Salvaging Mother India

Even the most optimistic of Indians have started asking the question “Is it possible to salvage Mother India?” Despite the fact that it is the oldest continuing civilization in the whole world, India remains home to more than 25% of the world’s poor. It has one of the most corrupt ruling systems in the whole world. It has immense material wealth and highest caliber human resources in the entire world. Yet a substantial section of its population does not have access to good food, clothing and shelter. Children are under nourished. It produces much more food than what its people require, yet a good number of its citizens still go to bed without food. It has unlimited employment potential; yet is forced to have one of the largest overseas populations in almost slavery conditions abroad.

Earlier we used to blame the foreign rule for all our problems. India was under foreign rule for almost ten centuries, first imposed by Genghis Khan and then by the British. But for almost a century now, we are ruling ourselves. In almost all aspects of life, we are fully self sufficient and we need no external help whatsoever. Yet we are struggling in almost all facets of life. If we cannot guarantee the basic minimum of food, shelter, clothing, health, education and employment to all our citizens, what is the point in claiming to be the world’s greatest democracy? We have chosen a ruling system by the people, for the people and of the people. But more than half our people are always unhappy.

Who is to blame for all these? Now we can only blame ourselves for all our problems. We have opted for democratic rule, but we continue to elect corrupt and inefficient people to rule us. Merit does not come into our minds when we cast our votes. We get carried away by the surname, wealth, religion, caste and colour of the candidates. Those who have proven their merit at lower levels of government never get elected to state and national levels. Anti-national and unpatriotic leaders are repeatedly elected to power for irrelevant and undefined reasons like secularism. Indian ethos has always been secular and it will always remain so. There is no need for any political party to proclaim that they are more secular than others.

India is becoming the world’s youngest nation within a few more years. And very soon we are getting one more opportunity to cast our votes to elect our rulers. If we can cast aside the unwanted bogeys of secularism and communalism, and vote for meritorious candidates we can make a marked beginning in turning the tide. It is possible to bring in a paradigm shift in Mother India within one decade if we can make a beginning now. Vote only for those who can govern the nation and have proven track record. If we waste our votes again, the question of salvaging Mother India will continue to haunt us forever.

Civilisational Cultures

In very simple terms, one’s culture is what one will think and do if one gets lost in an island with the full knowledge that there is no chance of being rescued. The true self in each one of us will come out only then and that is our true culture. Culture of civilizations follows the same pattern. Each of the civilizations has developed in isolation and is truly representative of the culture of people who constitute them. Many of the civilizations have died out and the few remaining continue to progress reflecting the core culture that makes them different. Whatever be the changes brought about by progress and development, the essential nature of our culture will always be reflected in whatever we do as a civilization and ultimately as a nation. In very broad terms, we can always categorise the world civilizations into three types based on their core activities during their formative periods viz. Agri-culture, Tradi-culture and Coloni-culture.

‘Agri’culture

Indian civilization is essentially an agricultural one and Indian culture is replete with the nature, symbols and characteristics of agriculture. Agriculture requires great insight, immense efforts and unlimited patience. The essential nature of Indian nation and Indian people still reflect these three unique characteristics. In terms of culture and civilization, India is the only continuing civilization that has survived uninterrupted for the entire recorded past. All others, be it Chinese, Japanese, Western, American or African, have undergone drastic changes (and revolutions) and are not the same that was one thousand years ago. Agricultural civilizations do not peak so much and will not die out completely. There will be ups and downs, but within a limited bandwidth. This is very evident in the case of India, whose civilization peaked during the vedic period and waned during the one thousand years of Mughals and British rule. But immense patience, tolerance and inherent truth and strength in its basic beliefs will ensure its continued presence till the end of time. We do not know when agriculture began, but we know it will never end. Similar is the case of agricultural civilizations. They have no beginning and no end (sanatana). So is the case with Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) which is the core of Indian civilization.  

‘Tradi’culture

In sharp contrast to Agriculture, we have Trading cultures which do not produce or own anything by their own efforts. All they have is some money to buy and sell agricultural and other products. In the process they make profit which is used for further trading. The civilizations in West Asia fall under this category. Their lands are barren and not fit for agriculture. They never had settlements and used to spend their entire life as nomads buying goods from one place and selling it at another place. Their relationships were transient and there was never time enough for studies and producing literature for entertainment and enlightenment. Their approach to life was one of complete adhocism trying to sort out issues as they come by. Needless to say that such people had no concept of lasting relationships and never found time to introspect on the deepest mysteries of nature. It was easier to attribute everything to a creator and discipline the rogue crowd with fear. The few lasting contributions to world heritage by these West Asians are limited to those from settlements in the present day Iran and Iraq. Unexpected discovery of ‘black gold’ in the 1950s’ that brought in the present day filthy richness among these people have not touched the basic culture of these people one bit.     

‘Coloni’culture

Quite different from the other two, the culture of colonial people is always oriented towards the loot they can manage from their colonies. Unlike agriculturists and traders, the colonizers do not carry out any constructive work or make or produce anything at all. They are adept only in usurping the fruits of labour by others, just like what we do with the honey made by honeybees. The case of established colonial nations in Europe exemplifies this attitude in very clear terms. Europe is rich today only because of the toil and tears of civilizations in Asia and Africa during yesteryears and even now. Left to them, colonial cultures cannot sustain themselves on the food and wealth created by themselves. They would always need the efforts of others for their own benefit and have developed immense skills (now embedded in their DNAs) in management of others. Extra-ordinary adeptness of the colonizers in managing others by putting ‘friends and enemies’ among ‘enemies and friends’ is evident even today in West Asia, Latin America, Africa and South Asia. These people show an exemplary sense of fairness when dealing with disputes involving other cultures and that makes them the natural choice in world disputes. However, it is very difficult for the ‘coloni’culturists who are used to an easy lifestyle to come out of it.

