“Nautanki is like a coalition government. It’s democracy itself- a coalition of all kinds of people. When we do things as a community we learn that the other person is not an alien. They are just like us,” says Devendra Sharma, a Nautanki theatre artist and Professor at California State University. No divide can exist in the popular performance traditions of our country, because everyone creates these forms of art together. 

Mumbai’s Mahim Dargah has a special relationship with communal harmony, humanitarian values and above all the country’s Constitution. From hosting inter-faith communities and events, to hoisting the Tricolor at the Dargah to installing the Preamble at the premises, a first for any place of worship in India, Mahim Dargah is doing its bit as a platform to promote peace and reshape India into the India of the dreams of our founding fathers. And so is the rest of the country. Isn’t what we want, really that kind of a country?