When different cultures and communities exist within the same country, how should a democratic state ensure equality for each of them? Secularism is a religion, a religion that is understood. It has no mysteries, no ceremonies, no falsehoods, no miracles, and no persecutions. In Europe throughout the Middle Ages, religious people had a strong inclination to disregard earthly problems and focus on God and the hereafter. As a counter to this mediaeval trend, secularism manifested itself in the growth of humanism during the Renaissance, when people began to show more interest in human creative achievements and the prospects of their completion in this world. In India, the idea of secularism is ever present in public debates and discussions, yet there is something very perplexing about the state of secularism in India. On the one hand, almost every politician swears by it. Every political party professes to be secular. On the other hand, all kinds of anxieties and doubts beset secularism in India. Secularism is challenged not only by clerics and religious nationalists but by some politicians, social activists and even academics.

Ashkeen Shajahan

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