DR.

RAM MAHOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

SOCIOLOGY
(PROJECT)

SECULARISM : AN INDIAN
PERSPECTIVE

SUBMITTED BY: UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

AISHWARYA GUPTA DR. SANJAY SINGH

ROLL NO: 17 ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR (SOCIOLOGY)

SECTION A DR. RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA

B.A. LLB (Hons.), SEMESTER II NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

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 INDEX

Acknowledgement...........................................................................................................................3

Introduction......................................................................................................................................4

Timeline of Secularism in India.......................................................................................................8

Conclusion.12

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my Sociology teacher, Mr. Sanjay Singh for helping me whenever I needed
her assistance and for helping me gain interest in this subject. I would also like to thank my
parents for supporting me. Last, but not the least I would like to acknowledge my seniors and
classmates for their constant support which helped me tremendously in completing this project.

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 INTRODUCTION

The word "secular credentials" has become fashionable these days- everyone is using it. No
speech by a politician is complete without the usage of this phrase- secular credentials. So what
exactly do we mean by secular? And what meaning does "secular credentials" have in Indian
context.1
The word secularism has actually been borrowed from the west. The west has a very different
understanding of the word than we have in India.2 The western model of secularism means that
religion and politics are separate from each other. In other words, polity does not enter in
religious affairs and religion in political affairs. This also means that political mechanism
cannot correct problems inside a religious group. In India we have a different situation
altogether. Indian society being a mixture of religions, is always prone to dominance and
conflicts. In order to mitigate the harmful effects of source of conflicts and human rights
violations arising out of religions, it is necessary that polity/government be able to meddle with
religious affairs.3
So at least on paper we are not truly "secular" as such given there is often government
interference in religious matters. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Sadanand Dhume criticizes
Indian "Secularism" as a fraud and a failure, since it isn't really "secularism" as it is understood
in the western world but more along the lines of religious appeasement. He writes that the flawed
understanding of secularism among India's left wing intelligentsia has led Indian politicians to
pander to religious leaders and preachers and has led India to take a soft stand against terrorism,
religious militancy and communal disharmony in general. 4 The essence of this statement is very
clear. Successive governments since Independence have not tried to break the religious

1 P.M. Bakshi, The Constitution of India, Universal law publishing, New Delhi, 11th edition, 2011.

2 Ibid.

3 Anuradha, Rajeswari Rajan, The crisis of secularism in India, permanent black, Ranikhet, 2009.

4< http://www.insafbulletin.net/archives/40> - accessed on 14.10.2013.

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boundaries and differences as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi and the forefathers of the Indian
Constitution. What they have done is something similar to what British did, selectively favor one
religion and pit it against other religions, creating polarization among voters. The Congress has
been following this strategy with great returns.
Historian Ronald Inden, has observed that the Indian government is not really "secular", but one
that selectively discriminates against Hindu communities while superficially appeasing Muslim
leaders without actually providing any community or theological benefits to regular Muslims in
India.5 He writes that poorly educated Indian so-called "intelligentsia" identifies Indian
"secularism" with anti-Hinduism. While his views may spark debate, there is no doubt that in
India, belonging to the majority is always a huge disadvantage. If you belong to the General
Category, half the seats are reserved for weaker strata of the society. If you are a Hindu, you will
be treated as a stepson by our own government. Indian Hindus had learnt to live with this apathy
in the absence of any viable alternative, till BJP burst into the scene in the early 1980's. Congress
is not secular in this aspect, neither is the BJP. The Bharatiya Janata Party was a Party with a
Difference, the only difference being that this party favored the Hindus. Taking up the cause of
the Ram Temple in Ayodhhya, BJP leaders rode on the strong anti Congress sentiment of the
majorly the Hindus and in a span of 20 years became the single largest party in the Lok Sabha.

Even today both parties, Congress and the BJP have retained their initial inclinations. The
Congress is seen as an inclusive party as it does not favor the Hindu majority, while the BJP is
seen as Hindu party as its parent RSS is pre dominantly a Hindu organization. Neither party is
truly secular. The tendencies of smaller parties to jump the wagon and label Narendra Modi "non
secular" is just one of their many attempts to stay in the news and thus stay relevant. These self-
proclaimed and self stylized "Secularists" have nothing secular about them. They are favoring
the BJP as it is presently in power. They can very well change their tones after election results.6

The Indian electorate has matured. It has learnt to look past these petty issues. What we want is a

5< http://twocircles.net/legal_circle/secularism_india_brief_study_kamaluddin_khan.html> accessed on -

13.10.2013.

6 Aseema Sinha, The Regional Roots of Developmental Politics in India, OXFORD university press,
New Delhi, 2005

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strong government which can bring the economy back to the growth trajectory and not a
"secular" silent and non functioning government that we have at present. The best example of
this is perhaps NaMo switching from issues of "Ram Temple" to development issues. 7 Indian
voters can no longer be taken for a ride. Politicians who play vote bank politics will have to
change or bite the dust- the choice is theirs.

