Freedom of Religion?

One of the things that I truly am grateful for in the U.S. is my freedom to choose or not choose my religion. As I was reading "The Volcano, Chapter 1: Swadharma and Swaraj," I was struck by this quote, "Swaraj without Swadharma is despicable and Swadharma without Swaraj is powerless." From Gandhi's writings, we already understand Swaraj, but Swadharma we have not addressed. Swadharma can be split into two words; swa-, meaning self, and -dharma, meaning religion (more specifically the Indian religion). Veer Savarkar, the writer of this selection, stated that the ultimate motives and causes for the Indian war of independence in 1957 were swaraj and swadharma, the freedom to rule themselves and the right to protect their religion. At first, the quote seemed understandable, but just because it sounded that way does not mean that what it is saying is correct. In thinking about what it is proposing, I realized that the Indians in the time of British rule were all of the same religion (essentially). I realized that perhaps if Dharma was protected according to the Indian desire, Judaism or Christianity and especially Atheism would not be.

One of the grievances of the early settlers in America was that the Church/religion was heavily involved in the actions of the State/government; they wanted separation of these two entities. The quote from Veer Savarkar's book is exactly opposite of this separation; Savarkar states that the two- religion and government- must exist simultaneously or the situation is all together "despicable" or "powerless." Perhaps if the countries, states, provinces, cities, or any region under any type of government were composed of a single religion then religion could be a part of that government, but this is not the case. Our population is made up of so many religions with blatantly conflicting beliefs that if religion ruled government, there would be either no progress in the gridlock of so many ideas or there would be a law created by one religion that was unfair to another.

From the Author's Introduction of "Selections from The Indian War of Independence 1857," Savarkar states that it is absolutely unwise to try to do certain things now irrespective of special considerations, simply because they had been once acted in the past." I wonder if Savarkar would agree now that, because India and other places are now made up of various different religions, religion cannot play a role in government. It seems according to this previous statement about acting "irrespective of special considerations," that he would agree. But as I think more about it, (I am ASSUMING here) Veer Savarkar like Gandhi most likely believed that Dharma was the only way and so, I think he would say that swaraj and swadharma must still exist together for even another purpose: to enlighten those who do not believe.