It was the French intellectual and writer, Albert Camus, who once wrote, “I love my country too much to be a nationalist”.

Those words seem to have particular relevance to India’s contemporary political milieu.

What most activists and intellectuals across India seem to have forgotten is that those who forged India’s constitution were ardent liberal democrats.

They would have a tough time recognising the tortured debate about nationalism and free expression in India taking place today.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government seems to have convinced itself that it has a monopoly in defining what constitutes nationalism.

To that end, it has chosen to hound intellectuals, students and activists who hold a vision of India that differs…

Continue reading “Viewpoint: India’s tortured debate on nationalism and free speech”