---
title: "Principled Distance: Bhargava's Secularism | Model Diplomat"
description: "Principled distance, by Rajeev Bhargava, defines Indian secularism as context-sensitive state engagement with religion to uphold liberty and equality."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/principled-distance"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- Principled distance is Rajeev Bhargava's conception of Indian secularism in which the state's engagement or disengagement with religion varies by context to protect liberty and equality.
- How does principled distance differ from the Western wall of separation?
- Why do critics call Indian secularism 'pseudo-secularism' in relation to this concept?
- Where is principled distance grounded in the Indian Constitution?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

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## Positions at a glance

### Supporters

The mechanics of principled distance turn on a deliberate refusal of uniform treatment. The state does not adopt a single posture toward all religions or toward religion as such; instead it calibrates its stance—intervention or abstention, support or hostility—according to the values at stake in each case. The procedure is, in effect, a contextual moral judgment: the state asks whether a given religious practice enhances or diminishes freedom and equality, and whether action by the state would advance constitutional ends. If a practice entrenches subordination, the state may intervene to reform it; if a community's autonomy is best preserved by non-interference, the state abstains. This is why contextual secularism, Bhargava's allied term, treats secularism not as a rigid doctrine but as a settlement responsive to the particular configuration of religions in a society.

### Opponents

Principled distance is best understood against the adjacent concepts it rejects. It differs from the strict separation model of the United States, which forbids state entanglement with religion in either direction, and from French laïcité, which privatises religion and excludes it from the public sphere. It also diverges from "equal respect" theories that demand identical state treatment of every faith; principled distance permits unequal engagement when equality of citizens requires it. Critics sometimes conflate it with the populist slogan sarva dharma sama bhava ("equal respect for all religions"), but Bhargava distinguishes his account, which is grounded in liberty and equality rather than in a substantive endorsement of religious truth-claims.

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Example

In its 2018 Sabarimala judgment, the Supreme Court of India intervened to admit women of menstruating age to the temple, an act that exemplifies the selective state engagement Rajeev Bhargava theorised as principled distance.

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