Why Nehru dropped and Indira inserted the S-word in the Constitution

On November 15, 1948, when the newly independent dominion of India was in the midst of a heated debate in the Constituent Assembly, on the nature of the Constitution, Prof K T Shah made an intervention demanding the inclusion of the word ‘secular’ in the preamble. “Sir, I beg to move, that in clause (1) of article 1, after the words ‘shall be a’ the words ‘Secular, Federalist, Socialist’ be included.

The amended article or clause shall read as follows: ‘India shall be a Secular, Federalist, Socialist, Union of States’,” he said. In the ensuing discourse, while the members agreed on the nature of the Indian state adhering to secular principles, the word ‘secular’ was dropped from the preamble.

It made an appearance though, about three decades later, when the Indira Gandhi led government included it in the document, as part of the 42nd Amendment of the constitution.

In the decades that followed, secularism in the Indian constitution has been appreciated by some but has come under criticism by several others who have repeatedly pointed out to the foreign origins of the words, the inapplicability of it in the Indian context and the problematic ways in which it has been applied in India as well.

Independent government implemented secularism mostly by refusing to recognise the religious pasts of Indian nationalism, whether Hindu or Muslim and at the same time (inconsistently) by retaining Muslim ‘personal law’,” writes historian Ronald Inden in his work, “Imagining India.”

Thank you.