Communalism
What's "secularism"? by S Sen in whats app
There're various models available.
In the UK, the head of the state is also the head of the church; yet it's, generally, considered secular and, in fact, that image tallies with the daily life experience of the citizens, in general, and the followers of minority faiths in particular.
In the US, the President takes oath on the Bible.
The official speeches, quite often, end with the exhortation: God bless America!
In India, "secularism" is meant to have, mainly, two dimensions:
(i) equality in the eyes of law and
(ii) respect for plurality in public space.
It doesn't mean denigration of religion - an unavoidable evil, and limiting its scope, in public space, to the minimum.
To my mind, right at this moment, we have to direct our energies towards defending pluralism.
Kavita Krishnan's text has done precisely that.
The fight for women's rights have to be conducted in unison.
In fact, we've so many fights to fight.
At a given moment which of these would be foregrounded would depend on the specific context.
Abetted By State Govt, Hindu Group In Himachal Pradesh Burns Crops, Demands Eviction Of Muslim Tribe https://article-14.com/post/abetted-by-state-govt-hindu-group-in-himachal-pradesh-burns-crops-demands-eviction-of-muslim-tribe-620c68c3c8191 KAPIL KAJAL 16 Feb 2022
Muslim Gujjars are a scheduled tribe, legally and constitutionally protected from eviction from their traditional forest land. Himachal’s Gujjars—who do not follow many Islamic practices, such as hijabs for women and praying five times a day—were notified as a scheduled tribe 55 years ago in 1966.
The ripping out of electricity meters and burning of cow sheds are part of a campaign launched against the Gujjars of Indora on the instigation of the VHP, which alleged a “land jihad”—an unsubtantiated trope often used by Hindu extremists and media that support them—via encroachments on pastures.
No display of deities, religious texts in govt offices, says Maharashtra government Jan 25, 2017 https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-no-display-of-deities-religious-texts-in-govt-offices-says-maharashtra-government-2296147 A govt circular bans celebration of religious festivals, pujas, deities pictures and symbols in govt and semi-govt offices as it is against the provisions of the Constitution.
Why we need to revisit Shivaji’s idea of Hindu culture G N Devy jan 18, 2022 https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/shivajis-idea-of-hindu-culture-history-and-prejudice-7726717/ Text available at https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/shivajis-idea-of-hindu-culture-history-and-prejudice-7726717/
Shivaji celebrated Mughal rulers, had a cosmopolitan idea of India – unlike the Hindutva warriors we need to mute on TV.
Write Devy: I am aware that the present dispensation will not like Shivaji Maharaj’s analysis that Akbar was called “jagatguru” by people because he protected all, irrespective of their religion. Those who assassinated Pansare in 2015 did not like his description of Shivaji as a ruler interested in the welfare of all, irrespective of their faith. He quotes from the 1657 letter from Shivaji to Aurangzeb challenging the infamous jizya tax, “The Quran is a Heavenly Book. It is God’s utterance. It commands that God belongs to all Musalmans and, in fact, the entire world.” And further: “In masjids, it is He who is prayed to. In temples, it is He for whom the bells are tolled.”
Current Hindutva ideology is trying hard to establish that Hinduism is not the tolerant co-existence of faiths as Shivaji had interpreted or a way of life that acknowledges Ishwar and Allah as essentially the same. Going by the articulation of violence sought to be unleashed by the “dharam sansads” and the semi-official theorising of civil society as weaponry planted by the enemy, it is clear that Narendra Modi’s vishwaguru nation fantasy is poles apart from Shivaji’s idea of a jagatguru-ruler who professes no dharma but the raj dharma.
The RSS ideology of Hindutva, apart from being militaristic, is obsessed with tendentious historiography that sets aside all established scientific methods of reading the past and brings in untenable and wild pronouncements as historical truth.
It hitches together two entirely unrelated postulates. One relates to the question of the origin and spread of Sanskrit, the other relates to the Indus Valley civilisation. All available linguistic and archaeological evidence shows that there was no Sanskrit in India prior to the Vedas and our Indus Valley ancestors had no link with Sanskrit, half a millennium before its first appearance in India. The calendar also brings into the frame Adolf Hitler, without forgetting to mention that Hitler was “elected to power”. It asserts that the Vedic civilisation is the alpha and omega of Indian civilisation.
The concocted historical narrative and militant view of religion make this loud brand of Hindutva go against all that the Indian traditions of thought and spirituality hold precious in Buddha and Basaveshwara, in Kabir and Gandhi, in Charvaka and Ambedkar.
OPEN THE COLLEGE GATES, LET MUSLIM WOMEN STUDY!
https://twitter.com/BebaakCollectiv/status/1489961011214168064?s=20&t=B9NWHSMrPoxQ6BlISZ4aQQ
Bebaak Collective We strongly condemn the decision of several colleges in Karnataka to prevent the entry of women students into educational spaces due to their wearing of a hijab. This is one more addition to the aggressive policing of minorities that has become normalised under BJP. From the banning of beef, the disruption of people offering namaz, the passing of an anti-conversion law and passing the CAA-NRC-NPR, the majoritarian Hindu government in the Centre is going to every length to stoke communal tensions and discriminate against the democratic rights of Muslims in India.
We fully support the protesting women students in Karnataka, whose right to education cannot be denied based upon their religious identity and expression. Such actions deeply harm the plural nature of educational spaces and push people into separate educational institutions based upon their religion.
In the context of today’s highly Islamophobic political climate instigated by right-wing groups, the assertion of wearing a hijab becomes a symbol of maintaining the right to a minority religious identity, and displaying that right in a public manner. Therefore, the struggle of Muslim women to wear a hijab in educational and public spaces must be seen as a brave struggle against the diktats of those in power. In order to counter the onslaught on their rights, communities on the margin have mobilised themselves on the basis of their identity.
The struggle for the right to wear a hijab in India exists along with the struggle of many women to not wear a hijab or a burqa. The women’s movement has engaged with the question of gender equality, women’s autonomy from family and community, and the use of women’s bodies as markers of religious identity for all communities.
While there are many differing opinions on the subject, the fundamental difference is this- nowhere, in these conversations about reform, choice and freedom, does the option of the State or external agencies imposing rules on women’s bodies emerge as a progressive option. When women struggle against the wearing of a burqa due to their own internal critique of the community and religious practices, this has an entirely different significance. The decision about wearing or not wearing a hijab or burqa must come from Muslim women themselves, who have to negotiate a complex world between a majoritarian Hindu State and their own vilified community and public spaces.
We call upon all the colleges in Karnataka who have closed their doors to Muslim women students to open them again and take back their unjust rules.
-Bebaak Collective
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