Is India a secular country?

[m-jeri]

I'm sorry, but most of your thoughts indicates your hatred than other way round. Out of six Indian states I've lived only Kerala had people approaching me (probably because of my atheist attitude) for religious conversion (subtly initially and more annoying later ). If I remember correctly, Pope Benedict was snubbed by Indian MEA for openly opposing legislation against religious conversions in India in 2006, so its more rampant and has blessings of Church than you think it is.

Its pretty common for any Non vegetarian to be called as Animal by vegetarians (even I'm teased the same way) , I don't think it means much.

Amit Shah does not represent Hindus, he's a leader of a political party which thrives on pseudo Pro Hindu politics, much similar to pseudo secular political parties. They both have to be reprimanded that politics of hatred doesn't pay.
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Its last 10-20yrs with the advent of internet we're having a meaningful dialogue amongst communities, I'm pretty hopeful that we'll be able move towards a more Secular and pro country policies instead of religion and caste based politics in near future. Our democracy survived in first 50yrs, now we're on the way of learning how to run it to the advantage of every individual.
Running a democracy has a steep learning curve, we're on track IMHO.
I don't hate religions per se, but the way they're practiced in this country is very disappointing.

Please excuse yourself from telling me what i hate or do not hate. When you say people, I would like to know the location and what sect they belong to. Pope is the head of the catholic church. Of course he will be against any government level policies regarding religious conversions. But Why are you bringing a non indians whims and fancies into this? I am asking about Indians. Did I go to Vatican and ask him to do that?. So please, keep your better know than me attitude to yourself.

It wasn't a tease by any means.

 

[Neo-N]

 

[Lord Nemesis]

Frankly I am not sure whether they were doctored or not.

Might or might not be fake and I wouldn't be surprised if its not. The standard process used for the "sacrifice" during Bakrid is no different than the standard process used for butchering. i.e. slitting the throat and draining the blood.

In fact, When I was a kid, I have seen similar scenes of blood flowing like a river couple of times near the market with chicken and fish stalls during the rains. So, I wouldn't be surprised its true.

But to be honest, it would be hypocritical for Hindu right wing groups to be using it for hate mongering considering that ritualistic sacrifices are quite a bit higher and common among Hindus than Muslims.

Bakrid time sacrifices don't even qualify as sacrifices in the true sense since they eat the animals they kill. Most Hindu ritualistic sacrifices involve killing animals ranging from pigeons and chickens to buffaloes, but does not usually involve eating the sacrificed animals. It is because of this that some northern states have put a ban on any animal killing for religious/ritualistic purposes when it doesn't involve consumption.

The Gadhimai festival in Nepal is one extreme depiction of Hindu ritualistic sacrifices where up to 5 lac animals are sacrificed and quite a number of people apparently go from India to Nepal for this festival.

http://www.businessinsider.in/Jaw-D...est-Animal-Sacrifice/articleshow/45342118.cms
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sacrifice-thousands-animals-Hindu-ritual.html

In addition, ritualistic sacrifices among Hindus are not limited to just animals either. Till just a couple of years back, Incidents of ritualistic human sacrifices (mostly of children) to deities for anything from finding hidden treasure to other silly things were quite common in present day Telangana, AP, Maharastra regions. The report rate of such incidents has reduced drastically, but I am not sure its is completely gone

On a different note, if you look at the background story of Bakrid which has its roots in Judaism and referenced in Jewish Torah, Bible as well as Quran, the original sacrifice was meant to be a human. God asks Ibrahim (Abraham in Torah/Bible) to sacrifice his son as a test to prove his subservience to God and he complies, at the last moment, God intervenes and ask him sacrifice a goat (Ram as per Torah/Bible) instead.

 

[random2]

Given any typical day/scenario, no person is bothered about which religion other belongs to or any other practices. There are good and bad in every religion (there is absolutely no exception). But people usually ignore such pain points and go about their life.

The problem arises when politicians take the above differences and try to create segments of masses so that they can try and appease them (Either by creating useless sensations against a religion/sect/cast or favoring a segment). This is done to increase their vote banks. This is again without any doubt done by all political parties - left, center, right, regional parties etc.

Now coming back to the people i.e 'we'. We are absolute morons (regardless of being 'educated' or not). We let such thoughts bother us and throw our opinions on any tom-dick-harry we interact with. And this is exactly what our so called leaders want. The very reason this question has come up says that there is a problem. But we discuss all these at length and there is no solution. This is because, each is right at his/her own end. And we ignore the most simplest solution for the problem - 'Dont react to such useless things'. The simplest solution is to ignore things when someone tries to incite hatred. Instead of these, look into what each person can do to fix issues in their own religion/belief.

If India is secular its because of us and if its not, the culprits are the same - 'Us'

 

[manoja2k]

As per my understanding secularism is the de-linking of religion from governance. By that definition, is India truly secular? No, far from it. It does not matter what is someone's personal choice of religion is, he cannot demand a tweak in policy based on his religious beliefs and practices, if the govt. is truly secular.