INDIAN BRAND OF SECULARISM– AN ANTITHESIS

Christian Concept of Hell & Heaven

A basic Christian tenet is that humans are born in sin, as a consequence to the inheritance of sin from the “first parents”, Adam and Eve. Christians believe that Jesus, the messenger of God, was sinless despite being born in sin; they also believe that Jesus died to redeem all of humanity of its sin.

Yet, another dogma of Christianity is that humans have an afterlife after death. Their faith is that after death only faithful Christians get to enter heaven, the abode of the “righteous dead” and the place where God resides. Heathens (or, non-Christians) get consigned to hell.

There are eschatological variations though in Christianity, such as, second coming of Jesus, resurrection of the dead, rapture, tribulation, Last Judgment, millennialism, and so on. Regardless of denominational differences, there is a life and (eventually) an afterlife for all humans in the Christian faith.

Need for Secularism

In medieval Europe, the ruling class, comprising of kings, monarchs and emperors, had domain over the worldly, tangible lives of humans. On the spiritual, incorporeal front, the Church and its priestly order had jurisdiction. Pope, as vicar of Jesus, believed in being vested with supreme, divinely-ordained powers; so much so that, the Vatican often felt that the ruling class was subordinate and subservient to it.

This rivalry, between the ruling and priestly classes, for exercising supreme powers over the subjects lead to violent clashes. Martin Luther came up with the “Two Kingdom Theory”– one, the worldly, corporeal Kingdom of Life; and two, the spiritual, non-material Kingdom of Afterlife.

The “Two Kingdom” concept laid the seed for the concept of “Secularism”, which separates the Church from the State. It essentially meant, the ruling class could not interfere in matters of faith and conscience, over which the Church had jurisdiction and, hence, wielded exclusively powers over religious rituals and sacred sacraments. On its part, the Church could not interfere in the functioning of the ruling class over worldly matters, such as, law, order and justice.

Belief System in Hinduism

There is no equivalent of the Christian concept of “afterlife” in Sanātana Dharma, or Hinduism, which espouses instead samsāra, the eternal cycle of “birth and death”. The effort to attain moksha, that is, liberation from the cycle of “birth and death” is a central aspect of the Hindu faith. Hence, there is no concept in Hinduism of an “incorporeal kingdom”, where humans reside in upon divine judgment with eternal life or damnation in their afterlife. Neither is there a concept of “heaven”, where “God” resides.

In Hinduism, God, or Divinity personified resides amidst us in his abode, the Hindu temple. Divine, cosmic energy is invoked to consecrate the icon, or Deity within the temple. The icon is then believed to be a living entity and is not only worshipped, but also cared for and attended to ritually.

Hindu Ruler-Religion Separation

Thus, In the Hindu faith there is a single “worldly, corporeal domain” where humans exist along with Deities, or Divinity personified, residing in temples. Therefore, in the past, the ruling class exercised power and patronage over temples indirectly through the priestly class.

Then again, the Hindu “varṇa” system, i.e., social class system based on occupation, is inherently secular. For instance, "brahmaṇa" was a distinct class from "kshatriya". The former class included priests and preachers, while the latter were rulers and warriors.

Thus, de facto separation of religion and ruler-ship or governance in the past was accomplished. Faith expressed itself freely in a multitude of ways. Besides, the dominant faith of the Indian people never had a central seat of power to dictate dogmas that conflict with the sovereignty of the ruler.

The ruler too, on his part, supported all faiths and sampradāyas equally with little or no interference. Further, Sanātana Dharma looks at all beliefs as paths leading to one supreme truth. Hence, there was really no need for the ruler to either intervene in religious affairs or administer religious institutions.

Constitution and Secularism
The incorporation of the term "Secular" in the Constitution has transplanted, or rather, force-fitted an alien concept into a system, which had mutual exclusivity between and segregation of faith and governance. The purpose of its insertion in Article 25(2)(a) of the Constitution was “regulating or restricting...secular activity which may be associated with religious practice”. In other words, the objective was to facilitate, through regulation or restriction, the separation of faith and governance (which is Church and government in the Christian context).

Our founding fathers, with their tremendous collective wisdom, had great clarity in their thought and were gifted with lucidity of expression. They drafted Article 25(2)(a) precisely to empower government for regulating or restricting “economic, financial, political or other secular activity”. The intent was indeed to regulate or restrict: (a) 'economic, financial, political' activities; and, (b) any other secular activity, that is, 'activity that separates government from religion' associated with religious practice.

Under the garb of regulating and restricting various “activities associated with religious practice”, government has been managing and administering Hindu religious institutions. This is just the antithesis of what secularism espouses.

It is unethical...unlawful...and, UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

THE GORY PAST OF SECULARISM IN EUROPE

Historical Origin of the Concept

The concept of "Secularism" is perceived to be a lofty ideal in most democratic nations. However, the evolution of the term has a long history of violence and bloodshed, particularly in Europe where it was conceived. 

The etymological origin of the "Secular" or "Secularism" can be traced to the birth of Christianity. After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, Christianity was spread through his disciples. Despite persecution during the early days, Christianity survived in pockets across Europe. Eventually in the 3^rd Century AD, Emperor Constantine I adopted it as the religion of the Roman Empire.

