Where Is Bharat Akhand!

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty 

My heart gets a chill when I hear the term ‘Akhand Bharat’ from political and cultural platforms. Celebrating the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, many admirers, political – apolitical, praised him and rightly so, for his unifying effort to make India whole and undented. While I join all admirers of Sardar Patel in lauding him as the unifier of India post- partition; I bleed internally for the historic dismemberment of a great subcontinent by the shamheaded Britishers to prioritize religion over human togetherness, thereby ruining the future of a great country which they looted to their treasury’s content. The communal violence and hate that followed partition continues to ring ghostlore in the generations which are not allowed to move ahead with a guilt free conscience: hate, violence, and fear crack their dreams. No country ever was divided into two in the history of the world yet we celebrate Akhand Bharat! Is it a self-patting palliative to our sagged ego or an acceptance of our dismembered ‘whole’ as the new normal.  I know this question disturbs the equilibrium of India’s chequered history but it is time we asked to find out the answer for our complacency.

 

India was Akhand culturally since the Harappan civilization although language, dialects, idiolects were always in a flux because of internecine wars and demographic diversities. But the Epics Mahabharat and Ramayan give us a fair idea of the wholeness of a civilization despite local variations in cultural practices. But the whole(ness) of India was never under any stable political dispensation. Only during the reign of the Mauryas from Chandragupta to Ashoka there was political stability in North India. Alexander was gone (later he died) India despite Ambi’s mischievous ambitions came under a single political administration thanks to Chanakya’s wily strategies. But Chanakya was not necessarily a champion of freedom or patriotism. His primary goal was to decimate the Nandas for reasons purely personal.  He trained Chandragupta as a revenge hero and drew vicarious joy utilizing his energies. Alexander was not invincible, he was made invincible by the lack of awareness of freedom and love of one’s own country. The epics never teach freedom or patriotism although Valmiki had written in no uncertain terms, “Janani Janmabhumischa Swargadapi Gariyasi”: The kingdom –king centric values included freedom limited to the kingdom and throne. India was always culturally one but politically many as small chieftains ruled over territories by force and to retain it they fought wars with neighbours or invaders. The freedom of these small kingdoms never stretched beyond their unmarked boundaries. The idea of a hero too was of narrow connotations. Our “ Veerbhogya Vasundhara’ is a very silly vision of a hero who enjoys the earth by military prowess. This phrase is often wrongly quoted to celebrate a man of physical and mental energy. The implications however are primitive and mostly barbaric. If the Vasundhara, the earth is enjoyed by military victory of a hero, the earth has no sanctity. The Geeta too suggests, the same idea. When Krishna says: if you win you enjoy the earth (Jitwa ba vokhsase mahim), that is the earth is all yours. Love and reverence for the earth came much later. Mother earth was not for worship but for enjoyment. And the hero who enjoys Hastinapur, Ayodhya or Chittore thinks of protecting the territorial integrity of his kingdom only. The people knew nothing of freedom or love of the earth. The mother was king’s mother and the paid soldiers fought to protect the king’s (hero) freedom and patriotism. In Brindabanlal Burma’s Hindi novel Mriganayani, this has been illustrated lucidly. India was under the Muslim rule since Delhi Sultanate (712) and after about 800 years of Muslim rule the British could conquer our wholeness through commercial deceit.

 

I would like to ask how did every foreigner who came to India to loot and conquer succeed? When the marauders came where was our love for mother India? Where was our sense of freedom? Was patriotism asleep after a Soma orgy? I know I am deeply hurt when such questions come to mind. But when I see and hear the very Indians plotting like villains and asking questions of the present elected Government why is Indian territory allowed to be forcibly occupied by China I cannot supress my cold rage. I would like to answer my way: what’s wrong with that? The hero conquers by physical powers. Other heroes protect the Indian territory by the same heroic energy. If China wins will Veerabhogya Vasundhara be falsified? I hope my readers do empathize with my agony.

 

Pakistan is still in occupation of Gilgit- Baltistan: Siachin is being defended. Twitter has the cheek to show Ladakh as Chinese territory. Yet we use Akhand Bharat for ego massaging on birth anniversaries of great sons of India. Now Akhand Bharat should mean the post-partition Bharat. But what about the emotional, cultural wholeness? We have been speaking in forked tongues all these 73 years. Religion, caste, so called ideology and poor understanding of the values have kept us ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’. We have no real education for everyone; no jobs for the qualified. Freedom for most Indians simply means freedom to abuse the patriots, the good and the rich and wise.  We are holes apart in our whole. Let us first of all teach ourselves what is freedom and how to protect it, and how to establish our wholeness by our rich tapestry of institutions. And behave as true sons of India that is Bharat.