Travel to the remotest corners of India, and you will find things that are linked to our epics and scriptures. The Pandavas are said to have taken refuge in so many places one visits. Or that Bhim, Arjun, or Ramchandra came there. So many habitations are named after our sages and saints. . . . When we speak of the unity of India, we do not really China may be defined by a certain political unity, but India is marked on the other hand by a cultural unity. In the past, what we now know as India was never under a single state or political unit. This was not the case in the time of the Mauryas or of the Guptas. . . . However, Nagaland was never part of this broader Indian culture. Call it a misfortune or an 'accident of history'!
[In India’s Nagaland state, there is an insurgency driven by the idea of a Maoist Christian nation-state. The Naga separatist guerillas declared in their manifesto:] The sovereign existence of our country, the salvation of our people in socialism with their spiritual salvation in Christ, are unquestionable. . . . We stand for socialism. . . . We stand for faith in God and the salvation of mankind in Jesus, the Christ, alone, that is, ‘Nagaland for Christ’. . . . We rule out the illusion of saving Nagaland through peaceful means. It is arms and arms alone that will save our nation.
Freston, Paul. Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Cambridge University Press, 2004 quoted fromMalhotra, R., Nīlakantan, A. (2011).Breaking India: Western interventions in Dravidian and Dalit faultlines
