Chapter 3
The Second Fundamental continues...


The Hindu woman’s agitation to function in society unfettered by oppressive customs, archaic marriage and inheritance laws, and dowry has had its effect on Muslim society as well. The progressive attitude of one religion is bound to affect the other religion. The brotherhood practiced by Islam, for example, has made Hindus re-examine their attitudes towards the scheduled castes in the wake of religious conversion.

It may however be easier to create conditions for a renewed Hindu Renaissance, than for a Muslim Renaissance. This is because the spiritual power centre of Islam is outside India. There is no Islamic spiritual authority residing in India, with powers to reinterpret the religious edicts in keeping with requirements of a renaissance. Therefore the State should not take any step which would bring forth the charge of interference in Islamic religious practices, save those which foster the concept of “equality before the law”. For example, we can never agree that a woman witness is not equal to a man witness (Orthodox Islamic law requires two women witnesses to counter a man’s evidence!). However, it is hoped that the Ulemas will themselves think about the need for progressive change in Muslim society, and move with the times. The mullahs of Muslim religion cannot demand that, for example, the personal laws of marriage and inheritance must follow the Shariat, but not the punishment for the penal offence of robbery (for Muslims this involves cutting off the hand at the wrist). If the Shariat is not to be implemented as a whole in India, (for example the Penal code is not to be Shariat based), then where and what is it to be truncated of the Shariat in other legal civil and criminal codes Thus secularism as defined and propagated till today, has lost its relevance. The concept, as understood by the masses of India stands thoroughly discredited. Hence the question is whether we should redefine secularism to make it acceptable to the masses or capitulate to the rising fundamentalism in the country.


to be continued.....