INTRODUCTION

India is known as the mixture of various faiths and the civilisation of tolerance in the world. People
consider India to be the land of everyone and anyone because of its culture of tolerance and
considering all as one race I.e. human race. It is the land which talks about the “Vasudev
Kutumbakam” and philosophy is universal and have the oneness in the system. Even the first prime
minister of India Dr. Jawaharlal Nehru called India as the “museum of world religions” because it
use to have the all kind of people as citizens irrespective of their class,race,sex,religion and etc.
Even the constitution of India abolishes the inequality on the basis of religion,race,caste,sex,and
place of birth under article 15.

The presence of constitution in itself is a example of universality and equality for all it also talks
about the equal law for every citizen in India. After the partition there was a need for making the
laws for the social and political security of the minority’s and to do so was the prime facie need
for the makers of the constitution and taking this issue in consideration the law and constitution
makers put several articles in the constitution of the India for safeguarding the rights and interests
of the minority. Even they provided special rights to the minority’s regarding their beliefs and their
languages. Article 30(1) of the constitution provides linguistic and religious minorities the right to
create and establish and right to administer education institutions. These institutions are not to be
discriminated by the government under the protection of article 30(2).1 Although the national
commission of minorities act, declares 6 communities as minorities.
Muslims,Christians,Buddhists,Sikhs,Jains and Zoroastrians2.

The word social engineering is depend upon the interaction of humans with one another and it also
includes the relation of peoples in the society they are living in and how the fabrics of the society
helping them to decide the things for them and for their society. If in a society we have positive
interaction between the people than the society leads to framing a strong fabric of the people where
all can have rights to put their views foreword and to raise their issues.

1
Bare Act of constitution of India
2
http://ncm.nic.in/
SOCIAL ENGINEERING IN CONTEXT OF SECULARISM IN INDIA

Although it is a discipline which is used to influence the people and their behaviour and to mold
the behaviour in a specific one on the large scale in the society. It can be done by government or
by media or by other social organisations on their personal level. And under this a perticular section
of peoples are targeted like in context of India the first such majors were taken just after the
partition where Muslims were made to realise that they are safe in the country by providing various
rights to them.

Secularism is concept which means the state use to have no religion and no preference to any
religion. The above said concept is for western society but in Indian context the meaning of
secularism is different in Indian context it means “Sarva Dharma Sambhav” which means state do
support religion but not any specific religion. That’s why the slogan of Supreme Court of India is
“Yato Dharmastato Jayah”3 which means that where there is righteousness, there is victory.

Even though there were many incidents took place where the fabric of Indian society that Is
secularism was tested and even later in 1976 by the 42nd constitutional amendment act4 the word
secularism was added in the preamble of the Indian constitution. Some people said that it was an
act of Muslim appeasement and other said that it is done to put the trust in the minds of the
minorities that now constitution itself describing India as a secular state.

Although the steps of the government in the past in itself were the proof that the India considers
no religion to be the religion of the state but still there were peoples who constantly demanded the
word to be added in the constitution. It is also cannot be denied that the DPSP talks about the
uniform civil code But after the independence where the Hindu code bill was passed by the
government by altering certain provisions and polygamy in Hinduism was banned also the concept
of divorce was introduced even though the religion do not talks about any divorce in itself but in
Hinduism marriage is considered to be a sacrament and it is considered to be a relation for

3
https://sci.gov.in/
4
Forty-fourth Amendment Bill, 1976 (Bill No. 91 of 1976)
upcoming lives not only for this life but still it was added. On the other hand there was no
alterations were done or not even reviewed the Muslim personal laws. Which in some how show
that government was insecure about a specific community and to show itself secular not even
reviewed the personal laws.
These questions were however raised by the peoples in opposition that why such discrimination
made relating to the personal laws where government reviewed the personal laws of only one
community and leave other community’s personal laws from scrutiny.

So, it can be said that government was biased towards a community to protect the so called values
of secularism and which put other communities in doubts against the government.

Even in the very famous case of Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum very commonly said
to as the Shah Bano case5, there was a contentious Indian maintenance lawsuit in which the
Supreme Court issued a decision favoring the maintenance of an aggrieved Muslim woman
divorced. where Supreme Court gave decision to give maintenance to divorced but it is not in the
Muslim personal law to give alimony so the Muslim organisations came out in the opposition of
the verdict And later the government of Rajiv Gandhi reversed the decision of Supreme Court.
And denied the 62 year old woman right to maintenance which is a major example of Muslim
appeasement.

