A Hindu soldier and a Muslim poet show how religious identities overlapped in 19th-century India

(The Conversation) — The growing assertion of a majority Hindu identity is fueling debates about religious pluralism in India. A 2025 Washington-based research group report documented a steady, incremental increase in hate speech since 2023 targeting religious minorities in India, while Human Rights Watch reported a rise in religious and communal violence in 2024. Much of this rhetoric and violence has been justified as defending religious identity.

When India became independent in 1947, its constitution affirmed a commitment to religious diversity and pluralism as a national ideal.

India is one of the world’s most religiously diverse countries. While a majority of its population is Hindu, it is home to the world’s third-largest Muslim population – nearly 172 million . Christians, Sikhs, Jains and many indigenous traditions also form part of its rich religious landscape .

As a scholar of late 18th- and 19th-century India , I have studied everyday writings, military records and diaries from the period. They reveal that India was imagined as a sacred land in different ways. Two accounts illuminate this way of being – the memoirs of a Hindu soldier, born in a small village, and…