Skip to main content

Grow up into Secularism




Jawaharlal Nehru gave India a slightly different version of secularism from what the west practises. Nehru’s secularism not only dissociated politics from religion but also gave full freedom to all religions. In other words, while the west sought to discredit religion altogether, Nehru accepted religions and let them be. But religion should not be a matter of any importance for the government as long as it does not pose any threat to peace, to law and order.
Nehru was not a believer. He was of the opinion that religion prevented the intellect from developing. The religious approach is dogmatic and authoritative. Such approach will breed superstition, bigotry and intolerance. That was Nehru’s view. But he also knew that the majority of Indians would not understand his enlightened view. So he let religions be.
Religion is an infantile need, as psychologist Freud said. Like children needing the constant care of parents, the religious believer seeks god’s protection all the time. The believer refuses to grow up.
To some extent, religion may help people to avoid egoism and cultivate certain virtues. However, religion is not essential for anyone to cultivate any virtue. You can be good if you realise the simple truth that goodness is better than evil. I guess one doesn’t need much brain to understand that. Try spreading goodness around and see the difference, if you still don’t understand. There’s no need of any god for you to be good. Goodness is your choice. Evil is your choice too.
Anyway, with all these religions around the world hasn’t become any better a place to live in. On the contrary, religions seem to make the world a worse place. Look at what is happening in India these days. Just imagine if those two guys who have created a gigantic mess in India now were secular. If they were, probably India would have been the best nation by now.
I have seen good people who are religious too. But I have always felt that they would be good without religion too. Goodness is their choice. God is just a convenient addition.
PS. Written for Indispire Edition 304: Is secularism a bad idea in India? #Secularism


Comments

  1. जितेन्द्र माथुरDecember 24, 2019 at 10:57 AM

    Bhagat Singh also nurtured the same views and had a clear vision for a better India even in his tender years. Me too endorse these thoughts. I consider it a lousy practice to keep the column of RELIGION in various forms being filled by students, candidates and citizens. It's superfluous, ridiculous and oppressive at the same time. Why the hell an individual be compelled to follow any religion ? Why shouldn't he/she just be allowed to live as a good human-being ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 24, 2019 at 2:22 PM

      The country should do away with that column for religion. It should enable people to be good human beings. What's happening now is alarming. India has failed miserably on all fronts, including economy. Yet the government enjoys popular support because of religious sentiments.

      Delete
  2. John SmithJanuary 9, 2020 at 11:30 PM

    McAfee.com/Activate - McAfee offers all-round security for every major platform such as Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS as well. In case you are looking for sources to learn how to download, install, and activate McAfee on your system, then here is the list of requirements that you need to match before installing it. 
    mcafee.com/activate

    ReplyDelete
  3. John SmithMarch 4, 2020 at 12:48 AM

    Hey, I’m John. I’m a web developer living in 145 Kelley Blvd, Millbrook AL 36054. I am a fan of technology, writing, and web development. You can read my blog with a click on the button above.
    mcafee.com/activate

    ReplyDelete
  4. John SmithJuly 3, 2020 at 12:39 PM

    Hey, I’m John. I’m a web developer living in 145 Kelley Blvd, Millbrook AL 36054. I am a fan of technology, writing, and web development. You can read my blog with a click on the button above.
    http://blog-search.co.uk/mcafee-activate/
    https://true-antivirus.com/
    https://broad-blogs.uk.com/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

How to preach nonviolence

Like most government institutions in India, the Archaeological Survey of India [ASI] has also become a gigantic joke. The national surveyors of India’s famed antiquity go around finding all sorts of Hindu relics in Muslim mosques. Like a Shiv Ling [Lord Shiva’s penis] which may in reality be a rotting piece of a Mughal fountain. One of the recent discoveries of Modi’s national surveyors is that Sambhal in UP is the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of God Vishnu. I haven’t understood yet whether Kalki was born in Sambhal at some time in India’s great antique history or Kalki is going to be born in Sambhal at some time in the imminent future. What I know is that Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu that is going to put an end to the present wicked Kali Yuga led by people like Modi Inc. Kalki will begin the next era, Satya Yuga, the Era of Truth. So he is yet to be born. But a year back, in Feb to be precise, Modi laid the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Kalk...
12 comments
Read more

Was India tolerant before Modi?

Book Discussion The Indian National Congress Party is repeatedly accused of Muslim appeasement by Narendra Modi and his followers. Did the Congress appease Muslims more than it did the Hindus? Neeti Nair deals with that question in the second chapter of her book, Hurt Sentiments , which I introduced in my previous post: The Triumph of Godse . The first instance of a book being banned in India occurred as an effort to placate a religious community. That was in 1955. It was done by none other than the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. The book was Aubrey Menen’s retelling of The Ramayana . Menen’s writing has a fair share of satire and provocative incisiveness. Nehru banned the sale of the book in India (it was published in England) in order to assuage the wounded Hindu sentiments. The book “outrages the religious feelings of the Hindus,” Nehru’s government declared. That was long before the Indira Gandhi’s Congress government banned Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses ...
8 comments
Read more

The Triumph of Godse

Book Discussion Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi in order to save Hindus from emasculation. Gandhi was making Hindu men effeminate, incapable of retaliation. Revenge and violence are required of brave men, according to Godse. Gandhi stripped the Hindu men of their bravery and transmuted them into “sheep and goats,” Godse wrote in an article titled ‘Non-resisting tendency accomplished easily by animals.’ Gandhi had to die in order to salvage the manliness of the Hindu men. This argument that formed the foundation of Godse’s self-defence after Gandhi’s assassination was later modified by Narendra Modi et al as: “ Hindu khatre mein hai ,” Hindus are in danger. So Godse has reincarnated now.   Godse’s hatred of non-Hindus has now become the driving force of Hindutva in India. It arose primarily because of the hurt that Godse’s love for his religious community was hurt. His Hindu sentiments were hurt, in other words. Gandhi, Godse, and the minority question is the theme of the...
6 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
15 comments
Read more