Religion and Secularism in South Asia: Some Reflections on Nepal
Author(s): Mohan Kumar Mishra
Abstract: In the South Asian context, secularism differs from the Western experience, as religion here has historically been a source of peace for millennia. South Asia is the birthplace of four major religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. A large number of Muslims also live here. South Asia has witnessed bloodshed, migration, and the changing of borders on religious lines. Thus, in South Asia, secularism is multifaceted, with multiple objectives: maintaining peace among diverse communities, preventing dominance of any single religion in the public sphere, curbing communal violence, maintaining social harmony, and protecting religious and cultural rights of minorities. Unlike the Western model of strict neutrality or separation, South Asian secularism responds to religions by accommodating cultural and religious diversity. Indic traditions, unlike Abrahamic faiths, lack a centralised church and permit multiple identities, enabling people to practise overlapping affiliations such as Hindu-Buddhist or Hindu-Sikh. This plural and inclusive ethos shapes the evolution of secularism in South Asia. This paper is an attempt to analyse the historical background of religious and cultural traditions of South Asia in general and Nepal in particular. It further analyses what kind of model of secularism is emerging from Nepal. Methodologically, this paper draws on the work of Jan Assmann and Richard Gombrich on the cultural and soteriological history of South Asia, along with some ethnographic studies on Nepal and a textual-legal interpretation of the Constitution of Nepal. The paper is organised as follows. The first section outlines the definition of secularism. It then throws light on the way in which the case of South Asia differs from the West by analysing its cultural and soteriological background. The third section analyses the concepts of secularism in the Nepali context. Finally, it offers concluding remarks.
Keywords: Culture, Nepal, Religion, South Asia, Secularism, Soteriology
DOI: doi.org/10.65719/RC.3.2.2025.027
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