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How secular is India 70 years after Partition?

As India approaches the 70th anniversary of independence, Owen Bennett Jones is in Delhi with a panel of experts asking if Hindu Nationalism threatens India's secular republic

In 2014 Narendra Modi's BJP returned to power winning a majority in India's parliament. He offered a billion Indians a blend of pro-business economics and a vision of India as primarily a Hindu state. In recent months, Muslims and Dalits - formerly known as untouchables - have been beaten and sometimes killed on suspicion of having slaughtered cows, which are sacred to many Hindus. So as India approaches the 70th anniversary of its independence Owen Bennett Jones is in Delhi to discuss with a panel of experts the BJP's Hindu Nationalism and ask how much of threat is it to India's secular republic.

(Photo by Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images)

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50 minutes

Last on

Sat 5 Aug 2017 11:06GMT

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Contributors

G. V. L. Narasimha Rao - Indian BJP politician

Swapan Dasgupta - Indian journalist and independent politician

Saba Naqvi - Indian journalist and author

Siddharth Varadarajan - Indian writer, editorΒ and academic

Broadcasts

  • Fri 4 Aug 2017 08:06GMT
  • Fri 4 Aug 2017 17:06GMT
  • Fri 4 Aug 2017 23:06GMT
  • Sat 5 Aug 2017 03:06GMT
  • Sat 5 Aug 2017 11:06GMT

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