BJP's innovative attempts at forging a new national identity

Constructing a shared national identity is the typical challenge of pluralistic societies like India. However, the definition of Indianness is changing of late. The reintegration of Hinduism – both in its past glory and its "persecution" at the hands of "invaders" – as the defining feature of Indian identity has assumed a new salience. What was held in check by a secular state is now a matter of state propagation.

Several events suggest that the present political dispensation is trying to define Indianness as pan-geographical Hindu unity. Two recent examples come from Gujarat -- the state-sponsored Madhavpur Mela in Porbandar