ABSTRACT
Ashis Nandy's 'anti-secular manifesto' is reproduced in scores of journals and magazines. He challenges 'the hegemonic language of secularism popularised by the westernised intellectuals and middle classes exposed to the globally dominant language of the nation state'. Jawaharlal Nehru's optimism was finely balanced against the painful recognition that forces of secular nationalism were badly bruised at the dawn of independence and that partition signified the failure of the Congress-liberal-socialist combine to keep the nation's fabric intact. In general, the secular non-secular divide was pushed under the carpet to lend a semblance of unity to nationalist aspirations, just as social and linguistic cleavages were brushed aside to sustain a united front. Hindu traditionalists as well as Hindu nationalist campaigned against the secular project. The Congress was, moreover, imbued with a mission to secure India's rightful place in the comity of nations, to lead the non-aligned world, to set an example worthy of emulation by the newly-independent countries of Asia and Africa.
