Mohan Bhagwat’s speech last week will gain importance if the call for restraint is heeded across India. As the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, he advocated the value of unity in diversity as well as the legitimacy of different paths of faith, including Islam, and called for dial-down disputes. A place of worship to prepare a case for global gravity based on humanistic Hindu ideals aided by state power. In his view a war-torn world had made room for a pluralistic pax-sanatana of religious truth.
This June 2 address was significant in our domestic context of Hindu-Muslim tensions not only for its enlightened nudge of conversation or law, but for its sensitivity to the broader flashpoint potential in today’s schism. While its Muslim reach pointed to an asymmetry of threats, making clear that the Sangh was not opposed to non-Hindu forms of devotion, it made an implicit promise to support freedom of religion. Living by our constitution at this crucial point will reduce misunderstandings and thus the risk of blowing conch shells by members of a minority group with less political voice.