What is
India? Is it an Idea, an Imagination or a Spirited Nation?
Debates
are raging currently among the intelligentsia about the national identity of
India. Opinion writers repeatedly refer to it as the idea of India. The
question of equating India to an idea or somebody's idea is misplaced and
completely misunderstands the nature of nationhood in India. It also completely
misses the notion of spirit of India that pervades every national action known
in the history of India. Western notions of idea or imagination of nationhood
is not suitable to understand the spirit of India.
The
spirit of India rests in its cultural and religious heritage, which the
colonial regimes and post-colonial socialist governments tried to shatter by
writing history suitable to their purpose of perpetrating their power and
supremacy, while disenfranchising the masses from their traditional culture and
history.
Constitutional
Day
National
government recently introduced a new national holiday, the Constitution Day. While
constitution day and developing national understanding of constitution may help
develop and affirm national unity among the citizens of India, it cannot foster
national spirit. National spirit and common values of national affirmation
could only be asserted by nurturing its cultural, linguistic, and religious
heritage.
Food,
dance, music, language, religion and art are neglected at each stage of
education. School education at various stages teaches language only superficially,
while dance, music and religion are not part of school curriculum. Publicly
funded Universities in India that teach religion, and arts (music, dance and
painting) are less than ten across the country. Religious education in
Christian and Islamic religions is offered in public universities and wide
spread than Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.
While numerous state universities host departments of Islamic studies in
addition to numerous Madrasas run by Wakf boards across India, which enjoy
generous grants of public money from the Government of India, Hinduism does not
enjoy such support. Hinduism is the religion of almost 80% of Indians. China
even though a communist state without religion teaches Confucianism in schools
and supports Confucian studies at university level in China as well as abroad
through creation of Confucian Institutes.
Indian Values of Nonviolence and Tolerance
Indian
values of nonviolence and tolerance are projected as the responsibility and
duty of only Hindus, but no such values are expected from other groups,
especially Muslims. The opposition asserts and calls of ‘Hindu terrorism’ at
its every public meeting and event, while staying mute in the face of acts of
Islamic terrorism. While there is no evidence that any Hindu activist had ever
landed in a foreign country akin to Mumbai attacks or Paris attacks to
self-detonate a suicide bomb or shoot innocent citizens, opposition party
continues to perpetrate blatant misinformation on Hindus in a majority Hindu
nation with utter disregard for the sentiments of the majority Hindus of the
nation. All citizens of India regardless of their caste must embrace
nonviolence and tolerance. Acts of terrorism should be regarded as acts of war
on the sovereignty of India and its perpetrators should be prosecuted in
military courts not municipal or state courts.
Education Reform and Change in History
Education
History
of India had been treated as Lego building blocks set for far too long. Pieces of
historical evidence were arranged and rearranged with utter disregard for
understanding the true history and cultural heritage of India. Any one can
obtain a Ph.D. in History without learning Sanskrit, or the language of the
historical period they are studying, which compounds the problem of historical
study in India and leads to misinterpretation of the historical evidence. India
must revise its history education and include methods that require language
training and historical methods.
India
must begin rewriting its history incorporating new evidence and classical sources.
Citizens of India have a right to learn their true history and cultural
heritage.
Uniform Civil Code
Every
citizen living in India must be subject to the same civil code. It should not change based on religion, tribe
and region. A uniform civil code is the requirement for any nation to foster
the spirit of nationhood.
Religious Freedom
Religious
freedom must mean the same for all religions in India: not something different
for minority religions and majority religion. It should not change based on each
religious group. Each minority religion has freedom to maintain its religious
places worship and institutions. Hinduism and its practice is restricted by
government and Hindu temples are maintained by government through endowment
boards. Hindu temples are run as businesses charging for every service right
from the time a Hindu devotee enters in to the temple. Resulting money is spent
according to the plans of the government implemented by the endowment boards
rather than serving the cause of Hinduism. Hindu temples must be freed from
government supervision and run by Hindus themselves. State should not have any
interest or interference with any religion. Each religion must be free to run
its institutions and temples as it deems necessary. For a modern state to
promote national spirit it is essential that the government is completely
separated from all spheres of religious activity.
Equal Opportunity
Every
citizen in India must have equal opportunity for jobs, housing, loans, and
political positions. The current reservation system has failed to help lower
castes and also the poor rural folks of India. Quota based reservation system
in India benefits SC/STs (Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes) and creates
wage discrimination against other castes of India. There are two issues with
this reservation system. Firstly, it still uses and asks persons of lower
castes to certify their caste at every stage reinforcing the use of caste
instead of helping them proceed beyond the caste system. Secondly, the
reservations are currently capped at 50% of all the educational seats in all
the educational institutions, public sector jobs, and local bodies, central and
state political positions. Certain OBCs (other backward castes) are still left
out of the reservation system even though they are living in similar social and
economic conditions. This results in periodical discontent and reservation
agitations. India should lift its conventional reservation system and replace
it with the more efficient affirmative action system that is based on economic
status and be restricted only to first time college students.
For India to
move forward in the twenty-first century it is important to develop its
national spirit and foster co-operation among its citizens.
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