“Secularism is a European concept’’ – Comment by Tamil Nadu governor sparks debate

News Mania Desk/ Piyal Chatterjee / 23rd September 2024

The governor of Tamil Nadu, RN Ravi, caused a stir on Monday when he said that secularism is a European idea that is not Indian.

Addressing a convocation of the Hindu Dharma Vidya Peetham at Thiruvattar in Kanyakumari, Ravi said “A lot of frauds have been committed to the people of this country, and one of them is that they have been given a wrong interpretation of secularism. What does secularism mean!? Secularism is a European concept; secularism is not a Bhartiya concept.”

The governor of Tamil Nadu stated that since secularism is unnecessary in India, it should stay a European concept.

“In Europe, secularism came because there was a fight between the church and the king, How can India be away from “Dharma”? Secularism is a European concept and let it be there only. In India, there is no need for secularism,” ANI quoted the governor as saying.

“Secularism is the most needed concept in India, not in Europe. Particularly the Governor, he had not gone through the Constitution of India. Article 25 says that there should be a conscious freedom of religion that he doesn’t know. He should go and read the constitution fully. Twenty two languages are listed in our constitution,” DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said.

“Hindi is a language which is spoken by a few states. The remaining states speak other languages…The problem with the BJP is that they neither know India, nor the Constitution…They don’t know anything. That is why they could not even form a government on their own,” the DMK leader added.

CPI leader D Raja too criticised the governor, saying,”I strongly deplore the statement made by RN Ravi. What does he know about secularism? What does he know about India? He is a governor…he must abide by the Constitution. The Constitution of India defines India as a secular democratic republic.”

“Dr BR Ambedkar emphatically rejected theocratic concept…Ambedkar went to the extent of saying, if at all Hindu Rashtra becomes a fact, that will be a calamity for the nation…secularism means keeping religion and politics separate…don’t bring Gods for electoral purposes,” Raja was quoted as saying.