
“If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate, I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health, communication, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody’s personal concern!”
If we were to go by this understanding of secular then secularism is a good thing to happen. In which case every ruddy form in the country has to do away with those boxes that ask us for our religion and caste. But we do not want to do it, yes I say we considering that the con-men in the parliament are put there by us.
We are looking at secularism as equality , ideally it should be equanimity. I accept that I have a field full of bones to pick with organized religion of any kind. To my mind it appears like an obstacle spirituality and Godhead, and not the key that opens the door as it claims to do. Unfortunately we are yo-yo-ing between holier-than-thou societies to more liberal-than-thou societies. We could call it secular piety, but they are both different forms of the same sanctimoniousness. The process of secularization does not arise from loss of faith but from loss of social interest in the world faith. The difference between Godheads and church is exact difference between Elvis and colonel Parker… religious head have become politicians they tend to shove their ideas down people’s throat with that wonderful tool called 24hrs news, movies whatever.
When I see the current Theo-politics I am reminded of the play Mattavilasa Prahasna written by the Pallava kind Mahendra verma somewhere 571-630 CE it is an satire in one act which pokes fun at the peculiarities of the Kapalika Saivates, the Pasupata saivites, Buddhists and Jains. The play revolves round the drunken kapalika mendicant and the loss of their begging bowl. The Kapali suspects the Buddhist monk of having stolen the begging bowl, after a long drawn argument it is discovered that the bowl was stolen by a dog.
Coming back to where we started from, is secularism a bad idea in India… of indifference to or rejection of religion and religious consideration, rather leaving it in a personal space is not at all bad. However in India secularism is an misunderstood idea, like I mentioned before we are yo-yo-ing between holier-than-thou and more liberal-than-thou. As for personal space we have totally forgotten what that means.
prompt 304 by Tomichen Mathiekal
Cantadora - The keeper of stories. 
Gandhi’s secularism was an ideal which would make any country a better place. But, secularism is as misunderstood as Gandhi himself is. We have only extremists at both ends; either they are religious zealots trying to prove the superiority of their own religion, or the other extreme were secularism is an agenda. The first oppose secularism, the second is like China. Then, there are people who use secularism as a means to promote their religion or politics.
Real secular people are rare. In fact, those are the people who may not even be aware that they’re secular. Simply because they don’t think in terms of religion.