India is a secular state”. Justify.
There is no official religion of the Indian state. Unlike the status of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, that of Islam in Pakistan and that of Hinduism in Nepal till recently, our Constitution does not give a special status to any religion. The Constitution provides to all individuals and communities freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any. The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion. At the same time the Constitution allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion in order to ensure equality within religious communities. For example, it bans untouchability. Understood in this sense secularism is not just an ideology of some parties or persons. This idea constitutes one of the foundations of our country. Communalism should not be seen as a threat to some people in India. It threatens the very idea of India. That is why communalism needs to be combated. A secular Constitution like ours is necessary but not sufficient to combat communalism. Communal prejudices and propaganda needs to be countered in everyday life and religion-based mobilization needs to be countered in the arena of politics.
