Author: T. V. R. Shenoy
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 17, 2004
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=49091
Introduction: Hindutva divides in
India. In US, a new debate on 'secularism'
In 1844, Karl Marx declared in his
essay 'Toward the Critique of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right' that religion
was the ''opium of the people''. Friends and foes alike are learning that
it can be a very hard habit to kick!
I am in the United States right
now, a country where India, normally, barely makes a blip on the news radar.
But that is no excuse to stay out of touch when every major news outlet
has a presence on the World Wide Web. I can read the Indian Express at
roughly the same time as readers in India (except that it becomes a post-dinner
read on the previous day for me while it is an accompaniment to the morning
cuppa for you).
It is a striking fact that religion
continues to play such a major role in the two greatest democracies on
this planet. Back home, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's remarks on Narendra Modi
and Praveen Togadia's vituperative counterblast are mushrooming into a
larger debate on Hindutva. Here in the United States, every media organisation
is giving headline treatment to the US Supreme Court's ruling that the
phrase ''under God'' remains in the Pledge of Allegiance for now.
Given our Union human resources
development minister's crusade to ''de- saffronise'' the curriculum, it
is interesting to note how the case reached the courts in the first place.
An atheist parent in California objected to his child, a student in kindergarten,
reciting the Pledge of Allegiance since it violated the separation between
church and state. The US Supreme Court ducked a decision, saying the plaintiff,
Dr Michael Newdow, lacked the standing to file such a case in the first
place. (The child's mother, who lives apart, is a devout Christian who
had earlier been given final say over her daughter's schooling by the courts.)
A precise parallel is our Supreme
Court's judgment that children belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses need
not sing the national anthem in their school's morning assembly because
they feel that Jana Gana Mana deifies the Motherland. There is, however,
a crucial difference. Jana Gana Mana was composed during the freedom struggle
and has not been changed since those halcyon days. When the US Pledge of
Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy - for the World's Fair in Chicago,
believe it or not - in 1892, the phrase ''under God'' did not form part
of it.
Those two words were added in the
early years of the Cold War for purely secular reasons, because the United
States wanted to set itself apart from the ''godless Communists''. (Interestingly,
the law was enacted on June 14, 1954, precisely 50 years before the latest
ruling.) Just as, to complete the analogy, Indira Gandhi thrust ''socialist''
and ''secular'' into the Preamble of the Indian Constitution during the
crony-capitalist, superstition-ridden days of the Emergency.
If Hindutva was a divisive factor
in our last general election, the debate on ''secularism'' promises to
be no less interesting in the US presidential polls later this year. Interestingly,
the very word ''secular'' is close to a term of abuse in the United States;
both George Bush and John Kerry insist that they are devout Christians.
(Which is just as well since the overwhelming majority of Americans attest
that they could never vote for a non-believer; avowed atheists like Karunanidhi
would have disappeared from the American political arena long since.)
The debate in the United States
has moved from the absolute separation of church and state to the extent
to which the church influences policy. It is doubly interesting since John
Kerry is a practising Catholic, and the Vatican has black and white views
on some gray areas.
The only Roman Catholic to win the
presidency of the United States was John F. Kennedy. His faith was an issue
of sorts even then, but back in 1960 there were no major policy differences
between the Catholic hierarchy and the American mainstream. Abortion had
not yet been legalised, stem-cell research didn't feature even in science-fiction,
and, above all, there was a complete unanimity on the need to combat the
''godless'' beings in the Kremlin.
The fall of the Berlin Wall didn't
just symbolise the destruction of the Warsaw Pact. It also meant the beginning
of the end for the tacit partnership between the Vatican and Washington.
What is a devout Catholic to do when the articles of his creed run directly
contrary to the laws of his country? The Roman Catholic Church insists
that abortion is a grave sin. Will a President Kerry try to repeal the
US Supreme Court judgment in Roe vs. Wade which sanctioned abortion?
The issues - not just abortion but
also stem-cell research, euthanasia, and gay marriage - are bitterly divisive.
One Catholic bishop has barred Kerry from Holy Communion in his diocese,
Colorado, because he supports a woman's right to abortion. George Bush,
a born-again Christian with strong links to fervent Evangelical sects,
is closer to the Catholic line.
Will there be any fallout in India
because of this churning in the United States? US financial support for
family planning measures which has already been cut substantially could
be reduced even further, affecting AIDS control measures too. Stem-cell
research and other cutting-edge biotechnology may move to India to evade
legal hurdles in the United States. Finally, India will be under greater
pressure from the ''human rights'' lobbies as Christian missionaries intensify
their efforts at conversion.
Tailpiece: The New York Times reports
the latest twist on outsourcing: prayers are being recited in India because
it is cheaper than doing it in the West. Talk about mixing Mammon and the
Messiah!
