There are many forms in which resistance is made today against Secularist dogmas and multi-culturalism across the globe.  Not long ago it was the Christian church which helped in bringing down the secular communist regimes in East Europe.  The religious leaders have played a crucial role in the battle against autocracies in South Africa and Philippenes.

As far as Christianity is concerned its distinctive characteristic, its tight institutional organization and its total reliance on a single text to provide spiritual guidance and ideological coherence have been an effective factor influencing certain socio-political movements. The lesson has been absorbed slowly and steadily by Hindus.  Right from the days of reform movement in 19^th and 20^th Century Hindus find today that they can also achieve social solidarity by examining their social milieu through prism of their religion.  This sense of unity has been enhanced further by electronic and print media.  This sense of solidarity, truly an epic transformation in recent past has alarmed the secular writers so much they would talk of contemporary crisis in our faith. Amulya Ganguli called it neo-Nazism; another writer Ravinder Kumar termed new awareness as a baggage of colonial modernity.

There is certainly a decline of secularism in our country seen because of the stance taken by certain groups which alarmed the very existence of the nation. Patriotism is out of fashion.  New breed of writers will justify balkanization of the country using big words like decentralization or federalism or ethnic rights.  ‘Patriotism, the last refuge of the lout’  – somebody will quote.  So far not only respectability but access to state power was gained by those who trumpeted secularism even if it was at the cost of appeasing divisive forces.  They were perceived by  majority, and for right reasons, as those who were in league with politicians aiming at vote-banks.  It is here that the wave of revivalism touches upon the structure of Hindu Society.  An awareness is slowly re-ordering social relations between Hindus amongst themselves based on modern liberal thought and preparing it to contend for their faith in relations to other communities.  This is not seen in proper perspective and it is a big malady afflicting our intellectuals today who have been sometimes described as parasitical and self-serving.

Those who write ponderous and often unintelligible leaders and editorials in our main-line dailies do not appear to be products of country’s history and culture.  With their cynicism and alienation and their capacity for greater articulation, their special placement in society can even harm the nation.  At the level of thought and expression, while dealing with Hinduism they refuse to dissociate history from myth – the myth of secularism weighs too heavily on them and they indulge in labeling, slandering and pointless recrimination.  There are cases, which any perceptive reader can see through the print media where so called “like minded intellectuals” turn into lobbyists and try to subvert and undermine the very basis of nationalism if it concerned majority community.

We cannot negate the bonds of history.  There is a relevance of Hindu past which is also vital to secularism, the fact not owned by cynics.  Our nationalism is based on strong unifying factors which tide over the divisive ones.  A true patriot would never dream of making Muslims second class citizens.  What is required is that Muslims should discover their own roots of history, race, culture and language which are not basically different from those of Hindus.  It is their real identity.  By identifying themselves with the main-stream, they should enjoy full religious freedom, protection and equality of treatment.  Where secularists have gravely failed is their inability to challenge and combat Muslim separation.

There is a deepening contrast between rhetoric and practice since Independence. This cleavage has, over the years assumed, enormous proportions. The tensions brewed by such thought processes, threaten to tear our polity asunder and they can be resolved if  we recognize that nationalism has to be rekindled amongst people and made a living force and basis for all our decisions.

The Indian liberals choose to ignore Hindu past because they fear that an honest encounter with it might bring down the secular edifice.  This went hand in hand with glib tributes to our rich cultural heritage.  The owning of our past has been an anathema to the liberal – and that includes leftists of all hues – because their secular logic was built on exclusion of the past rather than on creative assimilation of it.

We must ask ourselves a question: what does it mean to be an Indian? A culturally neutral liberal or a nationalist imbued with the all pervasive heritage and cultural content as his life - line.  The slipping time may force us to take a decision quickly.