Anthony Valan

Prof. Tahir Mahmood

Professor Tahir Mahmood, who served the research faculty of the Indian Law Institute in Delhi, was the sixth chairman of the National Commission for minorities from 1996-1999. The staff and students of Vidyajyoti were privileged to have him as the speaker at the inauguration of the academic year 2009-2010. Speaking on “Religion and Religious communities in India’s Legal and Social order,” Prof. Mahmood, with his profound knowledge of Constitutional and legal facets of our lives, put forward persuasively how Indian Secularism is significantly different from that known in other parts of the world, in that it neither accords any privilege status to a chosen religion nor erects a “wall of separation” between various religions and the state, nor banishes religion from society, but calls the State’s neutrality in religious matters and a policy on the equal status for all the religions in the country. Therefore as citizens we ought to make sure, he said, that the state ensures protection of the constitutional and civil rights of the minorities and other weaker sections of society. This is an urgent need today more than ever in the context of anti-minority violence and vandalism promoted and perpetuated by the “politics of vote banks.” Though he though with his head, Prof. Mahmood spoke passionately from his heart when he spelt out how “Hindutva” militates against the Constitution of India. Therefore there is need to be legally literate, politically alert, religiously respectful and socio-culturally inclusive in order to check the “communalization of the society resulting into communal selectivity of anti-social elements,” and not remain a silent spectator to the communal agenda.

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