Q.What do you understand by secularism? Can it be equated with religious tolerance?

Secularism opposes both domination between different religions and domination within a single religion, and actively promotes freedom and equality rather than mere coexistence. …

Secularism, understood properly, is a normative doctrine — a doctrine about how society ought to be organised — that opposes religious domination in two distinct forms. It opposes inter-religious domination: one religious community dominating, excluding, or persecuting another. And it opposes intra-religious domination: oppression that occurs within a single religious community, such as unequal treatment of women or the exclusion of certain groups from full participation in their own religion. Stated positively, secularism promotes freedom within religions and equality both between and within them. It is not anti-religious — it accepts religion as a legitimate human response to suffering, on a par with art and philosophy — but it firmly opposes institutionalised religious domination in whatever form it takes. …