Conceptualizing Religious Offences and Understanding Secularism under the Indian Legal System

Religion and law have been the most influential means of social control and change throughout history. They are mutually interconnected and their interrelationship defines the nature of a particular society. As such Assam, being a state of India is known for having diverse religious communities across the territory governed by the Rule of Law under the Constitution of India which mostly represents the entire Indian Territory including Assam as a secular country. However, most often it has been found that due to religious intolerance and conflict between traditional religious beliefs and the modern common law system, there have been disruptions in the law-and-order situation in the state of Assam in the last few decades. The study in this field is important, to know the validity of the present-day legal institutions for promoting religious tolerance amongst the local communities in the state of Assam, thereby upholding secularism by transcending the gap between the traditional religious beliefs and the modern needs of the civilization, for maintaining order in the society, we will have to know the relationship between law and religion concerning Assam and the extent to which law can promote secularism in the minds of the local people. This research will therefore study the evolution of different religions in the State of Assam to understand their hold over the local people and will also study the legal framework governing the state to analyze the extent to which this framework is secular or is in conformity with religious sentiments of the people. This study will also highlight some of the cases where anti-secular activities were promoted to justify the role of law in such situations. At last, the study will highlight the opinions of different experts and scholars in the profession of law for having a better understanding of the subject.