Are you an Indian or a Hindu??

A recent conversation with an European counterpart made me probe into my true identity. Who am i, an Indian or a Hindu?? What is more prominent, my Indianess or my Hindu Values??

This is one question dreaded and avoided by my many Indians and i am no exception. For long i have lived under postulation that being Indian quintessentially means being Hindu and vice versa. The evil-doer can be traced back to the kind of up-bringing we get in our society. Our religious identity is enslaved on us as the only identity we should recognize with. So in battle between National and Religious identity the latter always win without exception.

India is (or at-least claims to be) a Secular Country. We claim that religion has no role to play in most of the national activities. Health, Education, national policies and politics etc are all free from religious disparities. But is simply declaring yourself as secular good enough?? Had that been the case we wouldn't have seen rise of religious parties. We wouldn't have seen political parties playing dirty political games on religious/caste ground. As if that was not enough recent announcement of Shiv-Sena to support the President candidate Pratibha Patil on ground of her being Marathi was totally absurd and anti-secular.

Western people often confuse India with land of Hindus but they fail to acknowledge the presence of large number of Muslim population. The Indian identity is obscured with Hindu religious teachings/spirituality. But India is a lot more then just Hindus.....
Its time that we should give India its due Identity that of a truly diverse country....