The mix of religion and politics is an interesting subject for debate anywhere in the world and this was the topic at a recent international conference held in New Delhi. “Rethinking Religion in India II: Rethinking Secularism”, was the second conference of a five-year international conference cluster, jointly organized by the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (Ghent University, Belgium), the Centre for the Study of Local Cultures (Kuvempu University, India), the India Platform UGent (Ghent University, Belgium), and the Karnataka Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities (India). Marianne Keppens and Esther Bloch from Ghent University in Belgium report on the proceedings of the conference.

The ideological struggle between two opposing political positions, secularism and Hindutva, has hijacked reflection and debate on the nature of India culture and society, making an academic debate on cognitive grounds almost impossible. Rethinking Religion in India II aimed to go beyond these limitations in a theoretical and scholarly way. Two central plenary conference formats – the Platforms and Roundtable sessions – provided a forum for rigorous reflection and debate by a number of internationally renowned experts in the study of secularism, religion and culture, hailing mainly from India, Europe and US. The Platform sessions consisted of a sustained debate between two opposing camps on the question “Is secularism the solution to communal violence? On one side, Achin Vanaik and Neera Chandhoke (both at the University of Delhi), contended that the matter was far too complex to respond with a straightforward ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Nevertheless, they argued, while secularism is not sufficient to “stay the communal beast” the secular state is a necessary precondition for a just society. In contrast, they warned, defending traditional Indian forms of living as an alternative solution could easily become an uncritical justification of a religion and traditionalist society. Thus, to root out the increasing problems between India’s diverse communities, they concluded, one needs to strive for more secularism and push religion further back into the private sphere.