Relevance: GS-1: Social Empowerment, Communalism, Regionalism & Secularism.

Key Phrases: Essential religious practice, Fundamental right, Insidious intolerance, Freedom of conscience, Pluralism, Equality, justice and fraternity, Moral framework of secularism, Reasonable restrictions, Theocratic state.

Why in News?

• The Karnataka High Court upheld the ban on hijab by the educational institutes on 15 March 2022. The court ruled that hijab is not an essential religious practice under Islam and, hence, it is not protected by the Article 25 of the constitution setting out the fundamental right to practice one's religion.
• The judgment of the High Court is very technical. It almost reads like a petition and betrays an excessive eagerness to disprove the other side.
• The High Court of Karnataka has not been able to settle the hijab issue. Its judgment has further provoked the hijab-wearing college students in Udupi, who have now approached the Supreme Court of India to contest the order.

What is the court’s opinion?

• The three-judge bench held that allowing Muslim women to wear the hijab in classrooms would hinder their emancipation and go against the constitutional spirit of "positive secularism".
• The 129-page order quotes passages from the Quran and books on Islam to argue that the hijab is not an obligatory religious practice.

"There is sufficient intrinsic material within the scripture itself to support the view that wearing hijab has been only recommendatory, if at all it is. What is not religiously made obligatory therefore cannot be made a quintessential aspect of the religion through public agitations or by the passionate arguments in court,'' the order says.

What is the Issue:

• Political issue: The political dimension of the hijab issue will continue to trouble Indian society for a long time. The seemingly sudden eruption of this issue reflects an insidious intolerance which is quite uncharacteristic of the majority religious community.
• Constitutional issue: Article 25(1) of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of conscience and the right to practise one's religion.
• Forced discrimination: As a matter of fact, Hindu and Sikh women in northern India cover their heads on all important occasions such as a marriage, a funeral, religious ceremonies, etc. so why this uproar against a particular community.
• Growing intolerance: It is a measure of the transformation that has taken place in Indian society that a piece of cloth is enough to serve as provocation for people to come out onto the street and fight against each other.

In such an environment of intolerance, the claims of traditional tolerance, pluralism and catholicity seem like a bad joke.

India - Having a Moral Framework of Secularism:

• “Atithi Devo Bhava” meaning “Guest is God” culture: India does have such a past where people from other parts of the world were welcomed with open arms and allowed to live here in peace and amity for millennia.
• Mixing pot of religion: Proselytising religions did gain some following here but they never posed any serious challenge to the majority religion.
• Land of Buddha: Tolerance of other faiths and compassion toward fellow beings became an integral part of Indian traditions because of the Buddha.
  • He gave India the moral framework within which to shape our exchanges with other fellow human beings.
• Vision of Freedom fighters: It is in fact the good fortune of India and perhaps a historical inevitability that leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and B.R. Ambedkar was there to give shape to the ideas of a modern nation, rooted essentially in the moral traditions of Buddhism and assimilating the egalitarian impulses of the modern world.
• Constitutional morality: The Constitution of India adopted that moral framework for the governance of India. Equality, justice and fraternity are regarded as esteemed values of the constitution.
  • The Indian Constitution provides for freedom of religion and conscience on the one hand and secularism for the governance of the country on the other.

Separation of Religion and State:

Under the Indian Constitution too there is a separation of religion from the state as in Europe. In fact, this separation was a major inflection point in the history of the Renaissance in Europe. The essence of India’s secularism is that the state has no religion. This is clear from Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution.

• Article 27 says that no tax can be levied for promoting any particular religion. In other words, no public revenue is permitted to be spent in favour of any particular religion.
• Article 28 says that no religious instruction shall be given in any educational institutions wholly maintained out of state funds.
  • The same Article says that no educational institution recognised or aided by the state shall compel any person to attend religious classes or worship therein.
• Article 15 prohibits any kind of discrimination on the ground of religion.

In Indira Nehru Gandhi vs Shri Raj Narain & Anr, the Supreme Court of India had reaffirmed this principle. The Court said: “the state shall have no religion of its own”.

What's Restricting the Secularism:

But, freedom of religion is made subject to other fundamental rights, apart from the reasonable restrictions on the grounds of public order, morality and health.

• Article 25(2)(a) empowers the state to regulate secular activities associated with religious practice.
• Not given equal importance: The freedom of religion under the Constitution does not enjoy the same status as other secular rights such as equality before law, non-discrimination, right to life and liberty, etc.
• Changing meaning of secularism: There is too much religiosity in public life in India. So, we have conveniently changed the meaning of secularism into ‘sarva dharma sambhav’ which would only lead to majoritarianism and, ultimately, to the establishment of a theocratic state.
  • Theocracy will ensure the disintegration of the country. A theocratic state with the majority religion as the state religion is an unworkable proposition.

Conclusion:

• India is a multi-religious country where the largest minority is around 200 million. The Government of India had notified as many as six minority religions in the country. India, as a nation, can survive only as a secular state where the state has no religion and does not promote any religion.
• The wise men who led the freedom struggle and framed the Constitution had a deep understanding of India’s multi-religious and multicultural character and also the complexities of its social structure. Secularism was chosen as the foundational principle of the republic to keep the nation united. Enlightened citizens should realise that if secularism is jettisoned, the hard-won national unity will be in peril. It is the patriotic duty of every citizen to strengthen secularism and thus save the republic.

Sources: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. How does the Indian secularism model differ from the western model? Do you think there is a threat to secularism in present scenario in India? [250 words].