Sufi shrines like Ajmer Dargah have historically served as sites of communal harmony. In light of recent controversies, discuss the role of composite culture in Indian secularism.

Indian secularism rests not on a wall of separation but on Sarva Dharma Sambhava — equal respect for all faiths, enabled by Articles 25–28 [1]. Sufi shrines such as Ajmer Sharif, drawing devotees across faiths for eight centuries, embody this composite ethos, though recent litigation has tested its resilience.

Shrines as living sites of composite culture

• Chishti tradition: Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti's shrine (d. 1236) made devotion, service and qawwali a shared cultural idiom rather than a sectarian one.
• Ceremonial continuity: the chadar sent by every Prime Minister since Nehru in 1947, presented on the nation's behalf during the Urs, signals plural nationhood [2].
• Statutory recognition: the Durgah Khawaja Saheb Act, 1955 places the shrine under a Dargah Committee supervised by the Ministry of Minority Affairs — state engagement here is legislatively grounded [3].

How composite culture supports secularism

• It sustains fraternity in the Preamble by making coexistence a lived practice, not merely a legal guarantee.
• It legitimises the Indian model of principled distance — the State may engage religion for reform, welfare or heritage protection without endorsing any faith.

Recent controversies and the tensions exposed

• A writ petition sought to restrain the PM's chadar offering as state endorsement of one religion, implicating Article 27's bar on tax proceeds promoting any faith [1][4].
• In January 2026, the Supreme Court declined to entertain it as non-justiciable, leaving the constitutional question open rather than settled [4].
• A parallel civil suit claiming a temple beneath the shrine reflects a wider pattern of title disputes that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 sought to foreclose [5].

Composite culture is thus the social foundation on which India's constitutional secularism stands, while the Constitution supplies the neutrality that keeps that culture inclusive. Strengthening it requires even-handed state engagement across faiths, faithful enforcement of the 1991 Act, and heritage-led promotion of syncretic shrines — advancing the fraternity the Preamble promises.