• Dr. Shashi Kumar Singh, Ph.D., D.Litt

Shri Rajiv Gandhi envisioned that the India of the 21st century should remain truly secular on one hand, and on the other, be home to religious pluralism. Shri Rajiv Gandhi used to be deeply saddened by the communal riots taking place in the 20th century. Although India has been considered a secular state in the Indian Constitution, yet communalism keeps taking form in one or the other parts of India. States like Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat etc. keep coming under the grip of communalism from time-to-time. Shri Rajiv Gandhi used to be deeply saddened by this condition of India because it not only caused loss of India’s people and wealth, but also tarnished India’s image in the international arena. Addressing the nation from New Delhi on November 2, 1984, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said, “Communal frenzy will destroy us. It will destroy all the values that India has stood for. As the Prime Minister of India, I can never allow that to happen. Don’t shed blood, instead, shed hatred if you may.”

Addressing the nation from New Delhi on November 12, 1984, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said, “No religion propagates hatred and intolerance. Vested interests - both external and internal - are fuelling violence by inciting communal feelings, so that India is disintegrated. Answering communalism with communalism will only help destructive and separatist forces. Only the combined powers of the people and the government can defeat their nefarious designs. India belongs to all of us.”

On April 2, 1988, while addressing the meeting of District Magistrates in Imphal, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said that I would ask you to keep this fact in mind when we talk of national integration, when we talk of ending communalism and when we talk about fighting against radical ideologies, the question arises as to how will they be fought against? Will they be fought by the police? Will it be fought with guns or new weapons that control riots or will it be fought with the hearts and minds of people? The real battle will not be fought with guns, lathis or shields. The real battle will be an ideological one whose purpose will be to bring a change in thinking.

On the basis of this thinking, Shri Rajiv Gandhi envisioned the India of the 21st century. While the India of the 21st century will be a secular India, on the other hand, it will be an India of religious pluralism. Shri Rajiv Gandhi applied the same meaning of secularism as has been described in the Indian Constitution. ‘Secularism’ is for the state and ‘Religious Pluralism’ is for the society. A secular state respects and honours all religions and does not patronize or encourage any one particular religion. Shri Rajiv Gandhi had deep reverence for all religions and he believed in the fact that every citizen should have freedom of religious belief, freedom of worship, freedom of religious practice to profess, propagate and leave any religion. But the state will neither encourage nor discourage any religion. Addressing the nation from New Delhi on November 12, 1984, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said, “Secularism is the mainstay of our nationhood. It is more than tolerance. It is a sign of active unity.” Addressing the nation again on January 5, 1985, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said that ‘Secularism’ is the basis of our unity. Communalism and other narrow forces do not match unity.

On February 27, 1986, in response to the debate on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha, Shri Rajiv Gandhi made it clear that we are a secular country, but how will we define ‘Secularism’? Shall we define it as ‘No religion’? Shall we define it as ‘The co-existence of every religion with every other religion’? We accept the right to co-existence of any religion with its own personal law. This does not diminish our secularism. In fact, it is a powerful integral unit of our ‘Secularism’. This is fundamental to India’s power that every religion has the freedom to follow its own opinion and religion cannot be suppressed or changed on the basis of power.

On October 8, 1986, while delivering the inaugural address at the National Seminar titled ‘India’s Struggle against Communalism’ in New Delhi, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said, “Secularism is the foundation of our nationhood. ‘Secularism’ is not what it appears in English dictionaries as being ‘irreligious’ or ‘anti-religion’. But ‘Secularism’ as defined by Panditji is ‘SarvadharmaSambhaav’, which allows all religions to flourish in our country.” In the same speech, he had also said that ‘Secularism’ follows ‘Religion’ deeply. It has to move in a positive direction as told by Gandhiji and Nehruji. Shri Rajiv Gandhi used to be saddened by the communal incidents taking place in India of the twentieth century and did not want its repetition in the twenty-first century. While addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15, 1987, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said that communal feelings flare up at some places. We are seeing misuse of religious places in India. People’s religious sentiments are being played with. We see one community fighting against another, one brother fighting against his brother, one man fighting against another man. All these are posing a threat to our ‘Secularism’. We also fought against communalism in the freedom struggle. Even today, there is no place for communalism in India. In India, people of all religions and beliefs live together in a society like brothers. There is no place for communalism in our society, in our democracy. It is the responsibility of every citizen to control such elements through his/her thoughts and actions. There should be no place in India for such people who are making the country powerless in the name of religion. The nature of India should be peaceful, cooperative and constructive in which people of all religions live in mutual harmony.

Addressing the teachers and professors of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Milia Islamia University in New Delhi on September 15, 1987, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said, “Secularism is the most important element in our nation building. Merely specifying the quantity in the Constitution and making a law does not ensure that all the citizens will start working in a secular manner. The leaders of our country tried to develop the sentiments of the people in line with secularism in the national life. Whether our ‘Secularism’ is running according to the articles mentioned in the Constitution or not, will be known from the extent to which we have proposed secularism in practice.”

