Sharad bailur’s ‘In defence of assertive secularism’ and Seema Chishti’s ‘The Shoaib effect and Indian Muslims’ have a common thread: the intersection of religion, secularism and politics.

Religion is one of the most potent forces in human existence. It provides a sense of solace and an anchor in an increasingly complex world, notwithstanding, and often due to, all the scientific and technological advances made every day. Given its fundamental and deep-seated impact, it also has the potential of causing the deepest divisions.

Since Dr S. Radhakrishnan, the modern equivalent of our philosopher-king, said “religion is what we do when we are alone”, religion is an individual’s belief or an individual activity, although obviously if several individuals share the same belief, as indeed often is the case, it can even be a group activity. Politics, being essentially concerned with acquiring and exercising power in societies, is very much a group activity.

Since individuals and groups have to exist together, a way of reconciling religion and politics is a necessity. Ever since George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906) coined the term, secularism has come to be the so-called modern society’s response to the intersection of religion and politics.

In single-religion societies/countries, secularism is not a concern. India’s complexity arises because it has an ancient, living and evolving religion — practised by the majority — as well as innumerable other religions. Additionally, it has countries on its borders which were carved out of its own territory on the sole basis of religion, one of which is Pakistan. Thus we have peculiar issues facing Muslims in India as brought out by Seema Chishti.

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