
With the 42nd constitutional amendment act which was enacted in 1976, the preamble of the constitution of India asserted that India is a secular nation. Secularism may be defined to be as non-inclination towards any particular religion and the declaration to treat all religion as same in the eyes of law, but a lot of practices prevalent in the society make us question whether our country is an actual secular nation!?
The prevalence of both Shariat law and Hindu marriage act that give Muslims the right to maintain polygamous relationships but bars doesn’t allow a Hindu to have more than one wife.
On the other hand, this sudden restriction on the consumption of beef. While it has been said to be adopted to maintain the country’s agro-based economy where cows form a major part of our agriculture as cattle but nonetheless this bias towards the ban of only one kind of meat makes us rethink whether our nation is on its way to on its verge to lose its label as a secular nation.
Again, the prevalence of the Bidaai scheme in Karnataka wherein a poor Muslim girl is liable to receive 50000 INR. The scheme only applies to poor Muslim girls and seems an unfair scenario for the other poor women of the state. The prevalence of many laws that clearly show a bias towards certain religions certainly question India’s secular identity
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