Sharda Lal
Whatever may be the political mission and whatever may be the provocation, no state or central government should have the freedom to fiddle with the lives, property and honour of its citizens. The politicians in general, in their lust for power, have tended to exploit the sentiments of the people, but it is for the judiciary and the law enforcement agencies in a democratic system, from top to bottom, to legally and effectively ensure that the life and honour of each and every person is protected in every case. The leaders of this country must understand that the geographical and cultural diversity is the wealth and strength of India and they must honour and protect it. It shall remain in the interest of health of this country that all the incumbent Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister of India and also those who shall occupy their respective chairs any time in future, learn to have fraternal feelings amongst themselves. The leaders from the level of panchayat and corporation up to the level of the Parliament can’t ignore their responsibility either.
Again and again, reference needs to be drawn to the introductory speech of Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of the World’s Religions from 11 to 27 September in Chicago. In his introductory speech during the Parliament on 11 September 1893, he had declared that no religion was superior or inferior to another. During a series of his lectures there, he was candid in saying on 20 September 1983 that it was food and not religion which was the crying need of India. He observed, “In India, during the terrible famines, thousands died from hunger, yet you Christians did nothing. You erect churches all through India, but the crying evil in the East is not religion — they have religion enough — but it is bread that the suffering millions of burning India cry out for with parched throats….You Christians, who are so fond of sending out missionaries to save the soul of the heathen — why do you not try to save their bodies from starvation?”
Obviously, the Swamiji must have had in his mind the multitude of indigenous cultures, customs, traditions and faiths, collectively called religion that existed in India. Today, amidst the fierce struggle against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, Swamiji if alive would have similarly addressed to all the religions of the world instead of addressing to the Christians only which he did at that time. He would have admonished all the governments for their callous and mutually antagonistic attitudes. He would have advised to postpone all religious congregations and political activities and asked the governments to concentrate solely on the real dharma of the moment i.e. meeting the health and food requirements of all in such a lethal pandemic.
It needs to be understood clearly by one and all that for thousands of years the geographical region to the south of the Himalayas has remained a cohesive and a vivacious entity, not due to any military power or politicians, but due to the faith of her common masses in the great saints, philosophers and social reformers like Mahatma Buddha, Adi Shankracharya, Guru Nanak, Ramakrishna Paramhansa and so many others. These great incarnated souls and their followers travelled freely from one end of this big land mass to the other and established a sense of unity and personal connect with the rural, urban and tribal populations and even with the forest dwellers through their works and goodwill messages.
In contrast to the politicized religions, including the so called Hindu religion of modern era, different indigenous faiths and traditions of India continued to play a great unifying role since times immemorial. The congregations, fairs, festivals, rituals, etc. being held regularly and periodically at the four Sangams (confluence of two or three different rivers at Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik, Ujjain); four dhams (at Badri Nath, Dwarka, Jagannath Puri and Rameshwaram), twelve Jyotirlings (Somnath, Mallikarjuna, Mahakal, Omkareshwar, Baidyanath, Bhimashankar, Ramalingeswarar, Nageshwara, Kashi Vishwanath, Trayambakeshwar, Kedarnath, Ghrishneshwar ); five Takhats (Akal Takht Sahib, Shri Damdama Sahib, Shri Keshgarh Sahib, Shri Hazur Sahib and Shri Patna Sahib); eighteen Shaktipeeths (most of these historic places of Goddess worship are in present day India, seven in Bangladesh, three in Pakistan, three in Nepal and one each in China and Sri Lanka); four to eight main Buddhist pilgrimage sites; numerous Jain pilgrimage centres; besides thirteen akharas, Tirupati Balaji Temple, shrines of Mata Vaishno Deviji, Amarnath Swami ji; sacred water bodies at Kurukshetra (Haryana), Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) and Universities of Takshila, Vikramshila, Nalanda etc. located in different directions kept the people of different regions and sub-regions moving and settling down for education, participation in debates, discussions, seminars, interfaces, conferences, etc. to attain personal enlightenment, God realization and material development. These discourses, consciously and sub-consciously aroused amongst the hearts of the people here, the essence of India that became manifested through the vision for ‘Akhand Bharat – the Seamless India’.
The rulers of the times rarely imposed any restrictions on movement and settlement of common people in any part of the land and most of the restrictions were self imposed. The above referred sacrosanct seats of experience sharing, learning and cultural exchange facilitated preservation and continuation of intra-national, inter-regional and inter-sub regional distinctiveness and discourse too. The ethnic distinctiveness of the Bhotiyas, Kashmiris, Dogras, Punjabis, Sindhis, Gujaratis, Marathas, Konkanis, Malayalis, Tamils, Telugus, Poorvanchalis, Bengalis, Gorkhas, Nagas, etc. remained preserved and strong, more by the age old traditions and customs propagated and acknowledged by these hereditary pilgrim centres rather than by any statutory provisions.
The local hereditary rajas and maharajas and occasionally some of their estranged courtiers, subjects and rivals would indulge in wars for supremacy against each other, but with little threat to indigenous culture, traditions and faiths. No doubt, these egoistic and powerful war-lords, varying in number from time to time, cared much for their vested interests only. Expansion of power remained their priority, forgetting that humane values had the greatest binding force, but most of them, barring a few exemplary exceptions, continued to remaining engaged in internecine wars for most of the time and paid very little attention to public welfare measures.
Towards the beginning of the eighth century C.E., the invasions from the west and the north-west by Mohd.-bin-Qasim followed by ruthless expeditions by Mohd. Ghazni towards the end of eleventh century C.E. introduced to the people of Akhand Bharat, a political system that essentially contained a religion which was alien to them. The progress of this alien political religion gradually enslaved, decimated or banished the indigenous rajas and the maharajas one by one and from the later part of the 12th century C.E. up to the eighteenth century C.E. the Islamic rule, with Delhi as the centre of power, left the Akhand Bharat bleeding through the sharp religio-political divisions inflicted upon her.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century C.E. the British East India Company (EIC) established its foothold in India and uprooted the Islamic Mughal Empire. In 1858, the power was transferred to the British Crown by the EIC following the debacle of Indian warriors in their first war of Independence in 1857. Most of the historians don’t agree, but the fact remains that Muslims aspired for revival of the Mughal Empire while the Hindu rulers desired restoration of the authority for their respective kingdoms. Most of the titular rajas, maharajas and nawabs remained contented basking in the glory conferred upon them by the British Crown through gun-salutes, pensions, titles and jagirs. Simultaneously, the religio-political divisions within Akhand Bharat continued to cause deeper wounds.
Sagacious historians do concede that during the period of continued struggle for Indian Independence, popularized amongst the common masses by Mahatma Gandhi, there was a growing realization that over the centuries even the alien Muslims and Christians had become indigenized. So, they understood that the indigenous culture, traditions and religious faiths would remain protected and safe only if the region towards the south of the Himalayas remained politically united. The ancient cultural and social space of Akhand Bharat was therefore stitched together with great sacrifices through the martyrdom of the likes of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru and Ashfaqulla Khan.
Sadder it is though that some ambitious politicians in India, particularly towards the end of the British rule and after the British had left this land, spared no effort in dividing and sub-dividing this holy land over the bodies of saintly leaders. Bharat was sharply divided into the two political nations, India and Pakistan on 15 August 1947, with blood spluttered and honour shamed all around. Bangladesh couldn’t remain within the fold of its co-religionist Pakistan for long and after a big blood bath, got separated in 1971. Indian secularism and tolerance became enviable however; and Sikkim – a small protectorate of India, became its integral part in 1975.
Unfortunate it is now that most of the politicians in almost all the identifiable camps have again stepped into the shoes of their earlier predecessors to draw not only the non-permeable geographical boundaries, but also to divide the hearts and the minds of the people.
History however needs to be narrated and read time and again to teach and learn lessons for betterment of the polity and the society; and it should be taken in that spirit. The leaders and commoners of this great nation must always remember the proverb ‘even a worm will turn’ while anticipating the reaction of an individual to the aggressive behavior of the other; it may be from within the country or outside.
During the campaigning for J&K State Assembly elections in 1977, the unkind remarks of Babu Jagjivan Ram about the age and health of late Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had raised the ire of Kashmiri voters and turned the tables against the then Janata Party alliance at the eleventh hour. The Sheikh had retaliated by issuing a statement from his bed – he was then recuperating from a massive heart attack – that he need hardly remind Babuji of his own.
Similarly, late Rajiv Gandhi, the then General Secretary of Congress Party who had arrived at Hyderabad’s Begumpet airport in 1982 for a private visit, had reportedly rebuked the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister T. Anjaiah of the Congress in public for bringing a large number of party men to the airport tarmac and called him a “buffoon”. In reaction to this insult of his native state’s “Chief Minister” the legendary actor NT Rama Rao had left films and decided to start the Telugu Desam Party to save “Telugu pride”. Subsequently, Congress in the State couldn’t return to its old heights again though it was elected to power on a couple of occasions.
The hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated reference to Trin-Mool Congress (TMC) veteran Mamta Banerjee, the Chief Ministerial candidate during the West Bengal State Assembly Elections – 2021 as “Didi! O Didi…” in a sarcastic tone doesn’t augur well for a healthy public debate. Mocking at the ‘injured’ leader during the campaign at Nandigram has done the same blunder. The Hindi verse of Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana needs to be remembered in such situations wherein he says that forgiveness is the trait of the elderly. He reminds that the younger ones do make a mistake, but excusing the younger ones raises the stature of the elderly just as the grace of Lord Vishnu while the honour of Sage Bhrigu didn’t get enhanced when he kicked the Lord in His Chest (from Rahim ke Dohe).
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