This was the thread because of which I joined this forum.
I think these intellectual types are basically silly. Why? Its' very easy to see why. They expect people of India to accept willingly the idea of a secular pluralistic society and be tolerant to minorities. Lets step back just to beginning. In 1950, when Republic of India was formed, it was not formed according to the wish of majority of Indians. It was one that was imposed on them.
The entire constitution was based on this weird idea that "We the people of India" are sovereign yet "we" were forced to be secular and tolerant WITHOUT taking permission from "we". Don't you see the absolute contradiction here? Actually, Pakistan was closer to the wishes of its people. It was what it said on the lid. A Islamic Republic. Simple. It was much easier to get behind this idea because it was simpler and because it was more truthful. It was the real will of Pakistanis. They were Muslims and wanted a country for their own.
Now in India, when independence was given, the domanion of Hindustan was not what it said on the tin. It was an amalgamation of a number of religions, Islam included. How will you explain this contradiction to people? Muslim get their nation but Hindus (you can include Sikhs as well) were supposed to STILL share their domanion with Muslim YET again. And to top it all, they have to accept it as their sovereign will.
That is the definition of bullshit. The only reason this bullshit persisted for so long was the divided opinion of Hindus in multiple castes and languages and creeds. It was only a matter of time before this solidified into one very basic and common desire : To seek a nation of their own. A Hindu nation. May be non-Muslim nation be more fitting and apt. As soon as the dividing regional forces became somewhat weeker, this will and the past bullshit of plural secular setup served to them, protected by the federal structure of the nation, fed to them by liberal controlled media and government education, all came undone! It had to. It was bullshit to begin with.
If I ever to meet this professor, I will tell him this : "You moron! its not the idea of people is changing. You and Nehru and Ambedkar and Gandhi got it all wrong in the first place! Perhaps because all three of them were too enamoured by the western enlightenment that they forgot that nations belong to people. People were not with them."