In the context of recent happenings in the Kashmir valley and the debate in blogosphere on nationalism, identity and history, please read these extracts from “People are the Nation“ by Sh M G Vaidya (emphasis added):
…My question: what was newly created on 15August 1947? A new ‘State’ or a new ‘Nation’?…So, then, what is a ‘nation’?
I quote French thinker Ernest Renan: ‘It is not soil any more than the race which makes a nation…A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things which are really only one go to …

From Buddhists allege NSCN-IM threat (emphasis added):
…“The people in Wangnong and nearby villages (in Arunachal Pradesh) have been passing sleepless nights. They are all Buddhists. An armed militant group belonging to the NSCN(IM) has ordered them to convert to Christianity,” said Ven Aggadhamma, the highest religious leader of the Buddhists in Changlang and Tirap districts.Aggadhamma said that on May 13, a group of armed men came to the village, gathered the village head and other senior members of the village and ordered them to embrace Christianity. “These persons came to …

Some thought-provoking excerpts from Separate truths by Stephen Prothero…OR why is it misleading — and dangerous — to think that religions are different paths to the same wisdom. Pl read on (Note: emphasis is mine).
*** Excerpts from “Separate Truths” by Stephan Prothero ***
…At least since…the 1960s, it has been fashionable to affirm that all religions are beautiful and all are true. This claim…is as odd as it is intriguing. No one argues that different economic systems or political regimes are one and the same. …The same goes for democracy …

Extracts from a thought-provoking interview of Pavan Varma by Kanchan Gupta: (emphasis added):
…“Those who have never been colonised can never really know what it does to the psyche of a people. Those who have been are often not fully aware of — or are unwilling to accept — the degree to which they have been compromised,” he writes in this book. That, in a sense, is the theme of Becoming Indian.
Pavan K Varma:…I must confess I profess a fair degree of anguish at our low threshold of satisfaction and self-congratulation. …

Start this weekend with excerpts from Kashmir: Propagation of Islam and the Terror of the Sufis” by M A Khan (emphasis mine):
How did Islam come to Kashmir?
“It came through the peaceful missionary preaching of the Sufis,” comes the answer.
Sufis have been universally credited with the peaceful propagation of Islam around the world. An Islamic legend tells us that there was a king in Kashmir, at an unknown point in time, who had no religion. One day, he wished to adopt a religion. Both Muslims and Hindus came to convince him. …

I am not a big fan of Ashis Nandy but I found this article thought-provoking. Excerpts from “Unclaimed Baggage Part I and Part II” (emphasis mine):
*** “Unclaimed Baggage” Excerpts Begin ***
…Today, we seem to be back to square one. There are some remarkable similarities between the Partition massacres of 1946-48 and the Gujarat riots. This is a wrong context in which to examine the vicissitudes of the Indian experiment with secularism.
…First of all, I must nervously proclaim that I have nothing to do with the decline of Indian secularism. I …