UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND ENERGY STUDIES

COLLEGE OF LEGAL STUDIES

BA, LL.B. (Hons.) Energy Laws 2017

Subject- political science

Under- supervision of SAM SIR

PROJECT TOPIC-SECULARISM IN INDIA

NAME –AKASH KISHORE

SAP ID NO.500061221
ROLL NO. R450217015
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I owe my first acknowledgement to SAM BABU SIR for giving us this extremely exciting and interesting
assignment where we could express our views. Honestly, there couldn't have been a better way for us to
closely understand and take enough time to properly interpret every facet of the SECULARISM IN
INDIA. Thank you SIR

Next, I thank TO MY FATHER ,UDAY KISHORE WHO HELPED ME TO UNDERSTOOD THE

ROLE OF JUDICARY .

I would also thank my parents for their unmoving belief in me. It's impossible for me to not include them
in any and every acknowledgement letter because me in my entirety, I owe to them.

Finally, I would thank God for giving me the strength to successfully complete the task I had been
assigned.
SECULARISM IN INDIA –BACKGROUND

The word secular added in Constitution by 42nd amendment in 1976. The Indian Constitution,
Document which is considered as the will of the India, the will of the SOCIETY the general will
Of the people and it every word of it considered as a law. And in 1976 the word secular was
Added in it and from then definition of secularism in India had given by many jurist and political
Thinker but it left undefined and it is waiting for a neat and clean definition for many of the jurist
The secularism in India is different from the Western world .the secularism in India is evolution
Of a belief that every religion is equal, it is a belief that secular does not means that state do not
Interfere with religion but it means that state who help the religion to survive, purpose of adding
Secular word in constitution was to gain popularity may be of political leader of that time. Many
People express their opinion in which they stated that there is no need to add secular in the
constitution of India. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had also not Express her view
Behind the purpose of adding the word secular in the constitution of India .ACCORDING TO

CIRCUMSTANCES the secular word in the constitution added with the purpose that to show a
Prime minister of that time that was Indira Gandhi as a moral person as a good person because
During that time there was a case on her that he used Force for winning election and he amend
The constitution and this amendment is also known as a MINI CONSTITUTION.
• INTRODUCTION
If we want to understand each and every aspect of secularism in India we have to understand
• Who is secular?
• What is secular state?
• What types of secular state has been existing?

WHO IS SECULAR?
Secular = neutral +impartial
Means a person who is neutral toward all religion and impartial toward all religion. Now we can
define that what is secular state, STATE which has no religion and support no religion it's
impartial towards all religions.
To understand what a secular state is we have to understand what type of states are now
existing .And by comparing a secular state with another state, State like a theocratic state.
Atheistic state.
What is ATHESTIC state-These states are anti-religious state ,means they does not like any
religion and have been trying to suppress them or destruct them constitution like Mexican
constitution of 1917 are the example of atheistic state many state in their history atheistic state
example like –China, Mexico.
What is theocratic state-These state are pro- religious state means these state follows one religion
promote one religion and do not like another religion example like Pakistan Nepal Bangladesh
they are all following a particular region Nepal Hindu, Pakistan Islam, Bangladesh Islam, Dubai
Islam. State has its own religion.
Now we can understand the Brief meaning of secular state by considering the definition of
theocratic or atheistic state, these state is third type of state which do not have any religion but
consider all religion, not provide advantage to a particular religion.
TYPES OF SECULAR STATE HAS BEEN EXISTING-
We understand what a secular state is but a secular state can be divided into two types that
TYPES has no name but you can understand them on the nature of the state or the nature of the
government or on the basis of the nature of the constitution they have.
THAT in western countries, the state do not consider any religion, they do not provide any
advantage to any of the religions which have been following by the people of that state.
But in countries like India we can observe that still India is secular state which it claims as
secular word is present in its constitution .but it is not absolute secular state because it is country
who has been supporting all religion. Sarva dharma Sambhava. We can infer from that it is
providing state holiday to all religion and providing different types of order for convenience to
all religion.

SECULARISM IN INDIA –NOW AN EVIDENCE WHICH PROVIDE A CLEAT CUT

UNDERSTANDING .AT INDIA IS NOT ABSOLUTE SECULAR STATE ACCORDING TO
DEFINITION GIVEN ABOVE.

