Comment in 150 words: Secularism in the Indian Constitution. (2015, 10 Marks)
Indian secularism was the Republic’s answer to religious plurality and to Partition: where Pakistan was founded on a faith, India was founded on equal citizenship irrespective of faith. The word “secular” entered the Preamble only through the 42nd Amendment (1976), but the design was secular from 1950.
The Concept: An Indian Variant
| United States / France | India | |
|---|---|---|
| Principle | Wall of separation / laïcité | Principled distance |
| State and religion | Mutual exclusion | Engagement permitted for equality and reform |
| Group rights | Largely absent | Minority rights (Art. 30) |
- The popular formula is M. K. Gandhi‘s sarva dharma sambhava, equal respect for all faiths; Jawaharlal Nehru stressed neutrality, B. R. Ambedkar reform of oppressive practice.
- Rajeev Bhargava calls the synthesis principled distance: the state keeps no fixed distance but engages or abstains as liberty and equality demand, opposing both inter-religious domination and intra-religious oppression.
- By Donald Eugene Smith‘s tests (freedom of religion, equal citizenship, separation), India met the first two fully and the third partially.
Constitutional Provisions
- Equal citizenship: Articles 14, 15, 16(2) and 325 bar religious discrimination in rights, employment and the electoral roll.
- Religious liberty: Articles 25–28, with Article 25(2) allowing the state to regulate secular activity linked to religion and to reform Hindu institutions; Article 27 bars taxes to promote any religion, Article 28 religious instruction in state institutions.
- Minorities: Articles 29–30 on culture and educational institutions.
- Reform: Article 17 abolishes untouchability; Article 44 directs a uniform civil code; Article 51A(e) makes harmony transcending religious diversities a citizen’s duty.
Judicial Construction
- In Kesavananda Bharati (1973) Chief Justice S. M. Sikri listed the Constitution’s secular character among its basic features; S. R. Bommai (1994) held secularism a basic feature that permits Article 356 against a state government acting against it.
- The courts have intervened for equality: Shah Bano (1985) on maintenance, Shayara Bano (2017) against instant triple talaq and Sabarimala (2018), now before a nine-judge bench that reserved judgment in May 2026.
- Balram Singh (2024) upheld the 1976 insertion.
Critique
- T. N. Madan and Ashis Nandy see an elite creed alien to religious society; Partha Chatterjee notes reform falls mostly on Hindu institutions, feeding the pseudo-secularism charge.
- The essential religious practices test makes judges arbiters of theology.
Conclusion
Constitutional secularism in India is sui generis: not indifference to religion but a licence to intervene, conditional on equality rather than faith. That flexibility is its strength against both theocracy and dogmatic separation, and its vulnerability, since the same openness lets majoritarian politics claim the model for itself.