Who wants to live in Hindu rashtra?

kolkata: scratch a marxist and you will get a hindu – so the saying goes. however, even in these difficult times, scratching a hindu may get interesting results – the otherwise religious-minded person may turn out to be truly secular, contrary to what politicians would like people to believe. should india become a hindu rashtra? tnn posed the question to a number of practising hindus – young and old – in kolkata and the districts who have good knowledge of the religion and are not known to have any political affiliation.the common answer has not been very favourable to the idea of a religious state. “it has more to do with politics than with religion,� said swami biswatmananda (dilip maharaj) at the bharat sevashram sangha headquarters in kolkata. “maybe, there was a time when india could be a hindu rashtra. but then, islam came and many were converted. now, there is a large number of people who are born muslims or belong to other religions.we can’t have a state now where they would feel left out.� so, he said, the notion was either alik (make-believe) or a “political wish�. rajibanandaji maharaj of the ramakrishna mission, who heads the sarisha ashram in south 24-parganas, reminded that swami vivekananda had spoken about the assimilation of “the brain of vedanta and the body of islam�. it is the teachings of the vedanta, rather than the political construct of hindutva, that should be focused on, he said. sri ramakrishna and sri ma, too, had always stressed on vaidantic philosophy. but there were many other sects such as shaiva, shakta, etc, as well as other religions in india. there was no question of imposing any one of these on the followers of others. veteran astrologer and guru sukdev acharya of moyna, midnapore, said he would wish that hindutva (“not the political kind�, he stressed) would prove itself superior, but not dominant. senior scion of kalighat sevayat family kamal kumar haldar agreed.“i may wish that everybody comes into the hindu fold, which, to me, is the adi dharma. if we declare our state to be hindu, many people of the other religions may become hindu, too, but that would be under compulsion. and no noble purpose can be achieved through compulsion,� he emphasised. hinduism, he explained, became one religion by assimilation and not coercion. so, establishing hindu rashtra would go against the very tenets of hinduism.