The Future of India’s Overton Window on Religious Identity
If you’ve ever wondered how certain political or cultural ideas suddenly become “normal” — ideas that once seemed extreme or taboo — you’re thinking about what social scientists call the Overton Window. It’s the range of opinions that society currently considers acceptable. Anything outside it is dismissed as “radical” or “unthinkable.” In India, few subjects illustrate this shift as dramatically as religious identity. From the secular ideal of the 1950s to the openly faith-infused politics of today, the country’s Overton Window has been on a long and fascinating journey. 🇮🇳 From Secular Foundations to Cultural Assertion At independence, India’s founding vision — shaped by Nehru and Ambedkar — placed secularism at its core. Religion was respected, but politics was meant to remain neutral. The idea of mixing faith and statecraft was largely outside the window, associated with the trauma of Partition. By the 1980s and 1990s, this began to change. The Ayodhya movement, media liberalizat...