Saturday, May 17, 2014

Is India going to become like many other countries in South East Asia? The new Indian Prime minister is recognized as a Hindu leader. This is definitely a step back from India's secular ideals. We are now more like countries with religious identities, like Malaysia, Afghanistan (Islamic government), and Pakistan and Myanmar (military rule) The unique Indian identity, the Indian experience of tolerating every variant of every religion is in danger.
My worst fears are that this victory is going to harden the narrow minds of the winners and that they would make life difficult for minorities and lower castes. They could do this not just by making decisions that are favourable to the elite upper castes, but also by celebrating and promoting the majority religion, thereby kindling feelings of superiority and inferiority and  widen the gap between the different religions in the country. Unfortunately social inequality will

become greater, I fear.

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