The last couple of days have presented themselves with a gamut of emotions.
A question repeatedly surfacing “Is this a SECULAR India”
“Is this the India that Gandhiji envisioned”
It took me quite a while to understand the English word SECULAR and why everyone makes such a big deal of it?
Its like a new fad of diet- keto diet,fasting diet, liquid diet, gluten free diet, nuts free dir, fruitarian diet, vegetables diet, avocado diet, water-no salt diet and list is unforgivably long.
I remember reading the Constitution in my college and it read,
“We are a sovereign,socialist,secular,democratic republic ..”
other than memorizing these “English” words, I never thought of their meaning in any context.
I understood “Socialism” on one my solo trips to USA when I struggled to catch “a decent overnight bus from Chicago to New York”
The fact that a 16 hour journey neither had a government run train service or a bus service between such important cities.
The fact that lobbyists in USA spun the American dream. From gun laws to owning a car to having a +ve credit score, its all part of this imaginary constitutional web that the CAPITALIST society has found its base on.
No judgement there, just plain observation.
You see I could travel anywhere to anywhere in my country with either a government run train/bus. I truly respected the importance of being a citizen of the socialist country.
Moving On,
On May 20th, TIMES released a cover article called Narendra Modi “India’s Divider in Chief” singing “he is merely politician who has failed to deliver, seeking re-election whatever else might be said about the election, hope is off the menu”
And honestly I bought the tune!! I thought maybe what I felt isn’t enough maybe there is a greater arc that I don’t see, that I don’t comprehend, that I haven’t got it all right.
And re-thinking democracy, freedom, the highest ideals of government and leadership.
And then came the resounding election results on 23rd May and what a victorious victory.
What a mandate given by my fellow Indians.
This was the day I understood the meaning of DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC in the Constitution.
Now coming to the most important English word of the constitutions (or so it seems) that is marketed more than Cola/Pepsi -SECULARISM.
To be uninformed or be entirely on one’s mercy is no way to live, so began my quest for Secularism.
Some examples that spoke of secularism were when the US of A preferred the term happy Holidays to that of Merry Chrismas.
In West Bengal, there was a litigation against the government in aiding the PUJA PANDALS monetarily from the state funds saying it was “non-secular”
Apparently, secularism is acceptance of all on an equal basis! But here it feels more like an appeasement of certain minority community(not all minorities, mind you), anyways when I kept making a deeper exploration about this idea of equality, I remembered the shlok from Sanskrit scriptures
ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः < Om, May All be Happy >
सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः । < May All be Free from Illness >
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु < May All See what is Auspicious >
मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् । < May no one Suffer >
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ < Om Peace, peace, Peace >
We are Secular not because its in the constitution, but because its in our culture! Period.
END OF DISCUSSION !!
Grazia & Salute,
Sonam Powar
Grazia & Salute 