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A Secular Agenda: For Saving Our Country for Welding It
A Secular For strengthening our Country, For Welding it
392 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
6 people are currently reading
266 people want to read
About the author
Arun Shourie
38 books300 followersIndian economist, journalist, author and politician.
He has worked as an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission of India, editor of the Indian Express and The Times of India and a Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Vajpayee Ministry (1998–2004). He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982 and the Padma Bhushan in 1990.
Popularly perceived as one of the main Hindu nationalist intellectuals during the 90s and early 2000s.
He has worked as an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission of India, editor of the Indian Express and The Times of India and a Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Vajpayee Ministry (1998–2004). He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982 and the Padma Bhushan in 1990.
Popularly perceived as one of the main Hindu nationalist intellectuals during the 90s and early 2000s.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 26, 2014
'A Secular Agenda' contains 37 essays divided into 7 sections and two appendices. All essays are brilliant researched and argued.
The opening section deals with the question of India as 'One Nation'. This section combines historical perspective with global history to produce a magnificent essay. It is one of the best that I have read. The second section deals with 'matters of religion', specifically the articles 25, 26, 29 and 30 of the constitution. This section explores how these articles contain vaguely defined terms and how it has been exploited by various 'minority institutions' across India.
The third section deals with 'Common Civil Code' and contains 8 essays. The first essay of this section starts with the history of the Shariat law. The author points out that its origins are in the 1937 act titled 'The Muslim Personal Law Application Act'. The next essays are based on the debates which were held on this act and notes of the officers of the Punjab Govt. The proponents of the act argued about the unity of the Shariat and contradicted themselves two years later through another act. This section also highlights the fear of its critics who didn't want to criticize the bill in public. The last 2 essays of this section argues about the Uniform Civil Code and why it will be an important step in the right direction for the country. This section contains one of my favorite quotes from the book,"A law is not a Hindu law because it is derived from Hindu literature, culture, traditions etc. but because it applies to Hindus."
The fourth section deals with article 370. These essays begin with the history of this article and destroys the myth that 'it's a commitment to the people of the valley'. The author gives illustrations of the power that this article has provided to the state government which in any other state of the country are unimaginable.
The fifth section of the book deals with the problem of infiltration from Bangladesh to the North-Eastern states of the country. This section shows that the Home Ministry was aware of this problem and yet did nothing to solve this. Large sections of the infiltrators were treated as a captive vote bank and were in majority in 56 constituencies (according to a note prepared by the Home Ministry). Those people who tried to highlight this problem were treated badly by the government especially the Assamese Students movements. The appendix two at the end of this section contains extracts from a report prepared by the General Secretaries of five North-Eastern states which call the efforts of their own party as 'half-hearted'. This section also talks about how different countries react differently to refugees and infiltrators from other countries depending upon their ethnicity, religion, relations between the two countries etc. This is the longest section in the book making up for more than one-fourth of the book and is the most depressing of all.
The book ends with two short sections on Hindu Muslim relations and the arguments presented by the so called 'seculars' in the media. In the former, the author argues that more direct communication between the two communities is the right way to go, not through the leaders. He argues that instead of setting a final target, we must focus on the path. The last section deals with the coverage of the post Bombay bombings highlighting the skewed version of the reality invented by the 'seculars' in the English press. The last essay of the book deals with Swami Vivekananda and how he has been misquoted by the communists to suit their agenda.
Every section in the book is very detailed and will require an essay of its own for the fully dealing with its contents. Furthermore, the fact that this book was written in 1993 is just a testament to the author's brilliant understanding of the problems of India.
Recommended to everyone who is interested in going to the core of the issues mentioned in the book and not just want to scratch at the surface of the problems.
The opening section deals with the question of India as 'One Nation'. This section combines historical perspective with global history to produce a magnificent essay. It is one of the best that I have read. The second section deals with 'matters of religion', specifically the articles 25, 26, 29 and 30 of the constitution. This section explores how these articles contain vaguely defined terms and how it has been exploited by various 'minority institutions' across India.
The third section deals with 'Common Civil Code' and contains 8 essays. The first essay of this section starts with the history of the Shariat law. The author points out that its origins are in the 1937 act titled 'The Muslim Personal Law Application Act'. The next essays are based on the debates which were held on this act and notes of the officers of the Punjab Govt. The proponents of the act argued about the unity of the Shariat and contradicted themselves two years later through another act. This section also highlights the fear of its critics who didn't want to criticize the bill in public. The last 2 essays of this section argues about the Uniform Civil Code and why it will be an important step in the right direction for the country. This section contains one of my favorite quotes from the book,"A law is not a Hindu law because it is derived from Hindu literature, culture, traditions etc. but because it applies to Hindus."
The fourth section deals with article 370. These essays begin with the history of this article and destroys the myth that 'it's a commitment to the people of the valley'. The author gives illustrations of the power that this article has provided to the state government which in any other state of the country are unimaginable.
The fifth section of the book deals with the problem of infiltration from Bangladesh to the North-Eastern states of the country. This section shows that the Home Ministry was aware of this problem and yet did nothing to solve this. Large sections of the infiltrators were treated as a captive vote bank and were in majority in 56 constituencies (according to a note prepared by the Home Ministry). Those people who tried to highlight this problem were treated badly by the government especially the Assamese Students movements. The appendix two at the end of this section contains extracts from a report prepared by the General Secretaries of five North-Eastern states which call the efforts of their own party as 'half-hearted'. This section also talks about how different countries react differently to refugees and infiltrators from other countries depending upon their ethnicity, religion, relations between the two countries etc. This is the longest section in the book making up for more than one-fourth of the book and is the most depressing of all.
The book ends with two short sections on Hindu Muslim relations and the arguments presented by the so called 'seculars' in the media. In the former, the author argues that more direct communication between the two communities is the right way to go, not through the leaders. He argues that instead of setting a final target, we must focus on the path. The last section deals with the coverage of the post Bombay bombings highlighting the skewed version of the reality invented by the 'seculars' in the English press. The last essay of the book deals with Swami Vivekananda and how he has been misquoted by the communists to suit their agenda.
Every section in the book is very detailed and will require an essay of its own for the fully dealing with its contents. Furthermore, the fact that this book was written in 1993 is just a testament to the author's brilliant understanding of the problems of India.
Recommended to everyone who is interested in going to the core of the issues mentioned in the book and not just want to scratch at the surface of the problems.
February 5, 2016
Shourie was the reason Indian Express was read avidly by the intelligentsia, the youth and anyone who cared, until he left - which is when the Express dwindled. There is a new version and some attractive writers which might mean it is worth looking at again. Meanwhile Shourie continued his fearless reporting and incisive analysis of facts, prima facie and those behind, and this has been in form of books he published from time to time.
From the time British almost lost an independence war in India in 1857, they woke up to the necessity of breaking of the spirit of the nation by any and every means possible, and the surest way of doing it is they realised was to discredit anything good while harping on all that was or could be called bad, and the war of propaganda was on thenceforth. All ancient traditions, all ancient knowledge and those that protected it and kept it alive were to be discredited as bad, or worse. From discrediting Vedas and interpreting them in the stupidest, falsest way possible, to inventing the Aryan invasion myth and Aryan versus original Dravidians myth, to heaping all sorts of discredit on Brahmans, to spreading lies about Vivekananda and other great personalities of India - of which there has never been any shortage - to finally separating the nation by actively encouraging and in fact fabricating separate identities not only where the separations had ceased to exist but even where they did not even exist as separate, ever, they did their best - or worst, in this case - possible.
To some extent, it worked, especially with the population that had only India as the identity. Embarrassment, if not outright shame, about a purely Indian identity, were the gifts of the colonial rulers' manufacture that stayed deep in psyche with those that had lost any real acquaintance with their roots, and they have been forever apologetic and hungry for approval of anything, anyone "foreign". All this is perpetrated and encouraged forever in perpetuity by the schools opened by missionaries that were forever publicised as the best possible education, however deficient they have proved in producing pupils of intellectual superiority of either scientific or most other necessary sorts for any nation, except that of being excellent colonial subjects. This estranged embarrassment about roots of India is what passes for secular in the nation that inherited and kept the name of India, while other pieces that separated went the way of fundamentalist or military rule and worse. And thus the perpetually losing status of India in the hidden war being propagated against her by either physical weapons of terrorists that can come and go freely from either side of the border or simply in the propaganda war that is hidden in plain sight for all to see.
If any other nation would do this sort of conjuring trickery to aid and abate those bent on destroying it for reasons of fear of what the world might say - or even worse, for personal or political gains for a small clicque, as often has been going on, the nation doing this would be a laughing stock of the world. That India does not see herself as such is perhaps a stubborn blindness to facts or a convenient closing of eyes for small, temporary, immediate goals of winning an election or so by the few that have ruled it for long. Laughingstock it is, and that is why major achievements of the nation even in areas of major importance only invoke further ire or ridicule in various parts of the world, mainly Europe and US, whose approval India craves while a second focus of this craving is towards nations that would never give it anyway, on grounds of "faith".
