Cuttack, Aug. 17: Historian and professor of Harvard University Sugata Bose on Wednesday said the 70th year of Independence was an apt occasion to ponder the relations between past and present or the old and new for charting a better tomorrow.

Bose said: "The 70th anniversary of Independence calls for soul searching and introspection."

The Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University was delivering the 5th Bibudhendra Mishra Memorial Lecture at the Convention Centre of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack on Wednesday evening on - A Century of Nationalism (1917-2017).

Bose, the grand nephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, called for a balanced approach towards the ancient Indian view so that "future India becomes much greater than ancient India".

Bose called upon the youth, especially students, to form their own vision of a new India by taking lessons from the past.

He cited the vein of nationalism in the writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and explored the relationship among nation, reason and religion in Indian political thought and practice.

"Netaji wanted a nation that would rise above differences among different groups," he said. "Netaji was the first to successfully unite the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, etc under the Azad Hind Fauz," he said.

Bose underscored the need to draw on our own rich legacy of enlightened political thought and practise how best to forge unity by being respectful of cultural differences.

Bose said religion-based notions of majority and minority pose a challenge for unified nationalism. He said: "No one has the right to say that the country is of the majority community and the minority are just underdogs."

"'No Muslim should ever feel unsafe in India' - these words of Mahatma Gandhi constitute a message for the situation we face today," Bose said. "We need to understand to take pride in our religion without prejudice to other religions," he added.