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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. İ
It should be conceived as a detergent against anti-social and antihuman elements that might surreptitiously adulterate the dharma.
Secularism is vitally significant and relevant to a society which has gathered prejudices and superstitions as part and parcel of religion. There are countries with a declared state religion, other religions being relegated to creeds of minorities. Conflicts are liable to arise in such situations, specially when sectarian ideals are sought to be injected in the public life of a composite people. Secularism is a vital force against anti-social tendencies in such circumstances. Religion in its essential character is a purifying force. But it fails to serve its purpose or rather disserves the society, when mixed up with idols and idiosyncrasies.
There were periods of religious conflicts in the course of our history. But an understanding of the essential unity of all religions gradually emerged and reached its climax in Bhagavan Ramkrishna Paramahamsa and Swāmi Vivekananda and found its concrete fulfilment in the life and activities of Mahatma Gandhi who considered society without religion as body without soul. It is the Indian concept of dharma as the determining principle of all human activities, that was responsible for the manifestation of such unique personalties who brought about radical change in our concept of religion and its bearing on social and political life. The relation between religion and secularism should be considered in the light of the contributions of these great leaders of thought and action, who symbolized the best values of religion in harmony with the best demands of secularism.
Secularism functions as a safeguard against imposition of a personal belief on public life, or exaltation of sectarian customs to the status of a universal code of conduct. The Pak representative at the XIth International Congress of the History of Religions at Claremont, California, which I attended last September, tried to justify the necessity of a separate state for the followers of Islam for cultivation of the values of Islamic culture in public life. But the Indian concept of cultural values is radically different. A religious tenet, such as ahimsa (nonviolence) or samyama, (self-restraint) is a universal principle of conduct, irrespective of caste, creed or sect. Secularism is necessary for a society imbued with sectarian outlook, but such necessity is transcended by cultivation of impersonal values which clean the society and elevate the individual.
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