It was a work in progress: a field of tension, or arena of debate, where differing conceptions of India could encounter one another, seeking to persuade while willing to listen. To left-wing critics, India's constitutional order — rooted in a religion and caste-bound society — would always necessarily favour the religious majority. Spaces of free thought — universities, the media, civil society organisations — are subject to pressures from state power, both insidious and brutal. If it comes to dominate in India, that will be a failure not so much of the idea of India itself, as of its present day advocates: a failure on their — on our — part to persuade. Perhaps a trivial decision when set against the heavy logbook of India's grander dilemmas; until it gets multiplied again and again and again.Sunil Khilnani's The Idea of India will be published in a 20th anniversary edition later this year.

Source: Times of India August 14, 2017 18:30 UTC