Incoherence of Indian scholars on secularism

By hipkapi April 6, 2011 Balagangadhara, secularism

Sasheej Hegde in his EPW article says: “A theory of secularism in the sense of a theory about possessing the concept ‘secular’ is quite distinct from a theory about how the concept secular represents.”

It is downright incoherent. He obviously thinks that a theory about secularism (which is a political theory) is about ‘possessing the concept of the secular’ (which is a psychological theory about having concepts in general). The latter, he says, is different about a philosophical theory about how any concept ‘represents’. It is true, a political theory about secularism is different from a psychological theory about human beings acquire concepts and both of these are different from a philosophical theory about how any concept represents what it purports to represent.

This incoherence is the lot of most Indians when they discuss about secularism.