Photo from ministry of minority affairs of India which is showing investment in education of
Muslims under MAEF {MALUNA AZAD EDUCATION
FOUNDATION}http://www.minorityaffairs.gov.in/sites/default/files/performance.pdf 
NEED OF SECULAR STATE

India has a very rich history from Harappa to Aryans ,Aryans to Mauryan dynasty ruler Asoka,
Gupta to Akbar and in British India, we seen that the state can exist peacefully when everybody
respect each other ,respect their values respect their views understand their views .So in a present
situation where a country consist of billions of population where the majority is Hindu the
minority consist of Muslim, jews,Christian,Buddhist,jain, and many other religion it is very
necessary to have a constitution which consists word secular ,have a government which believe
in secularism .We cannot imagine country where citizens not respect other values.

India is a democratic country a country where everyone has right to speak , right to oppose so a
country like India where which consists of majority and minority like other states .Muslim and
Hindu are the main focus of the politics and if there is no mention of secular is in the constitution
then the majority have unlimited power and it may suppress the minority so the word secular
provide restriction on the power of majority by which safeguard the democracy ,save the spirit of
democracy in the country like India which claim itself democratic country.

Not only in India, the world is demanding a secular State, it provides an opportunity, a political
right, democratic right by which a minority can acquire position in the ministry, position in the
government. if the country is not secular it would be difficult for a minority to acquire a
membership of a government, for example in England the mayor of a most populous city in the
world that is London have a Sadiq Khan a Muslim minority of England it clearly shows that that
there is a need of secular state that need to be fulfilled, that need to be accomplished.

Europe which is consists of many developed country known as best country for India or known
as a West Country. They become good country or very prosperous not because of they have
advanced technology, is not because they have good infrastructure not because they have
industry not because they have human resource ,because they have belief on the faith of each
other which also help the country to become a prosper country. So country which do not
recognize other value, faith, belief, religion it is very difficult to become a proper country.

In India there are many instances which shows that there is a need of secular state there is need
of a neutral politics, there is a need of a secularism. Ajodhya case in which the Babri Masjid got
demolished by the some of the political leaders as the case is the pending in the supreme court
but it got proved that some of the political leaders involved in it and the case of Malegaon is the
best example for why we need a secular state because if there is no secular state then a political
leaders for the chair can do anything that he want or anything that the majority want. In India the
majority is Hindu if Hindu demands demolish of Babri Masjid or anything .and India is not
secular state.

Many research shows that the nation-state is the good state, a better state is demand by the whole
world if you want to build a nation-state where population consists of many religion it would be
very difficult to create a nation-state .if State become a secular state and people have the same
history then it would be very easy to develop a nation-state. for example in India ,yes the India
consists of many religion but the population consists of the follower of many religion have the
same history, history of Gupta ,history of Delhi sultanate, history of Muslim dynasty history of
British so if secular word added to the constitution of India then it became very easy to develop a
nation state

We can also understand the need of a secular state by comparing secular state with you theocratic
state which follow one religion, promoter of one religion but a secular state which has no relation
with the religion can help religion to sustain to develop to promote and not to get oppressed by
any other so there is a need of secular state in a contemporary world where everyone is believe in
their faith want to promote their faith on the cost of the other.

In contemporary world or we can say a globalized world where population have been
transferring from one state to another state for the work, for their desire, for a peace for a quality
of life they started migrating from one place to another place . If aliens do not find a place
where they can practice their belief, their faith they do not want to settle in the state and this may
lead to hindrance in the development of the state and which is the most important matter in the
contemporary world.

Secular state is a state which does not propagate any religion, is which does not have any relation
with a religion and state provides many services known as public services if it is not secular then
it may lead to the degradation of quality life of minority religion so state with a secular word in
constitution must be present in the contemporary world and this state may be in future developed
as a welfare state a state that everyone desire of.

need of a secular state can be also understand by that secular state can be considered as a right,
right which is back by recognition right which got social recognition ,right which get a political
recognition ,so to maintain that right we need a secular state, right which is mentioned in
constitution of India.
VIEW OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ON SECULARISM

Our constitution is not result of mere game it built on conflict, suggestion, demand, desire,
review of other constitution, constitution of other states. There are many topics on which
constituent assembly discuss and draft provision on it in the constitution but there are many
topics which got importance in discussion but not got place in constitution. And one of the topics
was secularism.
Partition led to creation of state which constitutes of minority and majority.
After partition many political leader thought about to create a state which everyone Desire of
.Apart from economic, law, representative also discuss on the topic of religion.
The inclusion of many article which may not include if India did not became a state of diversity
Constituent assembly was concerned about minorities as partition made India a state of diversity.
Many representative put emphasis on secular word but there were many representative who
didn’t want to put secular word into constitution. P.N bhagwati while giving speech in college
said that, this would be wrong to say that there was no discussion on secular state or discussion
on adding word secular to Indian constitution.
Article in the constitution of India that was added by the constituent assembly can became an
evidence of PN Bhagwati statement, article which provide right to the minority to Profess the
religion ,article which provide protection of minority from discrimination are the example of the
concept of secularism that constituent assembly have.
View of constituent assembly on secularism can be understand by Bhimrao Ambedkar view,
Nehru view and Mahatma Gandhi view and K.t shah view.

