Since Bharat Mata involved personifying the nation as a goddess, as Tagore affirmed, the concept was troubling to many orthodox Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians who found the idea offensive to, or at least incompatible with, their own monotheisms. In promoting this idea of Indian nationhood, which privileged one religion, the BJP had yet again launched an assault on the basic ethos of Indian democracy, which recognizes the nation’s diversity. As the eminent lawyer and commentator A. G. Noorani put it: ‘When the upstarts of the BJP tell us that it is “anti-national” not to proclaim it, it is
...more