Addressing the National Conference organized against communal and separatist forces in New Delhi on October 6, 1988, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said, “I will here, for a minute, discuss ‘Religion’, separating it from ‘Secularism’ because I understand that both are important for India and some other countries. We cannot substitute ‘Secularism’ for ‘Religion’. Both have their respective places. Our ‘Secularism’ is not anti-religionism, our ‘Secularism’ is ‘SarvadharmaSambhava’ which means there is place for all religions, but politics should not be mixed with religion. In the same speech, Shri Rajiv Gandhi also said that in the end, ‘Secularism’ should be a way of our life which should be imbued with our traditional principles, our values, our thoughts of truth, non-violence, compassion, tolerance and it should not be used for political or even for any other very important facts as well.

While giving a speech at Beijing’s Tsinghua University on December 21, 1988, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said that ‘Secularism’ is the second pillar of our state. It is a word that has different meanings in different languages. What we understand by ‘Secularism’ is that the state does not interfere in the religious activities of the Indian citizens, nor does it want to mix religion with politics. The State has no religion of its own. At the same time, our state respects the religious sentiments of all our people, accepts their values, their spiritualism etc. and gives freedom to the citizens to worship and propagate all religions.

Shri Rajiv Gandhi had a vision that on one hand ‘Secularism’ should be established in true form in the India of the twenty-first century and on the other hand, religious pluralism should be established peacefully in the Indian society. ‘Religious Pluralism’ simply means the coexistence of different religions. All religions should flourish in India, but there should be no mutual tension among them. Addressing the World Kannada Conference in Mysore on December 16, 1985, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said, “It happens only in India that people who believe in one religion go to other religious places with devotion. This happens because the roots of spiritualism in India are very deep.”

Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 1985, on the occasion of Independence Day, Shri Rajiv Gandhi appealed that we have to root out communalism and create an environment in which we all live as brothers. Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s vision for the twenty-first century was that there should be religion, but there should be no religious hypocrisy. In the coming century, there should be no conflict in the name of religion and no bloodshed. He had wanted to establish equality of all religions in the twenty-first century. He did not see any contradiction between ‘Secularism’ and healthy ‘Religion’. All religions should run their activities peacefully and should not fight with other religions. This was the religious pluralism of Shri Rajiv Gandhi. Clarifying this, he said on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15, 1986, from the ramparts of the Red Fort, “I am standing here looking at temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches. This is the real wealth of India and in this lies our strength. In this speech, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had also said that we are followers of different religions - Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Persian, Buddhist. This is our tolerance which has given freedom to all to flourish. We give equal respect to all faiths and religions. Our strength and unity lie in this fact.

Even before this, on February 27, 1986, in response to the debate on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha, Shri Rajiv Gandhi said, “All religions have the right to co-exist here. All religions have the freedom to propagate their faith. But neither any religion should be suppressed nor any person’s religion should be changed forcefully.’’ Similarly, on October 8, 1986, a seminar named ‘India’s Struggle against Communalism’ was inaugurated in New Delhi. While doing this, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said, “Perhaps India is the only country where people of one religion visit temples, mosques, gurudwaras, churches etc. of other religions. Sikhs go to temples, Hindus go to Gurdwaras. Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims all go to the mosques. We are also not bound by narrow ideologies from which religious hypocrisies arise.”

While inaugurating the 150th birthday celebrations of Sri Ramakrishna in New Delhi on February 10, 1987, Shri Rajiv Gandhi quoted Sri Ramakrishna thus, “I have tried all religions Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and I have also observed different sects of Hindu religion and have found that there is only one God who is being worshiped by all, though their paths are different.”In his same speech, Shri Rajiv Gandhi also said that religion is deeper than external and meaningless principles and methods. To meet the challenges of fundamentalists, it is inappropriate to reject religion itself, rather, fundamentalists can be faced with secularism which means ‘SarvadharmaSambhava’ or acceptance of all religions, which is a greater truth.

Even on October 6, 1988, while addressing the National Conference organized against communal and separatist forces in New Delhi, Shri Rajiv Gandhi had said that our ‘Secularism’ is ‘Sarva Dharma Sambhava’ which means that there is a place for all religions in India, but religion should not be mixed with politics and this is the most important thing.

It is clear that Shri Rajiv Gandhi saw the India of the 21st century as a flower bed. Just as there are different types of flowers in a flower bed and all of them spread their beauty and fragrance without harming other flowers in the same way, there may be different types of religions in the 21st century India; Neither buy tension nor harm each other.

(The author is a member of the AICC and Chairman of the Vichar Vibhag of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee)