Why Hindu Rashtra: K. S. Sudarshan

When the Shahi Imam of Jama of Delhi went to Mecca on a pilgrimage, a local resident asked him, "Are you a Hindu?" The Imam was startled by this question and replied, "No, I am a Muslim." When Imam Saheb asked him the reason for calling him a Hindu, he replied that all Hindustanis were called Hindu there. (Saptahik Hindustan, May 1,1977)
 

What does "Hindu" Connote ?

Replying to the felicitation at the Indian Association Lahore, on February 3, 1884, Sir Syed Ahmed the founder of Aligarh University said, "We normally associate the word Nation with Hindus and Mussalmans. In my opinion, the concept of nation is not to be linked with one's religious beliefs because all of us, whether Hindus or Mussalmans, have grown in this soil, enjoy common points of sustenance and prosperity and share common rights. This verily, is the basis for both these our sections in Hindustan to come together under the common name Hindu Nation... The term Hindu should not be identified with the Hindu community. All sections--whether they be Mussalman or Christian -- are Hindu." (Hamari Ekta Delhi April 15,1979)

A Frenchman asked an Indian, "What is your religion?" The reply was, "Hindu." The Frenchman countered: "That is your nationality; but what is your religion?"

In fact, neither Arabs, nor Frenchmen nor the people of any other country have any doubt that "Hindu" connotes the nationality of this land. Arnold Toynbee in his monumental work A Study of History uses invariably the word Hindu to denote the race, the society and the civilisation born and grown here over the past millennia and extending right up to the present day.

Hindu : National of Bharat

Anyone who is the national of this country, irrespective of being a Shaiva, Shakta, Vaishnava, Sikh, Jain, Muslim, Christian, Parsi, Buddist or Jew by way of his creed or mode of worship, is a Hindu. As Justice M.C. Chagla has forcefully put it, "The French, with their sense of logic and precision, call Indians irrespective of their caste or community L Hindus. I think that is a correct description of all those who live in this country and consider it their home. In true sense, we are all Hindus although we may practise different religions. I am a Hindu because I trace my ancestry to my Aryan forefathers and I cherish the philosophy and the culture which they handed down to successive generations.

"If only we accept this proposition and call ourselves Hindus by race, it would be the greatest triumph for secularism."

The Archbishop of Ernakulam, Dr. Joseph Cardinal parecattil, has stated that the "Church had to draw its cultural nourishment from the local soil - the rich resources of Hinduism." Himself an ardent advocate of Indianisation of Church, the Archbishop affirms that all Indians including Christian and Muslims should imbibe this national culture of the soil.