Consequently, non-Indic institutions and practices enjoy better protection from State interference than their Indic counterparts. This is supported by the fact that the Indian State has enacted at least 15 Hindu-specific legislations that enable State control and facilitate State entrenchment in Hindu institutions. Clearly, this is attributable to the Indian State’s embracing of the colonial assumption that the ‘Hindoo’ is corrupt, debauched and backward, especially if Brahmin, and therefore, such institutions must be under State control in order to ‘reform’ them.
