Author: Mihir Chandra, III year of B.A.,LL.B. from Babu Banarasi Das University, Lucknow
More than half of the population living on this planet are performing their religious practices in a particular religion. When a person is born in a particular religion he will be raised according to the culture of that religion. Religious identity has been attached which can be seen in their surname or their name as well. If someone dives down to the bottom line of the purpose of religion in someone’s life then you will be at a stage knowing that its main objective is to establish peace and harmony between the people living in a territory. Time passed and now we are in the 21st century where freedom of doing a thing is becoming the choice of the people including their religious upliftment but in the modern era where the people are more educated than in the past are facing religious intolerance between two groups or several depending upon the situation.
If we take the example of Unified India before 1947 when came to know that the main reason for the partition of India was the Religion of Hindus and Muslims. They together fought for their independence but due to religious intolerance, they got final partition results in India and Pakistan. Still, these two countries struggle to maintain coordination and good diplomatic relation for themselves.
In modern India, In Gujarat, religious violence between Hindus and Muslims erupted in September and October 1969. The bloodshed between Hindus and Muslims was the worst since India's 1947 division. The rioting included Dalit neighbours attacking Muslim chawls. Over the course of a week, there was further bloodshed, and a month later, riots resumed. Over 48,000 people lost property, 660 individuals (430 Muslims and 230 Hindus) perished, and 1074 people were wounded. This shows two scenarios: one is for those who really wanted to protect their religious identity and the second they think that their religion is supreme and no one is above that. If we clearly try to find the perfect answer then looking up to the present scenario the second option will be fitted.
When we look past now, we would ponder how the people enjoy their religious freedom with little or no restriction. Problems were there but not like today’s era where people are born ready to take the life of other people only on the view that their religion is supreme. All the evidence and researches on human physiology suggest that there is a change in the attitude and the ego of the human being not just in their religion but in their life as well. People are now becoming more self-concentric and comparable with others. Everyone loves to be praised by another because everyone likes dignity full life. The same instinct is followed in religion also. In past decades, people concentrated only on rituals and rights for themselves and while practising their religious rights they are not showing off but instead they doing that in privacy. With the change in the attitude of the people now everything is about drawing the attention of the people so for that reason now most religious practices are just in showing nature. Even in every religious book God never says to cut off or chop off people just for the superiority of a particular religion. There is no religion without humans.
The concept of secularism comes with great management power for different religion, a nation may establish secular form of state just by allowing every religion to practice their practices without any interference unless the procedure establish by law and also one must not interfere in one personal belief. If according to this definition one must ponder about India stand then looking from the current situation, we can say that India is secular country but with many falls.
In countries like America, U.K and Canada people living there fight for their economic right and for equality, but in India still people want their religion to be best and fight for that leaving behind important struggle like economic stability and proper environment. No doubt apart from religion India holds many caste-based people and different mindset but the focal point of this is still people in any field focuses or prefer their religion or caste than others.
This is the reason for economic backwardness of many castes and if this problem would be solved then there is no required for any reservation to promote backward class of the people.
One might attain the concept of secularism just by keeping their ego aside and focuses on their development which comprises economic stability and own personality development.