Ahmedabad Mirror

Published on 12th November, 2017, in Ahmedabad Mirror. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, valued secularism. But that did not stop him from being addressed as Panditji, quietly affirming his Kashmiri Pandit identity and his very high status in the Hindu caste hierarchy. He insisted no religious rituals be conducted after his death. But he wanted his ashes to be cast in the Ganga. His secularism did not stop him from displaying his Hindu credentials, albeit minimally. It is easy for a Hindu to be ‘secular’, because Hinduism does not demand allegiance to one doctrine, and certainly not to the idea of one God, which ..