Rakesh Sinha

The politics of minorityism in India was an outcome of the British design especially thought for saving the reign of British empire. Lord Mayo, a Viceroy and W.W. Hunter, an ICS in India, were prime contributors in this deliberate and nefarious policy. The Wahabi movement among Muslims was also seen by Mayo as a threat to the Empire. The movement advocated and practiced radicalisation of Muslims and was considered an immediate danger to the political stability and civil society. Therefore, the apologists of the Empire wanted to pacify Muslims on the one hand and divert the anger of Muslims from the Empire. This was laborious and was done by inventing the majorityminority dictum and by inventing a new definition of secularism. This colonial imposed theoretical conceptualisation of secularism was perpetuated not only during the colonial period but also in the post-colonial India. This paper looks into the reasons why secularism in India faces both conceptual and empirical crisis.