**Notes**


deeply entrenched system of interaction, involving a constellation of actors who have developed a relatively stable framework of constitutional interpretation, that has justified and realized what I term the Erastian system of governmen<sup>t</sup> control of religious institutions (especially Hindu ones) explored in this article.


majority Hindu community to adapt, redefine, and develop their religious or spiritual beliefs, practices, and identities, including in ways that stretch traditional perceptions and parameters of Hindu identity. The mistake, it seems to me, is to assume that such restrictions are or can only be understood as restrictions on minorities and therefore as restrictions that do not bear on the freedom of members of the (broadly understood) majority Hindu community. If the Indian state and courts have the ultimate right to decide the meaning, content, and boundaries of Hinduism and Hindu identity, then the freedom of Hindus clearly and inevitably also suffers in a profound way. This kind of restriction indeed constitutes a sweeping kind of Erastianism.

