JIH has been described as having undergone an "ideological transformation" from working to make India an Islamist state to fighting for a secular state.[1] Its founding principle is that Islam is a complete way of life rather than simply a set of worship practices,[2][3] which would provide "the practical doctrine and programme that can take the place of the failed man-made creeds of the 20th century".[4] In its early years it condemned as haram (religiously forbidden) both secularism and democracy, but later came to accept and then an "embrace" of both secularism and democracy in post-colonial India.[1]