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Where India is returning to Bharat.

 With the new narrative of ‘ Bhartiyata’ gaining currency as the new raison d’etre and summum bonum of this India of twenty first Century, the de-colonisation of the national psyche which looked upon the western world for its inspiration as well as its edification, even though might not have been altogether banished, yet a definitive shift towards re-awakening of the national consciousness in tune with the vision of Swami Vivekananda is beginning to resonate with the citizens who, not too in the distant past, trashed everything having an Oriental underpinning as the blatant form of obscurantism which needed to be disdainfully dismissed as the warped Hindu mindset.

Vivekanand Jha Ranchi: The twenty first century India, notwithstanding the deadly corona engulfing it, resulting in the death of the multitude, with the life coming to the standstill for almost two years, has the sunlit feature of national regeneration enshrined in it: India’s providentially decreed re-discovery of its lost moorings. Significantly, the paramount question which had troubled such great thinkers like Swami Vivekananda, Rishi Aurobindo and Veer Savarkar as to India’s ill fate confronting the inhabitants of the geographical boundary of Bharatvarsha, subjecting the indigenous people to almost eight hundred years of blatant subjugation to the foreign rule, apart from the intermittent invasions from across the border, putting to shreds the dignity and honour of its citizens. Why, they wondered, the civilisation which discovered god, propagated the equality of humanity, bordering on the universality of the belief of humanity being one, took everyone to its bosom, paradoxically suffered from the worst form of persecution, intrigued them into the state of mortification. Nonetheless, the consensus these great thinkers evolved, had the overtone of the nation’s sequestration from its moorings; the digression from the mainstream of Vedas and Upanishads, contributing to the nation’s enervation; its loss of vitality as well as its virility, over centuries, nay millennia.

The man who took India away from Bharat.

Incidentally, none ever did the extent of damage to the vitality of the nation as it was done by Macaulay’s institutionalisation of anglicised pattern of education, while scornfully uprooting the millennia old Gurukul system of education which strengthened the national psyche and its vitality, was mischievously sought to be dismantled. The Indians were made to believe that their own cultural roots and civilisational legacies were such despicable lots that needed to be replaced by the Occidental belief system. In fact, it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that Indians were made to spit on their own glorious past, and adopt happily the sophisticated western education system and lifestyle. Reprehensible as it might appear, but the truth remains that the colonization of minds of Indians, in all certainty, began with Macaulay’s humongous conspiracy to eliminate the last vestiges of the trace of Sanskritised culture which bound the geographical boundary of India, despite its inherent contradiction into one cohesive unit. No wonder, the sunlit vision of Vedas and Upanishads which Max Muller had developed, were trashed as the scriptures of far lesser civilisation. Thus, in the wake of Macaulay’s invasion into the cultural and civilisational firmament of India, the nation began losing even the remnants of its vitality, the colonised minds disdainfully took to embracing the anglicised glory as their own.

The Prime Minister who took the first step towards the integration of India with Bharat.

As the destiny would have it, the independent India, when it was widely expected that it would return to its moorings, ironically chose to persist with its colonised mind. The compulsion of Mahatma Gandhi to anoint Jawaharlal Nehru as his successor, instead of the legitimate choice of Sardar Patel, the latter had the majority of presidents of the provincial committees recommending his name for the premiership, was arbitrarily shot down by Mahatma, in order to appoint Jawahar, remains an eternal mystery. Was Gandhi compelled by Lord Mountbatten to anoint Nehru, not Patel, as the first Prime Minister of India. The truth points out towards Mahatma being under severe strain brought about by the British lobby to foist Jawaharlal upon the nation to carry on with the British legacy. The unfortunate nation, even though it had attained its independence, remained psychologically colonised, with the new age anglicised, indigenous colonisers, basking in the western education, took over the governance of the nation from British masters. Regrettably, whereas the newly carved out Pakistan, an Islamic nation, refused to appoint Mountbatten as its governor general, the indebted Jawaharlal sought to continue with Mountbatten as the first governor general of an independent India. Thus began the colonisation of Indian history, literature, archeology and everything which mattered in keeping the newly colonised nation hypnotised to the western set of beliefs. Dubbing Chhatrapati Shivaji as the mountain rat by Irfan Habib, a historian, was a larger conspiracy to depict the Indian icons in poor light.

The Prime Minister who sought the complete integration of India with Bharat.

But then, the god took a sudden pity upon this bedevilled nation. Since 2014, a new awakening of our erstwhile glory began taking the tangible shape under Narendra Modi. The glory of Sri Ram, which Congress government, for decades, had sought to trample upon, witnessed a new upsurge of chorus of bringing the Maryada Purushottam to the streamline. No wonder, Hindus historic struggles to reclaim Lord Ram Lala’s temple, finally attained its fruition: The reconstruction of Sri Ram temple in Ayodhya, is the vindication of the new national awakening in the country. Moreover, unveiling of the statue of great Adi Shankaracharya at Badrinath, is the burning example of India returning to its erstwhile moorings in the glory of Sanatan Dharma in the erstwhile Bharatvarsha. Significantly, a new national consciousness, despite the contradiction, has been adequately visible among the citizens, especially Hindus, that Sanatan glory is to be relished and cherished, and no longer to be disdainfully dismissed as the imprimatur of obscurantism, as it has been bandied about for decades. Whereas this new awakening of national consciousness having its roots in erstwhile Bharatvarsha, is all the more welcome, for India having long been sequestered from its core identity, needed to return to it at the earliest. However, this new awakening has an inherent pitfalls: suddenly, fake spiritual leaders have emerged from nowhere, propagating the so-called Hindu Rashtra, is fraught with the dangerous consequences: are these miracle gurus destined to hurtle India towards the direction of the Islamists Pakistan? It is this religious frenzy where religious gurus have been spouting miracles, needed to be guarded against. Our long cherished parliamentary democracy cannot be sacrificed at the altar of the feast of frenzy generated around so-called Hindu Rashtra which hitherto has no vision. Moreover, Sanatan embraces one and all to its bosom, hence, the establishment of Sanatan in its absolute resplendence, is to be institutionalised. In short, the glory of discovering the nation’s original moorings, is the most welcome step in the era of Modi government which needed to be celebrated with full aplomb, for the glory of India lies in institutionalising the values of Sri Ram, and not merely in chanting ‘ Jai Sri Ram’ as the political slogan.

Vivekanand Jha, author of Delhi Beckons: RaGa for NaMo, 56 Inches and The Making of Narendra Modi, Unmaking of Jawaharlal.

Vivekanand Jha, Author, Academician and a Public Intellectual.

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