Before getting into the intricacies of the West Bengal government's decision to change the traditional "Ramdhonu" usage to refer to a rainbow in Bengali to "Rongdhonu", let us remind you something about our country, something you already know, but lately, politicians and public alike, often forget.

Yes, the Preamble of the Constitution of India.

We are a secular country and that is the reason why 125 crore people -- belonging to different religions, regions, income levels, and castes -- live as one entity, India. Not denying the fact that there are many people and organisations that try to impose their belief system on others, but the majority of citizens in India strive to ensure a society that is least disturbed by factors like religion.

RAMDHONU TO RONGDHONU

Now that we have reminded you what we Indians are made of, let us tell you what the West Bengal government under CM Mamata Banerjee has been up to.

People in West Bengal has always used the word "Ramdhonu" to refer to rainbows. The word stands for Lord Ram's bow. The Mamata Banerjee government, in what looked like an attempt to "secularise" the word, and in the name of people belonging to other religions than Hinduism in Bengal, changed "Ramdhonu" to "Rongdhonu" in school textbooks.

Page in Class VII textbook where rainbow is referred to as rongdhonu

While the West Bengal Council for Higher Education say that this is just a routine update, and not a political move, there is outrage on social media against the decision accusing Mamata Banerjee of "cheap appeasement tactics", clearly pointing at how the leader is trying to get the Muslim community on her side.

HOW KICKING OUT RAM IS AGAINST SECULARISM

Despite the fact that neither the West Bengal Council for Higher Education or any West Bengal government has accepted that the change from Ramdhonu to Rongdhonu is to please members of people belonging to other religions, it is an easy guess. But what these officials do not understand is that whoever they are using as a pawn to play "secular" are already secular in every sense of the word. They never had a problem in referring to a rainbow as Ramdhonu, nor will they ever have.

In north India, "Ram Ram" is a greeting used by everyone alike. People not following Hinduism do not think they are praising a revered Hindu figure, because Ramayana and Mahabharata are epics of India, not just Hindus. Instilling the very thought that mentioning Ram's name is offensive for followers of other religions is against the secular fabric of this country.

WHAT LINGUISTS SAY

Linguists feel the word "Rongdhonu" is not something from the Bengali dictionary. "There is no word in Bengali dictionary as 'rongdhonu'. It's Ramdhonu. A correct word should not be replaced with a wrong one in our textbooks as our future will learn wrong or a distorted word due to political fancies. This is nothing but language terror," linguist Rakesh Banerjee told DNA.

"There are linguistic differences between the Muslims and Hindus of Bengal. In an attempt to standardise the language, lot of words have already been compromised and local dialects killed. Now, I don't feel there is any further need to import Bangladeshi words in Indian curricula," linguist Sadhan Das told DNA.

TWITTER REACTS TO RONGDHONU

Twitter users were not amused by this forced move to "secularise" a word. If secularism can be propagated only by replacing the word Ram, Twitterati had a few suggestions to make.

Photo courtesy: Twitter (Atheist_Krishna)

Photo courtesy: Twitter (Atheist_Krishna)

Photo courtesy: Twitter (Atheist_Krishna)

Photo courtesy: Twitter (@sriramBJP)

Photo courtesy: Twitter (Atheist_Krishna)