Arshdeep Kaur, B.A.LLB. (Hons.), School of Law, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, India
ABSTRACT
‘If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. It is everybody’s personal concern. The state has nothing to do with it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion!’
- Mahatma Gandhi
India has diversity in religions and cultures. There are different kinds of religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism. The Indian Constitution provides various provisions to ensure that there is no discrimination and no such discrimination shall effect the rights of the citizens of the country. To eliminate this inter-religious domination the word “Secular” was added into the preamble of Constitution of India by 42nd amendment in 1976.2 We should respect the freedom of other religions along with freedom of our religion. This paper will explain the meaning, historical background of secularism in India and also about the problems and challenges to the secularism in current scenario. The main objective of this study is to understand the meaning of secularism in our society and also to understand the role of political system in inter-religious tolerance in the cause of goodness in the society. The proposed research paper will intend to make India a secular state in actual sense by following the principles of secularism. There should not be interference of religion in politics. All the communities of the country should come up together with national spirit to make India a secular country.
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