India as a Secular State is a book written by Donald Eugene Smith and published by Princeton University Press in 1963. [1]
The book was described as a "classic" by the lawyer and historian A. G. Noorani in 2010, [2] and as a "seminal work" on Hindu nationalism by the historian Ainslie Embree. [3] Among critical reviewers were Marc Galanter and John T. Flint, [4] [5] to whom Smith published a rejoinder in 1965. [6]
The book is divided into seven parts consisting of sixteen chapters in total. In Part 1 of the book, titled The Secular State in Perspective, Smith writes about the concept of the secular state, specifically commenting on freedom of religion, citizenship, and separation of state and religion. Smith then goes on to trace the secular state in history writing about the Church and state in the Middle Ages, the Reformation, and secularism in America and modern Europe. He then goes on to comment on the problem of secularism in Asia focusing on the nature of the major religions in Asia like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. He comments on the religious minorities, the role played by the colonial powers in the Philippines, India, Indo-China, and Indonesia with respect to religion and secularism, and the role of religion in Burmese, Ceylonese, Indonesian, and Indian nationalism together with a discussion on the movement for creating Pakistan. He concludes with a discussion on secularism in Turkey.
In Part 2 of the book, titled Basis for the Secular State in India, Smith comments on the relationship between State and religion in ancient and medieval India, and also during British rule. This part also has a discussion on the description of religious freedom, separation of state and religion, and citizenship in the Indian Constitution. Finally, this part concludes with a commentary on Indian nationalism, the tradition of Hindu tolerance, and western secularism.
In Part 3 of the book, titled Religious Liberty and State Regulation, Smith comments on the issue of religious propagation giving different views on this issue: the general Hindu attitude, the Hindu universalist view, the Hindu communalist view, the Indian Christian view, and the humanist liberal view. He comments on the laws related to State regulation of religious propagation prior to 1950, and the provisions for the same in the Indian constitution. He also writes about legislation related to religious propagation, and the related problems of public order with respect to this issue. He then discusses the issue of foreign missionaries in India from the times of British rule to the 1956 Niyogi Committee findings and recommendations and the ensuing response. Smith then comments on the topic of public safety and regulation of religion in which he discusses the issue of suppression of anti-social religious practices by the State, the preservation of public order and restrictions on political involvement. He then describes the role of the State in reforming religion, giving the historical perspective and the problems confronting the modern Indian state in this respect. There follows a discussion on the reform of Hindu temples in which Smith discusses the reforms through legislation and judicial verdicts of animal sacrifices and temple prostitution occurring in certain Hindu temples, and also the right of Harijans to enter temples. The section concludes with a commentary on reforms in Hindu religious endowments through legislation and judicial verdicts, the role played by the central government on these issues, and finally regulation through legislation of the activities of itinerant sadhus.
Hindus are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent.
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion.
Hindutva is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Religious nationalism can be understood in a number of ways, as nationalism as a religion itself, a position articulated by Carlton Hayes in his text Nationalism: A Religion or as the relationship of nationalism to a particular religious belief, dogma, ideology or affiliation. This relationship can be broken down into two aspects: the politicisation of religion and the influence of religion on politics.
David Frawley is an American author, astrologer, teacher (acharya) and a proponent of Hindutva.
The term pseudo-secularism is used to describe individuals who claim to be secular but may display biases towards a particular religion, whether consciously or unconsciously. This term has gained popularity in recent Indian politics, where it is often used to criticize individuals who identify as secular and advocate for minority rights while remaining silent or opposing concerns faced by the majority religion. Some Hindu nationalist politicians, who are accused of promoting communalism, employ this term as a counter-accusation against their critics, alleging that the secularism followed by the Indian National Congress and other parties is flawed or distorted.
In sociology, secularization is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." Most versions of secularization do not lead to atheism, irreligion, nor are they automatically anti-thetical to religion. Secularization has different connotations such as implying differentiation of secular from religious domains, the marginalization of religion in those domains, or it may also entail the transformation of religion as a result of its recharacterization.
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Hindu law, as a historical term, refers to the code of laws applied to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in British India. Hindu law, in modern scholarship, also refers to the legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophical reflections on the nature of law discovered in ancient and medieval era Indian texts. It is one of the oldest known jurisprudence theories in the world and began three thousand years ago whose original sources were the Hindu texts.
India since its independence in 1947 became a Hindu majority state since Partition of India until 1976. Some of the secular values were enshrined in the constitution of India. India's prime minister Indira Gandhi is credited for establishing India as a full & fledged secular state.
Navaratna Srinivasa Rajaram was an Indian academic and a Hindutva ideologue. He is notable for propounding the "Indigenous Aryans" hypothesis, asserting that the Vedic period was extremely advanced from a scientific view-point, and claiming of having deciphered the Indus script. Academics find his scholarship to be composed of dishonest polemics in service of a communal agenda.
On 7 November 1966, a group of Hindu protestors, led by ascetics, naga sadhus and backed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bharatiya Jana Sangh, approached the Indian Parliament to protest to criminalize cow slaughter. The incident resulted in a riot which ended with a death toll of 7 people and hundreds were injured. The total damage was estimated at about 1 billion rupees by city officials; numerous vehicles were destroyed, along with numerous shops.
S. N. Balagangadhara is a professor emeritus of the Ghent University in Belgium, and was director of the India Platform and the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cutuurwetenschap.
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Tamil nationalism is the ideology which asserts that the Tamil people constitute a nation and promotes the cultural unity of Tamil people. Tamil nationalism is primarily a secular nationalism, that focus on language and homeland. It expresses itself in the form of linguistic purism, nationalism and irredentism, Social equality and Tamil Renaissance.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) is an Indian right-wing Hindu organisation based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to organise, consolidate the Hindu society and to serve and protect the Hindu Dharma". It was established to construct and renovate Hindu temples, and deal with matters of cow slaughter and religious conversion. The VHP is a member of the Sangh Parivar group, the family of Hindu nationalist organisations led by the RSS.
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Law and religion is the interdisciplinary study of relationships between law, especially public law, and religion. Over a dozen scholarly organizations and committees focussing on law and religion were in place by 1983, and a scholarly quarterly, the Journal of Law and Religion, was first published that year. The Ecclesiastical Law Journal began publication in 1987. The Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion was founded in 1999. The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion was founded in England in 2012.
Harold Alton Gould was an American anthropologist specializing in Indian society and civilization. He is an author of numerous books on various aspects of Indian society including the caste system, religion, politics and international relations.