India's secularism is paradoxically made possible by the fact that the overwhelming majority of Indians are Hindus. It is odd to read today of 'Hindu fundamentalism', because Hinduism is a religion without fundamentals; no organised church, no compulsory beliefs or rites of worship, no single sacred book. 'Hindu fundamentalism' ought to be a contradiction in terms.

The name 'Hindu' itself denotes something less, and more, than a set of theological beliefs ..

'Hinduism' is the name others applied to the indigenous religion of India, what many call Sanatan Dharma. It embraces an eclectic range of doctrines and practices, from pantheism to agnosticism, from faith in reincarnation to belief in the caste system. But none of these constitutes an obligatory credo for a Hindu; there are none. One cannot say, for instance, that a Hindu is someone who prays to Ram, worships at a Shiva temple, believes in caste and in reincarnation, reads the Vedas, treats the Bhagavad Gita as holy writ, heeds the injunctions of the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, considers the cow sacred, abjures beef, wears ash on his forehead and washes away his sins in the holy Ganga, because it is possible to do none of those things and still consider oneself a Hindu.

The Hindu idea (is) that religion is an intensely personal matter, that prayer is between you and whatever image of your maker you choose to worship. In the Hindu way, I was to find my own truth

... And I am happy to describe myself as a believing Hindu: not just because it is the faith into which I was born, but for a string of other reasons, though faith requires no reason. One is cultural: as a Hindu I belong to a faith that expresses the ancient genius of my own people. ..

As a Hindu I belong to the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the only religion. I find it immensely congenial to be able to face my fellow human beings of other faiths without being burdened by the conviction that I have embarked upon a 'true path' that they have missed. Hinduism asserts that all ways of belief are equally valid, and Hindus readily venerate the saints, and the sacred objects, of other faiths. Hinduism is a civilisation, not a dogma. There is no ... Hindu heresy.

How can such a religion lend itself to 'fundamentalism'? And how can it become a litmus test for Indianness ?                                     (Source: The Express Magazine, 8 February, 1998)