The following article describes the current scenario of religious freedom in India . Whether India needs more laws to have subtle practices of diverse culture or the politics has diversified the culture into the pool of riots . Later the article says about woman's participation in religion and how our constitution has uplift the dignity of women in the society . Whether religious conversion is legalized, whether the education of religion is against one's religion and how our country deals with it

Introduction
A foetus starts living in a religious womb and at the end of the life, dies by religious customs. Isn't it interesting that how life bounds every one of us in a circle of some faith and belief which we practice diligently with so much of enthusiasm. But do we Indians have really got freedom to practice, propagate and profess the religion we choose or be inherited by birth. Or do we actually perceive the reality as what the projector shows on the screen.

Let's spill the beans into the reality of what our nation actually persists. Starting from the famous case law in India, the Babri Majid case verdict 2019 (1),which dealt with the controversy over Ram Janmabhoomi is a recent religious faith fight. This case begins from 1992 where the Majid was demolished by some hindu nationalist organization and till 2019, the fight over religious practice began. But before getting into the detail, let's get into the meaning of the term religion.

Tracing Of The Word Religion
In Sanskrit, the word religion is SANATANA DHARMA (2), which means "eternal law". One of the oldest and organized religions in the world starting from 5000BC is HINDU DHARMA, Hinduism. The three most fundamental Hindu scriptures are The Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and several interpretations have been done on religion and cultural practice. Religion is one's belief, faith, practice and is considered as a science of soul. It involves morals, ethics which paves the way of life of the people. Gandhi ji believed secularism as SARVA DHARMA ABHAV (3) meaning equality in all religion.

The concept was originated with Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda but was popularized by Mahatma Gandhi Religion is a specific set of organised beliefs and practices, usually shared by a community or group. Spirituality is more of an individual practice and has to do with having a sense of peace and purpose. It also relates to the process of developing beliefs around the meaning of life and connection with others.

Religions are historic and cultural systems that evolve with time, while faith is an individualistic, personal feeling of one person. Indeed, faith can be shared and others can start accepting and believing in certain things/deities/procedures, but, in general, faith is a much narrower concept if compared to religion. In broad sense, religion is the faith in God which they believe who guides and rule them in a positive sense.

Like how before the democrats and government, the king believed to be doing NO WRONG, similarly people believes that religion is a way towards one's God and can do No Wrong. Religious people have different rituals which sometimes unintentionally hurt the sentiments of other religion leading to riots and this is how RELIGION IS TAKEN AS A TOOL to reach to public. A MYTH of just praising and practicing the God gets broken, when the REALITY of religious freedom in modern times goes controversial.

Description
In India, according to 2011 census, Hindus are 79.8%, Muslims are 14.2%, Christians are 2.3%, Sikhs are 1.7% and the rest 2 % consists of Buddhists, Parsis. The majority of Muslims live in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka and in union territories majority resides in Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep.

The majority of Christians resides in North East, Kerala, goa and Tamil Nadu and the Sikhs are more concentrated in the region of Punjab and Haryana. Though we have freedom to practice but in the dark side we see scams on the name of the religion. Like the 'Sex Tantra' camp snagged on Navratri, which organized to offer a 3 days and 2 nights course under SSS (Satyam Shivam Sundaram) foundation in Pune on 17th September 2022 was seen as an insult to Hindus and their deities. The fight over religious practice is not new to the society but the leaders keep the riots in motion for generations to gain greedy powers for their selfishness.

1. The Constitution:
   In constitution, article 25-28 provides freedom of conscience and right to profess, practice and propagate under the surveillance of public policy i.e., it should not harm one's belief while enjoying our freedom. The Indian democracy is the largest democracy in the world due to its diverse race, culture, beliefs residing in it and therefore, there is a principle distance between state and religion. The state is not allowed to be bias over one religion and carry out discrimination.
   
   When we talk about discrimination it not only includes inequality between men and women but in a wide scope it includes discrimination on the grounds of sex, place, caste, race, "essentiality" was invented by a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the 'Shirur Mutt' case (4) in 1954. The court held that the term "religion" will cover all rituals and practices "integral" to a religion, and includes all the essential and non-essential practices of a religion.
   
