The evocation of secularism and pluralism does not poke the nationalistic fervour of Indians because these haven’t been essential elements of mainstream Indian nationalism post-Independence. By mainstream nationalism, we mean ‘Congress nationalism’ — the party which owned the nationalism space for the first five decades after Independence. In order to understand this point, let’s briefly analyse the trajectory of mainstream Indian nationalism (or ‘Congress nationalism’) over the course of the 20th century. Over the last three decades, the BJP has slowly displaced the Congress from these two politically operative faces of mainstream Indian nationalism. The BJP has largely succeeded in bridging the not-so-large gap between ‘unitary nationalism’ (with a pronounced majoritarian bent) and ethnic nationalism.

Source: The Telegraph June 25, 2022 09:27 UTC