That this sectarian view of Indian history did not catch on is largely because of the determination of two secularist politicians at opposite ends of the social scale: the Old Harrovian Kashmiri Brahmin patrician Jawaharlal Nehru and the outcaste-born Maharashtrian Bhimrao Ambedkar, the first ever ‘untouchable’ to gain a university education. Both men found themselves increasingly at odds with M. K. Gandhi’s vision of a Ramrajya, a model of government which harked back to a golden age as celebrated in the Ramayana when Lord Rama returns from exile to rule over Ayodhya.
