India and Hindus

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat claims that all Indians are Hindus because they are inhabitants of Hindustan, drawing a parallel with Germans in Germany, Americans in America, and so on. His reference to India as ‘Hindustan’ is outright fallacious because India is not recognised anywhere as Hindustan. Only Pakistan insists on calling India so. Legally and constitutionally, India is Bharat.

R.R. Ayyar,

Chennai

The word ‘Hindu,’ as mentioned by some prominent historians, is Persian for the word ‘Sindhu,’ or Indus. All inhabitants around the river Sindhu were referred to as Hindus by Persians and then by Greeks. The Constitution calls our country Bharat and India. We are thus Bharatvasis and Indians.

Rahul Chaudhary,

Moradabad

The hue and cry over the RSS chief’s remark are unnecessary. The Supreme Court has ruled that the meaning of the words ‘Hindutva’ and ‘Hinduism’ per se and in an abstract sense related more to the way of life of the people of the sub-continent than to the narrow limits of the religion — it cannot be assumed to mean and be equated with narrow fundamental Hindu religious bigotry.

V. Sharma,

Hyderabad