evidence: According to Anna Bigelow, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University, the conception of secularism articulates the place of diversity within Indian polity and helps in understanding what Indian secularism means spiritually and practically. On March 12, Bigelow spoke on "Sufi Shrines and the Secular State," a SAI Muslim Societies in South Asia seminar co-sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard. The seminar was chaired by Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Director, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program. [...] Bigelow contended that the multiple meanings of secularism in today’s India result from the abstract nature of the debates on secularism at the time of India’s independence. In her opinion, it is "individuals and collectives that shape secularism as inclusive or exclusive."