NEW DELHI: “India has consistently tried to define ‘secularism' that is not hostile to multiple religious identities,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams here on Friday. Commending India's continuing efforts to “put flesh on the abstractions” of both political and religious pluralism, the Archbishop said: “India's struggle to overcome this challenge is a matter of concern and importance for all caught up as often as we are in the contemporary world between renewed bids for theocracy and anxious efforts to secure the complete privatising of faith.”
The Archbishop, now on a two-week visit to India, was speaking at the Chevening Lecture on “Pluralism and the dialogue of religions” at the British Council here. He paid tribute to the secular vision of the Indian Constitution and to all those who were instrumental in articulating that vision. He cited India as an example which highlights that “the law and the State cannot just treat a population as a collection of individuals”.
“Their actual identity is already bound up with values and beliefs,'' he said.
In addressing specifically the question of religious pluralism, Dr. Williams argued against both religious relativism which reduces religious narrative and beliefs to “a basic common vision” and the idea that the world of religions is one of “mutually uncomprehending systems”.
Addressing the media earlier, the Archbishop said he had raised the issue of granting Scheduled Castes status to the Dalit Christians during his meeting with the Indian leaders.
“There are concerns. Many of them (Christians) are Dalits or Adivasis and do not have Scheduled Caste status. I have raised the issue with the leaders,'' he said.
Earlier in the day, the Archbishop led a commemorative service at the Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge at the Cathedral Church of Redemption in North Avenue to mark 300 years of service to the Indian community by the society.
No comments:
Post a Comment