Are We a Secular Country?
(Is demographic change for real?)
Politicians of Nagaland have objected to immersion of ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ashes in a river in Nagaland. They have gone on to say that immersion of ashes of the Indian Prime Minister is an insult to “our ways of life” because Nagaland is Christian-majority state. OUR WAYS OF LIFE?
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/immersion-of-vajpayee-ashes-bjp-criticised-for-imposing-alien-culture-on-nagaland/article24781410.ece
Is immersion of ashes of a Hindu in a river is alien culture to Nagaland? Is it just because it is a Christian-majority state? Does being Christian-majority make a State, or a region, non-Indian? Is religion everything that defines culture? What happened to the calls of composite Indian culture and our unity in diversity?
Cremation of the dead is a holy ritual of the Hindus. If the cremation is done by the bank of a river, which is normally the case, ashes are invariably immersed in that river. In many cases, relatives carry the ashes of the departed one to holy places like Haridwar, Prayag or Varanasi to perform the ritual. Pt. Nehru’s ashes were immersed in many rivers and seas in India and sprinkled on the Himalayas. So were Rajiv Gandhi’s and Indira Gandhi’s. This rite is as Indian and collectively belongs to us as much as the practice of burying the dead or leaving them atop towers of silence for carrion birds to feed upon. Likewise, Hindu festivals and pilgrimages are as much part of our culture as the Eid, the Christmas, the Gurpurab or the Haj.
In 2008, Mr. Omar Abdullah, who was then a member of the Lok Sabha, had said in the house: “We will not give an inch of our land to the (Shri Amarnath) Shrine Board. Kashmiris have never demolished or desecrated temples. OUR LAND? Whose land is the land of Kashmir? Of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, or of Kashmiri Muslims alone?
http://hillpost.in/2012/08/jammu-kashmir-again-lock-horns-over-amarnath-yatra/49372/
There have been demands and quick acquiescence of the state government to ban or restrict Durga Puja festivities in areas of West Bengal that have large populations of Muslims, though not yet a majority. Are non-Hindus saying that as and when a state or a region (the Kashmir Valley is just a region of the J&K state) become Muslim-majority or Christian-majority, Hindus must abandon their culture and way of life or else Muslims and Christians may get offended and even insulted?
Are we living in a secular country, or is secularism limited only to Hindu majority areas? Doesn’t our Constitution give freedom to Indian citizens to travel and live anywhere in the country? If such incidences continue to happen, possibilities of demographic change will continue to be discussed as a threat to the Indian Way of Life.
(Is demographic change for real?)
Politicians of Nagaland have objected to immersion of ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ashes in a river in Nagaland. They have gone on to say that immersion of ashes of the Indian Prime Minister is an insult to “our ways of life” because Nagaland is Christian-majority state. OUR WAYS OF LIFE?
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/immersion-of-vajpayee-ashes-bjp-criticised-for-imposing-alien-culture-on-nagaland/article24781410.ece
Is immersion of ashes of a Hindu in a river is alien culture to Nagaland? Is it just because it is a Christian-majority state? Does being Christian-majority make a State, or a region, non-Indian? Is religion everything that defines culture? What happened to the calls of composite Indian culture and our unity in diversity?
Cremation of the dead is a holy ritual of the Hindus. If the cremation is done by the bank of a river, which is normally the case, ashes are invariably immersed in that river. In many cases, relatives carry the ashes of the departed one to holy places like Haridwar, Prayag or Varanasi to perform the ritual. Pt. Nehru’s ashes were immersed in many rivers and seas in India and sprinkled on the Himalayas. So were Rajiv Gandhi’s and Indira Gandhi’s. This rite is as Indian and collectively belongs to us as much as the practice of burying the dead or leaving them atop towers of silence for carrion birds to feed upon. Likewise, Hindu festivals and pilgrimages are as much part of our culture as the Eid, the Christmas, the Gurpurab or the Haj.
In 2008, Mr. Omar Abdullah, who was then a member of the Lok Sabha, had said in the house: “We will not give an inch of our land to the (Shri Amarnath) Shrine Board. Kashmiris have never demolished or desecrated temples. OUR LAND? Whose land is the land of Kashmir? Of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, or of Kashmiri Muslims alone?
http://hillpost.in/2012/08/jammu-kashmir-again-lock-horns-over-amarnath-yatra/49372/
There have been demands and quick acquiescence of the state government to ban or restrict Durga Puja festivities in areas of West Bengal that have large populations of Muslims, though not yet a majority. Are non-Hindus saying that as and when a state or a region (the Kashmir Valley is just a region of the J&K state) become Muslim-majority or Christian-majority, Hindus must abandon their culture and way of life or else Muslims and Christians may get offended and even insulted?
Are we living in a secular country, or is secularism limited only to Hindu majority areas? Doesn’t our Constitution give freedom to Indian citizens to travel and live anywhere in the country? If such incidences continue to happen, possibilities of demographic change will continue to be discussed as a threat to the Indian Way of Life.
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