As India recently celebrated Constitution Day, it provided a timely moment to address widespread misunderstandings about a core constitutional principle: secularism. While the term itself was inserted into the preamble later, the foundational idea was embedded in various articles from the document's inception in 1950. Contrary to claims that secularism in India suppresses religion, particularly Hinduism, a closer examination reveals its true purpose: to protect all faiths by ensuring the state remains separate from religious control.
The Three Pillars of State-Religion Separation
Secularism, in essence, seeks to create a distance between religion and the state to uphold key political-moral values. These include individual freedom, religious liberty, equal citizenship, and national unity. This separation operates at three critical levels. First, the fundamental principles and goals of the state must not be derived from any religion. Secondly, state personnel and institutions must remain distinct from religious ones. This means priests, clerics, sadhus, mosques, churches, or temples should not be involved in law-making, governance, or the judiciary. Finally, with limited exceptions, the state must maintain a substantial separation from religion in its laws and policies.
Understanding the function of non-secular states highlights why this model is crucial. For instance, Iran is officially guided by Shia Islamic principles, while Pakistan is guided by Sunni Islam. This creates inherent unfairness for citizens belonging to other sects or religions, establishing a state-sanctioned religious hierarchy. In Iran, the supreme religious authority holds the highest political power, making final decisions on everything from the military to education, which inevitably imposes Shia perspectives on all citizens, including Sunnis, Christians, Jews, and atheists.
India's Conscious Constitutional Choice
India's founding fathers and mothers, much like the framers in modern Europe and America, deliberately chose a different path. The Constitution they crafted established India as a secular republic. They ensured the state was not guided by religious doctrines, prevented religious figures and institutions from becoming state functionaries, and barred religion from substantially influencing law and public policy.
This framework was designed to prevent a religion-based hierarchy among Indian citizens. The founders believed such a hierarchy would violate the principles of equality and justice, making some citizens inherently "more equal" than others. They also saw it as a potent threat to national fraternity, capable of unleashing division, acrimony, and violence, thereby harming India's peace, stability, and unity.
Flourishing Faith in a Secular Framework
Indian secularism is distinct from other models. Unlike the state-enforced atheism seen in 1960s China or the public-space restrictiveness of French laïcité, the Indian model, as theorist Rajeev Bhargava notes, aimed to separate religion from the state and electoral politics without oppressing religious expression. The evidence of this is visible everywhere. Since Independence, religion has flourished vibrantly in public spaces across the country.
This is evident in the countless temples and roadside shrines, the grand Durga Puja pandals and Ganesh Chaturthi processions, the daily Ganga aarti in Varanasi and Rishikesh, the uninterrupted Rath Yatra in Puri, and the widespread celebrations of Ram Navami, Holi, and Diwali. Public Garba nights during Navaratri, temple songs echoing in neighbourhoods, and puja setups in shops, taxis, and offices are all testaments to this public expression. Indian secularism never demanded Hinduism be removed from public view; it only demanded that religion be kept separate from the machinery of the state. The goal was to ensure that our supreme political identity remains "Indian," fostering unity above religious differences.
As Vanya Vaidehi Bhargava, an assistant professor of Social Sciences at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, argues, this separation protects not just religious minorities but also Hindus. It safeguards individuals from potential domination by more powerful sections within their own religious community, whether it's upper castes over lower castes, men over women, or extremists over moderates. This protective aspect of secularism was recognised by leaders like B.R. Ambedkar, Periyar, and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Far from being anti-religion, Indian secularism has provided the framework within which all faiths, including Hinduism, have thrived in both private and public life. Its core demand is simple yet profound: keep religion out of state affairs and electoral politics. This ensures no Indian feels superior or freer than another based on faith, prevents hierarchical inequality, and unites citizens to pursue national development—a goal inevitably hindered by the instability born of religious polarisation and hatred.
