‘Akhand Bharat’ is a foolish idea

The notion of an “Akhand Bharat” — found offensive to the modern Indian sensibility and to the concept of Indian nationalism — is a trope of Hindu nationalism and Hindu supremacist thought in a land that is mind-bogglingly diverse, including in religious terms. Its literal meaning is Bharat or India without segmentation or division — the eternal land of the Hindus and their culture, a conception which itself is not ancient but was first given expression in about the mid-19th century by religio-political trends that pitched themselves against “the other”, typically Islam and sometimes Christianity. The torch-bearer of this thought today is principally the RSS and the outfits that go with it. The “original” India in the above thinking includes what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh, and also territories as far east as Indonesia  and Cambodia with which brisk Indian trade was known to take place in the early years of the Christian era. These lands have been touched by elements of Hindu and Buddhist civilisation, architecture and folk traditions.

That has been made the basis of their being a part of the “wholeness” of India by communal Hindus. Territories as far north as Kabul were once touched by Indian empires, notably in the Ashokan era, and are embraced within the notion of Akhand Bharat. For Hindu traditionalists even today, this is a matter of residual sentiment, a little like the notion of the “ummah” for Muslims, but has no practical relevance. It was, therefore, surprising to see Ram Madhav, the high-profile RSS figure on deputation to the BJP where he holds the high rank of general secretary, wax eloquent about Akhand Bharat in an interview to Al-Jazeera television.  This was done at a sensitive moment when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was last week returning from Moscow and touching down in Kabul and Lahore for brief — but significant — stopovers.

Mr Madhav is clearly innocent of the running of modern state systems in the international arrangements that exist in the present world, and perhaps wholly unaware of the dangerous implications of his outpourings. He deserves to be burdened with different responsibilities. The BJP has lost little time in distancing itself from Mr Madhav’s juvenile exuberance, realising that if not repudiated it can potentially throw a spanner in the diplomatic works with neighbours. Former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee had made an important speech at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore to underline Pakistan’s sovereignty. This is clearly beyond the comprehension of those not ready to climb out of the RSS value system. It is thus that in Mr Modi’s diplomatic moves Mr Madhav can see the re-uniting of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh through a concert of peace. Such foolishness must stop.

 

 

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