Social friction

Let’s try and comprehend secularism as a concept. Secularism may be identified as a principle which involves two basic propositions. The first is that there would be  a strict separation of the state from all religious institutions. The second is that all people from various religious beliefs would stand as equal before the law. The politics around beef bans across different parts of India have shaken the very foundations of secularism. Things took a serious turn earlier this week when the Haryana Chief Minister said, “Muslims can continue to live in this <g data-gr-id="48">country</g> but they will have to give up eating beef”. The word “allow” received plenty of slack over popular social networking sites. People on social media raised questions on how Khattar had the authority to allow anything in this country, especially after being elected by the people of a particular state. Around 10 days ago, a truck driver was attacked and killed by protesters with the use of a petrol bomb in Udhampur, Kashmir following rumours of him carrying beef. The attack created a ruckus in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, with the opposition National Conference pointing fingers at the BJP Government for keeping the political affiliations of the attackers a secret. The chaos around the beef ban began when the High Court sent out an order to enforce a decade-old law banning the cow slaughter and the sale of beef in the state, earlier this year. The situation turned bad, when on September 28, a man was lynched for allegedly consuming beef and slaughtering cows near the national capital. However, the High Court has finally decided to give away with the previous order and has further issued a notice to the Government to review laws that are superfluous and a cause for chaos. It has been known in the past that Kashmir has seen an extremely violent past. It has faced trouble in every form starting from terrorism to floods and this incident has only added to the existing chaos. With growing polarisation in the state, things might just get worse.