Secularism Concept and Practice

This volume brings together twenty-one papers presented at the Indo-Soviet Symposium on Secularization in Multi-religious Societies, held at Tashkent in November 1978. The discussions at Tashkent and the papers had historical, sociological and philosophical dimensions. The resulting publication is intended to help build bridges of understanding. The Soviet Union and India are both multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-religious societies. Their experiences in matters of cultural autonomy, religious freedom and national integration have many parallels, but also have many significant differences. In this book there are eight Indian and thirteen Soviet contributions which deal with a vast area of individual and social life influenced by the existence of religious beliefs, institutions, and practices and by transformations taking place in them ideologically, structurally, and historically. Societies marked by cultural pluralism and religious diversities will find a guide to formulation of cultural policy, in the diffusion of information and in scholarly analyses of the subjects presented in this book.