Our Culture & Heritage:
Bharat is one of the only two civilizations of the world that have a continuous and uninterrupted history of several millenniums. The other is China. Bhartiya Civilisation history in its current cycle of time, the kali yuga can be traced to more than 5000 years ago, both through modern archaeological techniques and through our own itihasas and puranas. There have been other civilisations of the world that originated in that early phase of current human history, but none of these, except the Chinese has survived to the modern day. Life and society in Bharat have undergone several changes in this long period of time. Yet, in very, real, essential and identifiable sense, life in Bharat continues to be defined and guided by the ideas, principles and preferences that were evolved at a very early stage. These basic ideas, principles and preferences defining Bhartiya civilisation are collectively known as “sanatan dharma”.
Scholars and foreign historians have often wondered at the extraordinary civilisation homogeneity that pervades throughout all parts of the country, in spite of the great geographic, cultural and linguistic diversity of the land. This homogeneity is anchored in “Sanatan dharma”. And at the core of “Sanatan Dharma” is the idea that all creation is a manifestation of the divine, and therefore every aspect of creation, all the diversity in nature and human life and society, must be respected and carefully nurtured. The essence of this dharma as mentioned and compared by Sri Aurobindo as synonymous with “nationalism”.
Bharat is blessed with natural abundance that is not found almost anywhere else in the world. Early twentieth century geographers of the colonial empire used to refer to every aspect of Bharat in superlative terms. This is the most hopeful fact about Bharat; unfortunately, we have tended to forget about this even fundamental truth.
Bharat is blessed with an extraordinarily compact geography; three fifths of the Bhartiya land is cultivable, else where in the world regions where one fifth of the land can be cultivated are considered highly valuable, at least in terms of agriculture. Of the cultivable area of Bharat, more than two-fifths falls in Sindhu-Ganga plains. The vast plain, extending over 3,000 kilometres in length and 250 to 400 kilometres in width, is the largest expanse of fertile land in the world in the world. The plain is formed of the Himalayan alluvium brought by the Sindhu and the Ganga over several millennia; the average depth of alluvium in this plain is estimated to be 1,300 to 1,400 meters. Alluvial soil reaching up to such depths is un- imaginable anywhere else in the world.
The heartland of Bharat is thus literally born of the Ganga. There are other rivers in the world, though not many, which flow over a distance longer than the Ganga, or which carry more water or more slit. But there is no river in the world that equals Ganga in her life-giving bounty. From the north to the south, every part of Bharat is traversed by some great river or the other, and each with its own magnitude give rise to and support the great civilisation on its own. In addition to fertile soil and fertilising rivers, Bharat is blessed with abundant rains and sunshine, the essential conditions for the growth of plants and life in all its varied forms. Average rainfall in Bharat amounts to 105 cm, which is the largest anywhere in the world for a country of comparable size.
Blessed with land of unusual natural endowments, the people of the Bharat have, over several millennia, developed extraordinary high and sophisticated skills to convert the nature’s bounty into abundant food and great material wealth. It has been rigorously established that unto at least the nineteenth century, skills of the nation in fields like agriculture, irrigation, metallurgy, textiles and medicines were surpassed anywhere else in the world. Such is the geography, collective ecology of the people inheriting this land that it can rise to its rich glory, unyielding in its efforts to collective being called the civilisation cradle of the world.
Our cultural ideology has its roots in sprit of our ancient civilization. The embodiment of internal values being enshrined in the concept of universal peace and universal family “vasudheva kutumbakam” the value being derived from “lok samasta sukhina bahanvantu”. This cultural heritage being central to all religions and languages is a civilisation identity and constitutes the cultural nationalism of Bharat propagated by Swami Vivekananda, Dayanand Saraswati and Sri Aurobindo, being the core of the Hindutva ideology.
Hindutva, more meaningful as “Hinduism” or “Hinduness” as way of life and not confined to the blocks of religion alone, sustains the thought of cultural aspect of being inclusive and that of inclusiveness, holding sacred all forms of belied and worship.
The contours of “Hinduness”being;.respect to all modes of worship, there is one and the same consciousness in all animate and inanimate beings, there is nothing like inferior or superior being therefore egalitarianism is Hinduism. Man is not a conqueror of nature but a part of nature and therefore, an eco-friendly economy is what Hindutva proposes. Because of the special quality of motherhood, women have a special respect in the public welfare society. The purpose of life does not end in eating, making merry and dying, but transcends that and finally, there is the nonmaterial value of pursuing a goal, even if it may be endless.
