Explained : Separation of religion from politics is key to secularism and Its Impact

Championing the separation of religion and politics, Hameed Dalwai envisioned a secular India grounded in human values over religious identities.His reformist ideas continue to challenge society and politics to build a more inclusive and progressive democracy

Renowned historian Ramachandra Guha has praised radical Muslim social reformer and writer Hameed Dalwai as one of the makers of modern India, alongside Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and B.R. Ambedkar, whose ideas had a tremendous impact in transforming the Indian polity. Penguin Random House India recently published his book, ‘Muslim Politics in India,’ which is considered a guide for real secular forces. He was the first person to fight against Triple Talaq and polygamy in the Muslim community. He was born in 1932 in a poor Maharashtrian Muslim family. He died in 1977. The great Marathi writer P.L. Deshpande regarded him on par with social reformers like B.R. Ambedkar and Mahatma Jyothi Rao Pule.

NEED FOR SOCIAL REFORMS IN THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY

Dalwai studied his own community as a political analyst and observed that “So long as Muslims do not acquire a genuinely secular outlook and concern for human values, so long as they do not develop a capacity for viewing their own problems and the problems of others with whom they have to live in intimacy in the framework of human values, their situation is bound to remain unaltered. The remedies which have been suggested or applied so far were superficial. I am convinced that a new Muslim mind can emerge only if the Muslim society experiences an authentic renaissance. The fact is that Muslim society has not yet thrown up a significant number of individuals who are genuinely committed to liberalism and humanism. It continues to be a tribal society held together by collectivist loyalty. Even educated Muslims whose religious faith is often skin-deep rarely rise to a broad, humanist outlook. This tendency to accord supremacy to a collective loyalty to Islam, to which every other consideration is sought to be subordinated, and the resulting indifference to human values, is by no means confined to Indian Muslims alone. Muslim communities everywhere in the world display the same attitude.”

ROLE OF MUSLIM INTELLIGENTSIA

Dalwai warns that the inaction of Muslim intelligentsia is harmful to the secular polity of India, as “There are some Muslims who are members of the Indian elite but who are afraid of their own community’s reaction to modern attitudes. These uncommitted and hypocritical liberals are not only of no use but are also a hindrance to the progress of Indian Muslims. They are either moral cowards or are apathetic to a great social problem, which is also a problem of democracy in India. They must make a choice now.” He further elaborates that “it would be wrong to conclude that just because educated Muslims are not very religious, they must therefore be secular…First and foremost, people must be made conscious that there is such a thing as fundamental human values, and these must be separated from religious values.” On the criticism often hurled at him, Dalwai categorically states that “they often ask me why I single out Muslim communalism for criticism. It is true that even Hindus are communal-minded. And it is wrong to say that I have kept silent about Hindu communalism while criticizing Muslim communalism in India. I have been ceaselessly criticizing the movement for a ban on cow-slaughter.”

FAILURE OF POLITICAL PARTIES

He made a detailed study on the strange marriage between communists and Muslim communalists, which is worth pondering. Dalwai did not spare his own Socialist party, saying that “no political party in India is forthright enough to take steps towards eradicating communalism. They appease the Muslims…There has to be a non-party organization to tackle the problem.”

SECULAR AGENDA

Dalwai sets a secular agenda for the nation as “We have to insist on a common personal law for all citizens of India. All marriages in India must be registered under a common Civil Code. Religious conversion should not be allowed, except when the intended convert is an adult and the conversion takes place before a magistrate. Children born of inter-religious marriages should be free to practice any religion but only after they reach legal adulthood. If either a dargah or a temple obstructs the passage of traffic on a thoroughfare, it ought to be removed. The government should have control over the income of all religious property. The income should be spent on education and public welfare alone. It should not be obligatory to mention one’s religion and caste (even today, the admission form used in schools compels students to state their religion) …The special status given to Kashmir should be scrapped…There should be opportunities for the development of Urdu; even schools which use Urdu as medium of instruction should have full protection. However, the demand for giving Urdu the status of the second official language of a State should be firmly resisted. The status of all Indian women should be governed by a single, common Civil Code. The purdah should be legally banned. The question of a ban on cow-slaughter should be settled strictly with reference to the agricultural and economic development of the country.” Hameed Dalwai’s ideas are a ray of hope for building a truly secular India.