NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the response of the Centre and the state government on a plea by BJP leader, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, seeking to include a chapter on “Dharma and Religion” in the school curriculum.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela issued notices to the Ministry of Home, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Culture, and Delhi Government while posting the matter for hearing on January 16.
The plea filed by Upadhyay, a practicing lawyer and BJP leader, said that in the case of Abrahamic religious traditions, religious identity is exclusive or singular; and in the case of the ‘dharmic’ traditions, it tends to be inclusive and even multiple.
He sought directions to the respondents to use proper meaning of religion, i.e. ‘panth’ ‘Sampradaya’, and not ‘Dharma’ in documents like birth certificates, Aadhaar cards, school certificates, ration cards, driving licenses, domicile certificates, death certificates, bank accounts, and so on.
Arguing that ‘Dharma’ and religion have completely different meanings, Upadhyay, in his plea, also sought to add a chapter on “Dharma and Religion” in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools “in order to educate the masses and control the religion-based hatred and hate speeches.”
“Many words cannot be translated into English. Like ‘Yog’, ‘Karma’, ‘Brahm’, ‘Dharma’, etc. We consider ‘Dharma’ as religion but that’s incorrect. If we try to define Religion then we can say that religion is a tradition, not ‘Dharma’.
Religion is a cult or spiritual lineage that is called a ‘Sampradaya’ (community). Religion means community,” the plea said. “Dharma is an ordering principle which is independent of one’s faith or methods of worship or what is understood by the term ‘religion’, thus providing for total freedom in the path chosen or ethical norms employed, in an eternal journey from being to becoming. ‘Dharma’ is non-divisive, nonexclusive& non-conclusive,” the plea read.