The vast area encompassed by the new state of India shared only a vague notion of community and internal cohesion when the National Movement began its struggle for an independent state. At independence, in 1947, the modern, political, explicit national ‘self’ was still under construction and heavily embattled. It was a political project of un-precedented proportions which could probably only be made to work under a combination of factors which rarely come together neatly, but, despite serious hiccups, did so in the Indian case – inspired and incorrupt leadership which can slowly be replaced by accepted and functioning democratic institutions, relatively stable and peaceful circumstances internally and externally, and (for a long time only a limited) economic growth. The emotional and intellectual stabilising frame, within which these factors are applied to a specific geographical area and community, is the sense of national identity. The ideas and ideals on which the national identity is based lay down the terms of interaction.

The success of the national project relied heavily on the ability of political entrepreneurs to create a sense of national unity based on a common identity. This required a specific interpretation of the past and the propagation of this interpretation through nationalism or what Kedourie has called ‘ideological politics’ – the emotional mobilisation of many Indians along certain pseudo-ontological characteristics. The choice made by Gandhi, Nehru and most successive Indian political leaders was for a national identity based on values both universal in nature and national in their specific expression – tolerance, non-aggression, and a pluralist, suprareligious, interactive and peaceful coexistence.