Secularism in India

Secularism in India is the constitutional and political principle that the state has no official religion and treats religions impartially. Its practice combines religious freedom with state engagement in religious affairs.

Constitution of India: The supreme legal framework of India, adopted in 1949 and in force since 1950. It establishes the constitutional framework within which secularism is interpreted and enforced.
Indian independence movement: The mass political struggle that ended British rule in India in 1947. Its leaders debated how a future state could represent a religiously diverse population.
Laïcité: The French model of secularism, emphasizing state neutrality and restricting religious expression in certain public institutions. It generally separates religion from public institutions more sharply than India’s model.
Freedom of religion in India: The legal protection in India of individual and collective rights to belief, worship, and religious practice. It is the direct rights-based consequence of constitutional secularism.
Basic structure doctrine: The Indian constitutional doctrine that Parliament cannot amend the Constitution’s fundamental structure. The Supreme Court has treated secularism as part of the Constitution’s basic structure.
Preamble to the Constitution of India: The Constitution’s opening declaration of its guiding commitments and political aims. Its 1976 amendment explicitly described India as secular.
Partition of India: The 1947 division of British India into India and Pakistan, accompanied by mass displacement and violence. Partition made the treatment and protection of religious minorities a defining constitutional concern.
American secularism: The United States’ constitutional approach, prohibiting an established religion while protecting religious exercise. Its establishment-and-free-exercise framework differs from India’s broader state engagement with religions.
Uniform Civil Code: A proposed common civil-law framework for personal matters across religious communities. Its constitutional debate tests how secular equality relates to community-based personal laws.
S. R. Bommai v. Union of India: A 1994 Supreme Court judgment addressing federalism, President’s Rule, and secularism’s constitutional status. It established secularism as a basic feature and examined state governments’ religious conduct.

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