People are fond of using the terms Secularism and Secular. What is its origin. Following is the result generated by AI.
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The term “secular” was first used in a modern sense in 1851 by the British writer George Holyoake. Holyoake used the term to describe his worldly approach to morals, philosophy, and society and politics. The term “secular” comes from the Latin word saeculum which means “of a generation” or “belonging to an age”.
The term “secular” was added to the preamble of the Indian constitution in 1976 by the 42nd amendment act. The term means that citizens have the freedom to follow and practice any religion. India does not have an official religion. ‘
‘Ironically though, it was Nehru along with the chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution, B R Ambedkar, who were also most opposed to the idea of including the word ‘secular’ in the preamble of the constitution.’. On November 15, 1948, when the newly independent dominion of India was in the midst of a heated debate in the Constituent Assembly, on the nature of the Constitution, Prof K T Shah made an intervention demanding the inclusion of the word ‘secular’ in the preamble. “Sir, I beg to move, that in clause (1) of article 1, after the words ‘shall be a’ the words ‘Secular, Federalist, Socialist’ be included. The amended article or clause shall read as follows: ‘India shall be a Secular, Federalist, Socialist, Union of States’,” he said. In the ensuing discourse, while the members agreed on the nature of the Indian state adhering to secular principles, the word ‘secular’ was dropped from the preamble. It made an appearance though, about three decades later, when the Indira Gandhi led government included it in the document, as part of the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution.
In the decades that followed, secularism in the Indian Constitution has been appreciated by some but has come under criticism by several others who have repeatedly pointed out to the foreign origins of the words, the inapplicability of it in the Indian context and the problematic ways in which it has been applied in India as well. “Independent government implemented secularism mostly by refusing to recognise the religious pasts of Indian nationalism, whether Hindu or Muslim and at the same time (inconsistently) by retaining..Secularism: Why Nehru dropped and Indira inserted.
Please note the last sentence.
the S-word in the Constitution
So mixing religion with an obscure philosopher, at least to me, sems to be comical.
‘Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion.
As a philosophy, secularism seeks to interpret life based on principles derived solely from the material world, without recourse to religion. It shifts the focus from religion towards “temporal” and material concerns.[5]
There are distinct traditions of secularism in the West, like the French, Benelux-German, Turkish, and American models, and beyond, as in India,[4] where the emphasis is more on equality before law and state neutrality rather than blanket separation. The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely, ranging from assertions that it is a crucial element of modernization, or that religion and traditional values are backward and divisive, to the claim that it is the only guarantor of free religious exercise. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism#:~:text=The%20British%20writer%20George%20Holyoake,still%20prevalent%20in%20public%20life.