The first point is this, that we have cleared the ground for establishing a Secular state. I believe that religion as followed in India has always been secular. It may seem contradictory but I shall say that in India we have never followed any person and we have never followed any Book. We have never followed any cult; we have never believed in any ‘ism’. The Vedas and Upanishads all declare that never follow any single person or a Book. Even in the Vedas wherever we find Manthras, holy scripts, we find that any person who has ever visualized any great truth–that manthra goes by his name. We have never been bigots in this country and we have never been fanatics. I may say that people say that Buddhism was turned out of India. I say no–Buddhism as an ‘ism’ only walked out of India but all the good points in Buddhism remain. Animal sacrifice to a great extent had crept in Hinduism. The influence that Buddha left was that animal sacrifice and bigotry disappeared from India. I hope, Sir, that with the march of time, Islam will also walk out of India in the sense that no fanaticism will remain in India, and bigotry will disappear from amongst the Muslims of this country, and so I am happy at the thought that we have laid down the principle that this country will not be governed by any person, religion or cult or any ism at all.
