The concept of Secularism as known to the modern West is dreaded derided and denounced in the strongest terms by the foundational doctrines of Christianity and Islam. Both of these doctrines prescribe Theocracy under which the State serves as the secular arm of Church or the Ummah, and society is regimented by the Sacred Canon or the Shariat. It is, therefore, intriguing that the most fanatical and fundamentalist adherents of Christianity and Islam in India- Christian missionaries and Muslim mullahs- cry themselves hoarse in defence of Indian Secularism, the same way as the votaries of Communist totalitarianism coming out vociferously in defence of Democracy.
The puzzle stands solved when we learn from the post-independence writings and speeches of Pandit Nehru, the father of Indian Secularism, that he had borrowed from the modern West only the word and not its meaning in Western political parlance.
The court case and other articles in Section I of this book bear ample testimony that the Indian State has became a Theocracy for all practical purposes with sarva- dharma-samabhava serving as its official dogma. The twist given by Pandit Nehru and all other parties to the word ‘secularism’, has turned Indian Secularism into a shield for wounding and maiming Hinduism which has always stood for an open society and religious pluralism.
Section II of this book reproduces twelve reviews of the book, Why I Am Not A Muslim by Ibn Warraq, published in the U.S.A. in 1995, and an article by Shabir Akhtar spelling out what Islam means vis-a-vis freedom of expression.
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