India: Religion, Political Legitimacy, and the Secular State

In no region of the world have so many political entities intermingled with so many religious traditions for so long as in India. The early Hindu experience established a legitimizing link between religion and the state. Later, non-Hindu faiths adopted similar legitimizing practices. British colonialism displaced local religions as political legitimizers of the state and replaced them with Anglicized Christianity. Indian religions then became legitimizers of anticolonial freedom movements. After independence and partition of the subcontinent in 1947, India had a predominantly Hindu population, but the new state was created as a secular entity. Although secularism has been endangered and pressured in the past four decades, it remains largely intact at the national level; however, there are inconsistencies in its application and threats to its integrity at the regional and state level. Religion has, however, ceased to be the key legitimizing instrument of the state; democratic voting has replaced it. Yet, religious issues remain a vital part of Indian politics. The future appears optimistic for the continuity of the secular state, although severe problems could erode the concept.