India
Religion has consistently played an important and contentious role in Indian politics and society. The country has a long history of religious diversity; it has given rise to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, and over the course of centuries Islam has become India’s second largest faith. The largest community of Zoroastrians has made their home in Mumbai, India for hundreds of years and the country boasts the oldest Jewish population outside of Jerusalem. Amidst this diversity, India has developed a tradition of religious tolerance, personified by figures like Akbar the Great, a Muslim Mughal King (1556-1605) and Mohandas Gandhi, the Indian nationalist leader (1869-1948). Yet, from Timur’s invasion in 1398 to the Gujarat riots of 2002, the country has also suffered many tragic episodes of religio-political violence. Following Independence from the British, India’s government embraced secular democracy and religious pluralism; the Indian Constitution guarantees religious freedom, mandates the government treat all religions equally, and in certain cases allows religious communities to use their own legal systems for adjudication. For example, an Indian Muslim may choose to pursue divorce proceedings in the Indian civil court or in the Islamic Shariah court. However, these pluralistic government policies are currently contested by Hindu nationalist groups that call for greater recognition and adherence to of the country’s Hindu heritage.
ESSAYS ON INDIA
The Emergence of Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim Dynasties
The roots of Hinduism on the Indian subcontinent – and its intersection with politics – can be traced back to the Vedic Period (1500-500 BCE). The Vedas, ancient Aryan Sanskrit texts, relate the duties and obligations of the Brahmin priestly caste in relation to all other social groups and in conducting ritual sacrifices. The end of the Vedic period coincided both with the life of the Buddha, Siddharta Gautama (c. 563-483 BCE), who sought to rid Hinduism of its perceived worldly entanglements, and with the emergence of larger, regional kingdoms in the subcontinent. One of the first kings to unify most of the region, Emperor Ashoka Maurya, adopted Buddhism around 260 BCE but did not persecute Hinduism, establishing a dominant pattern of state tolerance of religious diversity. The Gupta Empire, a Hindu dynasty that also patronized Buddhism, rose to prominence during the fourth century CE, followed by the Buddhist Pala Dynasty, which ruled from the eighth to the twelfth century CE. The medieval period saw the gradual decline of Buddhism as a social and political force, as well as the largely peaceful spread of Islam through commerce, followed in the twelfth century by the establishment of a Turkish sultanate. Violent episodes like the sack of Delhi by Timur in 1398, justified as punishment for the sultanate’s tolerance for religious diversity, were the exception rather than the rule. The rise of the Muslim Mughal Empire in the mid-sixteenth century marked a critical turning point. Akbar the Great (1556-1608) was a major proponent of religious tolerance and pluralism, but Muslim-Hindu relations declined in the seventeenth century when his successors abandoned his policies.
From the Colonial Era to Independence
The Mughal Empire began to disintegrate in the mid-1700s, a process spurred by the arrival of the British East India Company and the onset of colonial intervention. The spread of British influence coincided with the emergence of Sikhism, a synthesis of Hinduism and Islam based in the north of the country. A Sikh confederacy resisted British incursions but was reduced to the area of Punjab by about 1850. Efforts to expand the power of the East India Company often clashed with local customs and religious beliefs, notably in the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, which was sparked by the refusal of Hindu and Muslim soldiers to bite casings greased in animal fat. In the aftermath of this event, British colonial administrators sought to solidify their position by exploiting economic, social, and political tensions among Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. Nevertheless, British authorities soon faced a broad-based nationalist reaction. Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu, launched a campaign of civil disobedience in 1915 and sought the collaboration of other religious communities. However, as the independence movement gained momentum, Muslim-Hindu tensions increased, culminating in the creation of the All-India Muslim League and the call for a future, separate Muslim state. When Britain, weakened by two world wars, finally withdrew from India in 1947, a Muslim-majority Pakistan was created alongside a secular but Hindu-majority India. The violence of the partition of India along religious lines and the contested incorporation of half the Punjab into Pakistan was followed by Indian-Pakistani wars in 1948, 1967, and 1971. These conflicts centered on the religiously disputed Kashmir region and the Indian-supported independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971.
Religious Pluralism and Religious Conflict
Despite widespread poverty and repeated conflicts with its neighbor, India under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his successors emerged as a secular democracy in a vibrant political environment, though it has suffered periodic episodes of deadly sectarian violence. In 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the army to remove Sikh militant separatists from Amritsar’s Golden Temple, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths, her assassination by her Sikh bodyguards, and retaliatory anti-Sikh pogroms. The destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by Hindu nationalists in 1992 led to riots that killed thousands, as did religious riots in Gujarat in 2002. In 2008 Muslim extremists launched a series of terrorist attacks against civilian targets in Mumbai. Despite these outbursts, peaceful religious coexistence remains the dominant pattern. The success of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its rise to power in the 1990s and 2000s heightened sectarian tensions but did not fundamentally alter India’s secular political institutions. However, the issue of caste membership inside and outside Hinduism has proven extremely divisive and created consternation and strife for both the government and Indian citizens. Low-caste groups and untouchables (Dalits) are routinely persecuted for caste membership and do not have equal access to jobs, education, housing, or healthcare. In the past few decades Buddhist, Christians, and Muslims have also begun to use the identifier “Dalit” and are pressuring the government for affirmative action benefits. Other contested socio-political issues include the use of Muslim sharia in family law, Hindu nationalist groups that emphasize Hindu culture and focus on converting religious minorities and Dalits, and legal limits placed on Christian missionary activity.
