LIBERAL SECULARISM AND INDIAN SECULARISM

Secularism is a heated debate of all time, from the history of Religious autonomy to the new modern era of principled distance and "Sarva Dharma Sambhava". before understanding secularism, we need to understand religion, religion is a sense of belongingness, where individual try to find themselves and generate spirituality through tangible and intangible objects, like Hindu worship idol tangible objects with feeling in it, Muslim worship Allah without any Idol both has the same feeling of belongingness and spirituality and these feelings are always above everything, no one wanted to compromise on these practices. 

Now comes to the state, as earlier in the social contract theory of Hobbes and Locke which tried to understand the formation of the state on the basis of the social contract and general will, where state and society come together with a contract, then the question arose, Was Religion missing in that contract? My answer is NO because State itself was a religious institution which means State was never different from religion, in India if we talked about the ancient Indian State from "Mahajanpada" to the Maurayan empire to the Gupta empire all state had their religion, some promote Jainism, some Hinduism and some Buddhism, So we can say the state was never isolated from religion, but in the modern era where different sects and sub-sects are available, it is very hard to maintain equality and promote harmony, while India is a great and exceptional example of Balancing Secularism and multiculturalism derived from Gandhi theory of "Sarva Dharma Sambhava".

Liberal Notion of secularism and Gandhi :

Liberal notion of secularism where each individual has full autonomy and freedom of religion, state neutrality and wall of total separation where state would not interfere in religious activities. However Gandhi believes in “Sarva Dharma Samabhava”, which is more incline toward multi-religion state which gives equality to all religion and interference could be possible between state and religion, state should be obliged to all religion.

Gandhi’s theory of religion is evolved from liberal thought, where freedom of religion and equality is common but Gandhi has little bit differ from Liberal notion:

1. Gandhi believes in every religion and talked about spirituality while liberal only believe autonomy of an individual to take religion and not believe in multiple religion should be followed by one person.

2. Gandhi thought of religion as spirituality that every religion guides a way of living and duty of an individual but for atheist Gandhi has no theory or thought but liberal notion believes, oneself has autonomy to choose what one wants either atheism or theism.

3. Gandhi believe of thoughts promote equality, harmony and co-operation in all religion and state has role to maintain this cooperation and equality. While in liberal notion total separation is between religion and state.

Liberal Notion of Secularism and Rajeev Bhargava’s Principled Distance:

India is nation where diversity is enriched in every corner and same in religion, Due to diversity in religion in India it is very tough for state to do justice and engage equally in every religion continuously. Bhargava suggest the principled distance policy which defines flexible approach to involve state in religion, which means inclusion/exclusion of religion and engagement/disengagement of state is balanced and a distance maintained by state on time to time.

Differential Treatment suggests by Bhargava, which means state treated religion according to their on differential terms and norms, state’s intervention in religion should be in equal degree to all religions.

1. Bhargava concept of principled distance and differential treatment is different from the liberal notion of secularism where Bhargava agree on some interaction between state and religions, while the liberal notion of religion where state is totally isolated from religion.

2. if we look closely liberal notion of secularism itself act as institutionalized, like Christianity in west, western notion of liberal secularism where state is separated from religion but religion itself is well institutionalized and acts as authoritarianism.

3. Indian secularism on other hand is decentralized in multiple religions and it is very common to see the interaction between these religions, the interaction could be positive and negative both.

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