“Stated differently, Indians want to be both Hindus and Indians, Muslims and Indians, Christians and Indians, and so on. And such hyphenation, says the report, can be extended to linguistic groups and, to some extent, castes as well. Being an Indian is basically a hyphenated identity. There aren’t too many unhyphenated Indians.” (Varshney)
“But India’s hyphenation is not yet structured beyond the possibility of rupture. As many as 65 percent of Hindus believe that to be a true Indian, you have to be a Hindu, and nearly 50 percent believe that to be a true Indian, you have to be both a Hindu and a Hindi speaker. The idea of Hindus or Hindi speakers being equated with India never went this far in modern Indian history.” (Varshney)
“Most Hindus (59%) also link Indian identity with being able to speak Hindi – one of dozens of languages that are widely spoken in India. And these two dimensions of national identity – being able to speak Hindi and being a Hindu – are closely connected.” (Pew Research)
“Scholars argue that the nation is a particularly central contemporary community because it gives form to our everyday lives, even without most of us realizing it: News is communicated through a national lens and in the national language; we learn about the nation’s history, culture, and institutions in school; we support “our” national sports teams, and so on. This makes the nation a stable and coherent object of belonging in a world that many perceive as fragmented and in flux. National attachment therefore provides people with a basic sense of safety.” (Simonsen)