By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net,
Last July, a meeting of Rajasthan Minority Commission started with lighting lamps in front of a photo of Vagdevi, the goddess of learning. Rajasthan has declared Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Parsis as minorities and none of these light lamps before Vagdevi. Then what was the need to worship a Hindu deity in a Minority Commission’s meeting? To many who have seen all government functions begin with lighting of lamps, this comes not as a surprise.
Dr. Omar Khalidi, author of famous books ‘Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India’ and ‘Muslims in Indian Economy,’ will argue that examples like this put serious question mark to India calling itself a secular state. In an interview with TwoCircles.net, Dr. Khalidi has argued that merely stating that state respects and follows the dictum of the Indian Constitution that India is a secular state is not enough, it has to be seen in the daily working of the state as well.
Unfortunately The process of saffronization of fuctions under the aegis state began in the time of Nehru itself. Every function of the Ministry of Education begins with Saraswati vandana (Homage to the Hindu deity of education). How can a secular state invoke a deity of any religion, asks Dr. Khalidi?
Dr. Omar Khalidi recalled the protest by the then Andhra Pradesh Education Minister K. Pratibha Bharathi, a Dalit woman, when Saraswati vandana was recited at the state education minister’s meet in 1998.
Muslim personalities are being removed from our textbooks, Islamic principles are being caricatured. Hinduism is being privileged at the expense of other religions and philosophies. There ought to be a strict separation of church and the state in a diverse society like India, points Dr. Khalid. The statement that India is a secular state must be judged against its performance.
What is wrong with showing respect to the majority religion?
The statement that India is a Hindu majority state needs to be questioned. We know that Hindus are a majority in India because census tells us that, but a close reading of census methodology will lead us to seriously question that notion.
Census of India treats everyone who is not Muslim, Christian, Sikh, and Buddhists as Hindu. This includes atheists, agnostics, those who have no religion and those like tribals who do not have organized religion. This methodology artificially boosts the number of Hindus. Census, as an institution of the state, needs to be neutral, says Dr. Omar Khalidi. Census should accurately reflect the diversity that exists in India. For example, Dalits who are outside the caste of Hindus should not be counted as Hindus. Their counting artificially boosts the number of Indians practicing or following Hindu religion. Thus manufacturing a majority where none exist and serving the interests of the Hindutva.
Dr. Khalidi says that we need to bring the caste enumeration back into census so that we have an accurate picture of the Indian community. This will show us that there is no one group that is in majority; rather we are a nation of minorities.
Giving reference to his book “Khaki and the Ethnic Violence,” Dr. Khalidi said that some institutions of the state actively discriminate against certain religious categories. For example, Indian armed forces to this day recruit people on the basis of “martial races” that exclude Muslims. There is a Sikh regiment, Rajput regiment, Maratha regiment, Gurkha regiment but not a Muslim regiment. Dr. Khalidi says: either abolish these regiments or create a Muslim regiment, Christian, Parsi as well.
A start can be made by starting Minority Commission’s meeting without any religious ceremony. Since Minority commission is a public institution and comes under the definition of State it can not follow the Hindu way of starting its functions violating Articles 25-28 of the Constitution of India.