Litigating the Limits of Religion: Minority and Majority Concerns about Institutional Religious Liberty in India
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Context
- The interpretation of constitutional provisions (e.g., on the term “propagate”);
- Failure to implement constitutional directives (e.g., on a Uniform Civil Code);
- Statutory laws or judicial rulings that appear to privilege the majority Hindu community or target/disprivilege a specific minority religious community (e.g., the Citizenship Amendment Act, or state “Freedom of Religion” laws);
- The use of statutory law as a tool of harassment (e.g., state “Freedom of Religion” and anti-blasphemy laws);
- Government management of institutional religious affairs (e.g., temple management boards, restrictions on foreign funding);
- Extrajudicial suppression of constitutionally enshrined freedoms through acts of vigilante justice and/or intimidation (e.g., cow vigilantism, anti-love jihad crusades, anti-minority violence);
3. Minority Concerns
3.1. Restrictions on Religious Assembly
3.2. Restrictions on Receipt of Foreign Donations
3.3. Restrictions on Proselytization
4. Majority Concerns
4.1. Government Management of Religious Institutions, the Essential Practices Doctrine, and the Sabarimala Temple Dispute
4.2. The Padmanabhaswamy Temple Dispute
5. Conclusions
Litigating the Limits of Religion, and Prospects for Common Cause
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
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Bauman, C.M. Litigating the Limits of Religion: Minority and Majority Concerns about Institutional Religious Liberty in India. Religions 2021, 12, 400. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060400
Bauman CM. Litigating the Limits of Religion: Minority and Majority Concerns about Institutional Religious Liberty in India. Religions. 2021; 12(6):400. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060400
Chicago/Turabian StyleBauman, Chad M. 2021. "Litigating the Limits of Religion: Minority and Majority Concerns about Institutional Religious Liberty in India" Religions 12, no. 6: 400. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060400