Secular Challenge To Communal Politics

With reference to India's political condition in contemporary history.

With reference to India's political condition in contemporary history.

In the face of religio-communal identification, revivalism, fundamentalism etc. Secularism has come centre stage of political debate.

Development during the decade of nineties, have led to all round apprehensions about the survival of Indian secularism. The main reason behind this feeling is the growing importance of the Bharatiya Janata Party which inspired and continues to owe allegiance to the ideal of Hindu Rashtriya which has been fervently pursued by the Rashtriya Swayanisewak Sangh. India flaunts to the world the fact that it opted for secular-democratic polity on the morrow of the country s division to carve out of it a separate state based oil religion. For half a century the electorate have consistently extended, support to the parties and groups upholding that principle in performance to those who have been trying to challenge them. In terms of future prospects what needs to be considered is why and how a change has set in the mood of people that the BJP has become the lead party and whether there are credible chances for arresting its onward march. But before that we must clarify what we mean by Indian secularism.

Offers a new framework for understanding how religion and nationalism interact across diverse countries and religious traditions.

Nation-states have seen the rise of religious pluralism within their borders, brought about by global migration and the challenge of radical religious movements. This book explores the meaning of secularism and religious freedom in these new contexts. The contributors chart the impact of globalization, the varying forms of secularism in Western states, and the different kinds of relations between states and religious institutions in the historical traditions and contemporary politics of Islamic, Indic, and Chinese societies. They also examine the limitations and dilemmas of governmental responses to unprecedented diversity, and grapple with the question of how secular states deal (and should deal) with such pluralism.

How secular governance in the Middle East is making life worse—not better—for religious minorities The plight of religious minorities in the Middle East is often attributed to the failure of secularism to take root in the region. Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges this assessment by examining four cornerstones of secularism—political and civil equality, minority rights, religious freedom, and the legal separation of private and public domains. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Egypt with Coptic Orthodox Christians and Bahais—religious minorities in a predominantly Muslim country—Saba Mahmood shows how modern secular governance has exacerbated religious tensions and inequalities rather than reduced them. Tracing the historical career of secular legal concepts in the colonial and postcolonial Middle East, she explores how contradictions at the very heart of political secularism have aggravated and amplified existing forms of Islamic hierarchy, bringing minority relations in Egypt to a new historical impasse. Through a close examination of Egyptian court cases and constitutional debates about minority rights, conflicts around family law, and controversies over freedom of expression, Mahmood invites us to reflect on the entwined histories of secularism in the Middle East and Europe. A provocative work of scholarship, Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges us to rethink the promise and limits of the secular ideal of religious equality.