The struggle for independence concluded 75 years ago with political emancipation, but there are many other incomplete tasks facing the nation.
In numerous ways, the British looted and impoverished this country for 200 years, so economic self-reliance and development were also challenges the republic had to face in its early years.
The recent report that India will soon become the third largest economy in the world is, in a sense, a vindication of what we once were — and can very well become again. Our prime minister has solemnly vowed that within the next 25 years, India will be a fully “developed country,” whatever that means.
But there is yet another area of swarajya (self-rule) that is more intangible.
Today, there are frequent allusions to India’s “civilizational greatness” — a time when she led the world in thought, spirituality and quality of life.
Simultaneously, it is lamented that the years of colonialism crippled that greatness and left India bereft of her indigenous values.
“No other nation of this size, complexity and religious and linguistic diversity exists anywhere else in the world”
“Civilizational greatness” therefore refers to an intellectual grounding in depth and width, an ethical compass that guides public action and private ambition, in accord with the traditions of this great land. These values rest upon political self-confidence and economic prosperity widely shared by all.
So, the question is: what are India’s “civilizational values”? Not just in the past, but today. What are India’s contributions to the contemporary world?
One thing is sure: no other nation of this size, complexity and religious and linguistic diversity exists anywhere else in the world. Moreover, no such nation exists as a democracy.
At its start in 1947, India was desperately poor. It was also nearly illiterate. Yet the constitution gave the democratic franchise to all its citizens in one go, so that today, 70 years later, democracy thrives. A full-fledged democracy?
Not quite. The historian, Ramchandra Guha, used to say that India was a “50-50” democracy, the other part being its feudal outlook. More recently, he revised this, saying that “30-70” would be closer to the truth. Autocracy has returned to haunt us.
An important characteristic of any democracy is freedom of speech and expression. Today we have a government that clamps down on all dissent, charging those who speak out with “sedition” and being “anti-national.” At the same time, it brags that India is the largest democracy in the world!
“For the first time in 70 years of independence, ideologically-indoctrinated cadres are at the helm”
As Amartya Sen has shown in his The Argumentative Indian, to argue and debate, to prize logic and ratiocinative thinking, has been the ethos of this land for ages. In fact, it has been part of our “civilizational ethos.”
Why has the other frame of mind become so widespread today?
One reason for this is the growing influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in government and in shaping the intellectual discourse in the country.
For the first time in 70 years of independence, ideologically-indoctrinated cadres are at the helm at the center, and in 24 states. There are almost 60,000 shakhas (sub-units) in 37,000 locations across the length and breadth of this country, and their members run into millions.
The RSS and its sister organizations — more than three dozen of them — have made important advances, whether by force or by stealth, in the fields of education, art, history and culture. And indeed, today they shape the way India thinks of itself.
The thesis they promote can be summed up in phrases like “India is the greatest,” “We did it before anyone else, and better than anyone else,” and “Hindutva is our creed.”
So, what is this civilizational heritage the present government seeks to promote?
“Those very Indians who rule us today have no roots in the nationalist struggle”
Intellectual prowess, for one. India has always seen itself as a vishwa guru, a teacher to the world. One of the earliest universities in history was Nalanda (500 BC to 1200 CE), whose influence extended to China and Southeast Asia. Another was Takashila (300 BC to 300 CE) in present-day Pakistan.
Most of India’s contributions were in the fields of philosophy, mathematics, metallurgy and medicine.
But it is also true that such learning was not egalitarian as we use the word today. It was also inaccessible to those outside the caste enclosure — Dalits, Adivasis and women.
Sadly, many of these prejudices continue today in this country, so desperate to be acknowledged as modern and progressive. In this, equality in education, we still have miles to go.
For example, in 2020, with much fanfare, the government came out with the New Educational Policy (NEP). Little do most know that NEP 2020 unwittingly implements the three obsessions of that arch-imperialist, Viceroy George Curzon (1899-1905): entrenching centralized state control in the governance of education; fixing the problem of affiliating colleges; and restraining the political activism of students.
But perhaps this is not surprising after all. Those very Indians who rule us today have no roots in the nationalist struggle, are trying desperately to revive the feudal order, crush diversity, abrogate tolerance and mock the rich religious and linguistic heritage of this country with the fascist slogan “Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan!”
Though this group flaunts the pluralistic heritage of this country for its own purposes, it is actually monolithic, rigid and hostile to all but its upper caste adherents.
It espouses not the teachings of the Buddha, Ashoka, or Akbar, not even the folksy tolerance of the bhakti saint poets, but the garbage of European fascism — Mussolini and Hitler, and their pernicious theories of race and hegemony.
It is these fascists indeed who won the abject adulation of the Hindutva ideologues — Moonje, Hedgewar, Shyam Prasad Mukerjee, Savarkar, Golwalkar and their ilk.
“The government of this land has stealthily abrogated all the rights of its citizens, including the most fundamental of them all, habeas corpus”
And in our fight for independence, they colluded with the British imperialists against their own people.
The Nazis terrorized their country and plunged it into war. The BJP-RSS combine terrorizes minorities — Muslims, Christians, Dalits, tribals, women — with violence, deprivation and fear, even while its economic policies impoverish the countryside.
It is worth remarking that in the new vista for parliament in New Delhi, what was “Rajpath” is now renamed “Kartavya path” (The Way of Duty).
Rights and duties have always been complementary. But the government of this land has stealthily abrogated all the rights of its citizens, including the most fundamental of them all, habeas corpus. What it insists on now are the citizens’ duties to the state. How Mussolini would have applauded!
Whose minds need to be decolonized? Are we still in thrall to our past? Your answer will depend largely on which past of this country you idolize, and which memories you seek to repress.
*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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