Membuat jiwa sekuler rasa sakit penulis

Membuat JIWA SEKULER – RASA SAKIT PENULIS


Tugas cendekiawan umum menurut Salman Rushdie ialah, “simply menunjukkan hal. -nya kepada orang ke pilih entah untuk hati-hati atau not”. Tetapi di India hari ini kami mengetahui bahwa tugas ini paksa menimbulkan jawaban uang kembalian yang lebih lebar. Sesuatu seperti itu persoalan keprihatinan ialah ciptaan keselarasan komunal dan memperkembangkan jiwa sekuler. Ini teristimewa oleh sebab itu di globalized dan melokalisir Dunia menunjukkan bangsa pos, mengirimkan negara bagian jaman, kontur muncul di antaranya nampak hari ini dan signifikan akan bertabrakan menguburkan kerabat himpunan. Perkenankan saya menangani persoalan ini secara terpisah. Warganegara global sebagai mengitari individu mungkin meminta pelipur lara di cagar alam gerejani agama, kasta atau syahadat mereka. Ini akan menempatkan premi di secularism. Namun globalisasi tidak adalah gejala yang hanya geografis saja, adalah pertemuan silaturahmi yang lebih lebar dan politik cenderung. Globalisasi melambangkan proses yang menandakan perubahan manusia darinya suku, akar yang di bawah tanah di sisi yang lain tungku, komune dan desa kepada seorang individu inklusif. Secara mengurus surat-menyurat secularism adalah proses sosial yang dimudahkan oleh komunikasi, fisik dan linguistik, catalyzed oleh globalisasi. Filsafat sekuler menunjukkan keamanan angkasa sosial, kebudayaan dan politik dan inclusivist masyarakat sewaktu India sudah dalam milenium-milenium. Adalah masyarakat yang cakap toleransi semua tirai jendela pendapat agama, sekalipun meratakan yang ini ialah secara ideologis pembakar. Vituperative bisa Oriana Fallaci’s Dunia ini adalah penyimpangan untuk secularist. Secularists tidak adalah ateis tetapi rasa hormat jika tidak berlatih semua tirai jendela ketuhanan, tidak memakai agama, kasta dan syahadat mereka di atas lengan baju mereka dan menyetujui latihan kepercayaan variasi dengan ketenangan hati. Diwujudkan menjadi sempurna secara seiring dengan dengan ekonomi dan bisnis, proses sosial masyarakat menyekulerkan akan mengumpulkan momentum mendukung. Melambangkan kewarasan yang tercapai lewat dialog daripada fissiparous kecenderungan. Tetapi pemerintahan adalah seorang saingan secularism, untuk pemerintahan baik atau paradigma konfrontasi. Perselisihan juga akan muncul di mana fissiparous angkatan perang meraba marginalized oleh angkatan perang sekuler. Ada dengan begitu konflik bawaan sejak lahir di antara pemerintahan dan secularism.

Globalisasi dan secularism pergi bersama. Dyad globalisasi dan secularism akan menyebabkan perkembangan dan kemajuan. United States of America adalah contoh terkemukanya. Kerajaan Inggris adalah pos lain modern benteng secularism dan globalisasi, meskipun ada pemogokan teror London. Orang Jepang ialah satu-satunya mono etnik entitas yang sudah maju lewat sekuler membina gagasan dengan langganan bertindak sebagai katalisator. Negara bagian Asia Tenggara dan Apartheid pos, Afrika Selatan juga sedang menuntun contoh bagaimana globalisasi dan secularism bisa mempengaruhi kemajuan. Secularism bisa seharusnya menyebabkan timbulnya angkatan perang sosial yang positif yang mendorong kemajuan. Di tangan yang lain negara bagian yang sudah meninggalkan temporalism dalam dua dasawarsa yang lalu sudah mundur baik secara sosial sebaik seekonomis, adalahnya Rusia atau pun Balkan. Contoh ini adalah argumen sangat kuat untuk secularism di globalised Dunia.


Human group dynamics is the story of onionised cocoons of securing successive oysters. As the outer layer of group identity is peeled off another stratum emerges signifying human propensity to coagulate in closely knit social clusters finding fresh paradigms of affinity. We will also be fighting human proclivity for violence as a solution to social and political incongruities. The human penchant for negative spirals of calamity are fed by the religious orders which to ensure its own survival spreads canards which forsake a doomsday scenario in case their ideology is abandoned. This in turn creates collective self denial of positivism represented by secularism. Add to this the large band of drawing room secularists and bedroom fundamentalists who are modernists by force rather than by choice, the challenges to secularism will be self evident. We also tend to be obscurantist when it impacts our economic status. Witness the Shiv Sena which propagated the exclusivist political philosophy of Mumbai for Mumbaikars due to economic hardships faced by its core constituency, the Maharashtrians.


Globalization is a great personal and human challenge which pulls at ones economic, cultural as well as social moorings. It is likely to drive humans more towards religion for security in a World full of new segregations. An individual obsessive about his own religiosity is likely to fall prey to deviants such as the Mohammad Attas of this World. Illiberal idiots will always have their way as bigotry is easier to propagate then liberalism.
Globalization has raised living standards of large multitudes; however corresponding advancement in societal security has not been forthcoming due to lack of emotional, social and spiritual enrichment. Thus religious radicals are more likely to breed in affluent surroundings as that obtained in Bonn, London or Mumbai rather than the ghettos of yester years. In a globalized World, as the famed columnist Fareed Zakaria has brought out in a recent article, extremist ideology is a leisure time pursuit. The information, communication and knowledge World of instant messaging, broadband transfer of images, compressed data files and steganography have enabled fundamentalist ideologies, incubated in hard core seminaries, breeding deep-seated hatred through deviant interpretation of religious scriptures to prosper due to the free play offered by the global infostructure. The impact of deviant non secular ideologies is thus wide spread, witness the spread of terror since 9/11 from New York to Bali to Jeddah to Chechnya to Moscow to London.

