The two-nation theory (Urdu: دوقومی نظریہ — Dō-qaumī naẓariyaa, Devanagari: दो-क़ौमी नज़रिया, Hindi: द्वि-राष्ट्र सिद्धान्त - Dvi-rashtra siddhanta, Bengali: দ্বিজাতি তত্ত্ব — Dijati totto) is the ideology that the primary identity and unifying denominator of Muslims in the South Asian subcontinent is their religion, rather than their language or ethnicity, and therefore Indian Hindus and Muslims are two distinct nations, regardless of ethnic or other commonalities.