The Supreme Court of India while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the inclusion of the words “socialist” and “secular” in the Preamble to the Constitution on October 21, 2024, said secularism is an indelible and core part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
The Preamble declares India to be a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic.
The term “secular” in the Indian Constitution signifies the commitment to maintaining a State that does not favour any particular religion, ensures equal treatment for all citizens irrespective of their religious beliefs and promotes a spirit of tolerance and harmony among diverse religious communities.
The idea and ideals of secularism could also be derived from Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which states that all people within India are entitled to equality before the law and equal protection of the law.
Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.
Article 16 speaks about equality of opportunities in employment, Article 19 grantees freedom of speech and expression, Article 25 gives the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate religion to all citizens.
Article 26 guarantees the rights of freedom of religion subject to public order, morality, and health.
Article 27 states no one shall be compelled to pay any taxes, of which the proceeds are specifically designated for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religious denomination.
Article 28 forbids the teaching of religion in any educational institution supported by out-of-state finances. Article 44 deals with Uniform Civil Code.
The idea of secularism is not new to India and has ancient origins.
Emperor Ashoka about 2200 years ago, Harsha about 1400 years ago accepted and patronised different religions. The people in ancient India had freedom of religion, Ellora cave temples built between 5th and 10th centuries, shows coexistence of religions and a spirit of acceptance of different faiths
— Ashoka, Rock Edicts XII, of 250 BC, [25][28] says “There should not be honour of one’s own (religious) sect and condemnation of others without any grounds”.
In this era of Knowledge, Science and Technology, India needs to shift from an archaic mindset, in social and religious matters in the context of development in science. These distinctions based on religion, caste or community have become superfluous, especially when Religion has always been voluntary and optional. Almost all of us, by an accident of events, do embrace the religion of our parents by customs and practices. Therefore, self-determination or voluntary decision making is almost impossible, most of us get so accustomed to that particular faith that hardly anyone chooses to change, unless there are compelling circumstances.
The same may apply to caste and community as well. None of this creates any indelible distinguishing mark on a person's character or personality. There are good people and very bad and cunning people in almost all religions, so there is no sanctity or permanency in any such classifications.
Essentially, character and personality are the outcome of one’s genetic structure, which are inherited.
Genetic science and DNA profiling has shown that most Indians are primarily a mixture of three ancestral populations: hunter-gatherers who lived on the land for tens of thousands of years, farmers with Iranian ancestry who arrived sometime between 4700 and 3000 BCE and herders from the central Eurasian steppe region who swept into the region sometime after 3000 BCE.
Scientists even found that the modern individuals derive 1% to 2% of their ancestry from Neanderthals and their close cousins, the Denisovans and that Indians collectively carry a stunning variety of these archaic genes, compared with other worldwide populations.
About 90% of all known Neanderthal genes that have made their way into human populations turned up in the 2700 Indian genomes.
A study employing the AMOVA (analysis of molecular variance) test of thirty different populations showed that India's so called ‘upper castes’ have genetic affinities with several foreign populations and also shared their genetic heritage with several domestic ‘non-upper caste’ groups.
It was confirmed that the progenitors of Indians have emerged from at least 12 different geographic regions of the world.
Thus, ‘pure Indians’ never really existed. Most Indians are offspring of these mixed races, except maybe some remote tribes like the Onge’s Jarawas, Sentinelese or others who had no interaction with human civilizations.
Perhaps these multiracial gene structures have made Indians intellectual geniuses, which are evident in Indian origin people, all over the world.
All human beings are descended from Africa. After the first migration, there were three more waves of major migrations into India and the new migrants mixed with the local population.
Most Indian ethnic groups shared some common ancestors because of admixture in the past. These new insights into the ancient origins of ethnic groups in the Indian subcontinent, undermines the existing theories of origins of caste and communities and makes Indians more of a multiracial country and therefore the conceptual definitions of ‘secular’ needs to go beyond Religion.
‘Secular’, therefore, should incorporate this inherent multiracial character of Indians. Genetically speaking, we Indians certainly have some ancient genetic relationships with our immediate neighbouring countries. Therefore, India should build mutual respect, trust and cooperation among its neighbours by identifying the commonness of ancestry and traits.
Claiming to be scientifically advanced, Indians, especially the governing elite, need to develop a scientific attitude. Maybe such realisation could set in motion a movement towards DNA profiling of its citizens and incorporating them into their Aadhaar card as essential information, thus eliminating communal attitudes and outlooks.
Maybe the ancient Indian concept of “Vasudeva Kutumba” may be the appropriate description of Indian secularism, after all what was ancient, so be it, in the present. (Chapter 6 of the Maha Upanishad Vi. 71-73).
The judiciary could, by invoking Art 142 of the Constitution of India (“The Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it………) innovate creatively in a pragmatic manner, the meaning and import of “Secularism” in the Indian context.
(The writer is a Professor of Law & an education
consultant)