“It is unfortunate that some people look at the word “Hindu” with a narrow religious connotation,” said the Vice President. “It is unfortunate that some people look at the word “Hindu” with a narrow religious connotation,” said the Vice President.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Saturday said that there are some people who look at “Hindutva” with narrow religious connotations rather than looking at it as a way of living of the people. He was addressing the “India Ideas Conclave 2017” organised by India Foundation in Goa.

He said, “Hamara system ka durbhagya hai ki kucch log “Hindu” mane usko narrow religious connotation me dekhte hai.(It is unfortunate that some people look at the word “Hindu” with a narrow religious connotation).”

“It (Hindu) was a larger identity of way of living of the people of this country for years together,” he added.

“What we have inherited from our ancient times is Bharatiyata. Jisko kucch log Hindutva bhi kehte hai, Indianness kehte hai, isme kisiko aapathi nahi hona chahiye. (What we have inherited from ancient times, some people call it as Hindutva or Indianness. There should not be any objection to it),” Naidu said.

He said that the Indian civilization had managed to survive several onslaughts and was still flourishing. Naidu stated that India had a history of not attacking anybody in the world despite the might of having one-third of the GDP of the world.

“Every Tom, Dick and Harry came and attacked us, ruled us, cheated us. Not only cheated us, but also cheated some of our minds,” he said. Naidu said that there are some people who are not able to come out of that mentality (inferiority) despite several years into freedom.

“I feel really sad about the same. Those people through their education system have put in our mind that they are superior and we are inferior,” he added.

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