A struggle for india's soul. So what definesindia's soul? Sha she, and why is there a struggle for it in the first place? Why is this an issue its adition? Many of us growing up in india at a certain time would never have anticipated a rising so late into our political existence because o indian nationalism as something many of us took for granted. There was, of course, anti colo nationalism. In my case, it ended in a decade before i was born. But the fact is that was about getting the foreigners out of india. That was done. And that then evolved into what one would call a civic nationalism. We saw no
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP party came to power in 2014, India has seen an increase in Hindu nationalism and a rise in hostility towards the Muslim minority population. Politician and writer Shashi Tharoor believes the country is at a crossroads. His recently published book, The Struggle for India’s Soul, looks at the political direction of the world’s second most populous nation, which he contends is splitting into two opposing factions: ethno-religious nationalists and liberal civic nationalists. If the ethno-religious nationalists prevail, he says, millions of non-Hindus would be stripped of their identity. Tharoor joins historian, author and broadcaster Rana Mitter to discuss the book and what lies ahead for India.
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