India is experiencing a revitalized debate about its national identity, led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist group. This organization, associated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), contends that the constitution should not define India as secular. They argue that the inclusion of 'socialist' and 'secular' in the constitution was illegitimate, imposed during a state of emergency in 1976. The RSS maintains that India should embrace its identity as a Hindu nation, suggesting that secularism is an unnecessary concept derived from Western ideologies.
According to Hosabale, the preamble was changed "when Parliament was under siege" and India's democracy was effectively suspended. Therefore, he argues, the move was illegitimate.
The RSS insists that secularism and socialism are alien concepts imposed on India through a Western lens.
According to this ideology, making all of India a Hindu nation means that secularism—the separation of religion and state—will become superfluous.
The words "socialist" and "secular" were added to it in 1976, during the nationwide state of emergency imposed by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
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