I find something fake and contrived about Indians talking secularism. I am reminded of an event held in schools called a "mock UN" in which teams of schoolchildren purport to represent various nations. The same Indian kids are seen making impassioned speeches on behalf of Congo, China or Russia.
In India, when a man with a Hindu name like Subramanyam Swamy writes a rabid article attacking the holy cow of Indian secularism, the counter arguments in India must come from other Hindus. Counter arguments from non Hindus don't cut it in India because there is an assumed bias attributed to their viewpoint. But this whole "secularism" debate is an oddly Indian phenomenon - and I would be curious to find out how many nations with a significant minority religion spend a great deal of effort in which the members of the majority religion squabble among themselves about the need to be secular. The question of secularism does not arise at all in an Islamic nation, so those countriees can be ruled out in one go. Communist China has no debate on secularism because anyone of any religion has to keep his had down. Western nations with a predominantly Christian background seem to look at secularism more in terms of separation of various Christian denominations from state affairs. There is hardly any debate about whether Hindus are being mollycoddled and being given an unfair advantage by the majority religious communities in these countries (AFAIK). There is however some debate about Islamophobia. Perhaps this is because in most of the "Christian west" the only large minority religion outside of various Christian denominations is Islam. Most western countries are predominantly Christian, and only France has a Muslim population approaching 9%. India has a non Hindu population that exceeds 15%. . Nigeria has an interesting mix of 45% Christian and 45% Muslim. But as far as i know - it is only in India here there are big debates where the members of the majority religion are debating with each other as to whether they are secular enough or not. shiv
