Dr John Mohan Razu
Use of religion in politics and vice versa is now the new normal. It is conspicuous that politicians use religion in various ways to suit their political interests for power and religious leaders use politics for authority. As of now both religion and politics is sitting pretty well on each other laps. It is to be noted that nowadays politicians of all ideological shades across the world use religion to garner votes. In fact, it was though that the world would turn out becoming secular, quite a sizable population of the world support the ways in which religion and politics are twisted, blended, and packaged for ‘pseudo-spiritual consumption’.
Use of religion is more frequent and transparent in secular democracies than ever before. Though it has not been present in the past, this convention and practice seem to changing. Adherents by and large seem to have accepted. At one point, the word ‘secular’ had a powerful influence that maintained separation of religion from politics or absence of the usage of religion in politics. Instead of deepening the understanding and of their core belief system of their followers they tend concoct religion with narrow and skewed political coloring.
The western countries had observed strict separation between church and state. This separation is deeply rooted and given adequate space in modern western philosophy. In addition, the modern western philosophers and several thinkers at different point in time, including the enlightenment advocate John Locke, reiterated that the state should primarily deal with administrate aspects such as material security and French philosopher Voltaire, a critic of religious intolerance and intertwining of church and state
The western philosophical idealism, however, seemed to have undermined or set aside people’s intrinsic belief. Apparently, the separation between church and state remains the core governing principle, on the contrary those seeking high offices in the church increasingly appealed to religious sentiments to get from voters. Take for example, the United States of America in principle is secular democracy, the leaders in the USA sought votes quoting Biblical verses and passages. In the recent election in the United State, Donald Trump in his electoral speech said that he would see that every house would have the Bible to woo the white evangelical Christians.
Politicians of various faith persuasions tend to make use of their religious scriptures by giving all kinds of interpretations to suit their political ends, instead they could have brought more awareness or deepened their understanding, but failed miserably on this count. India is known for its plural character wherein diverse religious communities live side-by-side. This is why in the Preamble of India’s Constitution it is called as secular. In recent times, this character is being eroded by the politicians who have sown the seeds of religious fundamentalism and communal fanaticism to garner more votes from those who belong to this constituencies.
Politicians offering poojas in temples, being part of the rituals, and leading opening of temples have become new normal. Wooing the religious traditions and practices of majoritarian religious grouping have been yielding fruits to those political parties whose ideology is entrenched in religious fundamentalism. There are some high court judges and some former Supreme Court judges had openly showed their preferences for Hindu majoritarianism. Usually, the ethics of Hindu religion used to be taken up for ethical framework and moral guidance.
In recent times politics and religion have become inseparable. These two are increasingly getting cluttered posing new challenges to humanity. In this even the religious leaders who want to protect their power and advance authority have joined together by mutually supporting each other. Religious values and ethical principles should be used as guideposts to regulate politics because governance is basically entwined and grounded on ethical values and morals. Ethics in diverse religions ought to used be it—whether to acquire power or to govern or while initiating new programs and policies
