The Indian Nobel Prize winning economist, Amartya Sen, has attacked the forces of Hindu cultural nationalism in India.

Addressing thousands of people in his home town of Calcutta, Mr Sen said it was necessary to reject what he called the narrow separatist view of Indian culture encouraged by Hindu nationalists.

Mr Sen -- who teaches at Cambridge University in Britain -- said it was important to reject the vision of Indian culture as a fragile object which would break on contact with outside influences.