Secularism means exclusion of all religious considerations by the state. By that definition, India has never been a secular country. India is just a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-religous country whose state has a lot of compartments, each of which is used to categorise each "type" of Indians.
We should have a universal civil code and abandon preferential treatment regimes, including all forms of quotas. That does not mean exclude aiming public services at backward communities.
However, there is a strong anti majoritarian trait among the leftist circles of the country that should be resisted. We cannot wish away the minorities of India, for without them there will be a moth-eaten, mutilated and incomplete India. But without the so-called "majorities", there will be no India as we have known it.
