ABSTRACT
Recent books by scholars have pointed out that Indian secularism, unlike Western or European secularism, involves not absolute distance from all religions, but ‘an equal pandering to all religions.’ 1 Or, as Amartya Sen notes, ‘there are two principal approaches to secularism, focusing respectively on (1) neutrality between different religions, and (2) prohibition of religious associations in state activities. Indian secularism has tended to emphasize neutrality in particular, rather than prohibition in general.’ 2