Contemporary Affairs
Despite the federal government’s commitment to secularism and the protection of religious liberty, recent events in India have been sharply affected by ongoing sectarian conflicts between Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. In November 2008 in Mumbai, ten members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a radical Islamist organization based in Kashmir, killed and wounded several hundred people over the course of three days. The attacks highlighted the complex links between nationalist and sectarian grievances in Kashmir and raised questions about the role of Pakistani intelligence services in orchestrating the attack. Earlier that year, the region witnessed deadly clashes between Muslims and Hindus over the building of a Hindu shrine in public land. In 2010, a re-escalation of violence in Kashmir once again sparked tensions with Pakistan with the Indian government accusing Pakistan of supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba. Hindu-Christian relations have also been strained. In August 2008, the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a prominent Hindu leader who had tense relations with both Christian activists and Maoist insurgents, led to weeks of rioting in which at least a dozen Christians were killed and many schools and businesses were vandalized. Local authorities were accused of failing to halt the violence and of complacency in prosecuting its perpetrators. Similar attacks, albeit on a smaller scale, continued across India, with Hindu extremists targeting Christian organizations perceived to engage in coercive or manipulative proselytism. Despite these tensions, the 2009 elections were largely free from the incendiary religious rhetoric that had characterized previous contests.
Religious Freedom in India
The 1950 Constitution declares India a secular state and guarantees freedom of belief, faith, and worship. There is a lively political debate in India regarding the precise meaning of these clauses and the appropriate relationship between the state and religious communities. The two main Indian parties, the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, have proposed divergent interpretations, with the latter advocating a greater role for Hindu ideas and traditions (Hindutva). Despite these debates, several government bodies investigate claims of religious discrimination and recommend ways in which these can be redressed. Religious tensions remain high in areas like Jammu and Kashmir, where an overwhelmingly Muslim separatist movement faces a largely non-Muslim military presence, leading to frequent allegations of Muslim persecution. While the federal government has consistently sought to uphold religious freedom, the laws and practices of several Indian states often challenge it. In particular, anti-conversion laws largely aimed at preventing proselytism of lower-caste Hindus have aroused controversy. Hindu nationalists are quite aggressive with proselytizing Dalits who have converted out of Hinduism to escape caste discrimination. Hindutva groups find religious conversion divisive and work to re-convert Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim Dalits back into the Hindu fold. These strategies have created intra-caste discord between Hindus and religious minorities throughout India. Anti-conversion laws do not typically ban conversion outright, but rather impose penalties on those encouraging or facilitating conversions or add complicated application and registration requirements for potential converts. Local authorities are also accused of an unwillingness to prosecute those engaged in attacks against members of minority faiths, most notably Hindu nationalists involved in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Religion in the Indian Constitution
The Indian Constitution was drafted by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a low-caste Dalit who rose to prominence during the Independence Movement and led many campaigns to end discrimination against Dalits. A lawyer, he was appointed to the Drafting Committee of the Constitution by Jawaharlal Nehru and worked tirelessly to incorporate social and religious freedoms into the Indian Constitution. Consequently, the preamble of the Indian Constitution, adopted in 1950, states that India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic, and Article 17 officially outlawed "untouchability." However, caste-based discrimination remains active in certain segments of Indian society, particularly in rural areas. Scheduled Caste benefits do offer low-caste Hindus a number of reserved seats for access to education, housing, and jobs, but the Indian government does not currently extend these benefits to Muslim and Christian Dalit communities. The government’s position that caste does not extend to converted communities has created much interreligious and intra-caste discord and in some cases prompted further persecution for low-caste groups. Article 25 in the Constitution guarantees that "all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice, and propagate religion"; it also mandates religious tolerance by the government, requires that the state treat all religions equally, and stipulates that discrimination based on religious practice is illegal. Article 28 of the Constitution prohibits public educational facilities from offering religious instruction or worship of any kind, but Article 30 permits religious minorities to establish and administer religious institutions of their choice. The Constitution also allows religious communities to implement their own legal systems, such as sharia, for civil matters.
Preamble
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity ...
Article 15: Prohibition of Discrimination on Grounds of Religion, Race, Caste, Sex or Place of Birth
(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to—
(a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or
(b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.
(3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children.
(4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
Article 16: Equality of Opportunity in Matters of Public Employment
(1) There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State ...
(5) Nothing in this article shall affect the operation of any law which provides that the incumbent of an office in connection with the affairs of any religious or denominational institution or any member of the governing body thereof shall be a person professing a particular religion or belonging to a particular denomination.
Article 25: Freedom of Conscience and Free Profession, Practice and Propagation of Religion
(1) Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion.
(2) Nothing in this article shall affect the operation of any existing law or prevent the State from making any law—
(a) regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice;
(b) providing for social welfare and reform or the throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus.
Explanation I.—The wearing and carrying of kirpans shall be deemed to be included in the profession of the Sikh religion.
Explanation II.—In sub-clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jaina or Buddhist religion, and the reference to Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly.
Article 26: Freedom to Manage Religious Affairs
Subject to public order, morality and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right—
(a) to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes;
(b) to manage its own affairs in matters of religion;
(c) to own and acquire movable and immovable property; and
(d) to administer such property in accordance with law.
Article 27: Freedom as to Payment of Taxes for Promotion of any Particular Religion
No person shall be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.
Article 28: Freedom as to Attendance at Religious Instruction or Religious Worship in Certain Educational Institutions
(1) No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of State funds.
(2) Nothing in clause (1) shall apply to an educational institution which is administered by the State but has been established under any endowment or trust which requires that religious instruction shall be imparted in such institution.
(3) No person attending any educational institution recognised by the State or receiving aid out of State funds shall be required to take part in any religious instruction that may be imparted in such institution or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in such institution or in any premises attached thereto unless such person or, if such person is a minor, his guardian has given his consent thereto.
Article 29: Protection of Interests of Minorities
(1) Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.
(2) No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.
Article 30: Right of Minorities to Establish and Administer Educational Institutions
(1) All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice ...
