Religion’s Influence on Indian Education and Society

India is home to one of the world’s oldest and most complex relationships between religion and education. Long before modern classrooms existed, temples, monasteries, and ashrams were the primary seats of learning. This deep historical entanglement has shaped not only what Indians learn, but how they think about knowledge itself. Today, in a constitutionally secular republic of extraordinary religious diversity, the question of how religion should interact with education remains as relevant and contested as ever.

Religion as the foundation of ancient Indian education 🔗

Religion was the mainspring of all activities in ancient India, saturating not just worship and philosophy but also education in its entirety. The earliest formal system of learning was the gurukul, where students lived in the home of their guru and received instruction rooted in Vedic texts. Formal schooling began with the upanayana (the thread ceremony), a ritual that marked entry into scholarly life and was compulsory for boys of the three higher castes.

Education in the Indian subcontinent began with the teaching of traditional subjects, including Indian religions, mathematics, and logic. The great learning centres of Taxila and Nalanda grew out of Buddhist monastic traditions. From around the fifth century onward, Buddhist monasteries became centres of education not just for monks but also for laypeople, eventually evolving into institutions so large and complex that historians consider them prototypes of modern universities. Nalanda, located in present-day Bihar, reportedly accommodated 10,000 students from across Asia and offered instruction in philosophy, medicine, law, astronomy, and literature.

Hindu educational thought was equally rich. For Hindus, education was seen as a means to vanquish avidya (ignorance), which was considered a fundamental source of human suffering. Temples and stupas served as centres of learning, where religious instruction was compulsory but secular subjects were also taught. Over time, the curriculum broadened to include arts, crafts, Ayurveda, and architecture.

The influence of Islam and the medieval period 🔗

With the advent of Islam in India, the educational landscape underwent significant transformation. Pre-Mughal rulers such as Qutb-ud-din Aybak initiated institutions that imparted religious knowledge, while scholars like Nizamuddin Auliya and Moinuddin Chishti became prominent educators who established Islamic monasteries. The madrasa and maktab became key educational institutions, teaching grammar, philosophy, mathematics, and law – subjects that drew from Greek traditions inherited through Persia.

One of the distinctive features of Islamic education in medieval India was its emphasis on the connection between science and the humanities, a pedagogical philosophy that kept religious and rational inquiry intertwined. Under the Mughal emperor Akbar, this inclusive spirit reached notable heights: the education system expanded to incorporate medicine, agriculture, geography, and texts from multiple religious traditions, including Sanskrit works.

It is worth noting that the influence of Islamic rulers and scholars led to the establishment of institutions that contributed to the religious diversity and educational landscape of the subcontinent – deepening the already pluralistic character of Indian learning.

Colonial education and the secular shift 🔗

British colonial rule introduced a Western-style education system that fundamentally altered the relationship between religion and formal learning. This Western system coexisted with traditional systems of religious education, laying the foundation for the complex relationship between religious and secular education that India continues to navigate today.

The colonial period also intensified tensions between religious communities, as educational institutions were increasingly tied to communal identities. This complex history underscored the need for a new constitutional framework that could provide a basis for peaceful coexistence – a need that directly shaped the provisions of independent India’s constitution.

Indian thinkers of the reform era also weighed in on religion’s role in education. Mahatma Gandhi argued that religious instruction was essential for character formation, but insisted it must be non-sectarian and focused on moral values common to all faiths. This position reflected a broader conviction among many nationalist leaders that education should draw on India’s spiritual heritage without privileging any single tradition.

Religious freedom and education in the Indian Constitution 🔗

The framers of the Indian Constitution were acutely aware of the potential for religion to both unite and divide. India’s secularism is not a rejection of religion but a commitment to the peaceful coexistence of all faiths. Unlike the Western model of strict separation between church and state, Indian secularism embraces a pluralistic approach – the state remains neutral toward all religions while retaining the authority to intervene when religious practices conflict with constitutional values.

Articles 25 to 28: the constitutional framework 🔗

The core constitutional provisions on religion and education are found in Articles 25 to 28. Article 25 guarantees every person an equal right to freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess, practise, and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality, and health. Article 26 grants religious denominations the right to manage their own affairs, including establishing and administering educational institutions.

Article 28 directly governs the role of religion in educational institutions. No religious instruction can be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained by state funds. This ensures that public schools and colleges funded by taxpayers remain secular and inclusive. However, institutions administered by the state but established under a religious endowment or trust are permitted to continue imparting religious education. Crucially, no student in a state-recognized or state-aided institution can be compelled to attend religious instruction or worship without their own or their guardian’s consent – protecting individual freedom of belief within educational spaces.

Article 30 further protects the rights of religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, ensuring that minority communities can preserve their cultural and religious identities through education.