Ambedkar was against the amendment by which a secular word may added to the constitution in
1947.According to Ambedkar the purpose of the word secular is already embodied in the
constitution in the form of article which provide a fundamental right, form of article which give
state a direction that is directive principle. Ambedkar also have the view that all the word of the
Constitution is to regulate the state that means to regulate the administration of the state not to
regulate the people of the state , the meaning of secularism is already existed in the citizen of the
India means people know o respect each and other value and belief, so there is no need to add a
secular word in the constitution of the India and oppose the view of the KT shah and this lead to
failure of amendment which KT SHAH was thought of.
Jawaharlal Nehru in the constituent assembly put his view on the secularism why the secularism
has to be added in the Constitution of the India he tried to relate the secularism with democracy
he said that secularism can be practiced in democratic state only.
 According to him state has no establish religion .State has to tolerate all the religion state
provides equality to the all religion, there must be no religious education provided by a
government ,no religion can be exempted from the law of the secular state
Gandhi ji wanted to mix the politics with the religion especially with the Hindu he believed that
the religion will help the politics to move from a constitutional to a more moral .The religion
Hindu will provide the more clarity on the morality to be adopted by the state.
He believed that Hindu has a capacity to mix the all religion to assimilate the all the religion of
the country.
Nehru believed that the wall must have been has to be created between the state and the religion
Ambedkar believed that the large population of the India was a very religious it is very
dangerous to mix the politics with the religion .so according to him religion is not of very much
value and it must remain in the household of the individual remain with the individual there is no
benefit of mixing the religion with the politics.
So the Gandhi ji, the Jawaharlal Nehru and Ambedkar had a different meaning of secularism .
For Gandhi he did not understand the meaning of secularism he mixed politics with hinduism
Ambedkar- he want to give a equality to all the religion and Nehru- he wanted to create a rigid
wall between the state and the religion.
Till now in the Parliament the member of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha has been
discussing secularism from 1976 to 2017. whether they are serious about the secularism or not
we cannot say that but we can say that in India the secularism get its meaning in the Parliament
itself and .there is a need of a definition from the local representative of the citizen of the India
because they are the sound of the citizen of the India and they must have to define the what is
secularism. we can also put A P J Abdul Kalam remarks that *no religion has a mandate killing
other as a requirement for its sustenance or promotion*. from this we can get that the
representative of the India ,the state which has very great history, believe that there is there must
be a state where no religion has to be promoted no religion has to authority to gain Over The
Other religion ,there must be a balance between minority and majority people have to respect the
each and other value value of faith and they must have to.
ROLE OF JUDICIARY

In this chapter I will emphasize on the role of judiciary to make a state secular state to maintain
secularism in a country.
Judiciary is an organ which play important role in maintaining order in society implementing law
or command of sovereign .So, it is very important to understand role of judiciary to understand
each and every aspect of secularism in India.
As word secular was added in constitution in 1976 by 42nd amendment under the regime of
Indira Gandhi .Judiciary work as night watchman of law, coded law, in Indian context it is Indian
constitution. There are many cases which shows that every time if anybody go against law it will
be punished ,punishments are provide by court because they feel that not following law is
disobeying law disrespecting it .

As preamble of Indian constitution consist of “WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA” which means
that it is consist of general will and we give ourselves this constitution which give idea that it
contains our desire and our belief .So anyone disrespecting it is revolting against us.

“SECULAR” WORD IS PART OF PREAMBLE .So there is need to make state secular state. If
anyone commit an act which shows that our state is not secular state or which threatens the spirit
of secularism should be punished and right to punish is present in the hands of judiciary or court.

