Prof. M.N. Srinivas defined the term as, “The term implies that what was previously regarded as religious is now ceasing to be such and it also implies a process of differentiation which results in the various aspects of society, economic, political, legal and moral becoming increasingly discrete in relation to each other.”
Prof. Yogendra Singh says, “various issues and events in personal and social life are evaluated not from the religious point of view, but from the utilitarian point of view”.
HOW
Elements of Secularisation:
1. Decline of religiosity:
social institutions and individual actions are becoming increasingly free from the influence of religion.
2. Rationality:
(а) Decline in religious control over individual and social behaviour.
(b) Increase in rational attitude towards different events of individual and social life.
3. Empiricism:
(a) Objective observation
(b) Experimentation
(c) Verification.
Person free from blind belief, prejudice and superstitions.
4. Process of differentiation:
aspects of social life come to be differentiated from religion. Each aspect, i.e. economic, political, social, legal etc.
5. Scientific world view:
6. Social dynamism: the acceptance of new ideas and values.
WHY
Process of Secularization in India:
By Constitution.
1. non-interference in religious matters of any religious community.
2. providing equal protection to all the religions.
In school education. In work environment. In market. Law.
WHY NOT
But resistance by communal feeling like Hindu Maha Sabha, Muslim League or Bajrang Dal etc.
Politics and Ram Mandir
Some of the changes are observed due to secularization:
1. Declining attitude towards religious rites and rituals.
2. Different sub systems like legal, political, economic etc. have been differentiated from each other.
3. There is growing tendency towards rationality.
4. The important agents like law, politics, education etc. are gradually becoming secular in their structure and function.
Recently, the communal divide is rising and fake news is fuelling violence. But trend of secularism continues.