Modi and Erdogan

Ataturk and Nehru, heirs to a legacy of liberal secularism, stand in peril of being disowned

Narendra Modi cannot but sympathise with the dilemma Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrives on Sunday, faces. It was evident when Mr Erdogan was jailed in 1998 for “for inciting religious hatred” and “threatening the Kemalist nature of Turkey, especially (its) secularity”. Kemal Ataturk was the founder of modern Turkey, the man who banished religion with the fez and sought to recreate his country in Europe’s liberal image. Jawaharlal Nehru is his closest South Asian counterpart.

“History is bunk,” said Henry Ford. “Cecil B. DeMille rather against his will, was persuaded to leave Moses out of the Wars of the