   The word 'religion' used in the article 25 and 26 deals only with the secular activities connected with religion and not matters which are integral part of religion. The term religion is not defined in the constitution but the Supreme Court has defined it many times, as a matter of faith with individuals or communities. Religion is a doctrine of belief, ethical rules for its followers to accept, prescribe rituals, ceremonies which may even include to food, dresses that people persist. Profess - declare freely one's belief. Practice -to perform the prescribed religious duties, rites, and rituals.
   
   Propagate -to spread and publicize religious view. But the Right to Propagate one's religion does not give a right to convert any person to one's own religion. Religious freedom also includes cremation ground and the Supreme Court held that the denial of such rights and dispossessing them from cremation ground amounted the violation of their fundamental right to freedom of religion as it amounts to essential practice of every religion. One should get a dignified life and death and thus nothing should become a barrier to approach it.
    
2. Religious Conversion:
   Out of 28 states, 10 states have restricted religious conversion and have imposed penalties over conversions. States like Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha has banned conversion. The Indian Penal Code,1860, prohibits deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feeling of any class by insulting one's belief or religion. According to UCF (5) (United Christian Forum) an NGO, 29 Christians were arrested in 3 states on suspicion of forceful or fraudulent religious conversions in those states where it is forbidden. In India, conversion in rest of the states is allowed provided that:
   
   1. It should not be fraud
   2. free from coercion
   3. conversion under the consent
   4. not against the public policy
   5. it should not be void and according to procedures prescribed by the law
   6. should not be misrepresented.
   The constitution (42nd amendment) Act, 1976 inserted the word "Secular" in the preamble. It means that in the matter of religion the state is neutral where the state protects all religion but interferes with none. Secularism means developing, understanding and respecting every religion.
   
    
3. Religious teach in education
   In the case of Aruna Roy vs Union of India(6), it was held that the study of religion in school as a part of education is not against the secular philosophy of constitution. Therefore, where there are languages like Sanskrit, Urdu, Punjabi, kannada been taught in the school as a subject is purely protected under article 25.
   
   Even the religious institution is allowed to run for the protection of their minorities, provided that no immoral activities to be engaged and it should not be against public policy. The saints, sages and seers continued to practice rituals like yajna for the king's heath and humanity as a whole because it does play a significant role in human life as it questions that how can we make human beings of cultured character without teaching them from childhood the fundamental and spiritual values.
    
4. Religious practice in educational institutions
   In the latest hijab case, the Karnataka high court on 12th September 2022, held that wearing hijab is not a part of essential religious practice in Islamic faith and thus it is not protected under Article 25 and therefore uniform does not include wearing scarf on head.
   
   The Court observed that in order to determine whether or not a particular practice is an essential part of religion, the test must be whether the absence of the practice itself fundamentally alters the religion. But there are some religious practices where the practice contributes the essential part like a turban is an essential religious symbol in Sikhs the Muslim girls have told the court that wearing the 'hijab' was a fundamental right guaranteed under India's Constitution and an essential practice of Islam.
   
   They argued that it is no different from turbans worn by Sikhs, bangles and ghoonghats worn by Hindu women and the cross worn by Christians. The Karnataka Advocate-General has told the High Court that those challenging the decision had not been able to prove that wearing the 'hijab' was an essential religious practice. In fact, 'hijab' is not an essential religious practice. Therefore, a quarrel between 'hijab' and 'turban' is totally unjustified, for the subject of 'essentials' especially for Sikhs, because turban, their top identity, has become an unintentional target in the 'hijab' controversy. Not even boys but even girls in Sikhs wear turban called 'amritdhari'. The amritdharis follow the Khalsa principles strictly, which is not the case with the most of the Sikhs, who are Sikhs simply because they were born in a Sikh family, like in many other communities.
   
   Therefore, asking an 'amritdhari' sikh to take off the turban is highly invasive and extremely embarrassing for him/her. Even the Section 129 of the Central Motor Vehicles Act exempts Sikhs wearing turbans from wearing protective headgear (helmet) The constitution also allows them to have the right to carry kirpans with them. The recent case of sikh student in Canada was told to remove the kirpan from him as it seems dangerous to them but in India it is legal to carry by them. The reason might be ignorance by them but it is outrageous to their religion.
    
