If the last breath of secularism was on January 22, 2024, when PM Modi adorned the role of a Hindu high priest, the burial took place on February 10, 2024, when the Lok Sabha adopted a resolution extolling the construction and consecration of Ram Mandir as a "historic and glorious achievement of the country". For the first time in the history of democratic India, such a resolution showering praises on a particular religious event was passed by the lower house of parliament.

The resolution said that the country's democratic and constitutional values of justice for all have been inspired by the ideals of "Ram Rajya". Unfortunately, Modi's "Ram Rajya" is entirely different from the "Ram Rajya" of Mahatma Gandhi. While Modi's "Ram Rajya" is exclusive, majoritarian and fed on the hatred towards minorities, Gandhi's "Ram Rajya" is inclusive, harmonious and based on equal rights and respect for all religions.

The death of secularism in India has been a gradual process that culminated in the consecration of the Ram Mandir, with the prime minister of India as the chief celebrant, converting a Hindu religious ritual into a political event with the full support of the state. In the words of Ashok Modi, "The executive power symbolically fused with Hindu religion — harking back to myths of Indian rulers as incarnations of Supreme Lord Vishnu." If the inauguration of the new parliament building was a deliberate attempt to convert a political event into a religious one, the consecration of Ram Mandir was converting a supposedly purely religious event into a political event. Thus, the ruler and the priest are fused together, paving the way for a pseudo-theocracy.

India has been a pluralistic country in terms of religion and culture for millennia, and this composite nature of the country or pluralism is captured in the constitution of India, especially its preamble. It is only a myth created and propagated by Sangh Parivar organisations that India was a Hindu Rastra before the arrival of Mughal rule five hundred years ago.

Secularism in the context of India means that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on the grounds of religion, that the state shall have no religion of its own, and all persons shall be equally entitled to "the freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion". The BJP under PM Modi deleted this understanding of secularism from the functioning of the government and the minds of a large section of Hindus. The developments that have taken place since 2014 have been opposed to what the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution envisaged and were practised by the governments during the first two decades.

Contemporary historians have observed a gradual erosion in the practice of secularism since 1970. They have pointed out significant landmarks in the weakening of secularism and the growth of the opposite ideology of Hindu nationalism aggressively promoted by the Sangh Parivar. The RSS-BJP Combine and other political parties have contributed their share through omissions and commissions. Developments related to the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya have played a crucial role in the death and burial of secularism in India.

The first incident cited by some authors is the failure to remove the idol of Lord Ram Lalla that was surreptitiously and illegally smuggled in and planted in Babri Masjid on the night of December 22, 1949, by the Hindu communalists in connivance with the then district magistrate and city magistrate of Faizabad. Later, several stories were fabricated and circulated about the miraculous appearance of the idol in the masjid, and people began to believe those stories. Only after the idol was placed inside the mosque did the demand for converting the Muslim place of worship into a temple enter the legal arena. In January 1950, the municipal board locked the entrance to the mosque. Later, the courts allowed the Hindus to worship in the masjid courtyard.

The second landmark is the opening of the locked gates of Babri Masjid for Hindu worship when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister of India. It was reported that the Rajiv Gandhi government's overturning of the Supreme Court judgement in the Shah Bano case gave a boost to the Hindu right-wing and its majoritarian playbook. The Congress appeared to be siding with the Muslim orthodoxy. At this juncture, to satisfy the Hindu majority, Rajiv Gandhi allowed the gates of Babri Masjid to be opened in 1986 when the Faizabad district judge's court passed an order directing the gates of the mosque to be unlocked. On November 9, 1989, the 'shilanyas' or foundation stone ceremony of the Ram temple was conducted with the permission of the Rajiv Gandhi-led central government and Congress' ND Tiwari government in UP.

The third most crucial landmark was the Sri Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya, which was organised by the BJP and other Sangh Parivar organisations under the leadership of Lal Krishna Advani in 1990. Along with the mobilisation of Hindus, the BJP used the cards of "Muslim Appeasement" by the secular parties, especially the Congress Party, and misinterpretation of secularism as pseudo-secularism.

The demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, when the Congress was in power under the prime ministership of P V Narsingh Rao, was decisive in the death of secularism. The central and state government of Uttar Pradesh failed to protect the disputed structure despite an assurance given to the Supreme Court by the Kalyan Singh government of Uttar Pradesh to protect the structure. The demolition was followed by widespread communal riots in India, and the polarisation of Hindus got a further fillip.

The final phase in the decimation of secularism started with the BJP coming to power in 2014 with an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Disdain for secularism by the saffron wing and PM Narendra Modi was reflected in the laws passed by the BJP-led central and state governments, policies adopted by these governments and actions by the BJP governments and the Sangh Parivar organisations.

Discriminatory laws targeting minorities include passing anti-conversion laws and making rigorous and damning the existing anti-conversion laws (under the guise of the Freedom of Religion Act) by the BJP-led state governments, Love jihad laws, the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), abrogation of Article 370 and the atrocious cow slaughter laws.

The policies and actions targeting Muslims and Christians multiplied ever since the BJP came to power at the centre in 2014. Hate speeches by the Sangh Parivar leaders have been a sharp weapon used against minorities to polarise Hindus. Social media has been profusely used by the IT cells of the BJP and RSS to manufacture and market hate messages. The East Delhi communal riots in which 53 people (38 Muslims and 15 Hindus) died were triggered by the hate speeches by the BJP leaders. While no action was taken against the hatemongers of the Sangh Parivar, cases were filed against persons like Munawar Faruqui for hurting the sentiments of Hindus, and they were put in jail for days without bail. The anti-cow slaughter laws and anti-conversion laws gave a free hand to the right-wing groups to unleash violence against Muslims through lynching and harassment of Christians and Christian institutions under the pretext of forced conversions.

Bulldozing houses and other establishments of Muslims who are accused of taking part in protests, which sometimes become violent because of the overuse of power by the partisan police, is the brainchild of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and it is blindly copied by other BJP chief ministers. It is a rampant violation of the rule of law because of the total disregard for "the due process". This new invention is known by the nickname "Bulldozer Justice". Muslims are the primary victims of "Bulldozer Justice".

The central and state governments spending taxpayers' money lavishly on the renovation of temples, construction of new structures and erection of enormous statues, subsidies to Hindus for pilgrimages, etc., is another dimension of the death of secularism in India. Examples are plenty: Mahakal Corridor in Ujjain- Rs. 850 crores, Kashi Vishwanath Corridor- Rs. 900 crores, Adi Shankaracharya's statue at Omkareshwar- Rs. 2200 crore.

If Pran Pratishtha of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya as a political event with the full support of the state was the culmination of the process of decimation of secularism, the Supreme Court judgement in 2019 that awarded the ownership of the disputed land to Ram Lalla Virajman was the penultimate. It is to be noted that while delivering its verdict, the SC admitted that both the placement of the idol of the deity inside the mosque in 1949 as well as its demolition in 1992 were illegal. Still, the land was handed over to those who indulged in unlawful action.

While the Hindutva movement was progressing by leaps and bounds, the Congress, the main opposition party, needed clarification about its ideology. It oscillated between its original credo and soft Hindutva. Some of its leaders, like Kamal Nath and Bhupesh Baghel, poorly copied many chapters from the Hindutva textbook. Even today, it doesn't have a convincing counter-narrative to the Hindutva of the BJP. Its ambivalence about secularism has been one of the reasons for its humiliating electoral defeats during the last ten years.

Failure on the part of the secular parties, NGOs, civil society and the Church to educate the people of India on the core values of the Indian Constitution also contributed to the death of secularism. Educational institutions of the Catholic Church also neglected this noble task, and they are paying a heavy price now for their negligence.

Secularism/pluralism in terms of religion, culture and language can be resurrected if the so-called secular parties have the will to hold on to the millennial heritage of India by sacrificing their selfish and narrow interests; if the civil society and educational institutions are committed to inculcate the Indian constitutional values in the young people. Only a firm commitment to secularism/pluralism can keep India united, progressive and prosperous. Otherwise, the desire to make India a "Viksit Bharat" (developed India) by 2047 will remain only a sapna (dream) of Mungeri Lal.