On 8/3/11 8:50 PM August 3, 2011, ss wrote:
I find something fake and contrived about Indians talking secularism. I am
reminded of an event held in schools called a "mock UN" in which teams of
schoolchildren purport to represent various nations. The same Indian kids are
seen making impassioned speeches on behalf of Congo, China or Russia.
In India, when a man with a Hindu name like Subramanyam Swamy writes a rabid
article attacking the holy cow of Indian secularism, the counter arguments in
India must come from other Hindus. Counter arguments from non Hindus don't cut
it in India because there is an assumed bias attributed to their viewpoint.
But this whole "secularism" debate is an oddly Indian phenomenon - and I would
be curious to find out how many nations with a significant minority religion
spend a great deal of effort in which the members of the majority religion
squabble among themselves about the need to be secular.
The question of secularism does not arise at all in an Islamic nation, so
those countriees can be ruled out in one go. Communist China has no debate on
secularism because anyone of any religion has to keep his had down.
Western nations with a predominantly Christian background seem to look at
secularism more in terms of separation of various Christian denominations from
state affairs.
In many Western nations, there is also a suspicion of Catholicism and/or
Protestantism, either of which is usually viewed as the major minority
religion.
In the US, there is still serious discussion over whether it is
dangerous to elect a Catholic to public office. Catholics are seen as
obedient to the Pope, and people will argue that a person cannot serve
two masters. The argument is basically that mere Catholicness is enough
to unfit a person for secular governance. There is also uneasiness with
this argument, because there is supposed to be no test of religion for
public office, although clearly you would not want to install anyone
with theocratic tendencies in public office.
This is the same argument that is used to question the fitness of
Moslems serving in public office.
There is hardly any debate about whether Hindus are being
mollycoddled and being given an unfair advantage by the majority religious
communities in these countries (AFAIK). There is however some debate about
Islamophobia. Perhaps this is because in most of the "Christian west" the only
large minority religion outside of various Christian denominations is Islam.
I'm scratching my head at this because I would say that if there was
"only" one large minority religion in the "Christian west," it would be
Judaism. This was true historically in most of Europe and is still true
in the US and Canada.
In the US and Canada, Judaism is the largest non-Christian religion,
coming in at 1.2% of the population. In Canada, Islam comes in next, at
0.9% and Buddhism, Sikkhism, and Hinduism come in about even at 0.6%,
0.6%, and 0.5%. In the US, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism come in closer
at 0.6%, 0.5%, and 0.4%.
This fits my own perception that, in my part of the world, the third
minority religion would be Japanese Buddhism.
But as far as i know - it is only in India here there are big debates where
the members of the majority religion are debating with each other as to
whether they are secular enough or not.
This is definitely true in the US as well, and might also be true in Canada.
--
Heather Madrone (heat...@madrone.com)
http://www.sunsplinter.blogspot.com
Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance
like no one is watching.
- Randall G Leighton
