Israeli nationalism is a very dangerous breed of nationalism and India must be on guard against it as it is seeping into the country, Apoorvanand, a professor at the Delhi University, said today.

Apoorvanand's comments were made during a discussion on 'Rasthra aur Dharm' at AajTak's literature festival, Sahitya AajTak, in New Delhi.

To support his argument, Apoorvanand spoke about a recently passed Israeli law that established Israel as a nation state of Jewish people.

Apoorvanand argued that the law essentially placed Jews on a higher pedestal than people of religions. Under the law, Apoorvanand said, a Jew living in any part of the world is recognised as an Israeli.

Apoorvanand made these comments while discussing whether nationalism and patriotism were different concepts.

Apoorvanand quoted French president Emmanuel Macron to essentially argue that nationalism and patriotism were not only different, they clashed with one another.

"The French president recently said that nationalism is the opposite of patriotism... Macron said that nationalism is rising across Europe and the world," Apoorvanand said.

Speaking in a more Indian context, Apoorvanand said that great leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore and Bhagat Singh had all warned against nationalism.

The larger discussion at Sahitya AajTak also involved RSS ideologue professor Sangit Kumar Ragi and writer Sachidananad Joshi.

Ragi, while talking about the topic of the debate, said that when discussing "rashtra" and "dharm" one must understand that a nation can have a way of life but it cannot have a religion.

Ragi suggested that Hinduism is a way of life and said Hindu culture is at the very heart of "Bharat". Hinduism allows for independent thought and multiple identities, and so we have multiple gods, Ragi also said.

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