Even after having obtained independence from the imperial rule, the nation has yet to come to terms of its fullest potential with inspiration from our this rich cultural heritage and civilisation, our belief system, our principles and our “Hindu” religion. And time now has come to impregnate the nationalist thought with more rigor for immense possibilities, without failing to undertake a concerted effort, involving all our resources and all our people capital to quickly restore Bharat to her rightful glory.
Such coming together of our people of Bharat has necessarily to take place through a reassertion of the essential aspect of our ancient cultural, economical, political and religious consciousness. Any movement for national re-awakening shall have to build on these pillars of aspects and symbols and the task therefore is thrust upon us to set the direction and awaken the spirit with determination and the set the nation on the move.
Need for a Nationalist renaissance:
Post six decades of independence, we have either lost or are still searching for own national identity. Despite our imperishable heritage we continue to raise ourselves to be measured by prosperity or less malaise of the developed world. We continue to raise ourselves from a third world definition to a second world, as achievement and that is where we have kept our focus on with competing not with the world but inwardly developing a mind set of competing with ourselves.
All these years. We conveniently forgot that when these inhabitants of developed leagues were yet to come to terms of community living and even collective living as colonies, Bharat already had multi-tier governance existing complete with revenue, taxation and civic laws systems and it was this intellectual prosperity and wealth which attracted both saints and sinners to explore the marvel of a nation called Bharat. Sadly but true after all these decades we are yet to regain the conformity of a developed country and although the nation has come to imbibe the perception of having started a journey to a possibility of upheaval, the ambiguity is surpassed by the existing absence of a pride in our cultural and moral sovereignty.
The tone of our nationalistic temperament is at its all time low. We pride ourselves as the largest democratic nations of the world, yet we find this without meritocracy. Rampant corruption, dishonesty has replaced the essence of what could have been achieved by democracy and its pillars. Policies naturally flowing out of these systems laced with this malaise resultantly produce development which starts to limp from its birth and continue to be run forever as orphans between all of them without any accountability for national interests. The political parties considered to be the guardians of democracy have all these decades mastered this art of not owing responsibility and shifting of accountability with perpetual ease. The democratic contest every five years is not on ideology of who has the moral fibre of keeping the nation first but on finding audience of who could possibly deceit the nation, first with these mastered tricks.
This including the longest tenure of Congress, and now United Progressive Alliance (UPA ) or Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and its allies, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who on every possible opportunity decided to have turns and compete with its best ability to let go of the principles of polity, probity of serving the masses, people at large to choose over their own agenda’s of serving the parties interest first, its members and privileged commune the next and leftovers for the people who repose their faith each time through the enshrined democratic process to make believe the unsurpassed end to their miseries, depriving further the singular right of living served constantly on pseudo plank of governance, as absolute last.
The nation yet remains counted as among the backward countries with another few decades of motion needed to arrive with the world. Even despite the principled stand of leading the nation, we stand at the dawn of new millennium with upwards of 260 million people still not having sufficient income to access the consumption basket remaining below poverty estimates. Our leading developing states being compared with Uganda, Congo, and Chad on Human Development Index. As huge as 27.5 percent of people officially classified under the below the poverty line, with almost upwards of a quarter of this group sustaining on less than 20 Rs a day, further classified as being mentioned as chronically poor.
Out of the entire population of close to 1 bn, 296 Mn people are illiterate and 233 million people are undernourished, particularly children under the age of 3 years. Appalling circumstances of poverty coupled with socio economic problems have failed these political experiments only to gain political ruling power at all cost as the sole motive leaving to bleed the nation as if , at its own volition.
The Constitutional right of “state to protect those, who can not protect themselves” as a simplistic way to read and lay allegiance to the pre-amble of the Constitution, the state and its pillars of democracy, the legislature and executive (more) and judiciary (fortunately less) have instead been forced to co-opt the political constitution of their respective parties and blind folded bequeathing to now the globalisation tirade of capitalist formations of USA’s and Europe’s of the world, in the garb of WTO negotiations or World Bank Agenda politics of governance.