The Preamble of the Indian Constitution describes India as a sovereign socialist secular
democratic republic, and the words socialist and secular were added by the 42nd
Constitutional Amendment in 1976. The word secular, though was specifically added in the
Preamble in the year 1976, yet the original spirit of the Constitution was completely secular in
nature. Its insertion into the Preamble has ensured that secularism has now become a source from
which the constitutional provisions on secularism draw their authority and it has now become the
central object which the Constitution seeks to establish. It is also one of the basic structures of
our Constitution and no compromise can be made on this by any government.8

Fraternity and unity among the people of India is ought to be achieved by enshrining the ideal of
a secular State in India. It implies that the State protects all the religions equally and there is no
religion which can be termed as the State religion.
The State must have an attitude of neutrality and partiality towards all religions. No taxes can be
imposed by the State for promotion or maintenance of any religion and no religious education
can be imparted in any educational institution wholly funded by the State. Partially State funded
schools and educational institutions are allowed to impart religious education.9

Further, every person is free to profess, practice and propagate his religion, subject to some
reasonable restrictions imposed by the State in the interest of morality, public order and health.
Every religious group is allowed to establish and maintain the institutions of religious and

7 Supra 1.

8 Amal Ray, Political Theory, World Press, Kolkata, 2005

9 P.M. Bakshi, The Constitution of India, Universal law publishing, New Delhi, 11th edition, 2011

6
charitable nature and manage its affairs in the matters of religion. Such institutions can also own
and acquire moveable and immoveable property.
It may be observed that the scheme of secularism as provided in the Indian Constitution is highly
progressive. The scope of these provisions has been widened further by various pronouncements
of the Supreme Court of India. Even the rituals and observances which are integral to any faith
are allowed to be practiced. The religion has been regarded as a doctrine of personal belief and
the State regulations cannot interfere with the things which are essentially religious.
There have been serious threats to Indian secularism. The fundamentalist forces of various
religions occasionally tend to overstep the constitutional provisions. Communal acts by some of
the political outfits in the country have continued to threaten the very idea of secularism. Efforts
on the part of the politicians to divide people on communal lines are a very dangerous trend and
if not checked at this stage, may create serious problems at a later stage.
The communal demands like reservations to the religious minorities and proportional
representation on the religious lines are matters of serious concern. The controversy on the
uniform civil code for all citizens as provided in Article 44 of the Constitution has also resulted
in communal talk by various political parties.

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 TIMELINE OF SECULARISM IN INDIA

Religions of India are known to have co-existed and evolved together for many centuries
predating Republic of India. Indian civilisation is among the oldest and living civilisations of the
modern world. India is a country where religion is very central to the life of many people. Indias
age-old philosophy as expounded in Hindu scriptures called Upanishads is sarva dharma
samabhava, which means respect for all belief systems. This basic trait of Sanatan dharma is
what keeps India together despite the fact that India has not been a mono-religious country for
over two millennium. A Hindu Nationalist school of thought also proclaims that with Sanatan
Dharma being the spirit of India, the very concept of western secularism is redundant and badly
imposed.10

Some researchers believe that the history of Indian secularism begin with the protest movements
in the 5th century BC. The three main protest movements were by the Charvakas (a secularistic
and materialistic philosophical movement), Buddhism, and Jainism. All three of them rejected
the authority of the Vedas and any importance of belief in a deity.

Secularism in feudal India:

Under feudal system there was no competition between different religious among the people of
different religions. They co-existed in peace and harmony though at times inter-religious
controversies did arise. There was also tradition of tolerance between religions due to state
policies of various kings since time immemorial from Emperor Ashoka to the Gupta Emperors to
Emperor Akbar in Medieval times. Many religious sects and practices kept away from rigid
intolerant forms. But, instances of forced conversions to Islam during the rule of Aurangzeb and
other Islamic rulers, and the imposition of the religious tax, Jizya, are also known.

10 Ed. Stephen Eric Bronner, Twentieth Century Political Theory, Routledge Taylor &
Francis Group, New York, 2006

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Secularism in the caste system:
India is one country where caste rigidity and concept of untouchability evolved and still plays a
major role in religious, social and cultural matters. Nevertheless, the modern understanding
of Caste system suggests that the phenomenon is more widespread than initially believed. Caste
dynamics in Indian life, even in Christian and Islamic societies, plays larger than life role. Since
most of the conversions to Christianity and Islam took place from lower caste Hindus , these two
world religions also developed caste structure. There are lower caste churches in several places.

