1 The Future of Secularism Ali Riaz [Following is the text of the lecture titled ‘The Future of Secularism’ delivered at the Independent University Bangladesh on 15 June 2015.] My heartfelt thanks to the School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences of the Independent University of Bangladesh, the Mahmuda Khatun Siddiqa, Abdul Ahad and Hamida Khanum Smriti Parishad, and the Bangla Academy for the invitation. I feel honored and humbled to have the opportunity to share my thoughts with you. This occasion places me in the company of eminent scholars whom I admire very much. The invitation to me reflects more on the generosity of the organizers than on my qualifications. I know you expect me to say something useful, something worthy of discussion; of my ability to do so I am doubtful. But I will try my best. This lecture, and two others which preceded it, are dedicated to Professor Salahuddin Ahmed. Throughout his career Professor Ahmed had written and spoken about secularism, enriched our understanding of the concept, drew our attention to its implications, and worked towards establishing a Bangladesh which would embrace the essence of secularism. As such, no other issue could have been chosen for the memorial lectures named after him. Discussion on secularism is the most moving and befitting tribute to his life and work, and an appropriate step in taking forward his legacy. As for the timing, it couldn’t have been any better. Over the past decades secularism as a concept and as a phenomenon, as a world view and as a statecraft have been at the center of discussions among social scientists, and policy makers around the globe. Ardent proponents and strident opponents have engaged in battles, literally and metaphorically. Normative and empirical aspects of secularism, its strengths and weaknesses, its past and future are being debated from various perspectives. These debates are influenced, and in some instances shaped, by specific national experiences. Transformations in the global political landscape, significant changes in the body politic in various countries, commencement of democratization processes in various countries, the growing influence of religion in politics and in the public sphere, and changes in the demographic composition of many European countries are some of the factors which have brought the issue to the fore. Also instrumental in its prominence in academic discourse are the emerging perspectives in social sciences, and challenges to the conventional wisdom. Study of religion, its role and secularism have increased manifold. Facile explanations have become a staple of the media, but fortunately, rigorous analyses have also made their mark. In Bangladesh, although the term is a familiar one in our political discourse and appears in the constitution, incisive explorations of the concept in general, particularly in light of the new debates, and its implications for society and politics, have been limited, to say the least. Discussion of secularism is fraught with problems. Disentangling the topic from passionate, polemical assertions is one issue, another is to reconcile the extant contradictions between two approaches: secularism as a universal ideology with a linear trajectory versus the overwhelming importance of the