An enduring puzzle in world affairs is the failure to impress upon nationalistically inflamed consciousness the enormous disparity between the goals envisioned, the means used, the results achieved and the price paid.
Some of the most ardent nationalists do some of the gravest damage to their imagined nations. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi threatens to become the latest to make the same tragic mistake.
India represents the most successful example in history of managing the challenge of unity in diversity through a dynamic formula of power sharing and accommodation. This success lies in the three core features of the country's constitutional structure: democracy, federalism and secularism.