ABSTRACT
Drawing on the work of scholars of secularism, this chapter examines how the current American and Indian nation-states seek to craft a normative nationalist subjectivity that, in principle, defines itself in part through principles of toleration yet, at times, facilitates intolerance toward Muslims and suspicion toward Islamic traditions. These notions of toleration often rely on a strategy by which many nations understand themselves, which balances the projection of a national ideal based on universal principles and the proclamation of a particularism defining the nation’s citizens as collectively unique. Establishing a shared history, defining bodies of belonging, and positing certain shared values and practices all serve in the endeavor to imagine the exemplary national subject, as well as to define those who do not share their subjectivity. Although the derisiveness of discrimination appears inherent to nationalism, the assertion of a “right to indifference” from the state and fellow citizens may offer an avenue by which minority groups like Muslims can escape the stereotypes used to justify their marginalization and sidestep principles of toleration that often work against them.
