MATERIALES HERRAMIENTAS Y EQUIPO

Western secularism is most often referred to by the pithy “separation of church and state”, meaning that religion and state must be confined to their own spheres.216 _The

postcolonial Indian method of nation-building atop a secular foundation attempted to draw upon this principle when constructing the boundaries of a postcolonial government. This involved transferring a system operating in nation-states that had developed over centuries in the particular socio-political milieu of Western Europe to the subcontinent, which had no such background. European state identities and governments, on the other hand, had

gradually accumulated legitimacy among populations in Europe and could thus stand against religious authority, which was not the case in India.217 Lokmanya Tilak, an early leader of the Indian Independence movement, was a strong critic of the notion of forcing Western forms of secular nationalism upon India, as he believed that social change in India had to be based upon ‘Indian’ civilisation’s intrinsic socio-religious beliefs and a healthy respect for past traditions.218

In his book The Legacy of the Lokmanya, he claims that there are three major philosophies of nation and society: the western liberal; the Marxist; and the Indian.219 _As

previously stated, through the Independence movement Hinduism was frequently represented as a binding force that transcended religious boundaries. The idea that Hinduism is a way of life, more than it is a religion, was a key aspect of community building often used even by liberal secularists like Nehru and Gandhi. The long presence of religious diversity in the subcontinent, moreover, has meant that the relationship between state and religion has had to

216 _{Khalidi, “Hinduising India,” 1545.}

217 _{Zaheer Baber, “Religious Nationalism, Violence and the Hindutva Movement in India,” Dialectical}

Anthropology 25, no. 1 (2000): 62.

218 _{N. R. Inamdar, Political Thought and Leadership of Lokmanya Tilak (New Delhi: Concept Publishing} Company, 1983), 75.

56 be one of tolerance and acceptance, rather than rejection of religious principles in legal and bureaucratic structures.220 This thesis therefore uses the term ‘secular’ to refer to the groups of political systems in India which are intended to support and advocate for equal

representation and respect for the diversity of religious traditions.

Ashis Nandy’s ‘hierarchy of secularism’, mentioned in the previous chapter, offers a multilayered approach to viewing different Indian secular models.221 _{Nandy lays out four}

different layers of secularism, particularly in the subcontinent in the postcolonial period. At the top of the hierarchy are, ostensibly, political actors who are not publicly or privately religious believers; Jawaharlal Nehru serves a perfect example of this – indeed, he was occasionally critical of Hinduism and stipulated in his will that he did not want any form of religious funeral.222 Second in this hierarchy are those who are believers in private, but not in public – such as Indira Gandhi. The third rung covers people who are believers in public but not in private. Finally, in Nandy’s scaffold, lie those who are religious in both private and public domains – most notably, Gandhi.223 Nandy argues that Gandhi’s religious tolerance, while manifesting on a legislative level in a similar manner to secularism, was rooted in religious values, and therefore that the Indian construct of secularism is at least partially founded on and based upon acceptance of religious diversity, rather than a separation of religion and state.224 _{Simultaneously, however, Gandhian and Nehruvian secularism as an}

imposed construct relies on members of religious communities diluting their faith, leaving the potential for religious groups to exploit feelings of resentment. John Zavos suggests a

separation of Hindu nationalism and Indian nationalism; the former being an ideology based on religious and ethnic communalism, while the latter is the universalism of Gandhi and

220 _{Pantham, “Indian Secularism and Its Critics,” 526.}

221 _{Nandy, “The Politics of Secularism and the Recovery of Religious Tolerance,” 181.} 222 _{Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism, 43.}

223 _{Nandy, “The Politics of Secularism and the Recovery of Religious Tolerance,” 183.} 224 _{Nandy, 186.}

57 Nehru (albeit rooted in the idea that Hinduism as a religion is all-encompassing).225 _{This, in}

fact, serves as a secondary mythic narrative in Indian independence; that Hinduism is able to transcend itself to consider the beliefs of other religions valid paths to enlightenment, and is thus implicitly superior to other religions which are restricted to one narrative.226

Applauding Hinduism as a rallying point for all Indians provides many opportunities for Hindu religious groups, particularly those of a more conservative bent. In reframing

secularism as an imposed Western ideology promoting tolerance of diverse faiths at the

expense of the supposed Hindu foundation of India, radical Hindu nationalism has been able to develop in its own right despite the continued presence of religious influence in Indian secularism. The BJP has claimed that both the term and the construct of secularism in India has been used to “…denigrate the Hindu categories and symbols of the majority community and justify the pampering of the minority communities.”227 “According to Nandy, the ideology of Hindu nationalist revivalism or fundamentalism borrows from the models of Semitic religions and of the modern Western nation-state, and is therefore “another form of Westernisation”.”228 _{Nandy’s model of Indian nationalism as conceptualised by Gandhi and}

Nehru was the basis of the Indian National Congress (INC)’s vision for national identity. Based on unity of Indians regardless of caste, religion, or creed under a sense of national identity, ‘Indian secularism’ therefore stands as an inclusive model in opposition to the

Hindutva focus on Hinduism as the fundamental core of India’s history, culture, and future.

The self-inflicted weakness of the INC model of secularism has given Hindutva supporters the chance to make their own space in the crafting of postcolonial Indian identity, based on the exclusion of those opposed to a strict interpretation of Indian identity and history as

225 _{Zavos, “Searching for Hindu Nationalism in Modern Indian History,” 2272.}

226 _{Aiyar, “Secularism, Atheism, Agnosticism,” 124; Padhy, “Secularism and Justice,” 5028.} 227 _{Pantham, “Indian Secularism and Its Critics,” 528.}

58 inextricably wound up with Hinduism.229 _{This thesis focuses on this process of exclusion as}

used by Hindu nationalists and Hindu nationalist organisations such as the BJP, in order to establish political mechanisms in the Indian nation-state which ensure that minorities and the disempowered are forced to either abide by a strict vision of ‘the nation’, or otherwise to be invalidated and subjugated.