Secularism in British India:

In the 18th century, when the British East India Company began to gain total control over India
that ideas of secularism began to impact on the Indian mind. Until then, religion was considered
to be inseparable from political and social life. The British codified laws pertaining to practices
within religions on the sub-continents. This began when the Governor of Calcutta Warren
Hastings set out his Judicial Plan in 1772 and 1774, this was a judicial system that codified civil,
criminal and commercial laws, while family law and some property laws were still governed by
Muslim and Hindu religious law, not to mention religious laws of Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and
other faiths. Some see this as a part of their divide-and-rule policy. In doing so they laid the
foundation for a non-uniform civil code which remains largely unchanged to date. This is a
major grouse for Hindu politicians who insist that there should be a uniform civil code for all
citizens. For example, believers of all faiths other than Islam are legally bound to
be monogamous while those who practice or convert to Islam are permitted up to four marriages,
which is therefore not uniform behavior.11

In India, right from the British period, main contradiction was not between religious and secular
but it was between secular and communal. In the western world main struggle was between
church and state and church and civil society but in India neither Hinduism nor Islam had any
church-like structure and hence there never was any such struggle between secular and religious

11Ibid.

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power structure. The main struggle was between secularism and communalism. 12 The communal
forces from among Hindus and Muslims mainly fought for share in power though they used their
respective religions for their struggle for power.

The Indian National Congress at the time of independence from British Raj adopted secularism,
not as this worldly philosophy but more as a political arrangement. As power-sharing
arrangement could not be satisfactorily worked out between the Hindu and Muslim elite the
country was divided into two independent states of India and Pakistan, Muslim majority areas of
North-West going to Pakistan.

Secularism in the Republic of India:

After independence and partition, a large body of Muslims were left in India and hence leaders
like Gandhi and Nehru preferred to keep India secular in the sense that the Republic of India
shall have no national religion and the people of India shall be free both in any individual and
corporate sense to follow any religion of their choice. Thus, India remained politically secular
and its people continued to passionately practice their religions.13

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, was a supporter of secularism and secular
politics. Secularism in India, as pointed out before, emphasized upon the principles of equal
respect for all religions and cultures and non-interference of religion in the government affairs.
Also, according to the Indian Constitution no discrimination shall be made on the basis of caste,
creed, gender and class. Similarly all citizens of India irrespective of one's religion, caste or
gender have right to vote. According to articles 14 to 21 all will enjoy same rights without any
discrimination on any ground.

12Ornit Shani, Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism, Cambridge University Press, New Delhi,
2007.

13 <http://twocircles.net/book/export/html/135428> - accessed on 14.10.2013.

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According to Article 25 all those who reside in India are free to confess, practice and propagate
religion of ones choice subject of course to social health and law and order. Thus, even
conversion to any religion of ones choice is a fundamental right.

In fact, in India an overwhelming majority of people are religious but are tolerant and respect
other religions and are thus 'secular' in the Indian context. Even Sufis and Bhakti Saints are
considered quite secular in that sense.14

The word secularism has had multiple interpretations, namely: an agnostic interpretation and a
pluralistic interpretation. While Nehru, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and Subhas Chandra
Bose subscribed to the agnostic interpretation of Secularism, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and
others believed in pluralistic interpretation of Secularism.

The Preamble to the Constitution of India grants "liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and
worship" immediately after proclaiming that India is a "sovereign socialist secular democratic
republic." This reading of the constitution suggested that the Constitution of India has a
pluralistic interpretation of Secularism. Also, religious beliefs govern the application of laws in
India (Indian law), which indicates a pluralistic interpretation of the term Secularism in the
Indian legal system. The science of the concept of legal pluralism and the study of legal
pluralism as it has naturally existed in India is on-going.

14 Ibid.

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 CONCLUSION

The ideology of secularism has not been able to prevent citizens of India to refrain from
engaging in non-secular activities. Like it was observed in the case of Godhra 2002 and also in
other incidents, the journey of Hindu-Muslim friendship in India has not been very smooth.
There have been riots, open-killings, suicide bombings all the while.15

Secularism has to play a decisive role at present stage of Indian democracy. It is so because today
when the Indian democracy seems to face the challenge of narrow divisive trends and tendencies,
a rational and scientific approach which is the basis of secularism has become a matter of utmost
importance. Communal disturbances which have distinguished the public life in the recent past,
as well as the birth and growth of narrow and divisive trends and obscurantist theories are mainly
the result of ignorance can be fought not by legislation alone, nor by a negative fiat alone, but by
education, and in the process of educating the traditional Indian mind, secularism and all that it
stands for the political leaders have to play a major role.16

Secularism is essential for democracy, even though in its ideal form it may not exist anywhere in
the world.

15 Anuradha Needham, The crisis of secularism in India, permanent black, Ranikhet, 2009.

16 Ornit Shani, Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism, Cambridge University Press, New Delhi, 2007.

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