Another of globalization’s challenge is economic threats which will affect a large segment of actively vocal and politically aware elements in society through reskilling required for jobs. Where the work force has successfully reskilled as in parts of Southern India, the threat of the youth taking to atypical ideologies collectively represented by non secularism has receded, however where no reskilling has taken place as in the madrasa oriented education in Islamic countries and particularly Pakistan, non secular forces hold sway and pose a grave physical threat to secular forces.


Secularism in modern India will imply humanism. It will be denoted by, “secuhumanism”, an admix of secularism and humanism. Humanism prioritizes human concerns over all others, politics, state, ethnicity, religion or creed. Bleeding heart issues in such a society will rule over social, political or ideological beliefs. Modern India will also be a globalized India. Globalization of Indians will not be a racial or economic phenomenon but will be denoted by transmutation of human values epitomized by Indian culture abroad. However recasting a society which has patterned itself in a casteist mould for over 1000 years would undoubtedly be an uphill task. The degree of difficulty is indicated by the fact that class divisions are not merely social but also political and economic. The feeble foundations of century’s deep casteist fundamentalism, ethnic divergence, linguistic chauvinism and religious divides are further affected by the export of communalism from our neighboring states as Pakistan and Bangladesh. Despite this India remains the great hope for building secular societies and will emerge as a global secularism hub.

At the level of the individual our challenge is to fill furrows of the mind with seeds of libertarian liberalism and bridge social chasms. The signs of change are already evident as is seen by acceptance of secular credentials of Jinnah by Mr L K Advani. It was a public acceptance of secularism as a base for a modern South Asia by one of its worst critics. This welcome change in the apex political leadership of the country will have a trickle down effect. At the personal and social level, individuals and societies will also have to be driven out of the self fulfilling prophecy of doom, perpetrated by the oldest hierarchical order, religion, based on heretical divination. The pecking order of the ecclesiastical creates a self destructive psychology of doom in those who attempt to escape their clutches. And as religion has been an age old anchor, leaving it becomes increasingly difficult but not really impossible.

At the societal level the challenge is assimilation of the large mass of people who are in the throes of forces which are thriving on casteist proclivities to win votes, retain power and demonize people to prevent transmutation for progress. The formative dialectics of this process are also evident with the example of the Shiv Sena which today is more than willing to accept all residents of Mumbai and not just Maharashtrians as Mumbaikars. Finally secularists will self regulate themselves into prominence and will emerge as global leaders. Those who do not will remain local icons as Praveen Togadia and Syed Imam Bukhari. They will continue to survive but certainly not thrive in a modern India.

Positive human progress has been dictated by affirmative ideology. Ideology underpins political and social development. Secularism is the explicit ideology for a modernizing and globalizing World. Today religious ideology has become a moral weapon in the hands of deviants seeking power through bizarre yet appealing interpretation and exploiting symbolism. The impact of nonconforming, non secular ideologies is thus very wide spread, witness proliferation of terror since 9/11 from New York to Bali to Jeddah to Chechnya to Moscow to London. Applying “Ijtihaad” or independent reasoning to the ideology of religious fundamentalism, to question flawed basics in a transforming World should be the way ahead. The trap of opposing each and every contrarian ideology needs to be avoided. Manifestations of ideologies which are real threats to secularism such as communalism should be combated tooth and nail, while other more genial ones allowed to vent their spleen and gradually wither away. This will remain a subtle choice for policy makers.

Depoliticisation of ideology is essential for the progress of secularism in our country. The challenge is to depoliticize issues of caste, creed, religion and language and marginalize fundamentalists on both sides of the spectrum, temporal and ecclesiastical through control of ideology, physical and economic resources. This will entail conflict. Channeling conflict through non violent processes as dialogue and negotiations will be needed to create consensus for fostering secularism. Assimilation of the large mass of our people who are within the throes of forces which are thriving on casteist proclivities to win votes, retain power and demonize people to remain thus is essential. Avoiding political symbolism of temples, masjids and anniversaries which highlight diversities in people, should become common place in our political routine. Consistently building electoral victories on non secular, non casteist issues as development by voting secularists will be the final indication of change.

Though governments are not the ideal medium to foster social change, some legal and legislative interventions may be essential. Controlling proliferation of polity based on religion by regulating religious based parties across the political spectrum as Hindu Mahasabha, Akali Dal and Indian Muslim League from contesting elections may be in order for secularism in essence is separation of religion and politics.

Altering development priorities will be essential to promote secularism. As the noted Dalit writer Chandrabhan Prasad has brought out from time to time, development is addressed purely in terms of providing necessities as health, employment and education and no efforts are made to allocate resources to build up a social grid based on a social doctrine. Modern India needs a social doctrine based on secuhumanism. Fostering such a doctrine in an institutionalized manner would be the first step towards building a secular country and should form a primary development goal for us. In such an enterprise globalization and concomitantly development will facilitate secularism as it will bridge the economic divide hitherto distinguished by castes. The innate aspirational urge of humans will also make people more secular in the developing world. The forces of modernization, business, trade and economy and aspirations for a higher quality of life will lead to growth of secularism, for business channels are socially seamless, recognize no filial bonds and are purely dictated by the flow of money. Consumerism may thus overcome communalism.

An incremental approach will be the path towards secularism. A revolutionary approach is socially damaging as it marginalizes a large portion of society which is unable to adjust to the changing dynamics of a transforming social and political landscape. This truism of history should guide us on the path to secularism which may be attainable within the next decade given the tantalizing impact of globalization on Indian society.