Editorial Note, Nov-Dec, 2013

On 26–28 September this year, Sahmat had organised a seminar in Delhi on ‘Secularism and the Arts’ with the participation of several distinguished artists and intellectuals. This seminar was important because the content of secularism is something on which opinions differ widely but which is rarely discussed. A report by Amol Saghar on the deliberations of the seminar is presented later in the current issue of Social Scientist. The lead article by Romila Thapar, which is the text of her presentation at the seminar, sets out clearly some of the differences surrounding an understanding of secularism.