UNDERSTANDING LAÏCITÉ, THE FRENCH PRINCIPLE OF SECULARISM
CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR 05TH SEPTEMBER,2023.
UNDERSTANDING LAÏCITÉ, THE FRENCH PRINCIPLE OF SECULARISM
Coined in the 19th century, Laïcité is a complicated and politically charged term. It is understood as a formal separation of the State and the Church. It involves the complete removal of religious values from the public sphere and their replacement with secular values such as liberty, equality and fraternity.
It was a product of the struggle of anti-clericle Republicans against the power of the Catholic Church. It took a concrete shape in the form of the Law of 1905 in the Third Republic when state-run secular schools were established. The Law guarantees freedom of conscience and freedom of worship except when it clashes with public order. It states that the Republic would neither pay for nor subsidise any form of worship.
The underlying goal of Laïcité is to implant tolerance and assimilate people. It important to note here that the state plays an important role in ensuring that affairs are run according to this principle.
Laïcite was not seen as problematic for the most part of the 20th century. However, in the 1950s and 60s, there was large-scale decolonization in North Africa, which led to an influx of immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries. The change in demographics caused episodic tensions. The recent criticism of the banning of wearing abaya in state-run schools is one such example.
Secularism in India
The term ‘Secular’ was added to the preamble by the forty-second constitution Amendment Act of 1976.
India is secular in the sense that it has no State religion.
There is a difference in how the west and India practice secularism. The western concept of secularism requires complete separation of religion and state. Hence the state cannot give any financial support to educational institutions run by religious communities.
Whereas in India, secularism does not require a total banishment of religion from the State affairs. The state provides all religious minorities the right to establish and maintain their own educational institutions which may receive assistance from state (Article 30).
Also, in contrast to the western model, in India the state shall interfere in religion so as to remove evils in it (Article 25 (2)(b) ).