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Why Christian Concept of Secularism is meaningless in India?byJay Shah on Monday, August 30, 2010 at 2:29am

Why Christian Concept of Secularism is meaningless in India?

The very idea of a secular form of government- with priestly authority separated from

the affairs of the state- is relatively a recent development in Europe. But it is a practice

of extremely long standing in India- going back to Vedic times.

Brahmins in India have long been classified as Vaidika and Laukika. Vaidika Brahmins are

those that are engaged in priestly duties, while Laukika Brahmins are those that are

active in the secular professions like medicine, engineering, law, teaching and others.

More importantly, the texts used as guides for religious and secular activities have

always been different. This is not the case in Islam in which the Quran is not only the

prayer book, but also the law book. It is claimed to be the basis for Shariat - or Islamic

Law.

We can see this distinction more clearly when we look at Hindu religious texts. Many

devout hindus use the Vishnusahasranama or some other prayer book in the religious

functions. But it has never been Dharmashastra and others authored by sages like

Brihaspati, Manu, Gautama. Kautilyas Arthshastra was a standard manual on

adminsitration. None of these is considered a religious text, or ever used in religious

ceremonies. We find a clear separation the religious and the secular.

This was even true in vedic times. The vedas and the Brahmanas are religious texts, but

they were never used as law books. The guidelines for legal and adminsitrative duties

were laid down in sutra works likeDharmasutras, Nyayasutras and others. Even among

sutra works, there was separation into Grihya (household) and srauta (sacred).

This was so even in practice as we learn from from ancient literature. The famous vedic

sage Vishwamitra was born into a royal family but wanted to be known as a vedic seer.

He has to give up his kingdom and perform a long penancebefore he could gain

recognition as one. The reverse was also true. In the case of emperor Bharata (son of

Dusyant and Shakuntala) it was the opposite. Finding his owns sons unfit to rule, he

adopted a son of vedi priestly family of Bharadvaja as his heir. It was this Bharadvajas

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of the priest; the other by the hands of kings and knights at the will and sufferance of

the priest.

This is a clear statement of how the Church regarded the state as the secular arm of

the Church. West broke the power of Church through secularization of the state. In

Islamic countries this has still not happened. For this to happen these countries have to

completely remove the influence of clergy - the mullahs- from the affairs of the state.

Even in India, muslims have not let that happen, organizations like Muslim Personal Law

Board are insisting on separate laws - laws that would be administered by the clergy.

The same phenomenon is raising its head in Britain. Even in United States, there has

been one at least one case of forced marriages of under-age Muslim girls against the law

of the land. Blasphemy law has also been exercised by assassinating an Egyptian scholar

living in Texas for expressing his dissenting views. In India, in the name of Secularismand religious rights, muslim religious leaders are demanding the right to function as a

theocratic State with a State administered according to Islamic Law.

The reality is: as with Medieval Christianity, Islam even today regards secular authority

as far more important than the spiritual content. More often than not the Muslim clergy

have no spiritual vision to offer, being simply politicians in religious garb. God is simply

the pretext used to extend and strengthen its power and influence in the temporal

world. This is the characteristic of a theocracy rather than a true spiritual tradition.

The question is what is the source of this theocratic ideology?

The simple answer is Monotheism/Exclusivism is the foundation of Theocracy.