“Problematise the concept of secularism in the present context.” (2017)
Secularism is a political doctrine about how the state relates to religion; secularisation is a social process of religion losing significance. To problematise secularism is to ask whose model it is, what it assumes about religion, and whether it can govern religious politics today.
Competing models
- Separation: the American “wall of separation”; French laïcité (the 2004 ban on conspicuous religious symbols in state schools).
- Indian model: no state religion and equal respect for all faiths, but with a state power to reform religion (Article 25(2)(b), temple entry, the Hindu Code Bills). Rajeev Bhargava calls this principled distance: the state engages with or keeps away from religions as liberty and equality require.
Problems with the concept
- A Christian, Western genealogy: T. N. Madan (“Secularism in Its Place”, 1987) argued that secularism assumes religion can be privatised, which is impossible where religion is a way of life; it becomes the creed of a small elite.
- Secularism as intolerance: Ashis Nandy separates religion-as-faith, plural and tolerant, from religion-as-ideology. The secular state, he argues, breeds the second and so feeds communal violence.
- The secular as power: Talal Asad (Formations of the Secular, 2003) shows that the secular is not a neutral absence of religion but a modern project in which the state defines what counts as “religion”.
- Neutrality or prohibition: Amartya Sen (The Argumentative Indian, 2005) separates keeping religion out of the state from treating all religions symmetrically. India chose symmetry, so any selective patronage or reform looks like bias.
The present Indian context
- Legally, secularism is secure: the 42nd Amendment (1976) added “secular” to the Preamble; S. R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) made it part of the basic structure; and in Balram Singh v. Union of India (November 2024) the Supreme Court refused to delete the word, reading it as equal respect with no state religion.
- Politically, it is contested. On 12 December 2024 the Supreme Court halted new suits and survey orders over existing places of worship while reviewing the Places of Worship Act, 1991. Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code took effect in January 2025, and the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 was challenged in court.
- Socially, the Pew Research Center (2021) found 84% of Indians calling respect for all religions very important to being truly Indian, yet 64% of Hindus said being Hindu is very important to it.
Conclusion
Secularism is problematic not because it is obsolete but because its meaning is contested: separation, equidistance or principled distance. In a deeply religious, plural society, its credibility rests on consistency, meaning equal distance in everyday state practice, more than on constitutional text.