Hence the ridicule reminding India of "starving poor" when India launches a completely indigenous missile or manages to acquire nuclear capability totally on its own in spite of disapproval of world powers, and hence the much punishing of sanctions against India even as nations that cheat on aid and abet terrorists are given further aid on escalating scales.
Hence the abuse heaped on poor hapless call centre workers who painstakingly learn accents and idioms to get along with the customers and stay up nights to help out clients clear around the world, for a pittance compared to what their counterparts would be paid locally to another worker in the client's neighbourhood and have the prices of services go up there to levels they would rather not pay.
Of course, it is easy to abuse someone on phone while it is impossible to do so when one sees clothes or cheap gadgets or other products in shops across US made in some east Asian nation - usually China - but it is also the perception of China as a formidable nation with a nuclear arsenal and unambiguous intentions of domination of territory in and around its borders, while India is seen as poor, starving, and pretentious.
The starving was way back in the soon after independence era, when the nation had accepted responsibility for all the debts of India after partition, while Gandhi had forced the governrment to part with the unfairly demanded share to the part that separated (and accepted no part of debts). It has been more than a few decades that India achieved self sufficiency in terms of food - and indeed has many other achievements to her credit.
What India does not have is a habit of - or even one instance of - retaliatory strikes, US fashion (or even the overtaking of another nation or two or more, China fashion) when terrorism is perpetrated on the innocent citizens, year after year, in the name of some facade of a reason or other that provides a convenient excuse for those that would whip the indigenous of India into submission or oblivion, but are in fact nothing but this effort to wipe out the very nation and its essence and turn it into another robot land of human weapons.
On the contrary, Indian politicians often have pretended infiltrators were not from another country at all, to create vote banks in regions where a local awakening of population might just not go with the one party rule that has been norm for most of the time, no matter if the infiltration is pointed to wresting the land away from the very nation by changing its demographics and more, and the fact that this is not a fear or guess but an openly declared, indeed printed (and circulated for purposes of funds too) policy in some nations near and far is conveniently ignored.
After all it is cheaper to browbeat someone Indian with a name-calling - one can accuse anyone pointing out these and other disturbing facts as non secular, communal, right wing (no matter if the person is ascetic and poor in lifestyle compared to Gandhi) and a new one, sword wielding. One wonders when a young idiot who makes such accusations is unaware of any facts about his or her own nation if this idiot would respect weapons more modern than swords, and that is the reason that the bombing perpetrators who manage to kill hundreds of people in India every now and then (- every couple of months, on ignored levels since they are poor or middle class, and sometime even the spectacular levels such as the Taj attack to attract attention by targeting US, UK and Israel citizens apart from Indians) are not indicted even in supposedly innocent conversation this way, because by definition communal can be an accusation only made against someone who cannot have loyalties anywhere else other than India. No wonder India is seen as ridiculous, the nuclear and other intellectual achievements as pretension of an ex-slave nation with not even an ability to defend its citizens on its own streets.
Shourie gives a great deal of facts and discusses the various actions and various facets of various issues involved around the issue of secularism, whether the Kashmir issue and who is responsible for what, or the Assam bomb that is ticking, and more.
From the time British almost lost an independence war in India in 1857, they woke up to the necessity of breaking of the spirit of the nation by any and every means possible, and the surest way of doing it is they realised was to discredit anything good while harping on all that was or could be called bad, and the war of propaganda was on thenceforth. All ancient traditions, all ancient knowledge and those that protected it and kept it alive were to be discredited as bad, or worse. From discrediting Vedas and interpreting them in the stupidest, falsest way possible, to inventing the Aryan invasion myth and Aryan versus original Dravidians myth, to heaping all sorts of discredit on Brahmans, to spreading lies about Vivekananda and other great personalities of India - of which there has never been any shortage - to finally separating the nation by actively encouraging and in fact fabricating separate identities not only where the separations had ceased to exist but even where they did not even exist as separate, ever, they did their best - or worst, in this case - possible.