Main Tenet of Christianity

A fundamental dogma of Christianity is that humans are born in sin, which dates back to the days of mythical Adam and Eve, the couple guilty of committing the “original sin”. The merciful God Almighty sent his only son, Jesus Christ to earth to save humanity. So Lord Jesus redeemed humans by dying for their sins on the cross; he then rose from the dead and joined his Father up in heaven. However, Christianity professes that only baptized Christians can benefit from Jesus’ sacrifice; and, non-Christians will be consigned to eternal hell on Judgment Day.

While Christianity recognizes an afterlife in heaven, the abode and Kingdom of God, it does not believe in rebirth. That Christian tenet inherently implies the existence of two worlds - a physical, temporal world and an incorporeal, spiritual world. This belief was accepted during the Middle Age prior to the Italian Renaissance in the 14^th Century, since the Church and state were intertwined. Heresy was punished under harsh laws of brutal and barbaric torture and death.

The Middle Age

For centuries, many monarchs believed they had a divinely ordained right to rule their kingdoms. At times, they even exercised control over the churches within the boundaries of their respective kingdoms. On the flip side was the Catholic doctrine that the Pope, as the Vicar of Christ on earth, should have the ultimate authority over the Church, and indirectly over kings and their kingdoms. Besides, throughout the Middle Age, the Pope claimed and exercised the right to depose Catholic kings of Western Europe, sometimes successfully, other times not.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, many popes challenged the authority of European monarchies to name or invest bishops of cities and abbots of monasteries. The conflict ended when Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II signed the Concordat of Worms in 1122, which demarcated royal and spiritual powers. The outcome, vesting monarchs with limited authority in ecclesiastical matters, was a victory for Roman pontiff and his claim that he was God's chief representative in the world.

Later, in early 14^th century, Pope Boniface VIII attempted to bring both temporal and spiritual powers under the pope’s jurisdiction. In his Bull of 1302, Unam Sanctum, he stated that since the Church is necessary for salvation, it is absolutely necessary for even rulers to subject themselves to the papacy.

Many European rulers resented the autocratic papal attempt to infringe on “temporal” affairs of the state. So they denounced the move and declared Boniface VIII a heretic. The Pope retaliated by excommunicating the King of France. This infuriated king joined hands with other European rulers and the coalition army launched an attack on Boniface VIII and demanded his resignation. Despite release from captivity after three days, Boniface VIII reportedly committed suicide by bashing his skull against a wall. He was found to have "gnawed through his own arm".

The Protestant Reformation

In the early 16^th Century, some priests like Martin Luther challenged the authority of the Pope. Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses was the fountainhead of the Protestant Reformation. He was an exponent of the Two-Kingdoms Doctrine― to be precise though, he termed it Two-Governments. This doctrine enunciated that the church should not exercise worldly government, and princes should not rule the church or have anything to do with the salvation of souls. Thus, the modern conception of separation of church and state was born.

The attempt of Luther and other priests was to rid the Roman Catholic Church of certain false doctrines, systemic corruption and ecclesiastic malpractices. Protests against papal corruption began in Germany and soon spread to other parts of Europe, eventually culminating in a series of religious wars in Continental Europe between Roman Catholic House of Habsburg and Protestant princes. The Thirty Years’ War ended when the Peace of Westphalia treaties were signed.  

The main tenets of the peace treaties were that: (a) each prince would have the right to determine the religious denomination of his own state, the options being Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism; and, (b) Christians, living in principalities where their ecclesiastical denomination was not the established, were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at will.

The treaties effectively ended the papacy’s pan-European political power. European sovereigns, Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored Pope Innocent X’s protests and diktat against the Peace of Westphalia. Thus, the first step towards segregation of religion and state was taken in the continent.  

The English Reformation began in the late 1520s, when Pope Clement VII’s refused to annul the marriage between King Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon. Infuriated by the Catholic Church’s decision, the King declared himself as the ruler of the new Church of England. The monarchs of England and Great Britain have retained ecclesiastical authority in the Church of England since.

After King Henry VIII usurped ecclesiastical power, strict penal laws were enacted in England against Catholics and other dissenters who did not owe allegiance to the Church of England. To escape the persecution, many dissenters sailed voluntarily to the American Colonies in the hope of religious freedom. Later the Constitution of United States was specifically amended to make it secular by banning the establishment of religion by Congress.

The Age of Enlightenment

The idea that reason, and not blind belief in a ‘revealed truth’, should guide society, began to take root in the 17^th Century. The concept of secularism is often credited to the writings of English philosopher John Locke, who argued that the government lacked authority in the realm of individual conscience, as this was something rational people could not cede to the government for it or others to control.

Enlightenment writers, including Voltaire, often stressed anti-clericalism and attacked the Catholic Church. The idea gained support from the anti-church violence during the French Revolution. This led to the process of separation of Church from state. Such separation is called secularism. The George Jacob Holyoake was the first to coin the term “secularism” in 1851.

Concluding Remarks

As can be seen, a lot of violence and bloodshed has preceded the birth of the concept of "Secularism" in Europe. The 'invention' of the tenet was necessary because of conflicting claims in Europe over the right to rule the subjects of the state. 

Today, most western democracies are ‘secular’, that is, the Church cannot push its agenda through state power. The long and short of it is that secularism implies the exclusion of religion in the running of government. 

Yet ironically, many western democracies still grant Christianity preferential treatment. For example, the German Constitution guarantees that the Christian philosophy is taught in government schools.