Articles
Warnings of History
Dt:20/4/21
Warnings of History
Dr T H Chowdary*
Kulapati of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, the late K M Munshiji wrote a book with the above title in 1959 and its second and updated version was published in 1963. “For some considerable time feeling that India is drifting towards situation which while becoming dangerous any day, if the lessons of history have any meaning”, he wrote in the preface.
2.The drift Munshiji discerned 60 years ago is now a speeding flow as can be noticed in the strident slogans, “ Bharat ko tukade tukade karenge”, in the narratives of “ left, liberal, progressive secular” and Marxist intellectuals (in journalism, arts and letters); and statements -signing ex-bureaucrats and expressions of insecurity by former minority persons who were Vice Presidents and Ambassadors , Governors and Chief Ministers , Home Ministers and Vice Chancellors .
3. The commanding heights in intellectual bodies like the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR), Indian Council for Cultural Relations ( ICCR) , Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), the Sahitya Academy and even Gnanpeet were occupied by Macaulayan and Marx puthras courtesy, the Nehru Dynasty which ruled India for decades immediately after freedom from the imperialist British rule.
4. In the title chapter Munshiji demonstrated that , “ Dominant Intellectual Minority” who nurture the “ will to be a nation” among the people inhabiting in a country , speaking different languages, holding different individuals beliefs , professing different religions, and claiming different ethnicities. India’s freedom movement was led by the dominant intellectual patriotic personalities - Dadabhai Nauroji, Lokamanya Balagangadhar Tilak, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Arabindo Ghosh, Lalal Lajapati Rai, Madanmohan Malavya, Chittaranjan Das, Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Dr Annie Besant…They were inspired by the Hindu dharma and the glorious centuries -long prosperity and might ( till it was destroyed during the British conquest and colonial rule). The freedom movement and its war cries vande mataram and jai hind pave the way for transformation of the cultural ( dharmic) nation into a political and administrative nation state. Sardar Patel was the architect and engineer of the transformation.
5. Parties AIMIM, PFI, IUML, ISF, AIUDF, SDF,… leaders of some of whom assert that by 2049 Muslims will rule India , swear by “secularism”. These leaders speak of what divides us – different languages, religions , ethnicities, castes, cultures , climates, even food and dress and not what unites our people. They propagate that we are not one nation but a country inhabited by different nations and races; that India is not a Union but “a federation”. Further division of India into Khalistan, Mughalistan, Dravidastan and Moplahstan and Christian states (Nagaland, Mijoram, Meghalaya…) may be effected as demography and “peoples will” change. The discourse and narratives of the divisionists undermine and slander Indian’s will to be a nation by denigrating and denouncing anything relating to Bharat , Hindu, Hindutva, nationalism and even the inspiring words Vande Mataram, Jai Sri Ram and Jai Hind.
6. Instead of nurturing the people’s will to be a nation by frequently recalling the deeds of our national heroes - Rama, Krishna, Chandra Gupta, Ashoka, Samudra Gupta , Chola and Vijayanagar kings, Chatrapati Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Subhash Chandra Bose by inculcating dharmic knowledge bequeathed to us by Valmeeki , Vyasa, Kalidasa and scientific inquires and discoveries of Kanada , Bhaskara’s, Varahamihira, Sushruta, the discourses and narratives of power seekers and vote-mongering politicians especially a nation and country “splitters” communists, Islamists, evangelists and their dupes describing themselves as “ left, liberal, secular, progressives, activists” have become the “dominant minority” in the academia, print and electronic media. Under the patronage of the Nehru Dynasty’s rule a singularly Indian brand of peculiar “secularism” has come to be propagated and practiced by the rulers. It is essentially pro-minorities and apathetic if not hostile to Hindus. The word “secularism” was smuggled into the Constitution during the Emergency (1975-77) . The old Islamist parties like the IUML and the MIM are revived and extended to different states and new ones are founded under beguiling names like, Secular Front of India (West Bengal), AIUDF (Assam), Popular Front Of India (Kerala, UP, Karnataka) and Socialist Front of India in different states. They are militantly demonstrating their separatist, diversionist, minortyism that is the old two-nation theory is minority that is Muslim parties are wooed by all regional parties and even the Sonia family led Congress. Thus the chorus of political narratives is not for promoting “ the will to be a nation” but a desire to disintegrate the nation state of Bharat; the idea so assiduously built up during our freedom struggle and actualized by Sardar Patel integrating the 565 princedoms and Indian provinces into the strong and powerful Union of India.
7. The Constitution of India so ably and sagaciously drafted, debated and adopted by great statesmen like Dr B R Ambedkar , Dr Rajendra Prsasad, Dr K.M. Munshi describes India as a Union and not a Federation. In none of the 395 Article and 12 Schedules of the Constitution the words federation or federal is used. Articles - 3,352,356 and 360 amply declare that the Union and not the States are supreme . In the words of K.M.Munshi , “ the states are merely subordinate political bodies which juristically speaking act as agents of the Union without any right to perpetual existence”. Their formation on boundaries depend upon the will of the Parliament (Article-3) . Their powers and action under certain circumstances ( Articles- 248,249 250, 251 and 252) and in emergencies suspended under part - XVIII. To court Dr Alladi, “ though the country and people may be divided into different states for convenience of administration the country is one integral whole , its people a single people living under single imperium derived from a single source”. Articles 248,249,250, 251 & 252 make the Parliament of the Union supreme to legislate even on subjects listed for the States.
8. The Indian Nation and the Indian Union as structured in our Constitution must not be allowed to be disintegrated. History’s warning to India is that the absence of a strong Central Government facilitated the conquest of the country piece by piece by foreign hordes from the 12th century onwards. The heroic resistance of the parts after parts lasted for 700 years. The Maratha resistance and rise was inspired by Bharat as a nation. A freedom movement during the British rule promoted our will to be a nation and to have a very strong centrally administering Union of India. It is the sacred duty of every Bharatiya to promote this will to be a nation by drawing upon the fountains of invigorating and inspiring heritage of Bharat. (1,109 words)
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