ABSTRACT
This chapter substantiates the historical genealogy of the multicultural ethos of India, and its institutional arrangement and policy process that have steadily moved a multireligious and hierarchical social order to a multicultural society within the framework of a democratic political system. The historians of comparative nationalism must marvel at the tameness of the Indian formulation of the national agenda. Multiculturalism, a hallmark of contemporary political correctness, an obligatory reference to which is an integral part of political rhetoric virtually everywhere, remains more a statement of faith than a theoretical tool with implications for the real world of social and economic policy. India's relative success on the issue of multicultural citizenship where most of the population simultaneously combines membership in the national, regional and local political and cultural units can be attributed to the fact that these tools of citizen-making are used with unusual vigour and imagination by the political decision-makers in India.
