RELIGION, SOCIETY AND STATE IN INDIA
A Legal Perspective
Keywords:
Conceptualizing Secularism, Legal Discriminations, Religion, SocietyAbstract
The question of Secularism is one of the most challenging doctrinal issues facing any scholar interested in socio-legal issues. Jurists have debated on the secular character of the Indian state.2 There are various positions ranging from the espousal of an anti-secularist manifesto to invocation of a ‘Western’ style of secularism which advocates a strict separation of religion and state. Hence one is called upon to make an ‘ethico-legal’ assessment.3 Indian society has in the recent years witnessed a sharp increase in communal violence and the disturbing fact for any concerned citizen is the fact that the conduct of the Indian State has in many cases been suspect, to say the least. The widespread communal riots that shook the nation after the demolition of the Babari Mosque and the Gujarat riots of 2002 are instances which substantiate the preceding observation.
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