Freedom of expression - Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy
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| Author | Sita Ram Goel Arun Shourie Koenraad Elst Ram Swarup |
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| Country | India |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Voice of India |
| Released | 1998 |
| ISBN | ISBN 81-85990-55-7 |
Freedom of expression - Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy is a book edited by Sita Ram Goel and published in 1998. The book contains previously published official documents of court cases and newspaper articles.
The book is about censorship and Freedom of Expression in India. It criticizes the banning of books and the banning of criticism of religion in India.
In particular it criticizes the banning of Ram Swarup's book Understanding Islam through Hadis. Goel's work contains court orders and proceedings which Goel describes as 'documenting' the banning of books and what he calls the banning of criticism of religion in India/
[edit] Secularism and Theocracy
In the first part of the book, the banning of books, particularly of Ram Swarup's "Understanding Islam through Hadis", is discussed.
Sita Ram Goel discusses the concept of Indian secularism. He makes the claim that the term "Indian Secularism" was borrowed by India's first Prime Minister, Nehru, from Western political parlance, who, he says, "perverted it" to mean "the opposite of what it meant" in the West.
Secularism in the West was a revolt against the closed creed of Christianity and had meant a freeing of the State from the clutches of the Church. Goel argues that "In the Indian context it should have meant a revolt against the closed creed of Islam as well, and keeping the state aloof from the influence of mullahs." But according to Goel, Nehru "turned Secularism in India into a poisonous slogan for the use of a Muslim-Communist Christian combine which he had forged in order to keep the national majority down." The term became "a euphemism for Hindu-baiting".
Goel furthermore claims that India has become in many ways a "Theocracy". He says: "Leftists in general have always opposed Theocracy in Muslim and Christian countries. It is only in India that they have become its unrivalled champions."
[edit] Liberal Democracy
The second part of the book is called "Liberal Democracy" and contains twelve reviews of Ibn Warraq's book Why I Am Not A Muslim. Most of these reviews were originally published in the West.
[edit] See also
| The works of Sita Ram Goel | |
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How I Became a Hindu (1982), The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India (1982), Defence of Hindu Society (1983), The Calcutta Quran Petition (1986), History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1986), Muslim Separatism - Causes and Consequences (1987), Catholic Ashrams (1988), Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them (1990), Vindicated by Time (1998), Freedom of expression - Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy (1998) |
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