To some extent, it worked, especially with the population that had only India as the identity. Embarrassment, if not outright shame, about a purely Indian identity, were the gifts of the colonial rulers' manufacture that stayed deep in psyche with those that had lost any real acquaintance with their roots, and they have been forever apologetic and hungry for approval of anything, anyone "foreign". All this is perpetrated and encouraged forever in perpetuity by the schools opened by missionaries that were forever publicised as the best possible education, however deficient they have proved in producing pupils of intellectual superiority of either scientific or most other necessary sorts for any nation, except that of being excellent colonial subjects. This estranged embarrassment about roots of India is what passes for secular in the nation that inherited and kept the name of India, while other pieces that separated went the way of fundamentalist or military rule and worse. And thus the perpetually losing status of India in the hidden war being propagated against her by either physical weapons of terrorists that can come and go freely from either side of the border or simply in the propaganda war that is hidden in plain sight for all to see.
If any other nation would do this sort of conjuring trickery to aid and abate those bent on destroying it for reasons of fear of what the world might say - or even worse, for personal or political gains for a small clicque, as often has been going on, the nation doing this would be a laughing stock of the world. That India does not see herself as such is perhaps a stubborn blindness to facts or a convenient closing of eyes for small, temporary, immediate goals of winning an election or so by the few that have ruled it for long. Laughingstock it is, and that is why major achievements of the nation even in areas of major importance only invoke further ire or ridicule in various parts of the world, mainly Europe and US, whose approval India craves while a second focus of this craving is towards nations that would never give it anyway, on grounds of "faith".
Hence the ridicule reminding India of "starving poor" when India launches a completely indigenous missile or manages to acquire nuclear capability totally on its own in spite of disapproval of world powers, and hence the much punishing of sanctions against India even as nations that cheat on aid and abet terrorists are given further aid on escalating scales.
Hence the abuse heaped on poor hapless call centre workers who painstakingly learn accents and idioms to get along with the customers and stay up nights to help out clients clear around the world, for a pittance compared to what their counterparts would be paid locally to another worker in the client's neighbourhood and have the prices of services go up there to levels they would rather not pay.
Of course, it is easy to abuse someone on phone while it is impossible to do so when one sees clothes or cheap gadgets or other products in shops across US made in some east Asian nation - usually China - but it is also the perception of China as a formidable nation with a nuclear arsenal and unambiguous intentions of domination of territory in and around its borders, while India is seen as poor, starving, and pretentious.
The starving was way back in the soon after independence era, when the nation had accepted responsibility for all the debts of India after partition, while Gandhi had forced the governrment to part with the unfairly demanded share to the part that separated (and accepted no part of debts). It has been more than a few decades that India achieved self sufficiency in terms of food - and indeed has many other achievements to her credit.
What India does not have is a habit of - or even one instance of - retaliatory strikes, US fashion (or even the overtaking of another nation or two or more, China fashion) when terrorism is perpetrated on the innocent citizens, year after year, in the name of some facade of a reason or other that provides a convenient excuse for those that would whip the indigenous of India into submission or oblivion, but are in fact nothing but this effort to wipe out the very nation and its essence and turn it into another robot land of human weapons.
On the contrary, Indian politicians often have pretended infiltrators were not from another country at all, to create vote banks in regions where a local awakening of population might just not go with the one party rule that has been norm for most of the time, no matter if the infiltration is pointed to wresting the land away from the very nation by changing its demographics and more, and the fact that this is not a fear or guess but an openly declared, indeed printed (and circulated for purposes of funds too) policy in some nations near and far is conveniently ignored.
After all it is cheaper to browbeat someone Indian with a name-calling - one can accuse anyone pointing out these and other disturbing facts as non secular, communal, right wing (no matter if the person is ascetic and poor in lifestyle compared to Gandhi) and a new one, sword wielding. One wonders when a young idiot who makes such accusations is unaware of any facts about his or her own nation if this idiot would respect weapons more modern than swords, and that is the reason that the bombing perpetrators who manage to kill hundreds of people in India every now and then (- every couple of months, on ignored levels since they are poor or middle class, and sometime even the spectacular levels such as the Taj attack to attract attention by targeting US, UK and Israel citizens apart from Indians) are not indicted even in supposedly innocent conversation this way, because by definition communal can be an accusation only made against someone who cannot have loyalties anywhere else other than India. No wonder India is seen as ridiculous, the nuclear and other intellectual achievements as pretension of an ex-slave nation with not even an ability to defend its citizens on its own streets.
Shourie gives a great deal of facts and discusses the various actions and various facets of various issues involved around the issue of secularism, whether the Kashmir issue and who is responsible for what, or the Assam bomb that is ticking, and more.
