OPINION

India begins changing its secular identity

News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/08/2017

» When India got its independence from Britain 70 years ago this week, it was founded as a secular democracy -- secular because it acknowledged the status and rights of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and other religious minorities as equal to those of the Hindu majority. Mahatma Gandhi, the great hero of the independence movement, was a devout Hindu, but he was murdered by a Hindu fanatic for defending Muslim rights after Partition.