What does it mean for a religious person to be "secular"?

[Shivam]

pranAm.

I had a question popping in my head...

If "Secular" means non-interference of religion on "Public" , "State" and "Sovereign" relations

How can a religious person "P1" of religion "R1",when dealing with other religious person "P2" of religion "R2", be a secular person, If both are talking about religion ?

[wundermonk]

Secularism is a much-abused term in India. The people who talk about it in Indian media/public life do not have any clue what they are going on about.

Actually, it should mean that the government and all its arms - legislative arm, executive arm, public-policy arm, etc. - are completely blind towards the religious affiliation of its citizens. Whether the population is 100% Hindu or 100% Buddhist, the government should not care and the same set of laws should apply.

This is not there in India.

In India, secularism means Hindu bashing and ONLY Hindu bashing.

[Shivam]

Secularism is a much-abused term in India. The people who talk about it in Indian media/public life do not have any clue what they are going on about.

Actually, it should mean that the government and all its arms - legislative arm, executive arm, public-policy arm, etc. - are completely blind towards the religious affiliation of its citizens. Whether the population is 100% Hindu or 100% Buddhist, the government should not care and the same set of laws should apply.

This is not there in India.

In India, secularism means Hindu bashing and ONLY Hindu bashing.

so,should it be said that "India is a poly-communal state with Minority- biased Centered-wing Government Which is camouflaging as secular"?...

[Jainarayan]

Namaste.

If "Secular" means non-interference of religion on "Public" , "State" and "Sovereign" relations

I can't speak about any country other than the US, which is a secular nation, fitting your definition above. There is no state religion in the US, nor can there be, per the US Constitution. Anyone, however, is free to practice religion freely.

How can a religious person "P1" of religion "R1",when dealing with other religious person "P2" of religion "R2", be a secular person, If both are talking about religion ?

We do it all the time in the course of conversation. Yet, rational and reasonable people in the US know where the line is between civil and secular law, and religious practice and freedom.

I hope that gives some idea of the difference.

[McKitty]

In India, secularism means Hindu bashing and ONLY Hindu bashing.

Vanakkam,

I didn't knew it was like this in India ! Of course securalism is not like this at all. It's the exact countrary of stigmatizing a religious communauty !


JaiNarayanji summurized it very good, it's the same in France. There are laws here forbidding the showing of religious symbols in school for exemple. A muslim girl cannot go to school with burka, or a christian boy cannot go to the school wearing a big christian prayer beads around his neck.
At work it varies, but in many important industries, it's forbidden too.

So use is, you cannot be discriminated for your beliefs, and you cannot discriminate others on their beliefs.

In my country, religious beliefs are very personnal. Meaning that if a co worker is a heavy christian, he will not come to you and talk openly about his faith. Unless a debate or dicussion about this is open. It's not very polite forcing a conversation about your religion into others, especially if they are from another religion or atheists.

As for the discussion, well...A scular person (a normal person with an actual fonctionnal brain, there are idiots everywhere) will take this in two manners: he don't care. Or he take this as an interesting way to know more about another cultural background.


Aum Namah Shivaya

[IcyCosmic]

To me secularization of religion means (personally) that a Imam must say 'I care for all humans' not just muslims, and a priest must say 'I care for all humans' not just christianity. That should be the true secularization of religion; however secularization is such a broad concept with so many subbranching seeds of thought that there are more popular beliefs like using a scientific method of reasonining and removing religion from societal norms

[PARAM]

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Sadly what wundermonk said is truth.

[McKitty]

Vanakkam Param,

Then I am very sad to see that your politicians does not seem to know what is really secularism. As I said, absolutely not a meaning to do harm to religious persons. Secularism is not getting rid of culture and religion, it's putting religion on the backside to concentrate on more important things and to make everyone equal in education, work, in front of their boss, religiously speaking.
For exemple, a politician that is christian cannot be honest to muslim or hindu people in his country if he do his job only following the rules of his religion and not for the good of everyone.

I am not sure, however, if it could work in India ! I'm not saying "secularism is so good, India should do the same as us!" I'm NOT saying this AT ALL, don't worry.
I mean that religion is so much in India and in each Hindu culture, it's not only following rules, it's following a way to be, to think, to evolve. And I don't think it would be good to put religion on the background, as it really lead life. I mean...Some people wouldn't understand I think and take this as a bad thing.

But I think in politics, politicians should think about being good to every communauties...In my country there is no hindu/christian/muslim/atheist minorities in politics, when the president or the governement talk, they talk to "french" people, like a unity, even if we have huge christian and muslim communities in our country, they are included into this one term.

So, I think in politics, even good or bad politicians shouldn't care about religion...
But in life, it's the choice of individuals

But I don't want to fool anyone: my country is not perfect, there are also huge problems, and I can assure you our politics is not better than any other...Politics is a foul game between people that are not fully honest. I found myself too honest to play or get involved in those kind of game that is politics...regardless of the country

They should think about defining secularism before doing harm to India...

Aum Namah Shivaya

[PARAM]

Vanakkam Param,

Then I am very sad to see that your politicians does not seem to know what is really secularism. As I said, absolutely not a meaning to do harm to religious persons. Secularism is not getting rid of culture and religion, it's putting religion on the backside to concentrate on more important things and to make everyone equal in education, work, in front of their boss, religiously speaking.
For exemple, a politician that is christian cannot be honest to muslim or hindu people in his country if he do his job only following the rules of his religion and not for the good of everyone.

I am not sure, however, if it could work in India ! I'm not saying "secularism is so good, India should do the same as us!" I'm NOT saying this AT ALL, don't worry.
I mean that religion is so much in India and in each Hindu culture, it's not only following rules, it's following a way to be, to think, to evolve. And I don't think it would be good to put religion on the background, as it really lead life. I mean...Some people wouldn't understand I think and take this as a bad thing.

But I think in politics, politicians should think about being good to every communauties...In my country there is no hindu/christian/muslim/atheist minorities in politics, when the president or the governement talk, they talk to "french" people, like a unity, even if we have huge christian and muslim communities in our country, they are included into this one term.

So, I think in politics, even good or bad politicians shouldn't care about religion...
But in life, it's the choice of individuals

They should think about defining secularism before doing harm to India...

Aum Namah Shivaya

Your views are free from ignorance, but in India this will be considered as personal view and not secular views. Politicians want secure seats for power, and secure votes are made on "divide and rule". Jihadists are involved in this, and many political parties support their movement.

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam

secularism is corrupt to the core and it is heavily loaded against Hindus.A simple example;

It starts with education, the very foundation of our tradition is dismantle in order to be secular.

Traditional way of learning our alphabet has been changed in the name of being politically correct. take for example Ganesh and Sarswati two fundamental principle of learning gets replaced. Instead of G for Ganesh which can not be used instead many other variants like G for Gadha an ass. no wonder we are being made an ass here. S for sarswati, no you can not have that.

Jai Shree Krishna