India’s secularism: equal respect, not exclusion 🔗

In India, secularism means equal respect for all religions and faiths rather than the hostility toward religion that some Western conceptions imply. As Dr. B.R. Ambedkar clarified during the Constitution’s drafting, a secular state simply means the government cannot impose any particular religion on its citizens. All religions are to be treated equally, and the state extends the same treatment to everyone irrespective of their faith. This principle was confirmed by the Supreme Court in the landmark S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) case, where the court held that secularism is part of the basic structure of the Constitution and cannot be overridden even by constitutional amendment.

Challenges at the intersection of religion and education 🔗

Despite strong constitutional safeguards, the relationship between religion and education in India is not without friction. When religion becomes too closely tied to formal education, it can hamper inclusivity, scientific focus, and critical thinking – qualities that students increasingly need in a complex world. The Kothari Commission (1964-66) recognized this danger, recommending a secular education system aimed at fostering shared national identity that transcends religious differences, and promoting rational, scientific thinking over dogmatic religious instruction at school level.

Curriculum content has also been a persistent flashpoint. Debates around how religious historical figures should be portrayed, how much emphasis different traditions deserve, and whether religious perspectives should inform the teaching of science have all generated public controversy. Curriculum revisions following changes in government have sometimes been criticized for either over-secularizing content or tilting it toward particular religious worldviews – highlighting the ongoing challenge of creating educational material that respects diverse perspectives while maintaining academic accuracy.

Education as a tool for promoting religious pluralism 🔗

If religion has historically shaped Indian education, education in turn holds significant power to shape how Indians relate to religious diversity. Religious pluralism fosters social cohesion by promoting understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of diverse religious beliefs and practices, and education is one of the most effective mechanisms for instilling these values from an early age.

The National Education Policy 2020 reflects a deliberate effort to embed pluralistic values into the curriculum. It explicitly includes tolerance, diversity, and pluralism among the core human and constitutional values that students should develop. The policy also draws on the rich ethical content of texts from multiple religious traditions – from the Jataka tales of Buddhism to the moral narratives across India’s diverse heritage – not to promote any one faith, but to cultivate shared values of compassion, non-violence, and respect.

NEP 2020 aims to cultivate citizens who possess truthfulness, peace, love, non-violence, a scientific mindset, and a commitment to universal human values – a vision that consciously bridges India’s spiritual heritage and its democratic, secular aspirations. Rather than treating religion and rational inquiry as opposites, this approach seeks to draw on the ethical wisdom of diverse traditions while keeping institutional education free from sectarian bias.

Religious literacy: understanding without indoctrination 🔗

One increasingly discussed approach is the development of religious literacy as a formal component of education. Rather than avoiding religion in the classroom or promoting any particular faith, religious literacy education teaches students about the diversity of religious traditions – their histories, practices, and contemporary significance. This kind of education helps students navigate India’s complex religious landscape while developing genuine respect for different traditions and recognizing the ethical values that many of them share.

Both Indian domestic law and international law prohibit persecution based on religious affiliation, but legal protections alone cannot build a tolerant society. It is education – through curriculum design, classroom interactions, and institutional culture – that shapes how young people understand and relate to religious difference. Schools that celebrate India’s religious diversity as a strength rather than a problem, and that expose students to multiple traditions objectively and respectfully, are essential to sustaining the pluralistic fabric that the Constitution envisions.

Looking ahead 🔗

The relationship between religion and education in India is neither simple nor static. It has evolved through millennia of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Islamic, and Christian educational traditions, through colonial disruption, and through the deliberate constitutional architecture of independent India. The challenge for contemporary Indian education is to honor this rich and plural heritage without allowing any single religious perspective to dominate public learning spaces. A well-designed, secular-yet-culturally-aware curriculum – one that teaches students about religion rather than in religion – is the most effective path toward an educated citizenry capable of living, working, and thriving across lines of faith.

What do you think? Given India’s extraordinary religious diversity, should public school curricula include a dedicated subject on comparative religious studies to promote tolerance and pluralism? And how should schools balance respecting students’ own religious identities while fostering a genuinely inclusive classroom environment?

References

1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Education-in-classical-cultures
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education_in_the_Indian_subcontinent
3. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2016/12/13/how-religion-may-affect-educational-attainment-scholarly-theories-and-historical-background/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India
5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379644655_RELIGIOUS_EDUCATION_VIS_AVIS_INDIAN_CONSTITUTION
6. https://www.lawctopus.com/clatalogue/clat-ug/right-to-freedom-of-religion-in-india/
7. https://vajiramandravi.com/upsc-exam/right-to-freedom-of-religion/
8. https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1734560/
9. https://testbook.com/constitutional-articles/article-28-of-indian-constitution
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13. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf
14. https://www.dailypioneer.com/2025/columnists/nep-2020–vision-for-transforming-india.html
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