Ideas of Secularism in Contemporary Nepal

This chapter summarizes and integrates data from interviews on the local understandings of secularism in Tarai and Kathmandu valley and from the analysis of court cases concerning two national gods and the ban on cow slaughter. Secularism emerge as a fluid, multivocal ad sensitive notion, caught between fear and aspirations: much opposed as a foreigner notion and a threaten for national unity for some pro-Hindu state groups, secularism is for religious and ethnic minorities a tool for recognition and inclusion, allowing the de-Hinduization of the state and the equal opportunities for all religions practiced in the country . The ideas of secularism presented here show the place that religious traditions and religious groups receive in the public sphere of secular Nepal and the engagement of the state to support, reform or protect religion.