Secularism - Brand India

Sometimes I wonder, living in pluralistic religious society like ours (India), can Secularism (disassociated with all religions) do REAL justice in it's original form. Let's see the definition first:

Secularism is the assertion that governmental practices or institutions should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs. (wikipedia).

Secularism in India

Unfortunately, the way Secularism is implemented in India is - by giving special privileges to "minority" religions. This concept of minority and majority in itself defeats the purpose of creating equality among people. Also, since privileges are given based on religion of a person - it clearly contradicts the definition of Secularism. Therefore, we have to STOP this kind of secularism so we can maintain JUSTICE among our citizens.

Infact, the very definition of Secularism is antithesis of what India always stood for - the SPIRITUALISM. In this light, we need to redefine secularism in Indian context that can keep spirituality of our country which we have maintained for more than 5,000 years inspite of all the circumstances. India was always a multi-cultural society and I believe until 700 AD we never had any war or crusades on the name of religion. While in the West, the major monotheism based religions were fighting among each other for the supremacy, in India there were many sects and religions coexisting peacefully - Shaiviks, Vaishnavs, Budhhists, Jains, other tribes Even Budhhism (largest religion at the time of Ashoka), was spread out of India without any battles or crusades. Interestingly, there was no religion by name of HINDUISM. 

THE SECRET

It is very well known that there were multiple views of Gods in vedic times and it can be guessed that they all must be fighting for their supremacy just like what we are seeing nowadays, so how did they manage to coexist peacefully. The secret lies in the shloka of a Rig Veda 

Indram mitráṃ váruṇam agním āhur / átho divyáḥ sá suparṇó garútmān

ékaṃ sád víprā bahudhâ vadanty / agníṃ yamám mātaríśvānam āhuḥ

"They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni / and he is heavenly nobly-winged Garutman."

"To what is One, sages give many a title / they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan." 

I believe this shloka was written to create unity among all the different sects in ancient India.

So, all the sects were assimilated under Sanatana Dharma (or atleast they followed the principle), that provided its followers with an entire way of life and with a coherent and rational view of reality. 

Sanatana Dharma is an ancient philosophical concept of India. As propounded in various scriptures, Its attributes, include characteristics such as: rationality, sense of duty, justice, peace, truthfulness, compassion, non-violence, rectitude, humanity, spirituality, tolerance, ethics, service to others, and philanthropy. It is not about following rituals or having blind faiths.

Dharma is in harmony with nature. Nature's rules are such that flowers do not run after bees, but bees come flying to flowers. The point of Dharma is that you become a bee, not an insect. Only then can you take advantage of the scent and beauty of the flora.

CONCLUSION:

Dharma is a hybrid corpus within the body of which many different opinions, even the contradictory ones, can coexist peacefully with one another. Dharma thus truly symbolizes universal values of humanism and can form the basis of global ethics. So, why not we start an experiment in India and make India a DHARMA nation. I welcome your comments.