We have been taught in school,"Be proud to be an Indian.Be prepared to lay down your life in the service of this great nation.Stand for its sovereignty and integrity.It is your duty to serve your motherland......" The one thing that we have failed to ask is this:
"Why should I be proud to be an Indian?What is special about this land?What is it that differentiates this nation from other nations?"
And,even if you had asked,the reply would probably be"You were born here.This land gives us food,shelter and a respectable life..Being a citizen of India,you have to work for its development and be prepared to defend it".
Is it so simple?Is it just the fact that i was have born and continue to live here?
Such a simplistic explanation places India on par with the other nations of the world.But is that the case?Can we afford to turn a blind eye to our glorious past?
As August 15th approaches,I intend to go on a blogging spree to introspect on these issues.Sometimes I wonder if we are free in the real sense of the term.
As a noted writer put it,"Independence for the nation must translate into freedom for the people".Has it happened in India?I am afraid it has not.We may have finally hoisted a flag of our own on Aug 15th,1947,but is that what is meant by freedom?If Tilak,Tagore,Bharathi or Gokhale been alive today,would they have been happy enough to celebrate independence day on Aug 15th?Is this the independence that our freedom fighters dreamt of?
Let us explore all these questions in as unbiased a manner as possible in this post and the forth coming posts.In a certain cases,it might be necessary to go deep into issues of history,economics,governance and culture.I hope we will be able to do it to the best possible extent ,notwithstanding my rather shoddy knowledge and lunatic tendencies.
Since India was the home to the world's oldest civilization,it is imperative to look long back into its history.This becomes inevitable as that alone can help us understanding India's past which is the guide to the future.
Magesthenes,who visited the court of the Mauryas in the 4th century B.C noted,"All Indians are free,and none of them is a slave.....Indians neither invade other people nor do other peoples invade India......They fare happily,because of their simplicity and frugality.....Since they esteem beauty,they practice everything that can beautify their appearance.....Further,they respect alike virtue and truth".
This fascination for India's wealth and culture seems to have sustained down the ages.India was an unknown commodity for most people,and the foreigners were keen on exploiting our passiveness.
In 1068,Andalusi,an Arab writer from Spain wrote:
"The Indians,among all nations,through many centuries and since antiquity,have been the source of wisdom,fairness and moderation.They are creators of sublime thoughts,universal fables,rare inventions and remarkable concepts.
Those were trying time for the Indian people,for their culture,the core of India's identity was put to test.Still India sustained the onslaught and withstood the test of time.
As Bedi ezr Zenen recorded,
"Indians are innumerable,like grains of sand.They fear neither death nor life".
By now,the Hindus would have gone through one of the many torturous and tumultuous periods in their history.
The qutub minar was built in Delhi after demolishing 17 Hindu and Jain temples.The same material of the temples were used to build Qutub Minar in order to demonstrate the "Might of Islam".The assumption of the Muslim rulers was that the Hindus would cave in seeing their temples being destroyed.Alas,those rulers failed to understand that Hinduism was much beyond temples,idol worship and glorified institutions.They failed to acknowledge that India was made of character,resilience and inner strength to overcome such odds.But,they continued to hope that they would one day get to wipe out Hindus from their homeland if they continued to spread Islam by the sword.Forcible conversions,temple demolitions,giving Arabic names to Indian cities and provinces was enough,or so they thought.
Babur,the first Mughal emperor of India,had conquered both Hindustan and the afghan provinces.It was during this period of Babur that the Babri masjid was built after demolishing the temple at Ramjanmabhoomi.An estimate states that around 1.57 lakh Hindu and jain temples were demolished during Babur's time alone.
Still India managed to maintain her identity and heritage,even through these arduous times.
This is what Abul Fazl,the friend of Emperor Akbar wrote:
"The Hindus are religious,affable,lovers of justice,given to retirement,able in business,admirers of truth,grateful and of unbounded fidelity;and their soldiers know not what it is to fly from the field of battle".
It is because of these accounts of foreign traders and writers,recorded through a gap of about110 centuries that one gets the impression that Indians were never enslaved,though India as a state might have gone into the hands of foreign powers.
What is the reason for this?What really sustained the national life of India.how did the stream of India manage to flow inspite of the innumerable dams built by foreign powers,when other nations had crumbled under the face of similar oppression?