There are many case law which shows that whenever the role of the judiciary was required
judiciary come in front and maintain constitutionality of SECULAR WORD.
In keshav nanada bharti vs state of Kerala supreme court said that or declared that secularism as
the basic feature of the Indian constitution.
In state of Karnataka vs Praveen Bhai thagodia the apex court of country stated that it is
unalienable segment of country’s political system. Court also stated that yes the state is not
concern about any religion but it does not allow other to impinge other religion.
In SR bommai vs Union of India honorable supreme court Held that the concept of secularism
was not very much eloquently expressed in constitution because it is a very elastic terms and it is
not capable of precise definition perhaps best left undefined ,so it is duty of every citizen to
follow it.
Basic motto behind adding secular word in the Indian constitution to sustain the characteristic of
heterogeneous society for the for the sake of the society for a good society.
In recent year’s apex court of country come forward and have been showing interest or have
been understanding their duty toward state and have taken many decision.
Secularism is all about to sustain the religion, to maintain a religion in such a way that it does not
cost on the other fundamental right, so Supreme Court in 2002 held that Muslim man does not
have a right to divorce or a unilateral right to divorce to his wife by triple Talaq and has to
provide a good reason for a divorce.
In a country like India where diversity exist in religion culture, colour, so it is a duty of Supreme
Court to provide a state which is desire by country constitution.
Supreme Court also stated that the meaning of word secular in India is different from Western
conception where state has no relation with religion and but in India it’s based on value of
tolerance and equal respect for all communities.

The apex court of the country give many interpretation to the word secular in many cases. but the
most important case that is Doctor Ramesh Yashwant Prabhu vs Prabhakar Kaante in which
Supreme Court try to interpret the word Hindu to Hinduism and Supreme Court come with a
conclusion that if a representative of a party declared him to be Hindu he is not practicing a
corruption because religion is the way of a life, religion is the state of mind.

The judiciary not only promote secularism but also give example what will happen if anyone go
against the constitution of India as we can see that the most important political leader of our
country that is Lal Krishna Advani Uma Bharti who are on the bill in the in the case of or in the
dispute of Ajodhya so everybody has the right to Profess their religion state do not interfere in it
and state give equal treatment to all the religion and judiciary work as invigilator.

Supreme Court in 2002 after a request from Public Interest Litigation which contended that
NCERT curriculum is consist of many content of Vedas ,Sanskrit which is against the secularism
but one of the judges of three judge bench said that the neutral state is the narrow concept of
Indian secularism he emphasize on Gandhi view that Sarva Dharma Sambhava means equal
treatment to all the religion.

The apex court of the country also declare that any government and even the political party had
has to maintain the secularism they cannot use the word or user religion and if any party had
come it any if any party found to be guilty of search app and then there are can be considered as
unconstitutional.
SECULAR state can be considered as interest of the people, interest which convert in to claim
a ,claim which is recognized by society which also get a recognition of political recognition
need to be provided by a government and if a government do not provide it then Judiciary can
play an important role to provide that right.

In India where a person for a chair can bring a law with the help of their Party member which is
against the spirit of the constitution .Judiciary is an important organ of a state which not only
interpreted a law but also rejected the law that is unconstitutional which can be bring by
government or if any act which is against the word secular the Judiciary can play an important
role and rejected that law which is which can be made by a parliament of our country.
CONCLUSION

1. secular is controversial topic-Secularism is a controversial topic in India , political leader use

this word to become a more popular ,this word can bring a riot in a society, this word can create
a political instability, create a bad relation, this is what which can stroke the spirit of
democracy .
2.Word secular was added to the constitution in 1976 by 42 amendment but the word secular was
not only discuss in constitution but it’s important ,its significance was also understood by many
rulers ruled India and many modern ruler or a political ruler of the world show that the word
secular has its important which cannot be neglect .

3. Where the government cannot alone provide effective administration and need help or get a
help from different institution like Judiciary and executive and as the word secular added to the
constitution it's got and important and the Judiciary has to maintain its significance in the eye of
the community in the society.
4. GOVERNMENT CONCERN- Now a days in India government has been bringing up new
policy by considering the status of the minorities and try to solving the conflict between the
minorities and majority. And it can be evidence by the increase in the budget allocation that was
3827 crore to 4195 crore in 2017/18 many program has been launched during the recent years the
program like nai Manzil,- Jiyo Parsi
Programs launched recently year back provide a benefit to minorities it provider formal
education and skill equal to the minorities. Government signed a memorandum of undestanding
with Shop Clues for a facility the market linkage of Craft on training of minority craftsman in e-
commerce.
The number of youth trained in 2014 to 2015 is 20720 and in 2016 to 2017 it was more than
150000.
Government also launched programed named Hamari dharohar scheme to preserve rich Heritage
and Culture of minority. It government also launch a program named Padho Pradesh to provide
money to minority to study overseas.
SO, IN NUTSHELL IT IS VERY IMPORTANT MATTER OF CONCERN WHICH NEED TO
BE DISCUSSED ,WHICH NEED TO BE SECULAR.