So, Who Needs Secularism?

When Kamala Suraiya converted to Islam from Hinduism, she was asked in an interview why she converted to Islam, when the religion is notorious for not granting freedom to women. Her reply was,” who needs freedom?” A considerable portion of India also seems to ask “who needs secularism?” Being communal in India can be considered "natural", in the same vein as gay rights activists say that being gay is "natural” for them. Non-secularism is a better option, for a majority of the population and often the only one.
Consider this—the story of an average Kannadiga born in Bangaluru, (it is a cliché, but to one has to embrace different clichés time to time to understand human psyche and society.):
"I was born in Bangaluru in early eighties. My father is a daily wage laborer. He managed to give me education till twelfth standard. After that he could not afford my education. So I took driving classes to work as a driver. I thought I was qualified enough to make a "decent living". I went to IT companies to drive their cabs, or work in any job to make a comfortable living. But I could hardly find jobs. I was enamored by how my city has grown--grown big and grown strange to me. People around have been speaking languages, which I am not comfortable with. I became insignificant. I struggle to eke a living doing all kinds of jobs. I am estranged and confused. But I tried to pick up the strange languages around me.
I often sensed that I was been derided and mocked at; I am not sure whether it is because of my demeanor or because I was not conversant enough in their language or because I was not at par with them. But I used to dismiss these thoughts just as my gut feeling. Later, I managed to open a pan-cigarette shop-- very much below my expectations for a decent livelihood. I converse to the customers in the strange languages I had picked up.
They seemed condescending again and again. But I justified it as my feeling every time I felt it. Nevertheless, these feeling clouded my conscious and unconscious alike. My parents have been saying that, this is our place, and that they have lived here for quite a long time. But why do I find this place more and more distant from my needs, and me as days pass? My identity was being pulled and drawn thin like a gold foil, so much that I don't exist.
I couldn't brush it aside--because I encounter it on a daily basis. Neither could I forget it because, I my meager earning didn’t give any material comfort indulge myself in. So I made up my mind and I said "enough is enough."( I said it much before the terrorist attack in Mumbai.)
I don't know exactly when I did give up trying to speak in the strange languages. But I remember that on when a customer argued with me in his strange language about the price of a pan, I lost my nerve and asked him to get lost. It was so spontaneous that it took a minute or so for me to realize that I had spoken in Kannada, which he would not have understood. I was speaking the language of my soul. I was speaking my soul out.
Understanding that there is no-point arguing with an arrogant person like me, he went away. He may or may not have had his reasons for arguing with me. But why will I care? I had been trying to understand people of his kind for years, just to fit in. But they never seemed to take any effort to understand me. Now, I gave up on understanding them and on my own sensibilities. Neither do I expect them to understand me. All I need is a dignified life. I don't want to argue or debate with them. They would have understood it long time back even if they had half-a-brain. I will make them understand in the tough way. Soon I found that many of my peers share my view."
With majority of political parties contesting the election having made their USP secularism, the issue has found place in the heart of the public morale of progressive India. But what do we mean by secularism?
True secularism starts from the grass-root, not from utopian ideologies. Our idea of progressive India’s secularism is vague and skewed to suit our narrow goals. Thackery and Muthalik wouldn't have existed, but for Mumbai and Bengaluru. Frustrations in a metropolis easily finds echo through out the state.
Identity is not an optional extra, but is a function of a dignified life. The less privileged are the most vocal and aggressive about their identity, though privileged class of the same ethnic or linguistic group do reflect it with lesser intensity. Greater one’s dignity is at peril, the more intensive will be the struggle for identity.
To say that people at the helm of communal and regional political parties started the divide is not true. They merely give it a national expression and identity. The problem was already there. Whether they capitalize on it or not is a different issue.
India is divided on numerous linguistic and ethnic lines which need regional solutions. There can be no one universal secular agenda for India. The litmus test of India's true democracy lies in formulating and implementing it's indigenous secular policy.