Which one of the following is not an indicator of Secularisation?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → celebration of religious festivals in educational institutions

Option (1) declining influence of religious organizations on public life — An indicator (Incorrect). Secularisation is the progressive retreat of religion from public life. One of its indicators is the social and material influence of religious organisations, so a fall in that influence shows secularisation.

Option (2) celebration of religious festivals in educational institutions — Not an indicator (Correct). In secularisation, religion turns from a mandatory obligation into a voluntary personal practice. Religious festivals celebrated in schools and colleges bring religion into a public institution, which is the reverse of its retreat from public life.

Option (3) emergence of science and rationality — An indicator (Incorrect). Secularisation was related to the arrival of modernity and the rise of science and rationality as alternatives to religious ways of understanding the world.

Option (4) declining rates of church attendance — An indicator (Incorrect). Indicators of secularisation include the level of involvement with religious organisations, such as how often people attend church. Fewer people attending church shows religion losing its hold.

Note: The example ‘rates of church attendance’, given for the first indicator of secularisation in the chapter ‘Cultural Change’, was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. The NCERT book (2025-26) keeps the indicator, levels of involvement with religious organisations, but this example has been deleted from it.

NCERT (2025-26): “Modernisation and Secularisation … In the modern west, secularisation has usually meant a process of decline in the influence of religion. It has been an assumption of all theorists of modernisation that modern societies become increasingly secular. Indicators of secularisation have referred to levels of involvement with religious organisations, the social and material influence of religious organisations, and the degree to which people hold religious beliefs.…”

“…This separation was related to the process of ‘secularisation’, or the progressive retreat of religion from public life, as it was converted from a mandatory obligation to a voluntary personal practice. Secularisation in turn was related to the arrival of modernity and the rise of science and rationality as alternatives to religious ways of understanding the world.”

NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “What kind of modernity? … In the modern west, secularisation has usually meant a process of decline in the influence of religion. It has been an assumption of all theorists of modernisation that modern societies become increasingly secular. Indicators of secularisation have referred to levels of involvement with religious organisations (such as rates of church attendance), the social and material influence of religious organisations, and the degree to which people hold religious beliefs.…”