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| Is Blasphemy law maintaining Secularism? | | | Nikhil Padha
"I think Blasphemy Law should be mentioned clearly, otherwise even for writing a book or an article, or making a speech, or sketching a cartoon, or drawing a painting, a person can be accused of blasphemy notwithstanding the right guaranteed by Article 19 and 25 of the constitution"
India historically taught itself
as a secular state, one where all religion are recognized and can peacefully co-exists. Well at least in theory, it is . Unfortunately, the reality is much different. A study from Pew Research centre analysis of 198 countries ranked India as " Fourth Worst In the World" for religious intolerance . This involve hate crimes, mob-violence, communal violence, religion-related terror, the use of force to prevent religious practice, the harass to religious dress codes, and violence over conversion. Religious plurality is one of the things that make secularism very important in India. An epitome of multi - cultural, multi- lingual, multi-religious, multi-racial, etc, Secularism however as an ideology serves better to keep the nation united on extra religious infrastructure. It shifts the focus from religion to other temporal worldly things, striving to change the present for a better and brighter future. The rise of Hindutva as a powerful counter ideology has even more intensified the debate of secularism in India. The political definition of secularism is also that, secularism as the name of the state policy of neither interfering with not favoring any particular religion in making any decision. It refers to the policy of keeping the state separate from any religious influence.
"Blasphemy" is a term unfamiliar to the Indian Legal and constitutional landscape. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) does have a provision, however, that can be reasonably approximated to an anti-blasphemy law. Sec 295-A of IPC penalizes insulting the religion or religious beliefs of any class of citizens, if such insult is offered with the deliberate and malicious intensions of outraging the religious feelings of that class. Like the provision of the "sedition" and "obscenity", Sec 295-A was also challenged in the early years of Supreme Court, and like the other provisions, upheld by the court that very evidently privileged social order over civil liberties .
In 1957, the author of the magazine "Cow- protection" has took his case all the way up to the supreme court, while challenging the constitutionality of the section itself this argument was simple, Article 19(2) of the constitution only allowed for the reasonable restrictions upon the Freedom of Speech in the interest of the public order Section 295-A, however, cast its net much wider, by criminalizing all speech that was intended to outrage religious feelings. This allowed the state wide leeway to gauge what kind of speech might threaten public order, and make laws regulating to it accordingly. The court then held that section 295-A did not cover all forms of religious insults, but only intentional insults. And it was the "calculated tendency" of intentional insults to lead to public order. Therefore, the section was constitutional.
A Tamil reformer also EV Ramaswami smashed an idol of Lord Ganesha in public at the town hall of maidan in Tiruchirapalli. A person namely namely Veerabadran Chettia, a Hindu filled a case under section 295, the Tiruchirapalli magistrate appealed to the session judge, he also dismissed the appeal. The matter went to High Court. The Judge compares Idol with the Toy and dismissed the appeal. The Supreme Court in the case of Mahendra Singh Dhoni vs Yerragunta Shyamsundar, has held that not every act or attempt to insult religion or the religious beliefs of a class of citizens would be penalized under section 295-A of Indian Penal Code only malicious or deliberate acts or attempts, under taking with the intension of outraging of religious beliefs of a class of citizens would be penalized by the bench compromising of Deepak Mishra, Justice AM Khanwilkar, etc.
"History tells us that such laws rarely avert violence, in fact they likely to attract violence"
Few days back The Punjab Cabinet has decided to introduce in the Indian Penal Code a new section 295(A)which state "whoever cause injury , damage to Shri Guru Granth Sahib , Srimad Bhagwat Geeta, Holy Quran and Holy Bible with the intention to hurt the religious feeling of people , shall be punished for imprisonment of life". Ones wonder why this extraordinary penalty in necessary when, throughout India Sec 295A of IPC already provides for imprisonment up to three years for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage to holy books can attract a mandatory life sentence in Punjab, while other insults can attract up to three years. This means that insulting a "God" would land you in a jail, but burning or defaming a holy book would land you in prison for life .
We need that the law to be more stringent and effective. Every law can be misused. Those who argue against the law on the basis of its misuse needs to remind that every law is capable of being misused and misapplied. What is needed that is not doing away with laws but creating automatic, inbuilt guarantees against their misuse.
In the starting itself , it has been said that India is a secular country and this section of IPC help to maintain the purity of secular nature. Though IPC came way earlier than the constitution, but the aforesaid sections maintain the essence of secularism by protecting the religious sentiments equally, by criminalizing the International acts on religious sections. Rather than to shutdown this section or repeal it, misuse of such section should be curb down and that can happen with the proper interpretation of aforesaid section. This state will only interfere or judiciary will only interfere when the speech or expression will create public disorder, and not when it has a slight connection or remote one to create public disorder.
The Hindu vs Muslim has long divided India . Hindus in India at times experienced many attacks by Muslims while Muslims were also sometimes the target of hostilities by Hindus. Indian Constitution provide for a religious freedom , but the country does not always practice it . The national government may not have issued any official national wide diktats about religion but events leading in the recent years have sparked controversy throughout the country.
Religion was built on the principal of universal love and brotherhood. Manu, Krishna, Dayanand, Jesus, Mohammad, Nanak, Buddha, all spoke of compassion and acceptance. For decades and centuries, religious and political leaders, king's powers and even the elite knew this and have used religion as the tool to define boundaries, divide and rule over people. They knew that "fear in the key" and have used the brew of fear and hate as sugar and salt dissolved in the holy water of religion for people to drink and lose their sense. |
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