Secularism will not die; it will be upgraded to Pluralism; India’s heritage.
Most Indians agree and support this statement, "let every Indian, pray, eat, sleep, drink, wear, think or believe whatever the hell he or she wants to do, but not impose his ideals onto others."
Indeed, a majority of Muslims, Hindus, and others mind their own business, taking care of the family, getting kids to school, having a job and thinking of comfortable retirement.
It is time to scream at the rascal individuals be it in Congress or BJP who talk divisiveness. Anyone who does not care about the others is not good for the society.
Indeed, for every Muslim ass, there is a Hindu ass, (or other assess). For every Azam, there is a Togadia, for every Bukhari there is an Amit Shah… and many more popping by day.
The purpose of police, criminal justice and law is to protect Indians from these men who incite hatred.
Modi or Indira, they come and go, but India has been there and will always be there with its pluralistic ethos. If they do any damage or did not control the damage like the Sikh Genocides, Gujarat Massacre, Mistreatement of Dalits, Destruction of Babri Masjid, it will hurt for a long time, but will heal. India is too big for these temporals. I like that old song from Bombay to God - Na koi raha hai, no koi rahega, mere desh azad ho ke rahega.
We are deeply a pluralistic people and our heritage is loaded with pluralistic ethos. Men who are divisive are an insult to Hinduism and Islam’s pluralistic ethos. Remember men in all traditions have been violent, despite their religion teaching otherwise. It is not the religion; it is the selfishness and insecurity in men that drives them to be rotten pigs.
And, “Hinduism is the “Ellis Island of religions”. Pluralism and diversity are deeply ingrained in it, “the lines between different beliefs and practices are permeable membranes”
And, “India gave itself a secular, liberal constitution because a vast majority of all its people, in fact almost unanimously, determined that this was the finest formulation for nation-building in a land as diverse and complex as ours. The Constituent Assembly had participation from across the many ideological divides. The document it drafted has now acquired the status of scripture and nobody in mainstream politics dares to question it. The man credited with leading that process, Ambedkar, has been added to our pantheon of all-party gods.”
Now coming to deal with the extremism- a part of every society, every religion, every ethnicity and language.
The politicians want to label it religious, but in reality it is the arrogance of one over the other. Each group is deviating from the religious teachings of humility and chosing arrogance, ahankar etc.
I fully endorse the theme of the article " Secularism is dead" by Shekhar Gupta at Indian Express.
Secularism
is Dead
This anti-Modi battle cry is lazy,
illiberal and an affront to Muslims — and to Hindus.
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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and a book with the same title is coming up. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.
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