These are of course questions which have complex answers.
Let us try to answer them in the forth coming posts.
Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
"Why should I be proud to be an Indian?What is special about this land?What is it that differentiates this nation from other nations?"
And,even if you had asked,the reply would probably be"You were born here.This land gives us food,shelter and a respectable life..Being a citizen of India,you have to work for its development and be prepared to defend it".
Is it so simple?Is it just the fact that i was have born and continue to live here?
Such a simplistic explanation places India on par with the other nations of the world.But is that the case?Can we afford to turn a blind eye to our glorious past?
As August 15th approaches,I intend to go on a blogging spree to introspect on these issues.Sometimes I wonder if we are free in the real sense of the term.
As a noted writer put it,"Independence for the nation must translate into freedom for the people".Has it happened in India?I am afraid it has not.We may have finally hoisted a flag of our own on Aug 15th,1947,but is that what is meant by freedom?If Tilak,Tagore,Bharathi or Gokhale been alive today,would they have been happy enough to celebrate independence day on Aug 15th?Is this the independence that our freedom fighters dreamt of?
Let us explore all these questions in as unbiased a manner as possible in this post and the forth coming posts.In a certain cases,it might be necessary to go deep into issues of history,economics,governance and culture.I hope we will be able to do it to the best possible extent ,notwithstanding my rather shoddy knowledge and lunatic tendencies.
Since India was the home to the world's oldest civilization,it is imperative to look long back into its history.This becomes inevitable as that alone can help us understanding India's past which is the guide to the future.
Magesthenes,who visited the court of the Mauryas in the 4th century B.C noted,"All Indians are free,and none of them is a slave.....Indians neither invade other people nor do other peoples invade India......They fare happily,because of their simplicity and frugality.....Since they esteem beauty,they practice everything that can beautify their appearance.....Further,they respect alike virtue and truth".
This fascination for India's wealth and culture seems to have sustained down the ages.India was an unknown commodity for most people,and the foreigners were keen on exploiting our passiveness.
In 1068,Andalusi,an Arab writer from Spain wrote:
"The Indians,among all nations,through many centuries and since antiquity,have been the source of wisdom,fairness and moderation.They are creators of sublime thoughts,universal fables,rare inventions and remarkable concepts.
Those were trying time for the Indian people,for their culture,the core of India's identity was put to test.Still India sustained the onslaught and withstood the test of time.
As Bedi ezr Zenen recorded,
"Indians are innumerable,like grains of sand.They fear neither death nor life".
By now,the Hindus would have gone through one of the many torturous and tumultuous periods in their history.
The qutub minar was built in Delhi after demolishing 17 Hindu and Jain temples.The same material of the temples were used to build Qutub Minar in order to demonstrate the "Might of Islam".The assumption of the Muslim rulers was that the Hindus would cave in seeing their temples being destroyed.Alas,those rulers failed to understand that Hinduism was much beyond temples,idol worship and glorified institutions.They failed to acknowledge that India was made of character,resilience and inner strength to overcome such odds.But,they continued to hope that they would one day get to wipe out Hindus from their homeland if they continued to spread Islam by the sword.Forcible conversions,temple demolitions,giving Arabic names to Indian cities and provinces was enough,or so they thought.
Babur,the first Mughal emperor of India,had conquered both Hindustan and the afghan provinces.It was during this period of Babur that the Babri masjid was built after demolishing the temple at Ramjanmabhoomi.An estimate states that around 1.57 lakh Hindu and jain temples were demolished during Babur's time alone.
Still India managed to maintain her identity and heritage,even through these arduous times.
This is what Abul Fazl,the friend of Emperor Akbar wrote:
"The Hindus are religious,affable,lovers of justice,given to retirement,able in business,admirers of truth,grateful and of unbounded fidelity;and their soldiers know not what it is to fly from the field of battle".
It is because of these accounts of foreign traders and writers,recorded through a gap of about110 centuries that one gets the impression that Indians were never enslaved,though India as a state might have gone into the hands of foreign powers.
What is the reason for this?What really sustained the national life of India.how did the stream of India manage to flow inspite of the innumerable dams built by foreign powers,when other nations had crumbled under the face of similar oppression?
These are of course questions which have complex answers.
Let us try to answer them in the forth coming posts.
Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
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