Social anthropologist, Lise McKean, who authored the book ‘Divine Enterprise’ once said, “Religion is not only good for business…it is the best business of all: start-up costs are low, there are never any problems with supply or inventory and one receives tangible goods for intangible ones.”
To be honest, that is the most profound statements ever made about religion. Religion, in fact, functions as a common good — where there are people who peddle it and there are people who buy it. In fact, if we were to look closer home, we would find a multitude of examples where gods and goddesses have been manufactured overnight, where strangely enough some gained more prominence while others cartwheeled into extinction. In addition, of course, we have also subscribed to some imported Gods and their prophets. [In fact, religiously…we are all a little spoiled for choice! There’s something to suit everyone’s taste!!!]
So, why on heaven-and-earth have we done all this? Simple, to keep things interesting and fresh…for religion, as the German philosopher and economist Karl Marx once rightly proclaimed, is an opiate for the masses. In other words, religion is what can be used — at a state level — to keep the subjects occupied while the state went about shirking its many responsibilities. Thus, the smart political class of India too decided to bring out the religious banner; however, under a pseudonym.
In case, you are wondering as to when did India decide to play the ‘religion’ card to hoodwink its naive population…let me take you back to the year 1976 when we as a nation decided to make it our state policy (of course, under the garb of a different name). And so, we inserted the term ‘secular’ right into our very own Preamble of the sacred Indian Constitution with the 42nd Amendment, which once-and-for-all handed every single one of us, a secular sword with which to decimate our clueless crowds.
Since then, the banality of secularism has proved to be the bane of this country, where every day we rouse up to shrill shouts of secularism, under whose very garb we play dirty politics in the name of religion.
For you see, secular is a peculiar word, especially in the Indian context. While etymologically speaking, it is derived from the term ‘saecularis’ — which means ‘temporal’ or ‘worldly’ and in fact has nothing to do with religion at all — in the Indian context, secular only comes with “religious” connotations. In fact, even peculiar still the SLOBS (i.e. the ‘Secular Left Outrage Brigade) dub secularism as “pro-minority” and “anti-majority”. Thus, according to this secular narrative, if you are a Hindu and have respect for your religion and its ideologies, you are a fanatic who is anti-national and anti-minority.
Of course, what is amazing in the given narrative is how we have twisted the very meaning of the term…in order to meet our puny political goals. Where once the word clearly meant a state (free from theology) that would use rationality in order to help its citizenry achieve material goods and prosperity, it now means a sentiment that promotes an anti-majority propaganda. India, no wonder, is a strange strange land…where even democracy hides behind the banality of secularism, unabashed and unashamed!
