Imkong Walling
One of the defining characteristics of India, the country, has been its foundational democratic structure, implying not only a multi-party electoral democracy but also one that steers clear of religiosity. The Indian state embraces secularism, which implies a state that confers no preference to any one religion, one where there is clear distinction between state power and religion. How this idea of secularism plays out in practice can be well recalled from the school textbooks of old, which taught the pupil that the Constitution does not permit public institutions from professing any religion.
A National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbook for class-8 simplifies it further, “The Indian State is not ruled by a religious group and nor does it support any one religion. In India, government spaces like law courts, police stations, government schools and offices are not supposed to display or promote any one religion.”
It also plays the balancing act by allowing liberties like private schools saying a morning prayer, as would be familiar to those who went to private schools in Nagaland, or promotion of devotional content through the broadcast or publishing medium. It is a scheme where legislators have the freedom to express their religious beliefs but one which should not intrude into their governance/legislative functions.
Playing the balancing act is the assumed model, per the Constitution, but, if the current political picture of the country is any indication, separating state and religion is clearly not the agenda of the ruling majority.
Religion was not the basis of India but the recent speech of the Prime Minister on January 22 only helped to build the notion of ‘one nation, one religion.”
A theocracy was certainly not what the founders had in mind but it is looking more like one, albeit, of the elected kind. It is a weird time when an overwhelming majority is supposedly facing an unlikely existential threat from a small minority.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issuing an advisory against spreading “of unverified, provocative and fake messages, in the context of Ram Lalla Pran Pratishtha in Ayodhya,” was weirder when it was evident no one would dare to.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
