Understanding the role of religion in society and the effect of judicial intervention on a country's polity is vitally important today. This study focuses on the Indian Supreme Court's interpretation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion and its influence on the discourse of secularism and nationalism.

Understanding the role of religion in society and the effect of judicial intervention on a country's polity is vitally important today. This study focuses on the Indian Supreme Court's interpretation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion and its influence on the discourse of secularism and nationalism.

This incisive work looks at how the Indian approach to secular governance is at variance with that of other secular democracies. It shows how the Supreme Court has over the years defined and demarcated religion, religious freedom, practices, and organizations. The volume addresses several important questions: what interpretative traditions and legal doctrines have the courts developed in their judgments involving freedom of religion? How have the courts defined Hinduism and who qualifies as a Hindu? How have the courts decided what is ‘essential' to religion, and hence entitled to constitutional protection? Have the courts been true to the vision of the framers of the constitution?