AKHANDA BHARATA AND HINDU RASHTRA

via SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN published on March 25, 2007

AKHANDA BHARATA AND HINDU RASHTRA


SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN


Founder & Spiritual Head, Sri Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram &Yogi Ramsuratkumar Indological Research Centre,


Sister Nivedita Academy,


Sri Bharatamata MandirSrinivasanagar,


Krishnarajapuram,


 BANGALORE 560 036


 Email: [email protected];


Phone: 080-25610935 /25613716, Cell: 09448275935






“Ay, when a man has begun to hate himself, then the last blow has come. When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors. I am proud to call myself a Hindu. I am proud that I am one of your worthy servants. I am proud that I am a countryman of yours, you the descendents of the sages, you the descendents of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw. Therefore, have faith in yourself, be proud of your ancestors, instead of being ashamed of them.”
This was the lash that Swami Vivekananda’s whip delivered on the back of those spineless Hindus who shied to call themselves Hindus.


 


There is a story that a Brahmin was taking a calf, which he received as gift, to his home. Some thieves, who wanted to deprive him of his possession, planned among themselves and followed him. One by one, they approached the Brahmin on the way and asked him where he was dragging the ‘dog’. The Brahmin got confused and started thinking that what was given to him was after all a ‘dog’ and not a ‘calf’ and, in disgust, left his possession and walked away. The thieves usurped the calf and made a meal of it.


Sri V. Sundaram, IAS (Retd.), wrote an article titled “Ushering A Renascent Hindu Dharma” in The News Today, reporting in detail about the recent World Hindu Conference (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) at Prayag on the occasion of Kumbh Mela. He wrote about the address of the VHP World President, Sri Ashok Singhal:


“Speaking at the meet, VHP president Ashok Singhal regretted the fact that despite 60 years of independence, India had not been able to proclaim itself as ‘BHARAT’, the constitutionally approved name, to the world. He called upon the participating delegates to protect the glory and honour of the name….


“He also declared that the destiny of the country lay in the unification of Pakistan and Bangladesh as they were once a part of India. Shri Ashok Singhal roared that Pakistan and Bangladesh are the enslaved parts of the Hindu nation and have to be liberated. He recalled the forecast made by Maharshi Aurobindo that the partition of the country was un-natural and it was the destiny of the nation to reunite. The aim of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is to bring lasting peace and create a crime-free society….


“He said that the present UPA government is basically anti-Hindu and is indulging in anti-national activities by appeasing Muslims. If the hundred crore Hindus of Bharat have to live with dignity, installation of pro-Hindu government is an urgent necessity. Against this background Shri Ashok Singhal declared that the future political agenda of the nation has to be the reinstatement of a Hindu nation….


“Hinduism must also realize that it is not just a community in competition with other communities, but that it is a nation and a civilization which has a great role to play in the world. It must work on this larger self-definition and assert their larger self-identification. No lesser definition will do.”


Commenting on the article, a NRI from United States has made the following remarks:


“My personal opinion is that Akhand Bharat (in the sense of forced unification of former Hindu lands) and Hindu Rashtra (in the sense of theocratic Hindu state) are extremist positions. I’d rather advocate Dharma Bharat and Dharma Rashtra within a democratic framework….


 


“Regarding ‘Hindu Rashtra’, I’m all for a democratic nation based on pluralistic Hindu ethos and values, but not for a theocratic Hindu state which is the popular interpretation of the term on the net….



“From a public relations perspective, these are not good terms to use and that is the reason that I prefer Dharma Bharat and Dharma Rashtra.”


 


The position of the NRI is that of the confused Brahmin in the story narrated above. He thinks that Hinduism is a ‘religion’ like Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc.


 Hinduism is not the name of a religion, but it is, since times immemorial, the name of the nationality of Bharatavarsha. It is also the name of our national existence—our way of life—the Rashtra Dharma—on the firm foundation of which the unity and integrity of this most ancient nation was established. Though this country consisted of various types of kingdoms—swaraajyam, bhaujyam, paarameshthyam raajyam—the whole country was one nation from the snow clad Himalayas to the three seas surrounding it—prithivyaa samudraparyantaayaa eka raat as Chanakya declares in his Arthashaastra.


Those who invaded this land wanted to destroy this national existence, which was known as Hindu Dharma, so that they could devour the various kingdoms constituting this nation. Therefore, their prime target was the Hindu way of life. They knew well that the national existence was built on the highest spiritual ideals evolved by the various sages and seers which manifested in the religions practiced in this land and they were determined to exterminate each and every religious Sampradaya or creed that had sprung up in Bharat and all the temples and spiritual centers of the Hindus which were the symbols of Hindu nationalism. They called the various religious systems that had emerged in this land by the collective name of ‘Hindu religion’, because all of them had evolved in this geographical territory known as the land of Hindus or Hindustan. For more than five thousand years, this land of Bharatavarsha has been known as Hindustan.


Ved Mehta in “Portrait of India” says, “The word Hindu was first used by the Persians who invaded the North West India in the 6th century B.C., and they applied it to the Sanskrit speaking people they found living by the Indus River, which in Sanskrit is called the Sindhu and which the Persians called Hindu”.


 


Prof. Steingas, in his “Persian English Dictionary“, has given the meaning of the word ‘Hindu’ as ‘thief’, etc. ‘Hindu’ In the Persian literature, is the name of that Arabian lady who had been an instrument in murdering Hazarat Amir Hamza. She was a terror in Arabia in her time and her name got incorporated as a word in Persian connoting, “a thief, a dacoit, a looter, a servant, a slave, a khidmautgar, a Blackman, a group of men and sometimes, a beloved”.


However, in “Lugati Farsi“, a standard and authoritative dictionary on Persian literature, published by Lala Ram Narayan Bini Madho, Allahabad, the words, ‘Hind, Hindu, Hindwas” and “Hindi” are found. There is no derogatory meaning and the meaning of the word ‘Hind’ is given as follows: “Hind—attributed to India, name of a famous country Hind or known as also Hindustan, Indian, pertaining to India, inhabitants of India”.


English, Persian and Arabic Dictionary ” by Richardson F.S.A. gives the meaning of the word Hindu as follows: “Hindoo—People of Hind, Hindu. Hindoostan—Country of India, Hindustan”. “


The larger English Persian Dictionary” by S. Haim describes ‘Hindu’ as an “Indian who professes Hinduism as a religion”. “


The Encyclopaedia Britannica” mentions the word Hindu as “Indian” and “Hindostan”—”a Persian word and in modern Persian is pronounced as ‘Hindustan’. It means the country of the Hindus.”


All the famous poets and scholars of Persia like Hafiz Sherazi, Sheikh Sadi, Maulana Rumi and Hafiz have held Hindus of India and Hindustan in great esteem. They have used the word Hindu and Hindustan at a number of places in their works. Hindustan is the most ancient country of the world and the Hindu Nation is the most ancient nation still existing. The Indus Valley Civilization was known by the name “Hafta Hindu” or “Sapta Sindhu”. The Indians came to be known as ‘Hindus’ instead of ‘Sindhus’ as the ancient Iranians (Avesthans) who settled in India could not utter or pronounce the letter ‘S’.


 


Aurangzeb in his autobiography says: “It was reported to us that while on a visit to Delhi, the Emperor (Shahjehan) has recognized Dara as the future King of Hindustan…..


 


“If he (Dara Shikoh) had become King, the Empire of Hindustan would have ceased to be Dar-ul-Islam…. our only aims were to uproot the bramble of idolatry and infidelity from the realm of Islam, to crush idolatrous Chiefs and capture their strongholds so that the dust of disturbance may never again blow over Hindustan.”


 


The Sanskrit word, Rashtra, is not a cultural term, but a political one meaning ‘nation’ or ‘state’.


 The Barhaspatya Samhita says,






 “Himalayaad aarabhya yaavad indu sarovaraparyantam tam deva nirmitam desham hindusthaanam prachakshate”—that land created by God and stretching from the Himalayas up to the Indian Ocean is Hindusthan.


 It is also known as Bharatavarsha. The Vishnupurana says,






Uttaram yat samudrascha himaadreschaiva dakshinam, varsham tad bhaaratam naama bhaaratee yatra santatih—that land which is to the north of the ocean and south of the Himalayas is Bharata and the people of the land are Bharatiyas. 


We need no fool to sermonize to us that India or Hindusthan or Hindu Rashtra can never be a ‘theocratic state’ like a ‘Christian State’ or an ‘Islamic State’. We know well that India can never become a ‘Bauddha State’ or ‘Vaishnava State’ or ‘Shaiva State’, but it will remain Hindu Rashtra—the nation of the Hindus, the term Hindu meaning all those who adore and revere this Bharat as their holy land, as the land of their forefathers—


Aasindhu sindhu paryeta yasya bhaarata bhoomikaa,


 pitru bhoo punya bhooschaiva sa vai hinduriti smritah“.


 The word Hindutwa means loyalty to Motherland, unsullied patriotism and love towards this land as one’s holy land and land of the forefathers. He is a Hindu for whom Mother and Motherland are sacred than Heaven—”Jananee janmabhoomischa swargaadapi gareeyasi“.


 


Now, to those who decry day in and day out that the ideal of Hindu Rashtra as a ‘theocratic state’, we want to point out what it means in the very words of those great leaders of the modern period who stood for the Hindu Nation.


About Indian Nationalism, Sister Nivedita, the illustrious disciple of Swami Vivekananda and one who came from the distant land of Ireland and dedicated her all to Mother India, says: “I believe that the strength which spoke in the Vedas and Upanishads, in the making of religion and empires, in the learning of scholars and meditation of saints is born once more amongst us and its name today is Nationality”.


 


Swami Vivekananda himself proclaimed: “Each nation has its own part to play, and naturally, each nation has its own peculiarity and individuality with which it is born. Each represents, as it were, one peculiar note in the harmony of nations, and this is its very life, its vitality. In it is the backbone, the foundation, and the bedrock of the national life, and here in this blessed land (India) the foundation, the backbone, the life-centre is religion and religion alone.”


 


Sri Viswanath Prasad Verma, in his Modern Indian Political Thought says: “It will be a gross exaggeration to interpret Indian Nationalism and freedom movement as entirely being moulded and fashioned after western models and techniques. It will be unhistorical to minimize the role of the fire of patriotic sentiments released by Ramdas, Shivaji, Mahadaji Sindhia, Ranjit Singh and the leaders of the movement of 1857.”


 


Eulogizing Bankim Chandra as “one among the Rishis of the later age“—the seer of the mantra, ‘Vande Mataram’, which is creating a new India, Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo says: “It is not till the Motherland reveals herself to the eye of the mind as something more than a stretch of earth or a mass of individuals, it is not till she takes shape as a great Divine and Maternal Power in a form of beauty that can dominate the mind and seize the heart that these petty fears and hopes vanish in the all-embracing passion for the Mother and her service, and the patriotism that works miracles and saves a doomed nation is born. To some men it is given to have that vision and reveal it to others.”


 Sri Aurobindo emphatically proclaimed the message that he received from Krishna Vasudeva when he was incarcerated in the Alipore Jail: “When you go forth, speak to your nation always this word that it is for the Sanatan Dharma that they arise, it is for the world and not for themselves that they arise. I am giving them freedom for the service of the world. When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is Sanatan Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the Dharma and by the Dharma that India exists.” And unambiguously Sri Aurobindo states what he means by Sanatan: “It is Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it, because in this Peninsula it grew up in the seclusion of the sea and the Himalayas, because in this sacred and ancient land it was given as a charge to the Aryan race to preserve through ages.”


 


Annie Besant, who came from the West and identified herself with Mother India, accepted the identity of Indian nationalism with the Sanatana Dharma. She says, “During the early life of a Nation, religion is an essential for the binding together of the individuals who make the nation. India was born, as it were, in the womb of Hinduism, and her body was for long shaped by that religion. Religion is a binding force, and India has had a longer binding together by religion than any other Nation in the world, as she is the oldest of the living Nations.”


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