In the wake of the 50th anniversary of Emergency (1975-77), which was commemorated on June 25 this year, a debate has been reignited on the inclusion of the words “secular" and “socialist" in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. This inclusion was done through the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976. Several clauses of this amendment were struck down by the Supreme Court in 1980 (Minerva Mills vs Union of India case). The amendment’s constitutional morality has also been questioned, as it was passed when the opposition was put in jail by the Indira Gandhi government.

A look at the historical evolution of the concept of “secularism" indicates that it is largely a Christian construct suitable for the West. Its suitability to India’s civilisational construct needs to be debated in this regard.

According to Britannica, “The word secular is derived from the Latin term saeculum, meaning “a generation", “a human lifetime", “an era of time", or “a century". In its original Christian sense, the word indicated the finite temporal world of mundane daily or political affairs as opposed to Christian religious time and practices filled with the sense of eternity and laden with spiritual significance. The first edition of the Encyclopædia........

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