ABSTRACT
Bangladesh started its journey as an independent state in December 1971, severing ties with Pakistan after 24 years of struggle that ended in the nine-month-long War of Independence. The then third largest Muslim-majority state in the world enshrined secularism (the Bengali word Dharmanirapekshata conveys the sense of ‘secularism’ in English) in its constitution in December 1972 as one of the state principles. One basic prerequisite of a modern liberal state order, i.e., the separation of politics and religion in order to guarantee ‘neutrality’ between different religions (Kosmin, 2006; Bhargava, 2007, pp.20–24), was officially fulfilled through the acceptance of secularism as a state principle at that time. The constitution also prohibited the formation and membership of all kinds of politically motivated religious organizations. As a continuation of the politics of the pre-independence phase, the mainstream left provided support to the main liberal party in a state-level acceptance of secularism.
