If every Muslim thinks like you do with respect to being an Indian first, then communalism will die out. I also applaud you for speaking as a true secularist, for example your view on Haj subsidy. Most Muslims, unlike you, just want to selectively use secularism when it suits them. They want to maintain the Haj stuff and other benefits that are anti-secular. Also, they don't actively work to eliminate terrorists in their communities. They support Afzal.
I would like to respectfully disagree with you that minorities, especially, Muslims are kept backward. I think the backward Muslims have the same problem that other non-muslim sections have. It is illiteracy and poverty. The government has the responsibility to provide good primary and secondary education to all poor people without regard to religion, caste, creed etc.
On the flipside, the individuals themselves have to help themselves to progress instead of expecting the governement to spoonfeed them. They need to be responsible for their own development. For example, the poor, especially poor Muslims, need to realize that having too many children is going to perpetually keep them poor. Muslim families should enroll their kids in secular schools to learn modern education instead of Madrassahs where they learn only to memorize the quran.
Well-to-do Muslims must help the poor in their community to get education instead of wasting their money on useless things. I am from a poor backward low