The social engineering originally was to put the feeling of secure and safety in the minds of the
people but later due to potical influences it was used as the main source of gaining popularity and
votes in the elections and to attract the peoples of a specific community or religion or cast towards
the party in order to win the elections only and because of this attitude accepted by the political
parties the concept of social engineering became vague and it is Now considered by the people as
a political stunt to attract the crowd toward the party. And in the drawbacks many communal forces
became powerful and started gaining the advantage of the peoples by creating a particular political
affiliation. Now elections are to be contested on the names of religion and caste

5
[1985 (1) SCALE 767 = 1985 (3) SCR 844 = 1985 (2) SCC 556 = AIR 1985 SC 945]
People openly speaks about putting the benefits of a particular class or caste over other class. Even
these type of people and potical forces become stronger by manipulating the minds of people even
now according to various surveys it is found that youth become more attracted towards the violence
and violent ways of promoting the religion or their class. And people who are abusive and poiticaly
motivated by some ideology uses these types of tactics to put their ideology in the minds of the
people and to themselves supreme they uses the slogan of hatred against the other communities
and by doing so they profess themselves to be the supreme class The use of this type of tactics
makes the social fabrics of society vulnerable and fragile.

And the efforts of social engineering in society will deemed to be of no use and the values of a
civilised society gets diminished and even some cases the society suffers the complete annihilation
of system. From the examples of various societies we can learn these things like what happens in
the Iraq and in Syria is a example of present where the clash of religious ideologies become so
devastating that it even lead to convert a prosper nation into the ashes and many people lost their
lives and in the end no one gets nothing and the dreams of creating a Kaliph is shattered.

Social engineering in context of caste based discrimination and in the concept of untouchability it
is done quite well and even the society become aware about these issues and about the
discrimination faced by the people of schedule caste and schedule tribes. So by providing
reservation to the people of backward castes a step was taken to acknowledge the discrimination
and the things they faced related to the caste. Although that is not everything but at least it is the
acknowledgment or wrongs done by the so called upper caste. Even the active role of government
in this context cannot be denied and the steps taken by government are some how appreciated by
the peoples who are in the social services. For example the SC ST atrocities act, protection of civil
rights act and etc.

But on the other hand we cannot deny the misuse of these acts by peoples and even recently S.C.
also said in context of SC and ST atrocities acts that it has to be bailable and must be reviewed.
HISTORICAL CONCEPT

This approach to interreligious relations changed with the arrival of Islam in the twelfth century
and the establishment of the Sultanate of Delhi in northern India, followed by the Sultanate Decan
in central India. Political teachings and religious opinions about Islam were contrary to the
teachings of Hinduism, Sikhism and other Indian religions. However, Akbar's children, especially
Aurangzeb, once again recognized Islam as the main religion of the state, destroying temples and
imposing discriminatory taxes on Jizya based on religion. India took control of East India
Company and British Paradise after Aurangzeb. Colonial leaders never separated religion from
state labor, but marked the end of an equal hierarchy between Islam and Hinduism, reintroducing
the concept of equality between Hindus, Christians and Muslims before the war law.6

Although the British regime supplied a common law for India, it is dividing and governance policy
has helped foster discord among groups. The Morley-Minto reforms supplied Muslims with
separate electorate, justifying the Muslim League's requirements. The British Raj faced increasing
amounts of social activism for self-government in the first half of the 20th century by different
groups such as those headed by Hindu Gandhi and Muslim Jinnah ; the colonial establishment,
under stress, adopted a number of rules until India's independence in 1947, which remained India's
laws in 2019. One such law adopted during the colonial period was the 1937 Indian Muslim
Personal Law (Shariat) Implementation Act, which did the opposite for Western secularism instead
of splitting state and religion.7

6
Nandini Chatterjee, The Making of Indian Secularism: Empire, Law and Christianity
Macmillan
7
Donald E Smith (2011), India as a Secular State, Princeton University Press
CURRENT STATUS

