INDIAN DEFINITION OF SECULARISM IS INCOMPLETE -ROMILA THAPAR  !

The Indian definition of secularism was “limited and incomplete” as it restricted itself to mere co-existence of religions which did not prevent some religions from being “marginalised”, historian Romila Thapar said on Wednesday.

Thapar made the observations while delivering the Dr Asghar Ali Memorial Lecture on ‘Indian society and the secular’ at Jamia Millia Islamia.

“Secularism is the curtailment of religious control over social institutions, not the absence of religion from society. It is when our primary identity is of equal citizens of the nation, not as belonging to a particular religion or caste. But the Indian definition of secularism is limited to the coexistence of many religions which is incomplete because some religions can still be marginalised as they are,” said Thapar.