India’s constitutional commitment to secularism has undergone a profound crisis in recent decades. What was once envisioned as a pluralistic ethos—ensuring state neutrality and equal respect for all religions—has increasingly been hollowed out by political majoritarianism, cultural nationalism, and institutional complicity. The rise of religious polarisation, particularly anti-Muslim sentiment, represents not merely a social fault line but a structural transformation of Indian democracy.
The consolidation of Hindutva ideology within the political mainstream has normalised the marginalisation of Muslims and other religious minorities. From lynchings in the name of cow protection to anti-conversion laws and the criminalisation of interfaith marriages (dubbed “love jihad”), a new regime of everyday and legalised discrimination has taken hold. These acts are not aberrations, but symptoms of a deeper political project: the transformation of a secular republic into a Hindu Rashtra.
State complicity is evident not only in acts of omission—failure to prevent communal violence, for instance—but in active commission. The Citizenship Amendment Act (2019), when read alongside the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), institutionalises religious discrimination by linking citizenship to faith. This marks a radical departure from the secular foundations of Indian nationality as laid out in the Constitution.
Furthermore, the mainstream media, now largely corporatised and politically aligned, has played a pivotal role in manufacturing consent for this polarisation. News narratives that vilify Muslims, sensationalise communal incidents, and frame minorities as internal enemies serve to entrench a siege mentality among the majority. The discursive shift is stark: from viewing Muslims as fellow citizens to seeing them as demographic threats, cultural invaders, or anti-national elements.
The judiciary, traditionally a check on executive excess, has also failed to uphold secularism with consistency. Its judgments on issues like Ayodhya or the abrogation of Article 370 have raised serious questions about institutional independence and the interpretation of constitutional morality.
What is at stake is not just minority rights but the very architecture of Indian democracy. The erosion of secularism destabilises the rule of law, civic freedoms, and the social fabric itself. Rebuilding secular values requires more than tolerance; it demands political courage, grassroots mobilisation, and a reclaiming of the Constitution as a living document of pluralism.
In the face of rising authoritarian populism, defending secularism is no longer an ideological choice—it is a democratic imperative.
