Dharma is not the same as religion by Makarand Paranjpe https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/2021/jul/24/dharma-is-not-the-same-as-religion-2334479.html The problem with surveys such as the latest one by Pew is the Abrahamic-modern idea of religion imposed upon a civilisation and country that has no equivalent word for it.
While I agree with Makarand's thesis that "We are a Dharmic, even Yogic, civilisation". I do not agree that " What we are experiencing in India is not a clash of religions as is commonly understood and proclaimed daily in the media, but actually a conflict over different notions of religion."
It is a bit of a stretch to suggest that "What Bhagwat was emphasising was this older, non-Abrahamic and pre-modern idea of Dharma when he said India was a Hindu nation. All Indians are, in this sense, Hindu, whatever be their individual or group ways of worship or ritual obligations. Bhagwat was using "Hindu" in a sense radically different from the Pew Survey"
I dont see that definition being used un the CAA laws for example. In fact Bhagwat keeps saying that those who are Indians need not fear the CAA.. Why cant he say that all those who have so called Indian DNA will be considered India..
to say that "the RSS now occupies the middle ground, representing moderation and reconciliation while "born-again" Hindus adopt more extreme hardline positions." amount to whitewash RSS politics, and distance itself from the realities of Hindu Rashtra mobilisation. Suddenly they are criticising those who claim to be more Hindu than Hindutva!!! precisely because many Hindus are realising how the current dispenstion is taking them for a ride..
Makarand Paranjpe: . https://youtube.com/embed/d-jiLwnlank?start=2139&end=2833 discuss at three levels: the findings, the methodology, the assumptions. Not body has talked about the assumptions behind the questions. We think of the conflict between religions, but we have a conflict of what religion itself means. No definition of what religion is. Religion means different things to different people, at different times. For example belief in Gods, rather than a God. For many in Indian Religion is not so much a matter of belief but of "realisation" /experience.