What can France learn from the Indian Constitution's approach to secularism ?

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

France can learn from India that secularism can protect equal citizenship by accommodating faith in public life rather than excluding it. Article 25's kirpan exception and Bijoe Emmanuel (1986) show neutrality without uniformity, unlike France's 2004 school symbol ban.

**Introduction**

France's laïcité, rooted in the 1905 separation law, keeps religion out of public life, and bans on religious symbols in schools (2004) and face coverings (2010) have alienated its minorities. India, whose secularism is basic structure under S.R. Bommai (1994), offers another route to equal citizenship.

**Two Models of Secularism Compared**

SKETCH: comparison | Laïcité vs Indian secularism
a: France
b: India
- Wall of separation :: Principled distance
- Faith kept private :: Faith visible in public
- Uniform neutrality :: Group accommodation
- Reform by exclusion :: Reform by intervention

1. **Strains of laïcité**: The UN Human Rights Committee held in Bikramjit Singh v France (2012) that expelling a Sikh pupil for his turban violated religious freedom.
2. **Indian design**: Rajeev Bhargava calls India's model principled distance, under which the state keeps away from or engages with religion case by case, guided by equality rather than a fixed wall.

**Lessons France Can Draw from India**

1. **Accommodating visible faith**: Article 25 lets Sikhs carry the kirpan, and Bijoe Emmanuel (1986) protected Jehovah's Witness children who stood silently during the anthem, so neutrality need not mean uniformity.
2. **Reform from within**: Article 25(2)(b) lets the state reform practices, as Parliament did through the Hindu Code Bills of 1955-56, without banishing faith from public life.
3. **Minority cultural rights**: Articles 29 and 30 let minorities run their own institutions, giving them a stake in the Republic.
4. **Judicial balancing**: Courts test restrictions through the essential religious practices doctrine and proportionality rather than blanket bans.

**Conclusion**

India's model is imperfect, as the split verdict on the Karnataka hijab ban in 2022 shows. Yet its principled distance teaches France that equal respect for all faiths in public life builds fraternity better than enforced invisibility.

What can France learn from the Indian Constitution's approach to secularism ?

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