Writer Nayantara Sahgal, who recently returned her “Sahitya Akademi” Award over the Dadri lynching case on Thursday said that secularism is under threat like never before and that individual freedom and rights have to be protected.
Interacting with the media on the sidelines of 4th Chandigarh literature Festival, the 88-year-old Sahgal, the niece of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, underlined that secularism is part of Indian culture “because for centuries we have had inputs from other cultures and all these have combined to what is India.”
Asked if she feels secularism is under threat, she replied, “It is under threat today as it has never been before. Because today, there is a move, we cannot yet call it policy because when Narendra Modi made his campaign speeches (before 2014 lok Sabha polls) they were all about development.
“There was never any indication or suspicion that what was being promoted or would be promoted under his rule would be Hindutva, which has been the Hindu Mahasabha policy from the 1920s. Now see what is happening.”
Referring to incidents involving some right wing elements, she addded, “We call it by fringe elements, but those elements are so many and have done so much damage that the nation is rising up against it. That one sees a threat one never saw before because they are promoting what they would like to see a Hindu Rashtra, in other words a Hindu Pakistan. The people of India, I am convinced, are not going to submit to that.”
The Dehradun-based writer said the idea of India “is not something that began with Independence, secularism is not a policy that began with Independence and just to say now on we are secular. Secularism is part of Indian culture, because for centuries we have had inputs from other cultures and all these have combined to what is India. Many religions, many cultures have gone into making this.