See this is the real cause of confusion. In Islam things are compartmentalized and defined. There is Islamic influence and some guidelines about culture. But culture itself is considered neutral and different from religion. There is no such thing as an Islamic culture. A culture can be said to have an Islamic interpretation when Muslims practice it. But religion and culture are very distinct and separate. That is why Pakistanis do not like being called Arabs, etc... For a Muslim calling the religion and culture by the same label is confusing.
This right here is the basic premise for Two Nation Theory. Muslim majority areas would never have agreed to this undefined and fuzzy and amorphous concept of religion and culture having the same name. The implication, despite your clarification is this: Hindu culture and religion can not be said to be separate when the name for both is the same. I see no reason why a Muslim should submit to a Hindu identity even when it is said to be cultural.
I think that the root of this dichotomy lies in the clashing civilizational narratives. Even though by the tail end of Mughal empire most of South Asia had the basis of being a single country, the definition of the 'other' was still in terms of Dharmic and Islamic identities. I have not read through anything related to this issue, but just based on my thinking and analysis, I can imagine that the vast differences between Muslims and Hindus and their respective attitudes overcame many of the shared cultural practices to an extent that we felt like two different nations rather than one.
There is a field out there beyond civilizational narratives where we are a human family. Only few people actually give it priority. Once you feel it, differences drop aside automatically. They become unimportant. This is perhaps one of the first stages of the Sufi ideal.
But exigencies of reality does not allow one to dwell on this. Unfortunately we are chained to our parochial ideas of identity based on a mix of nationalist, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic components with varying emphasis.
I have realized something, which I might have known but had stayed unexpressed. Thank you @
Indrani for providing the impetus for articulating this. Things seem clearer now.
Nah... I think that Indrani's post is very valuable and this thread would be poorer without it.
