India, July 31 -- Gitanjali Angmo, founder and CEO of Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh (HIAL) and wife of activist Sonam Wangchuk, remarked on Friday that India has been 'secular' before 1976 and that using the word 'secular' in the Constitution is like 'calling water wet' - meaning stating the obvious.

Angmo listed out articles from the Constitution to prove her point and noted that 'secular' word is a Western import born of Europe's church-state conflicts.

"The word "Secular" is a Western import born of Europe's church-state conflicts. Does not capture India's historical approach to religious pluralism which is better described by concepts like Sarva Dharma Sambhava or equal respect for all faiths," she wrote in a post on X....