In my last column, I spoke about the clash between Mr Modi’s “New India” and the values of the “Old India” that people like me are accused of defending. One of the fundamental underpinnings of Old India was secularism. One might argue the term was improperly used, since secularism’s dictionary definition means distancing oneself from religion, but Indian secularism was based on celebrating a profusion of religions, though no single one was privileged by the state. Each was welcomed, honoured and supported as an indispensable part of the Indian mosaic. (Personally, I have preferred terms like “pluralism” and “diversity” to “secularism”, but since most Indians who use the familiar word know what they mean by it, let us stick to it.)

Throughout the decades after Independence, the political culture of the country reflected these secular assumptions and attitudes. Three Presidents have been Muslims; so were innumerable Governors, Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers of states, Ambassadors, Generals, and Supreme Court Justices (and Chief Justices). During the war with Pakistan in 1971, the Indian Air Force’s Vice-Chief of Staff was a Muslim [Air Marshal, later Air Chief Marshal, Lateef]; the Army Commander was a Parsi [General, later Field-Marshal, Manekshaw], the General Officer Commanding the forces that marched into Bangladesh was a Sikh [General Jasjit Singh Aurora], the Admiral commanding our Western Fleet was a Christian........

© Mathrubhumi English