Madhavan"s post (pkmadhu.rediffiland.com) must be one of the best comment generating posts in the recent times. 31 comments at the last count! And still counting. Can any one beat it?
He has posed a challenge. What is Indian-ness? What holds us all together? What makes us, us - Indians?
Whew! difficult, tough task.

What is Indian-ness?

In his famous book Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance Robert Pirzig talks of quality - "I do not know how to define it. But I know it when I see it".
That probably is the closest approximation to the definition of Indian-ness.
Obviously Hinduism is not the defining factor in this game. Hinduism is a major religion but not the sole religion. In any case Hinduism is not one monolithic entity. In fact is just as difficult to define it as is Indian-ness. A Malayali Hindu has nothing much in common with a Punjabi Hindu, save a few mythological characters to fall back on.
Is Hinduism truly Indian? I mean the Vedic Hinduism?.

If one were to believe the conventional historians or archaeologists Vedic people migrated from beyond the Hindukush into the Indo Gangetic plains and brought Vedic ideas with them. Hinduism became a dominant religion only during the last hundred or so centuries. Till then India was predominantly a Buddhists and jain country. India probably has/had the largest number of agnostics in this world too. Islam too came to India, like Vedic Hinduism, from out side. Clearly religion is not the defining factor.

In fact several things that we take for granted as purely Indian in essence, did not originate here in this land. Take for example potatoes. It was brought to us by the Europeans, from south America, just as was chilly and cashew nuts. But we cannot think of an Indian cuisine without potato. Can any one imagine alu-paranta without potatoes?
In the same way Islam too is Indian. India without Islam would be Alu paranta without aloo
How ever much they are Indian, Hinduism or Islam or potatoes or chilies or cashew nuts do not make India, India.

My good friend Rama Varma migrated to US and is an American citizen. But that does not make him any less Indian. His son who was born in US, works in Microsoft, does not talk one word of Malayalam and probably hates India is till an Indian! But African Americans who are originally from Africa are not Africans any more.

While I was thinking of something uniquely Indian, my wife called out to announce dinner.
"What is cooking?" I asked.
"Chicken curry" she shouted from the kitchen.
"If you do not hurry there will be no chappthies left for you" She added.

My sons love chappathies, especially with chicken curry. Rama Varma in Oklahoma loves chicken curry and chappathies as does his American son in Seattle.
Sidhan loves chappathy and dhal curry with putheena leaves in it. Radhakrishnan like chappathies with onions and chilies.

We Indians love chappathies. It is uniquely Indian. It is not a Punjabi dish, it is an Indian dish. Tamilian who hates Hindi loves chappathy.
Of course there are variations of chappathy all over India but they are still chappathies.

That is it. Chappathy defines us.