The present paper seeks 'to explore the nature of Indian secularism, the difficulties it has run into, and the ways in which it may be revised'. This is a large undertaking for a short text, originally written as public lecture, particularly because the issues posed do nopt readily translate into plain questions. The most that I can hope to do is to raise some doubts and make a few suggestions for rethinking the issues involved.
Indian newspapers and academic journals assault their readers with stories of large-scale communal violence and of the communalization of India's political institutions. These stories are frequently accompanied by pious editorials which enact the well-known Indian ritual of paying lip-service to the concept of 'secularism'. Secularism is one question on which intellectuals have made common cause with social workers and politicians, joining them in meetings and seminars, even participating in the peace marches which are commonly organized in the aftermath of communal riots. There have even been occasions in which individuals who are known to have been involved, directly or otherwise, in communal battles, have participated in these rites of secularism.
The Conseil d'Etat and secularism. The advice rendered on 27 november 1989 The 27 November 1989 advice of the French Conseil d'Etat on the problem concerning secularism raised by a few Muslim girls who came to school with their hair hidden by a scarf signifies a two-fold shift : concerning the expertise function of the Conseil d'Etat, and concerning the meaning of secularism. The author identifies their expressions and seeks to show the issues and the consequences brought up by this double shift.
Observers of The Indian Political Scene Have Been puzzled by the performance and prospects of the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest opposition group in the central legislature in New Delhi, and forms the government in four northern states, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. The elements of opposition and government have taken new shape; and the rise of the BJP, say critics, constitutes a challenge not simply to Congress but to the Nehru-established state and its secular democratic inheritance. Its leaders couch their appeal in relation to the religious sentiments of the Hindu majority of India and they talk not only of roti but Ram — the bread of life itself. 'Away with the "pseudo-secularism" of Western values: India must rediscover its past.' Such is the simple message of the Hindutva party and its allies. It is an old theme but opponents and supporters alike believe that the 119 seats which the BJP now has in the Lok Sabha (India's lower house) give the demand for fundamental reform a new political force.
