Separation of Religion and Government
In his letter "Ominous Indifference" (sikhe.com), G.C. Singh writes
that this month in India, the new Gurduaara Act is going to be discussed to
lay down rules as to how we should manage our Gurduaaras. If this is true, then
perhaps now is the time to introduce the concept of the separation of religion
and government as a formal Gurduaara practice. The idea is to stop government
influence in Sikh religious affairs.
As a Sikh living in the United States, a country established on the principle
of the separation of church and state (religion and government), it is bewildering
to read that the Punjab Government will have a stake in the SGPC elections.
The idea of the separation of church and state (religion and government) can
be found directly in the constitution, Article VI, Section III, "but no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public
trust under the United States." The purpose of this clause was to cut off
forever every pretense of any alliance between church and state in any branch
of government. The framers of the constitution were fully sensible of the dangers
from intertwining religion and government as marked in the history of other
countries.
As evidence to this danger, the history of India under the Indian constitution
is one of religious turmoil. Simply by recognizing the different religions in
the country, the constitution has linked government to religion. This has allowed
bigotry and intolerance to arm itself with all the terrors of civil power to
control or even exterminate those who resist its ideals.
The American idea of the separation of church and state continues in The First
Amendment which states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Was the intent of
the First Amendment was to protect a religious people from government or to
protect government from a religious people or to prevent the establishment of
a national church or religion? Indeed, it was all of the above and more. This
is the principle which makes a country truly secular.
The American experiment of freedom via the separation of church and state had
been launched four years earlier when the founders of the republic carefully
withheld from the new national government any power to deal with religion. As
James Madison said, the national government had no "jurisdiction"
over religion or any "shadow of right to intermeddle" with it.
The First Amendment,
then, did not take away or abridge any power of the national government; its
intent was to make express the absence of power.
Obviously the Indian constitution has taken a different path. It allows the
government to be active in Sikh religious affairs. The participants in the Gurduaara
discussions are identify as the Indian government, the Chief Ministers of Punjab,
Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. This is so
wrong.
Changing the Indian constitution to reflect the concept of the separation of religion and government is nearly next to impossible. Therefore, this concept should be enacted by the Gurduaaras and other governing Sikh institutions. Government politics, people, and money should have no say in Sikh religious affairs.