This refers to the article, “Spectacular success of cultural nationalism” (July 21) by Balbir Punj. While the achievements of Germany are commendable, they do not call for India to ape the variant of Deutschland's cultural nationalism. India's demography, history and circumstances are in contrast to that of Germany. Individuals of German ethnicity make up for 90 per cent of the population. Muslims, the second-largest religious group, are only a miniscule three per cent of the population.
But India, where consensus around secularism and democracy has been built to keep different groups tied together to a single thread of nationality, is on a different footing. Here religious and caste loyalties override all other considerations. The failure to draw up a Uniform Civil Code for the country can be cited as a classic example to testify the apocalypse that is bound to unleash if ideas to cast aside the existence of an amalgam of diverse units are entertained.