The seventh chronology of the Indian constitution establishes religious organizations, charities and
trusts in the so-called simultaneous list, which means that the Indian government and several
Indian state governments can establish their own legislation on religious organizations, works
charities and trusts. . If there is a difference between the law adopted by the national government
and the law of the state, the law of the central government will be applied. This principle of
cooperation, and not secularism and government in India, has also been accepted in all of the
constitutional amendments initiated by art. 290 in 1956, replace the word "secular" by the preamble
of the Indian Constitution of 1975.8

Overlapping religions and states provided various religions in India, public support for religious
schools, and private legislation on a parallel list. Although it responds to the orders of any religion,
this state intervention is uneven and contradictory. For example, Indian legislation on religious
and charity equipment in 1951.9 Allows governments to take control, own and administer Hindu
temples by force, collect income from victims and distribute them for external reasons, including
maintaining religious anti-religious organizations. -Temple;

Secularism in India does not mean a separation between religion and state. On the contrary,
secularism in India means an impartial expression in front of all religious assemblies. Strict
religious regulations, especially for Muslim Indians, replace parliamentary regulations in India;
and now, in certain circumstances, such as schools of religious influence, the state primarily
finances certain religious schools. These differences have led many scientists to claim that India
was certainly not the main state, because the word "secularism" is commonly understood in the
West and elsewhere; It is rather a procedure for political purposes in a country with a difficult
history that achieves something contrary to the established objectives.

8
Shah Bano: Muslim Women’s Rights, University of Cincinnati, Ohio (2000)
9
KN Kumari (1998), History of the Hindu Religious Endowments in Andhra Pradesh, Northern
Books,
The debate is not limited to Hindu populations against Muslims in India. For example, the
development of Islamic activists in India [40] states that the problem of Muslim personal law in
India is an unusual and progressive confusion of the Koran. Activists say the Quran grants Muslims
rights that Muslim men in India are gradually refusing. They ensure that the "men-focused"
translations of the Quran of the unqualified Indian Muslim masses are harmful and require that
they reserve the right to examine the Quran for themselves and decipher it to the satisfaction of
women. No legal element to recognize or implement the demands of these Islamic activists for
religious laws.10

CONCLUSION
Social engineering in context of secularism in India can be seen from the Independence of India
where the role of government of India was somehow criticised and in some senses appreciated by
the various persons and organisations. But we cannot present the record of the government on a
linear graph because doing such is not possible at all. The mix reaction of the persons made the
task of people who are judging it a little difficult.

The special treatment of a specific community led to the partition of the country and if again such
things came than it may further leads to the disintegration of the country and even worst.
Sadanand Dhume11 in his writings in the Wall Street Journalism criticised the India secularism
and he stated in his writings that India secularism is a fraud because it is not secularism what we
understand in the western society but it is more of a appeasement of minorities by the government.
He also stated that the word secularism in India is somehow used by the so called liberal and left
wing intelligentsia and in this definition of the left wingers there is soft corner for the Islamic
terrorism and the preachers like Zakir Naik. Even the government ministers used to visit in their
social programmes for their political affiliations and even certain film stars, directors and
producers also use to visit there in order to attract the certain community. Even certain historians

10
Islamic Feminism in India: Indian Muslim Women Activists and the Reform of Muslim
Personal Law, Modern Asian Studies, Volume 42, Issue 2-3, March 2008, pp 489-518
11
"Bernard Schwartz Fellows Program". Asia Society.
said that the Indian government after independence refused to recognise the Indian nationalism by
giving it the name of Hindu nationalism.

The fundamental result of the absence of a state religion is the possibility of a religion. Everything
is generally considered and recognized as one of the basic elements of the dominant state. As
already said, art. 25 declares "an opportunity for religion". This not only guarantees the possibility
In any case, the Indian people in the same way for everyone, including foreigners. Manage a person
primarily religious freedom, "which includes your chance to earn the special trust you enjoy, trust
and show your faith as clearly as religion supports it. This privilege In addition, it is reinforced by
the possibility of trying to give birth to religion16. Although the Legislature generally understands
this possibility Despite this, quietly and saying "Demand and practice," there was still some
resistance given the word "begotten". Especially the Hindus of the congregation completely

He cannot deny the opinion that the creation of religion should be considered a true wedge.
religious occasions Anyway, the minds of most people do not share this opinion.In explaining the
word "propagation," Mr. K. Munshi commented to the congregation: "Yes or no guaranteed that
the word did not exist within the framework of freedom of expression guaranteed by the
Constitution be available for any religious network to influence others