Jul 31, 2024 08:42 PM IST
The bigger question is what moral authority does the US have to deliver sermons to us on religious freedom? Shouldn’t current events in the ‘secular’ US not be termed efforts to make it a Christian nation?
The United States (US) International Commission for Religious Freedom has yet again criticised India for the decline in religious freedom, in its 2023 report. Releasing the report, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said, “In India, we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship for members of minority faith communities.” The new amendments proposed to the Uttar Pradesh conversion law give legitimacy to such criticism. The Indian government rejected the report as “biased and one driven by vote bank politics”. But the bigger question is what moral authority does the US have to deliver sermons to us on religious freedom? Shouldn’t current events in the ‘secular’ US not be termed efforts to make it a Christian nation?
“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone”, said Oklahoma state superintendent of public instruction Ryan Walters — on June 28 — through a State Board of Education press release. He said that, without basic knowledge of the Bible, Oklahoma students would be unable to properly contextualise the foundation of their nation. Accordingly, Grades V to XII classrooms must mandatorily have a Bible, from which teachers are now required to teach. On June 19, Louisiana came up with a similar law that required all public schools in the state to have the Ten Commandments displayed in classrooms.
The Non-Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (1791) explicitly says that the US Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. It was originally applicable only to the federal government, but, through the 14th amendment (1868), it was extended to the states as well. Till 1949, as many as 37 states had some kind of Bible reading in public schools, with 12 mandating this through legal provisions. New York, in 1955, merely recommended (not made compulsory) a prayer: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.” In 2015, almost an identical prayer was made mandatory in central schools in India, and a challenge to this is pending with the Supreme Court (SC). In 1962, Steven Engel, a Jewish parent in the US, was upset to see his son reciting the New York prayer and challenged it as a violation of the freedom of religion. In the pathbreaking Engel v. Vitale (1962) ruling, the US Supreme Court, by a 6:1 majority, declared it unconstitutional. In 1963, in another historic verdict (Abington School District v. Schempp), the mandatory collective reading of the Bible was declared unlawful.
True secularism permits freedom for all religions, and also freedom from religion itself. The US is believed to be much ahead of us as a secular nation, but there have been disturbing pronouncements from its judiciary. In spite of its Constitution explicitly separating church and State, in Zorach v. Clauson (1952), Justice William O Douglas observed, “We are a religious people, whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being”. The US Senate has a chaplain, and in its armed services, prayer breakfasts are routine. What is most interesting to note is that in the highest court of supposedly the most secular country, public sessions are opened by a functionary bellowing, “God Save This Honourable Court.” Many Americans believed that the Civil War was divine punishment for not mentioning Christianity in the Constitution and a “Christian nation” amendment to rectify the mistake of the Founding Fathers was formally moved in 1864. A decade later, it was voted down by the House Judiciary Committee. As late as 1950, it was proposed to add that the constitution “devoutly recognises the Authority of Law of Jesus Christ, Saviour and Ruler of all nations….”
In the US, there is a substantial subsidy in the form of exemption from taxes for the properties of the church. Even books in religious schools are subsidised, justified by calling it “aid to the students” rather than aid to the church. No such provision exists in India, and the proposal to invoke God’s name in the Constitution’s preamble was voted down by the Constituent Assembly.
Justice David J Brewer of the Supreme Court in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892) held that America is a “Christian nation.” The US Supreme Court, in Vidal v. Girard Executors (1939), held America is a ”Christian country”, and, in US v. Macintosh (1931), observed that the country was “filled with Christian people”. Several American presidents have admitted to a “Christian character” of their country. Woodrow Wilson said, “America was a born Christian nation”, while Harry Truman observed, “This is a Christian nation”. Richard Nixon had remarked, “Let us remember that as a Christian nation…we have a charge and a destiny”.
The religiosity of America’s judges is also reflected in other matters. The 2022 overruling of the progressive Roe v. Wade (1974) guaranteeing abortion rights to women is a recent pointer. Unlike the US, no court or high constitutional dignitary has ever proclaimed India a Hindu rashtra. In fact, in 1973 itself when the word ‘secular’ was not there in the Preamble, secularism was held to be the basic structure of the Constitution. In 1994, in Yeshwant Prabhoo (1996), SC merely held that appeal in the name of Hindutva is not religion and appeal in its name is not a corrupt electoral practice.
Faizan Mustafa is vice-chancellor of Chanakya National Law University, Patna.The views expressed are personal
Story Saved
