Equality, peace and harmony in a pluralistic society

To maintain peace and harmony in a pluralistic society, freedom of religion notwithstanding, it is important to discourage all kinds of discriminatory, divisive and regressive practices and influences such as casteism (one caste or vocation considered superior or inferior than the other), sexual discrimination (one gender considered and treated better or worse than the other), and religio-exclusionism (one religion considered and promoted as the best or only way to God or salvation).

Note that casteism, sexual discrimination, and religio-exclusionism occur or lead, respectively, to caste based stratification of society, female abuse and exploitation (including dowry, harassment and feticide of girls), and religious conversion drives (generally denigrating and vilifying others). The basic thinking of casteists and religio-exclusionists appears to be somewhat similar – discriminatory, divisive and insolent. The casteists believe that others are not like them caste-wise and should be shunned, and the religio-exclusionists think that others are not like them religiously and should be converted.

In addition, the law in a pluralistic society should be uniform, ensuring equal rights and privileges to all, irrespective of race, religion and gender. In any case, the individual rights should not be compromised or sacrificed in favor of group rights. Since different religions might advocate different legal rights to people, using the religious laws, especially a different set of laws for each community, should be avoided, because doing otherwise (having religious laws) not only will lead to different legal rights to different people but also will mix state’s affairs (legal system etc.) with religion, and that basically will not be healthy if there is a desire to separate the state and religion.

Thus the ideal thing in a pluralistic society is to have a uniform legal code (or uniform civil code), especially a non-religious one. It will be cheaper and easier to implement and exercise, and will create better chances for a secular system (separation between religion and state).

On the other hand, if a country uses several legal systems based on religions, there is little possibility of a real separation between religion, state and state’s affairs (legal system etc). In that case, the country cannot be considered truly secular even if it uses that term. There are additional problems, because implementing and operating multiple legal systems (religion-based) is expensive, difficult and cumbersome: people usually end up spending more time and money in courts, often getting unsatisfactory and conflicting judgments (different outcomes for different people on the same issue, depending on their religion and corresponding law) and having individual rights curtailed in favor of group (“religious” community) rights.

APPENDIX

Myth about the caste system (1)

The general meeting of Dist. Scheduled Castes and Tribes Association (DSCTA) in our area was held last year (2005) near my ancestral village in India. It had been organized by people belonging mainly to the scheduled castes and tribes. There was a big party atmosphere with a lot of food prepared and served by SC / ST people at the meeting / function (attended by several hundred people), and everyone had a nice time.

Several people and officials, not belong to the scheduled castes and tribes, were also invited to this function. I was honored as the chief guest by DSCTA president, who also presented to me the DSCTA cap which I proudly accepted. I also delivered the main and final speech of the day, which incidentally happened to be related to the caste system – explaining how we all are equal in spite of different caste (vocation) labels.

Reference

(1) Subhash C. sharma, "Typecasting - the myth about caste system", Sept. 28, 2006, http://seva.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/09/typecasting-the-myth-about-caste-system.htm

By: Dr. Subhash C. Sharma
Email: [email protected]
Date: Nov. 8, 2008

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