Amish's Religious Extremism vs Secular Extremism

Amish Tripathi, the author of Shiva Trilogy, in his article In God's own country (June 7, Hindustan Times) writes: "Countering religious extremism with secular extremism only replaces one monster with another... The answer to religious extremism is not secular extremism but religious liberalism." I am unable to understand the context of Amish's words because India already follows religious liberalism.

I think the word 'extremism' won't be there in the dictionaries of true believers and secularists, otherwise they are not what they appear to be. Those who truly believe in the word of God just can't be religious extremists. By nature, they give equal respect to all religions, as we Indians do unless we allow vested interests to play with our emotions.

The true followers of God can turn to extremism only when others belittle their religion or they are forced to convert to another religion. So, I think all this talk of religious extremism applies to pseudo believers who use religion to arouse people's emotions for their selfish motives.

Similarly, a truly secular person by nature has to be liberal-minded. He/she is not expected to take extreme positions, particularly in a vibrant democracy like India. In the recent Indian history, we have not seen any attempt by successive governments or secular institutions to impose secularism on the masses. All people, whether minorities or the majority, are allowed to pray at their free will in their religious places and run their religious institutions. Have we ever seen any protests, rallies or long marches by secularists to pressurize the believers to become non-believers? I don't know what has made Amish to think that religious extremism is being countered by secular extremism in India.

Actually, over the last three decades what India has seen is not secular extremism pitted against religious extremism but the clash of religions triggered by some vested interests. This clash has divided people on the basis of their religions. For example, the Khalistan movement created a wedge between Sikhs and Hindus. Similarly, the Babri Masjid–Ram Mandir movements turned large sections of Hindus and Muslims against each other. All this caused a huge loss of precious human lives, and also threatened our centuries-old religious liberalism.

People like Amish, who have a following, must do their bit to stop the misuse of religion by rabble-rousers for selfish gains, particularly for electoral gains.