Abstract
Secularism seems to require separation between religion and State. Regarding India, it would be better to speak of ‘equidistance’ between State and religious denominations. Nonetheless a ‘balanced treatment’ towards the religions leaves the question open as to what form that equidistance should take. This is the reason of some contradictions in today’s Indian social and political life. It is likely that without the Moghul and British domination Hinduism would not have acquired a militant identity. It was the ‘epiphany’ of well-armed, powerful ‘Others’ (Muslim, Christian or secular) which generated frustration and fear to such an extent that a religious nationalism (Hindutva) was born. Nehru and the Left of the Congress Party leadership thought that modernity would overcome religion, which is a remnant of the past. They were confident that a political culture based on pluralism and tolerance would become the foundations of the new society. This is exactly what Hindu Nationalism takes issue with: the ‘pseudo-seculars’ project of building the national identity without Hinduism or against Hinduism. Hindutva asserts that Hinduism is the basis of the Indian civilization. The Hindu ethos is the soul of the nation.
Highlights
While Pakistan came into being the ‘land of the pure’, the new India was born a secular country
A kind of Hindu Fundamentalism, with its roots in 1920s, took to task the model of secular pluralism nurtured by the body politics of the Indian National Congress (INC)
A comprehensive account of the set of issues concerning secularism is available in the work of Paolo Naso, L’incognita post-secolare (Naso 2015),3 but none of the models he analyses seems to fit contemporary India
Summary
While Pakistan came into being the ‘land of the pure’ (the country of the Subcontinent’s Muslims), the new India was born a secular country. A kind of Hindu Fundamentalism, with its roots in 1920s, took to task the model of secular pluralism nurtured by the body politics of the Indian National Congress (INC). Most commentators describe it as ‘Hindu Nationalism’, or ‘Hindu Politics’, or Hindutva, from the title of the most important book by its inspirer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966). A comprehensive account of the set of issues concerning secularism is available in the work of Paolo Naso, L’incognita post-secolare (Naso 2015), but none of the models he analyses seems to fit contemporary India. Tradition–,4 since no one in India will admit to the communal character of the ideology or politics they follow (Srikanth 1994)
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