What Secularism is To You

What Secularism to you is

You will note that religions have emerged in the historical time only. You will also note that a section of people, in a few regions in the world,  have accepted parts of nature as divine forces. Such considerations have begun in the pre-historic age and have gradually helped to shape formal religions in some places. The sun is still one of the gods to a large number of people in India. Pagan faith is still very much present in different parts of the globe.  Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Jainism are some of the major religions. In India Brahminism has not been termed as a religion although this one has a history of a few centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ. The term ‘Hindu’ as one of the religions has never been found in any text before the tenth century, yes, in India only.

The followers of these religions and other religious ideas have been in a race for supremacy over others since the days of their inception. Such race has left certain non-ephemeral burnt in the history of human civilization. The skirmishes between the Buddhists and the Hindus, the Crusades in which the Christians and Muslims have ‘do or die’ involvement, the endless Hindu-Muslim feuds in India are a few examples. Each religious organization has also a continuous internal fighting for leadership. We have seen the bloody spectacle of this internal fight for inheritance in the Islam. Again, a particular religious organization has been divided into two or more factions time to time and they have remained engaged in continuous mutual feuds. You can recollect the conflicts between the Vaishnavites and Shivaites in India, between the Shias and Sunnis in the Arabian territory, and between the Catholics and Protestants in Europe.

Political authorities in different countries in the world have to search out means to end such recurring violence and the concept of secularism has thus emerged. It is definitely a modern concept. The fundamental problem with this concept rests in the fact that every interested section of the people has its own and opportunistic interpretation. These interpretations differ from each other and at times the differences are very sharp and uncompromising.

Atheists and agnostics have thought that the concept of secularism is strong enough to cause an end to the unnecessary violence among the followers of different religions. They have been disappointed. Rather, to surprise them suddenly, political parties have appeared in many countries with strong and distinct religious leanings. In many countries of the eastern hemisphere Islam has been announced as the religion of the state. Countries like India have people with diverse religious faith. This has led the political leaders in India feel the necessity to include the term secularism even in the constitution of the country.

A section of people has the desire that secularism should be meant to establish absence of participation or absence of interference of the state machineries in religious practices. They favor the idea that religious faith should be limited to one’s individual periphery. Another section views that the state should patronize each and every faith. There is one more consideration. Some pilots of political parties demand that the religion of the majority of the people in a region should be held high. You must not forget that suppression of religious faith has been practiced in the socialist states in recent history.

Toleration is a human virtue. You may not agree with your friends on some questions. Still it is wise to value them and respect them and you will then only find options to vent out what is your own ideas and opinions. You have knowledge and you can be assertive and you can be assertive to such an extent that your accounts may be removed from the watch lists of your friends. It has always been better to have chances to let other know how you do think and what you do think.