In the judgment passed on October 9, 2013, in a case titled Sanjay Tickoo and Others Versus State and Others, senior judge of the State High Court, Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar had said that in our Constitutional philosophy, there is only one “ism” that is “Indianism” and all other “isms” are sworn enemies of “Indianism”. He had also said that in terms of Constitution of India, which guarantees all the rights, which include right to practice and profess ones religion and faith, there was no requirement of bringing in expression “secularism” in the preamble of the Constitution as this expression has evoked sharp reaction from a section of population and divided people of the country into different pigeon holes of different “isms”.
There was sharp reaction from a section of people to these comments so much so that even some people at the bar were thinking of taking the matter to the higher court. Justice Attar has come out with clarification of his comments in the light of the clauses of the Constitution of India. He has said that the majority of civil society has shown maturity of understanding the full import of his judgment and his understanding of Indianism as against a small minority that is motivated by fascist approach. In spelling out the concept of Indianism, the learned judge has reiterated that the Constitution provides freedom to all religions to practice and propagate their faith freely in this country. The Constitution does not make any discrimination among the people of various faiths and this is what actually is meant by Indianism. He rightly pointed out that Indianism accepts freedom of all faiths but no creation or division into cults or “isms” as there is only one “ism” in this country and that is Indianism. Calling Hindustaniat akin to Kashmiriat, the learned judge said that appending the word ‘Nationalist” to Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian etc. was meaningless because nationalism in India was not based on religion.
We welcome the timely explanation of the concept of Indianism in the light of Constitution of the country as substantiated by the learned Judge of the High Court. We know that some small groups of closed- mind persons want to mislead the people just because they have a definite political agenda. We are in the habit of dividing people in the name of religion, cult, faction and the like without understanding the harm this arbitrary division brings to us. Indianism put simply and briefly is the express right of all Indian citizens of all religious denominations to practice, preach and propagate their respective religions.
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