The Indian constitution declares the country to be a secular state but in practice, the ideology of Hindu nationalism has been in force even during the successive tenures of Congress, the most secular of the Indian political parties. Without any doubt, Hindutva phenomenon is looming large on Indian horizon today. Hindutva, or the Hindu fundamentalism, is at the heart of the genesis of Hindu terrorism. This ideology has been encouraged by successive Indian governments officially and manifests itself in several ugly forms such as dominance of Hindu culture over all others, ethnic violence, religious fervor and hate crimes against Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. Hindu culture today is dominated by the RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena and others such. The provocative utterances of their extremist leaders propagating Hindutva fuels violence against all minority groups of India. -SHUMAILA RAJA, Rawalpindi, via e-mail, August 21.