Which one is the peculiar feature of modern Indian ‘Secularism’ ?

Concept: Secularism as a constitutional principle means that the state professes no religion of its own and holds every faith equal before the law. Constitutional designs differ in how they achieve this. One design is strict separation, in which state and religion are walled off from one another and the state stays out of religious life altogether. Another design keeps the state at a principled distance: it establishes no religion and identifies with none, yet it may still engage with religious matters, by regulation, by aid or by reform, where the liberty and equality of citizens require it.

Application: Modern India follows the second design, and that design shows itself in the text of the Constitution. The Preamble describes the Republic as SECULAR, a word inserted by the 42nd Amendment in 1976. Articles 14, 15 and 16 bar the state from treating a citizen unequally on grounds of religion in law, in access to public places and in public employment. Articles 25 to 28 grant every person freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion. Article 25(2) preserves the power of the state to regulate secular activity associated with religious practice and to throw open Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus. Read together, these provisions do not withdraw the state from religion; what they do consistently is deny religion any standing as a ground for unequal treatment of a citizen.

Cross-check: Test the same principle against the other descriptions offered:

• Total indifference to religion would mean that the state takes no interest in religious affairs at all. The Indian state is not indifferent in that sense: it administers religious endowments by statute, aids institutions run by religious minorities and legislates on matters connected with religious practice.

• No space for social identity reverses the Indian scheme, which protects the right of any section of citizens to conserve its distinct language, script or culture under Article 29 and the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions under Article 30.

• Disregard for social law does not follow either, because a secular state remains a law-governed state. Ordinary legislation and the personal laws alike continue in force, and a uniform civil code appears in Article 44 only as a non-enforceable Directive Principle.

Result: The feature peculiar to modern Indian secularism is therefore that there is no discrimination on religious considerations, and not any withdrawal of the state from religion, any erasure of identity from public life or any setting aside of law.