The most Hindu of them all
Religion was always recognised in India’s public sphere — but, unlike now, in the plural
In other words, religion was recognised in the public sphere by these leaders, but in the plural, in a multicultural perspective. Nehru and Radhakrishnan — like several articles of the Indian Constitution — drew some of their inspiration fromMahatma Gandhi himself, who wrote in Hind Swaraj (1909): “If the Hindus believe that India should be peopled only by Hindus, then they are living in dreamland. The Hindus, the Mahommedans, the Parsis and the Christians who have made India their country are fellow countrymen, and they will have to live in unity, if only for their own interest. In no part of the world are one nationality and one religion synonymous terms; nor has it ever been so in India.”
Gandhi was a Hindu the secular way. On the one hand, he followed the Bhagavad Gita and venerated the cow. On the other hand, considering that each religion was equally valid, he chaired the All India Khilafat Committee in 1919 and constantly defended the religious minorities. For decades and even more than one hundred years, Congress has been a party of temple-going Hindus who respected other faiths and were, therefore, secular the Indian way.
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