Letters to BS: Nationalism is itself a source of conflict in India

Onus was on the government and the religious bodies to heal the wounds of partition and create harmony all along

This is with reference to “Many faces of nationalism” (January 10). Our greatest failure is that we have not been able to define the contours and contents of our nationalism despite wealth writings and long time debates on the subject. Even 71 years of independence hasn’t been able to build a consensus amongst us on what nationalism means. The causes for this failure were seeded in the Constitution which created the concept of minority and ensured separate laws to protect their ethnicity. As a result, we introduced reservation of seats in education and jobs with the hope that the distinction will steadily evaporate — but only to find that it has deepened the gap. Given the history of brutalities perpetrated during the partition of the country the onus was on the government and the religious bodies to heal the wounds and create harmony all along. Instead we allowed religion-centric organisations to grow. Unless we remove these hurdles the issue of  our nationalism will itself be source of conflict in the country.

Y G Chouksey,  Pune
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