Ramdev said followers of different religions shared common ancestry and argued that the concept of a Hindu nation should not cause apprehension among minority communities. He maintained that Muslims and Christians were safe in the country and free to follow their religious customs.
Speaking at a programme in Delhi marking the 84th Prakatya Mahotsav of Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Nischalanand Saraswati, the 60-year-old yoga exponent recalled addressing members of the Muslim community during a visit to the Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband in 2009. He said he had told them that religious identities might differ but their ancestors were the same.
Ramdev described those ancestors as followers of the Sanatani Hindu Arya-Vedic tradition and urged Muslims to embrace what he called the customs and traditions of their forefathers. He said people would remain free to observe their own faith and modes of worship under the political and cultural framework he advocated.
The remarks drew criticism from the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, whose representatives argued that the Constitution, rather than a religious identity, defined the character of the republic.
Congress leader Salman Khurshid questioned the logic of claiming that every citizen belonged to the same Sanatani tradition while political and social divisions continued to be created along religious lines. He said those promoting the Hindu Rashtra formulation should explain its purpose and the context in which it was being advanced.
Congress MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh adopted a more qualified position. He agreed that most citizens were not outsiders and said religious conversions had occurred over several centuries. He did not, however, endorse replacing the country’s constitutional identity with a religious description.
AIMIM spokesperson Waris Pathan said Muslims did not live in fear and warned against interpreting restraint as weakness. He stressed that the country was governed under the Constitution and had not been proclaimed a Hindu Rashtra. He asked Ramdev to avoid language that could sharpen communal divisions.
Samajwadi Party leader Fakhrul Hasan Chand accused Ramdev and organisations sympathetic to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of diverting attention from unemployment, inflation and other public concerns by repeatedly raising religious questions. He said citizens should be allowed to decide their faith and cultural practices without political interference.
Muslim religious figures also rejected the suggestion that their community needed reassurance from advocates of a Hindu nation. Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and imam of the Lucknow Eidgah, said religious leaders carried a responsibility to promote harmony, affection and mutual respect.
He said Muslims feared no individual and placed their faith in Allah. He also urged public figures to avoid religious polarisation at a time when administrative actions involving madrasas and places of worship had generated concern within sections of the community.
Shia cleric Saif Abbas said every citizen possessed the constitutional right to follow and practise a religion of their choice. He argued that religious leaders should not make statements capable of weakening social unity or suggesting that one faith had a superior political claim.
All India Shia Personal Law Board general secretary Yasoob Abbas called for messages that brought communities together. Religious affiliation should not prevent leaders from promoting unity and brotherhood, he said.
The dispute reflects a longstanding political divide over the term Hindu Rashtra. Its supporters often present it as a civilisational concept that does not require restrictions on minority faiths. Critics contend that identifying the state with the religion of the majority would undermine constitutional guarantees of equality and religious freedom.
The Constitution describes the country as a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic. It guarantees freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and health.
Darul Uloom Deoband, founded in Uttar Pradesh in 1866, occupies an influential position in Islamic scholarship. Leading Deobandi scholars participated in the independence movement and supported composite nationalism, arguing that Hindus and Muslims could constitute one nation despite following separate religions.