5. Woman and equality
   The new bench of the Supreme Court was been tasked with finding the balance between the Right to Freedom of Religion and other constitutionally-guaranteed rights, especially the Right to Equality defining "essential religious practice" and "constitutional morality". The entry of women into the Sabarimala temple.
   
   This been a 'landmark case', the Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench has decided to refer the Sabarimala temple case (7), clubbed with other 3 pending cases broadly related to the rights of women in the sphere of religion, to a larger 7-judge Bench. On 28th September 2018, Supreme Court lifted the ban that prevented women and girls between the age of 10 and 50 mostly the menstruating women from entering the famous Ayyappa shrine in Kerala by a majority verdict of 4:1. It held that the old Hindu religious practice was illegal and unconstitutional to Article 14 and 25.
   
   Temple custodians argue that women of menstrual age are prohibited from offering prayers as the deity there, Ayyappa, is a celibate and according to Hindus, the God's ideal will become lifeless by the energy of the cycle but keeping the rights of women in India, the constitution protected the rights of the women by making the landmark judgement for the Hindu women. Muslim women's entry into mosques. In April 2019, the supreme court held the case in favour of Muslim woman to have entry from the main door of the mosques to get access to the 'musalla', the main prayer area.
    
6. Politics and religion
   Politicians often involve religion with daily affairs, for instance, the congress party after the post-independence have attained the scope of secular India where our first prime minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru negotiated well with Jinnah for the Hindus and Muslims to avoid the struggles been faced again. But the congress government in present have often invoked religious sentiments to suit their changing political interests.
    

Therefore, the public policy also includes no discrimination in employment, education, and more specifically in public areas due to prejudices on the grounds of sex, race, place of birth, culture etc. India has successfully provided Universal Suffrage to every citizen irrespective of the religion they belong to. In the case of S.R. Bommai vs Union Of India (1994) (6) the supreme court held that secularism is the basic feature of constitution where it has positive content and state is neutral reflecting, neither its anti-religious nor pro religious.

Conclusion
In my personal opinion, India has enough laws and sanctions to regulate each religion but the flighty work of politicians does not let it happen. Subtracting the atheists in the society, the remaining society of believers, considers religion the most prioritize step to uphold and anything insulting their sentiments would lead into failure of the constitution.

Whether it's a Muslims or a Hindu or Christian every religion they follow has some embedded values in it. The only arising problem of today is conversion and politics into religion therefore people should understand every religion and respect them because riots though happen internally but affects the country internationally.

Being a Hindu I feel that we are going in minority due to:

1. Many Hindus are becoming ex -secular now, one of the new instances is due to the riots happening in a loop especially after the Nupur Sharma case. It's a shame to the people who continuously breaks the law and disrespect the drafting committee of the constitution along with long citied landmark judgements. It's a shame to the lawyers of the country who involves religion into every aspect and if religion would have not been involved in the case the riots between Hindu and Muslim would not have been occurred.
2. Another major problem are the conversions of Hindus where the other religion is succeeding over Hindus. Hindus don't have any specific custom to convert others into it which creates problem.

A Religion is the vein in the society and bursting of it leads to the death of a myth which has survived so long�

End Notes:

1. M Siddiq (D) Thr Lrs v. Mahant Suresh Das & Ors (2019)
2. Acharya Dharma Pravartaka (2015) Sanatana Dharma
3. Pandey J.N. (2021) Constitutional Law of India
4. 1954 Air 282, 1954 Scr 1005, (1954)
5. India-jails-30-christians-on-charges-of-forced-conversion-as-persecution mounts/https://hindutvawatch.org/
6. AIR 2002 SC 3176
7. Indian Young Lawyers Association and Ors. vs. The State of Kerala and Ors (2019) 11 SCC 1
8. 1994 AIR 1918, 1994 SCC (3), 1, JT 1994 (2)215, 1994 SCALE (2)37