February 26, 2019
Good book to have an understanding of the secular and liberal media and political system of India. How fake are they in the name of secularism.
An eye opener of that time.
An eye opener of that time.
September 13, 2023
4.5/5 The only (or the most prolific) “Right-Wing” intellectual of independent India.
Sharing the first page of a long article I am writing on secularism as it is dear to me and perhaps the most misunderstood word in India.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently I had to teach my son about secularism as a part of his Civics curriculum and I was aghast. Everything was upside down. Wondered whether the problem was with me ? And with Arun Shourie
What is secularism ?
It is the absence of religion in legislation. By its very definition “Indian secularism” is the opposite of secularism as it “respects” the presence of every religion in legislation. Since the religions especially the Abrahamic religions have precious little in common with each other and the Indic religions, this just leads to constant monkey-balancing while disappointing everyone. And creating resentments instead of harmony
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Why “Indian secularism” ?
If we do away with doublespeak, India is not able to move towards genuine secularism because one community believes in the infallibility, completeness and eternity of its religion. But even more than that there is a resultant superiority complex and deep-rooted othering of “non-believers”.
The irony is that no state, not even Saudi Arabia or Iran can be a a perfect theological state and will curtail religion (atleast) to some extent, this supremacy in believers is weirdly combined with a victimhood complex. That their freedom of religion is being curtailed and their religion is in danger. The paranoia is markedly worse if they are in a minority because of their deep-rooted othering paradigm - the non-believer majority is maliciously evil and out to get them :D
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This book by Arun Shourie tears apart "Indian secularism" AKA pseudo-secularism in the exhaustive style of the author. Each of the issues - UCC, Kashmir and Article 370, Temple, Blasphemy, illegal immigration has been discussed in detail along with its history and the way ahead. Though the book is old, only 2 of the issues - Kashmir and Ram Mandir - have been solved so far. And the book remains relevant and a hard-hitting read today too.
Sharing the first page of a long article I am writing on secularism as it is dear to me and perhaps the most misunderstood word in India.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently I had to teach my son about secularism as a part of his Civics curriculum and I was aghast. Everything was upside down. Wondered whether the problem was with me ? And with Arun Shourie
What is secularism ?
It is the absence of religion in legislation. By its very definition “Indian secularism” is the opposite of secularism as it “respects” the presence of every religion in legislation. Since the religions especially the Abrahamic religions have precious little in common with each other and the Indic religions, this just leads to constant monkey-balancing while disappointing everyone. And creating resentments instead of harmony
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Why “Indian secularism” ?
If we do away with doublespeak, India is not able to move towards genuine secularism because one community believes in the infallibility, completeness and eternity of its religion. But even more than that there is a resultant superiority complex and deep-rooted othering of “non-believers”.
The irony is that no state, not even Saudi Arabia or Iran can be a a perfect theological state and will curtail religion (atleast) to some extent, this supremacy in believers is weirdly combined with a victimhood complex. That their freedom of religion is being curtailed and their religion is in danger. The paranoia is markedly worse if they are in a minority because of their deep-rooted othering paradigm - the non-believer majority is maliciously evil and out to get them :D
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This book by Arun Shourie tears apart "Indian secularism" AKA pseudo-secularism in the exhaustive style of the author. Each of the issues - UCC, Kashmir and Article 370, Temple, Blasphemy, illegal immigration has been discussed in detail along with its history and the way ahead. Though the book is old, only 2 of the issues - Kashmir and Ram Mandir - have been solved so far. And the book remains relevant and a hard-hitting read today too.
January 2, 2025
This book came out in 1993, and it's hard to believe that everything Arun Shourie ji talked about is still relevant today. He went into detail about topics like Kashmir, illegal immigration, and secularism. It's surprising to see that these issues are still around even after 30 years since he wrote it. I’m curious to know his recent opinions on a couple of topics.
November 22, 2023
Although the book was written in 1993, it is still relevant with respect to politics of appeasement, constitutional reforms, uniform civil code, illegal infiltration, Hindu-Muslim relations etc. (article 370 is no more now!)
On each topic, there are three to five articles that explore the issues, give the opinions of the author, and then offer conclusions with solutions.
Arun Shourie is a well-read man and this is a well-written and well-researched book.
On each topic, there are three to five articles that explore the issues, give the opinions of the author, and then offer conclusions with solutions.
Arun Shourie is a well-read man and this is a well-written and well-researched book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews