RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND DOMINANT COMMUNITY DOCTRINE

Abstract

Article 25 to 28 of the Constitution are specially blossomed for the ornamentation of right to freedom of religion to citizens, that constitutes freedom conscience and free profession of religion under Article 25, freedom to manage religious affairs under Article 26, freedom from payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion under Article 27 and freedom to attend religious instructions under Article 28. The word ‘religion’ used in articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution is personal to the person having faith and belief in the religion. The religion is that which binds a man with his cosmos, his Creator or super force. Fundamentally, religion is a matter of secluded faith and belief or intimate relations of an individual with what he regards as cosmos, his Maker or his Creator which, his beliefs, regulates the existence of insentient beings and the forces of the universe. Religion cannot be spell out in the context of articles 25 and 26 in its strict and etymological sense. The approach to construe the protection of religion or matters of religion or religious practices guaranteed by articles 25 and 26 must be viewed with big-headedness since by the very nature of things, it would be extremely difficult, if not way out, to define the expression religion or matters of religion or religious belief or practice, this proposition was affirmed in A.S Narayana Deekshitulu v State of Andhra Pradesh . A religion may not only lay down a code of ethical rules for its followers to welcome, it might prescribe rituals and observations, ceremonies and modes of worship which are considered as integral parts of religion, and these forms and observances might extend even to subjects of food and dress.