CHENNAI: Can you be a secular citizen after studying in a convent or a madarassa? Depends on whom you ask.
In a charged session at the ThinkEdu Conclave, Madhu Kishwar, Senior Fellow at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, said, that she didn’t see institutions — secular or religious — playing any role in instilling a secular mindset among students. “A great chunk of young men who join terrorist organisations like ISIS are educated in elite and secular institutes. But the call for religious fanaticism is making them leave their lucrative jobs and secular values. That is why I feel studying in secular institutes is no guarantee that the mindset will be secular,” she said.
Stoking the debate in a liberal sense, Dinesh Singh, academic and former Vice Chancellor of University of Delhi, “The most important thing about religion is to come to believe in something and find your true calling and any religious institution that doesn’t allow it can never create secular minds.”
Singh was joined in the debate by Kancha Ilaiah, Director for Center for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Hyderabad, G Joseph Antonysamy, Principal of Loyola College, Chennai and Madhu Kishwar, academic and professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
“I am a Hindu in the broad sense and I am guided by the Bhagavad Gita. An institution in itself, the book says that all forms of worship leads to one God and that a true yogi is one who makes no distinction. If a religious institution teaches such values, then it is definitely creating secular minds,” Singh added.
Moderating the session, Kancha Ilaiah said he did not see Indian democracy safe in an age where secular values propagated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru were being given a negative name - pseudo-secularism - by groups that only believe in one religion. “Nehru, on the other hand, was an a atheist and somebody who did not believe in any religion. It is this detachment that helped him strategically instill secularism in schools, offices, assemblies and the parliament. But today with Nehru himself being branded a liberal and his values called pseudo-secular, I see the rise of a mindset that will be detrimental for Indian democracy,” he said.
G Joseph Antonysamy, Principal of Loyola College, Chennai, who believed any religious institution that understood and respected inclusiveness, pluralism and diversity was the place where secular minds could be created.
“That is because the basic idea of Indian society is pluralistic. When I say I love my mother and respect her, I don’t say I hate your mother. I, in fact, respect your mother and respect your love and reverence for her,” he said. Stalwarts like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and R Venkataraman were educated in Christian institutions, yet had secular mindsets, he said.
