True #secularism-defined as the separation of State and its agencies from any, and every, religion-never really took hold in India. When #PrimeMinisterModi places a silver brick in the ground as part of a #Bhoomipujan for #RamMandir, he might as well be burying the Secular Ideal.
The tragedy, of course, is that more than any other group, it was the majority Hindus who would really have benefited from a truly #secular Government. #Secularism in India was maliciously painted as #AntiHindu and as #MuslimAppeasement; it is neither.
The philosophical opposite of #Secularism is #Hindutva. It is a creed that sees every policy, every law, every administrative decision through the lens of Hindu-Muslim division. It negates the freedoms and liberties that common citizens need to thrive and prosper.
But it sells this attack on the freedoms of ordinary Hindus as somehow empowering them to avenge long-past imagined wrongs. Unity is strength, they say but their 'unity' is to bind people thru indoctrination, their strength is not to build but to attack the 'other'.
There is no choice, If you are not with them, if you don't support the #JaiShriRam brand of Hinduism then you not only not belong, you ARE the other. If #Secularism is about choice and freedom, Hindutva is about compulsion and coercion. Welcome to the #Hindu #Rashtra of #NewIndia
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