Both, the present UPA dispensation and erstwhile NDA regime, as BJP have exploited the nation, its resources, people and their right of sustenance with impunity by there pro-capitalist, pro – WTO approach. Whether it would be the UPA regime acquiring vast tracts of fertile multi-crop agrarian land demonstrating the capitalist model of increased consumption by substituting land reforms and needed protection over larger national interest of agriculture contribution as percentage of GDP over formation of Industrial zones, SEZ, FTZ polices to attract FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) and yet taking pride of service contribution replacing the agriculture input as minor partner in still agriculture dependent economy of the country, Or the NDA regime coming out with plastered white washed version of one urban wall and announcing the entire home, the country to be “shining” and remaining that way; and further to secure this as a impressive electoral achievement to “rule” once again.
This when close to 175,000 farmers committed suicide in the country? The only achievement of these political parties post there turns of being monarchs has seen the country now standing divided between the have’s and the have nots, as being generally proscribed in their governance documents, as India and Bharat.
The nation, its nationalism, serving not more than decked conversations of capitalist’s monarchies in their Pro-Bharat documents.
We had been forewarned of these dangers several decades ago by Guru Shri Rabindra Nath Tagore, thus, “ We have for over a century been dragged by the prosperous west behind its chariot, choked by the dust, deafened by the noise, humbled by our own helplessness and overwhelmed by the speed. We choose to agree that this chariot drive was progress, and the progress was civilization. If we ever ventured to ask “progress” towards what, and progress for whom”, it was considered to be peculiarly and ridiculously backward to entertain such ideas about the absoluteness of progress. Of late, a voice has come to us to take count not only of the scientific perfection of the chariot but of the depth of the “ditches” lying in its path”. Yet these ditches despite the direction are not seen.
This has been so true for state monarchs as well, the CPI, CPI (M) who considered the champions of the proletariat, peasants, marginalised farmers and labours dumped them with Engel’s and Marx favouring disgraced organizations in there own countries and returning the electorate favour as Nadigram and Singur. This continued with backwards mobilisation of class displacement as a cause over three decades with singular objective of ruling the masses and creating an egalitarian regime by ‘investing” people state’s interest in 4,000 crores of dubious innumerous projects, including several injunctions of judiciary over mass flouting of environmental blunders and cult formation by installing statue’s and yet taking pride of “Bhaujan hitaye, Bahujan sukhaiye” as Bahujan Samaj Party.
This unabated over democratic principles and issues of genuine governance across the length and breadth of the country with various political formations as faded remembrance to convenient nationalism with immuned flexibility, at best utmost convenience. The nation seems to be long forgotten and attempts of sycophancy to lay open the siege of this nation even to a foreigner as continuation of surrogate dynastic polices as proven itself the decay which has come to roost our struggle to achieve democracy. Polity which was a means for voluntary service to the nation and having produced sterling leadership of this nation which has this developed world taking inspiration and yet not forcing this as any convoluted ideology of any “ism” has a new yardstick of qualification to participate.
The more corrupt and more criminal injunctions with severity the better chances of winnability and allocation of governance to satiate this greed of power. Not surprising even in the last concluded democratic participation, each political formation, every political formation succumbed by choice to not to loose the allure of power by offering them as candidates to the electorate, increasing them by a collective 17.2% in comparison to last in 2004. The choice of electorate to choose their representative not on the basis of this “voluntary” nationalistic service but to choose the lesser of them corrupt over others, coming further closer to at best but a sham, which otherwise was a right for genuine constitutional representation.
It is proven now that these political parties can not be trusted to rejuvenate the nationalist pride and a movement of nation first, needs to be brought to the fore within the masses. The ideologies of these parties have left nothing but to peril the glory achieved of the nation at expense of common man. This love for Capitalism, WTO’ism now needs to be replaced by core nationalism with absolute focus on Pro-Bharat, Pro-Poor ideology of nation first and people first movement. This needs all the concerned to come forward making a clarion call for much needed Nationalistic temprement as an invincible power to dispose these pro western powers, putting in place a more stronger alternative politico policies of governance by putting the common man and his ecology in the core of this set up.
This top down pyramid which forces the common person, the last man on the socio economic ladder to constantly look up within this democratic system to vehemently oppose this and allow him to question and at best to reverse this by turning this upside down by active dialogue, concurrence, and participation to strengthen this democratic process of rightful activism.
(to be continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment