Religion and politics make a lethal mix. The scenario is progressively worsening in India. Church played an indirect role in politics and statecraft in Europe and across the West, while religion is central to politics and governance in the Islamic world. India and several Asian nations did not have a direct connect between politics and religion for a long time. Jawaharlal Nehru as the first prime minister and the framers of the Indian Constitution conceived India as a secular nation, while Pakistan was born simultaneously as an Islamic nation. In recent decades, when the pro-Hindu sentiments grew – undercutting the secular credentials of the nation – this saw the rise of the BJP and the progressive weakening of the secular Congress party. Nehru had motivated the people by launching an era of dams and steel factories, which helped build the economic might of the nation. He called dams the “temples” of modern India. India still remains a secular nation, but the role of religion is increasingly strengthening in national politics. The frenzy with which those in authority launched the Ram Temple in Ayodhya two years ago signalled a drive in the reverse direction. The well-marked difference between religion and politics – and by extension statecraft – blurred.
The inauguration of the Ram Temple with fanfare and rituals in Ayodhya marked a high point with direct involvement and patronage of the prime minister himself. Now, a frenzy is building up in West Bengal for the erection of a Rs 100-crore Ram Temple in Kolkata – significantly, after the foundation was laid for a Babri Mosque in Murshidabad. The Hindutva forces are also bent on furthering the religious wedge between Hindus and Muslims by staking claims for more places of Islamic worship in the country to build Hindu temples. They do so by raising the bogey of the past “desecrations” by Muslim invaders. The unholy link between religion and politics undercuts the spirit of nationalism, especially in a democracy like India where people of different races, religions, castes and languages co-exist as a mosaic.
In fact, the BJP is not the only political establishment that seeks to mix religion with governance systems. Governments in several states are going out of their way to fund and promote spirituality by patronizing religious events. Karl Marx called religion the detestable opium of the masses. Curiously, the Marxist government in Kerala recently organised a global congregation of Ayyappa devotees with liberal funding and other support from state-run entities. The leftists ended up with egg on their face, as a subsequent expose of massive loot of the temple’s gold and other valuables led to the jailing of some senior party functionaries, among others. Several state governments, run by the BJP and regionalists, are liberally granting funds from the exchequer for shrines and their festivals. Substantial parts of such allotments are siphoned away by vested interests in the name of religion and spirituality. India has travelled a long distance away from Nehru, who was secular, agnostic, a humanist and one who promoted a scientific temper. Politicians out to pocket the votes of the poor today encourage spirituality to win or retain power.
