NAME- AZEEM PARVEZ

B.A. LL.B (REG.)

ENROLLMENT NO. - 201901946

SECULARISM

The term Secular means being separate from religion,or having no

religious basis. A secular person is one who does not owe his moral values to

any religion. His values are the product of his rational and scientific thinking.

Secularism means separation of religion from political, economic, social and

cultural aspects of life, religion being treated as a purely personal matter. It

emphasized dissociation of the state from religion and full freedom to all

religions and tolerance of all religions. It also stands for equal opportunities

for followers of all religions, and no discrimination and partiality on grounds

of religion.

There is also an another meaning of secularism which deals with

political and legal practices in many countries. In democratic countries

governed by the rule of law it is common at the constitutional level or at the

highest law level to recognise freedom of religion or belief and to declare

some sort of separation between state and constitutionalized belief, religion,

ideologies, etc. It may be also proper to say that according to second

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meaning of secularism there are some proxies or different forms to translate

secularism into law. 1

First, secularism is a stance to be taken about religion. At the level of

generality with just described it with the help of ,meriem webster ,it does not

say anything very specific or precise. The imprecision and generality have

two sources. One obvious reason is that religion , regarding which it is

supposed to take a stance , is itself , notoriously, not a very precise or

understood phenomenon. But to the extent that we have a notion of religion

in currency ‘secularism’ will have a parasitic meaning partially elaborated

as a stance regarding whatever that notion stands for.

Second, for all this generality just noted ‘ secularism’ unlike secular

and seculazation is quite specific in another regard. It is the name of a

political doctrine. As a name, it may not always have had this restriction, but

it seems to be its predominant current usage. So to the extent that it takes a

stance vis a vis religion , it does so in the realm of polity. It is not meant as

the term as secular and secularization are to mark highly general and

dispersed social and intellectual and cultural phenomenon and processes.

Now I want to turn from features that defines or characterize

secularism to the features of its justification and basis of adoption. In a paper

written in days immediately following the fatwa pronounced against Salman

Rushdie called “What a muslim?”2 I had argued that secularism had no

justification that did not appeal to substantive values, that is to say , values

1
Johari, J. C. (2009), Principles of Modern Political Science (Greater Noida: Sterling Publishers Pvt.Ltd.)
2
Myneni, S. R. (2008), Political Science (Faridabad: Allahabad Law Agency)

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that some may hold and ohers may not because values and ethics varies from

person o person and culture to culture. I had invoked the notion , coined by

Bernard Williams as ‘internal reasons’ to describe these kinds of grounds on

which its justification is given. 3Internal reasons are reason that rely on

specific motives and values and commitment in the moral psychologies of

that motivate people. If secularism were to carry conviction.,it would have to

be on grounds that persuaded people by appealing to the specific and

substantive values that figure in their specific moral psychological

economies. Such a view might cause alarm in those who would wish for

secularism a more universal basis. Internal reasons for such basis do not

provide such a basis.

Charles Taylor convincingly argued that in a religiously plural

society secularism should be adopted on the basis of what Rawls called an

‘overlapping concensus’.4 An overlapping concensus in Rawls understanding

of that term is a concensus for some policy that is arrived at by people with

very different point of view and therefore on possibly very d if free grounds

from each other. In modern society, we seek various goods and the three in

particular that remain relevant to secular aspirations are the liberty of

worship, the equality of different faiths and finally more than just equality

we need to give each faith a voice in determining the shape of the society. So

there should be some fraternal relations within which negotiations with each

voice being equally heard, is crucial. All this is now included in the idea and

ideal of a redefined secularism.

3
Bernard Williams, Internal and external reasons(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1981)
4
Rajeev Bhargawa (Ed.), “Secularism and its critics” (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998)

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 There is the importance of the state maintaining a neutrality and

equal distance from each religion. There is the importance of the society

allowing the democratic participation of all religious voices in shaping its

polity commitments. With this there will be a cultural diversity in the society

and maintains the respect for all the religions. The society which will follow

will emerge as a better one as compared to that who is not following it. As it

happened once and again in the legal sphere, we face her an initial problem

related with language and meanings. Secularism is a word which is

associated with other terms such as secular, secularisation, neutrality and

laicite. And I think it is fair to say that the meaning of these is not completely

clear and that it depends on scholars, preferences and on the language we use.

Secularism is very different from Atheism. Atheism is a lack of belief in

Gods and Secularism is simply provides a framework for a democratic

society.

Nowadays, secularism in state laws and politics confronts

important challenges that is difficult to solve. In almost all cases, these

challenges deal with the full observance of freedom of religion and with the

full respect of the role and functions of religious groups. One of these

challenges deals with education. The state claims a leading role concerning

education as a tool for fostering democracy and shaping the profile of

responsible and proactive citizens. At the same time, religious claim to have

an important role in education too both as an agent promoting education at

the service of parents and society according to their own perspective and

worldwide and as an important subject of the educational syllabus. These

claims may clash between them and cast many question. Another important

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challenge for secularism is the scope and limits of freedom of expression

when confronted with religious ideas, religious groups. In recent years we

have faced something which seems to be an unending problem namely

religious clothing or religious attire. In some cases, state requires from its

citizens a religiously neutral identity in certain public spaces and in certain

official facilities. In doing so, the secular state intends to preserve its neutral

and secular culture to afford freedom to all and to avoid an unduly religious

influence. The other reason why state should be separated from religion is

that because we also need to protect the freedom of individuals to exit from

their religion, embrace another religion or have the freedom to interpret

religious teachings differently. 5

Secularism is a framework for ensuring equality throughout society

in politics, education, the law and the elsewhere for believers and non

believers alike. This is important for a country to function properly and

democratically. It is because if the majority religious group has a access to

State powers then it could quite easily use this power and financial resources

to discriminate against anyone and prosecute persons of other religions. The

same sort or some part of the same ideology is followed by different leaders

in different parts of the world. But this is very dangerous for the world peace,

democracy and individuals freedom because Secularism is one of the pillars

of the democracy which is followed in different parts of the world.

5
Johari, J. C. (2009), Principles of Modern Political Science (Greater Noida: Sterling Publishers Pvt.Ltd.)