It is very evident that the one and only truly sustainable culture in this planet is the one related to agriculture. No other way of living can provide the food for survival and food for thought together in a sustainable manner. In fact the unparalleled continuity of Sanatana Hindu civilization in India for the past ten thousand odd years without any major change can be explained only on the basis of its agricultural base. Immense hope, struggle, patience and truly secular behavior of a ‘Sanatani Hindu’ – Mahatma Gandhi claimed himself to be one – can be directly attributed to his or her cultural background in agriculture which requires all these attributes to succeed. Continued negligence of the agricultural sector in India by those in power will only weaken the cultural foundations of our civilization in the long run.   

Tale of Two Tongues

Languages (tongues) are the most visible symbols of regional civilizations and religious culture. No civilization in any part of the world can be considered significant unless it has generated some outstanding literary works at some point of time during its existence. Many of the glorious civilizations are no more, but the differences between Inca and Greek civilizations provide a striking example about the importance of language and literature. While the former exists only in the books of History students, the latter is still a matter of delight merely because of Iliad and Odyssey. Whatever be their achievements in terms of monuments and territorial vastness, the literary content of a civilization far outweighs everything else when it comes to counting its greatness. In the eternal comparison of significance between physical and mental achievements, it is always the mental achievements that matters. The meaning of Akshara (letters) in Sanskrit is ‘that which does not perish’ and literature is its popular form. People of letters are far more respected than those who build monuments.

Language and literature are activities of the mind and it calls for far greater knowledge and capabilities to excel in them than in physical activities like annexing territories and building monuments. A casual comparison between two individuals trying to build up their body and brain respectively in a gym and library is enough to prove this point at micro level. Within an year or two the whole body can be built up to competitive levels, whereas it will take years and years of effort for anyone to reach the level of even attempting a literary work. And if such works are to be of outstanding nature, the amount of calibre and hard work required can be easily guessed. It will take generations of accumulated knowledge, skills and environmental encouragement to generate classical literary works. Perhaps no other civilization till date in the face of earth has produced more such outstanding classical literary works than Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) and its associated Sanskrit literature. An update about its present condition vis-à-vis some richer tongues reveals a shocking picture for the entire human civilization.

Arabic Ascent

Arabic is the language of Arabs and their population is not significant. But Arabic language has become so much identified with Islam because of the simple reason that Koran, the Islamic holy book, is in that language. Muslim population in the world has increased significantly in the last few centuries and the importance of Arabic language is also increasing. Their disciplined uniformity throughout the world makes it obligatory on the part of all Muslims to learn Arabic in order to practice the religion properly. Without a significant knowledge of Arabic language it is almost impossible to offer the daily prayers, refer the holy book and perform their other rituals. Though spoken dialects vary from country to country the written Arabic language remains uniform. Classical literary works in Arabic language are few, but its religious association makes it one of the most prominent languages in today’s world.

The new found richness of Arabs has also raised the importance of their language. Millions of dollars are spent on its propagation and development. Muslim children are memorizing the entire holy book in their young age and the level of encouragement offered for such efforts is unprecedented. Just like the religion, the language has also become a convenient tool for realization of Arabian dreams for international domination. The British and their English provide a very good example of what a language can achieve for imperial dreams. Original speakers of any language remain the ultimate authorities in any language and such an eternal domination provides the psychological upper hand to rule over the new speakers. The goal posts for correctness in the language can always be shifted by its original owners. And it becomes inevitable and unquestioned, if the language owners happen to be rich, powerful and ambitious.

Sinking Sanskrit

In stark contrast to the continuing victory lap of Arabic language, the story of Sanskrit presents one of awful degeneration. The number of classic literature works in Sanskrit language far outweighs all other languages put together, both in terms of quantity and quality. If Islam is cent percent identified with Arabic language, the association of Sanskrit with Hindu Sanatana Dharma is also of very high significance. Almost all its original religious scriptures are in Sanskrit language, though commentaries and interpretations (which are freely allowed in HSD, unlike Islam) are available in many other languages. Sanskrit is considered the mother of almost all Indian languages, yet the efforts for its encouragement and development continues to be abysmally low. India is rich and millions of Indians are more than rich. But the condition of India’s most significant cultural symbol is pathetic with no turn around in sight.

One of the surprising reasons for the current state of Sanskrit language in India is the skewed secularism of Indian state. When India got partitioned in 1947 into a religious Pakistan and secular India, the ruling elite in India took extra efforts in segregating religions from state affairs. In this laudable attempt, they made the fatal error of associating Sanskrit language entirely with Hindu religion. The neglect has now gone to the extent of hatred for the language. Schemers and anti-nationals in the Indian state also used this opportunity to whip up caste feelings among the Hindus by their false propagation about Sanskrit being the language of only high caste Brahmins. The clever among them knew very well that killing Sanskrit language will be best way to conquer India again.

The future of Sanskrit is not at all bright, except for the knowledge explosion taking place over the electronic media and internet. Stray efforts are ongoing in different parts of the world for digitization of all the Sanskrit manuscripts available. There are also attempts to promote learning of the language in various pockets of the world, some of which unbelievably astonishing. Indian efforts in this direction continue to be apathetic, thanks to the overdose of vote bank politics and political correctness in the ‘clanocracy’ of India. Greatest symbol of Indian civilization is being destroyed by planned negligence and official antipathy in a systematic manner. But we should always bear in mind that a Dharmic Republic of India can become a world leader only on the strength of its own Sanatana Dharma and Sanskrit. There is absolutely no other way to reach the top by becoming a Ramarajya once again.