ABSTRACT
The amplified role of religion in the global public arena has produced anxieties for those committed to a secular liberal democratic state. This chapter focuses on the famous Ayodhya property dispute, the subject of a series of court cases in India, in order to analyze the shift the Hindu Right has effected in the substantive meaning and practice of secularism and along with it the constitutionally guaranteed right to religious liberty. It describes competing models of secularism that have been debated and contested in the Indian context. It also focuses on the constitutional legal discourse and judicial pronouncements on the meaning of secularism in India and on the increasing influence of the Hindu Right—a conservative and religious political movement seeking to set up India as a Hindu state—on shaping the contours of secularism in contemporary law. The chapter discusses how the right to freedom of religion has been used to establish and reinforce Hindu majoritarianism through secular law.
