Hinduism is critical to the fabric of India, as are all the other cultures and religions that inhabit this land and frame the imagination of this nation. It will require considerable effort on our part to conceive a secular nation where religion is indeed separate from the integrity of the state, where pluralism guarantees rights and respect to the religious and non-religious alike. Every Hindu and every citizen must denounce that to be Indian is to be Hindu, challenge assertions that a secular constitution is anti-Hindu, and refute the call for a Hindu nation in India as anti-national. Patriotism and nationalism demand that all social, political and religious groups work for an India free of disenfranchisement, institutionalised violence, corruption and rampant inequities. We cannot permit India’s secular and democratic fabric to be irreparably compromised. The politics of segregation and hate cannot determine the century before us.
