Religion vs dharma: HC asks govt to decide on meaning

The Delhi high court on Thursday asked the Centre to expeditiously decide a representation seeking to use the “proper meaning” of the term “religion” and not use it as a synonym of dharma in official documents.

Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: ANI Photo

The petition also sought a direction to include a chapter on dharma and “religion” in the syllabus of primary and secondary schools “in order to educate the masses and control the religion-based hatred and hate speeches”.

The high court said the courts do not act as theological or philosophical authorities and even do not decide school curriculum and can't insert chapters in the syllabus.

“Courts do not act as theological or philosophical authorities. There is a slight mistake over here. You are mistaking us to be an expert on international banking transactions and philosophers and theological experts. We are no one to get into all this…I don't know why these petitions are coming to this court. We have nothing to do with this,” said a bench of Chief Justice Designate Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela.

The high court directed that the petition be treated as a representation by the Union ministries of culture and education and to decide it in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible.

“The ministry will decide this. We are not getting into all this. You want some chapter in the school curriculum. We don't decide the school curriculum. If we start inserting chapters in school curriculum, I think that will be the end of the matter,” Justice Manmohan said.

The bench, while dictating the order, said the petitioner was essentially expecting the court to carry out an exercise in semantics and assume the role of a theological and a philosophical authority.

“The language, its usage and meaning are products of an organic evolution of society and they cannot be dictated by courts, except when the same is obscene or contrary to the spirit and letter of the law,” the court said.

In his petition, the petitioner asserted that dharma is not religion as the former is “non-divisive”, “non-exclusive” and “transcends narrow boundaries of religion”.

“If we try to define religion then we can say that religion is a tradition, not dharma. Religion is a cult or a spiritual lineage that is called a 'sampradaya' (community). So, religion means community,” the plea said as it prayed that dharma should not be used as synonym of “religion” in documents like birth certificate, aadhaar card, school certificate, ration card, driving licence, domicile certificate, death certificate and bank account etc.

“In daily life, we say this person follows 'Vaishnav dharma' or Jain dharma, or someone follows Buddhism or Islam or Christianity that's not right. Instead, we should say that a person follows Vaishnav sampradaya or this person follows Shiv sampradaya or follows Buddha sampradaya. This person follows Islam or Christian sampradaya,” the petition submitted.

It said there have been many wars and war-like situations for religion which works on a mass of people.

In religion, people follow someone or someone's path. On another side, dharma is a work of wisdom, it explained.

The petitioner further said “religion has been one of the most potent divisive forces in all history” while dharma is “different because it unites”.