Secularism: The Constitution of India did not from the inception have the word secular in its preamble.

In 1976 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, two words were added to the preamble secular being one of them. Secularism as an idea was existent in the Indian philosophy much before its express incorporation in the grundnorm of our Country. The history of India has been a witness to the concept of the religious tolerance that has existed in India since the inception of civilization in India. Our land has been a melting pot of various ethnic groups and the survival of our civilization and our country in spite of the high degree of diversity is the evidence of tolerance that has been in existence. However, the general perception of secularism is the abovementioned idea of religious tolerance. But according to the true nature of the idea of secularism and as I think that secularism does not only consist in the tolerance of diverse religious cultures and belief, but it means and signifies a lot more than that. Secularism is about the peaceful co-existence without giving any chance to the race for inter or intra religious domination, that is providing a space or liberty to each group having distinct culture to practice its traditions and culture without interfering in the similar space accorded to the other group. Again, this may be argued that the situation as aforesaid might seem a Utopian concept that is quite impossible to achieve in the present situation owing to the multitude of the vested and varying interests of different groups in the same subject. To some extent this is quite true, but then according to me, the concept of secularism as it requires that the State should neither be theocratic, nor should it support pr sponsor any religion , it should also require that it is the state that should keep in equilibrium and balance the interests of different groups. That is the most important aspect of secularism that a country like ours should follow and in fact our Country does follow the kind of secularism as I have discussed. Again, this may be noted that the ideas and conceptions are hardly universal in nature and their definition and nature is determined by the temporal and spatial requirements of socio-politicolegal system. The best example being the nature of secularism in the West i.e. complete separation of religion and the State coupled with the idea of non-interference, which was

formulated to outcast the growing influence of the priestly orders in the affairs of the State. However, for me the India model of secularism is the best conception that conglomerates the

idea of principled distance, liberty of exercise of religion (inter religious), and equality (intrareligious).