I have always wondered, what makes us Indians and how does one define India? What is common between a dark-skin dravidian and rose-cheeked Himachali?
I tried to go down the history when we existed as a country. No trace! In recent history, Mughals came closest to ruled the entire country, but then, we view Mughals as foreigners.
Nor, is India a linguistic, ethnical, religious monolith! We have more variety than the entire Europe and Americas puttogether. Then, what is that common to all of us?
I can think of two things – Hinduism & British (read Freedom Movement). I am neither a fundamentalist nor a advocate of Raj but I merely try to objectively understand the foundation of the country.
If you paint the countries with colours of their religions, the most orange (read saffron) large chunk of land is the Indian sub-continent. There ARE hindus in other parts of Asia, but ‘Indian’ hindu is a unique flavour and I can relate many a custom from my Kannada roots to say, that of a Punjabi ones up north.
Just rewind to 1947. Why did we come together as Indians, when in recent history there NEVER existed a Indian kingdom? Simply because British handed over most of the regions under East India Company to the national Goverment. Wait, what was the national Government? All those leaders from the kingdoms under the East India, who were united under a common goal of ousting the British, were now the national leaders. Post handover of the colonies more than 500 principalities were forcefully integrated into the Indian Union and some like Sikkim annexed later. So all those principalities that the British handed over to us who could be convinced (and sometimes forced) into joining the Indian Union became India.
The idea of India as a country takes its roots from East India company. Whatever the Britishers ruled under Calcutta Office now become India! The chunk that could not be integrated became Pakistan and Bangladesh.
That was 60 years ago! Now, the borders have blurred and we are one country. Now, I can define Indians as upholders of the world’s largest democracy. But dont forget the roots, good or bad – Hinduism and British.
Jackal said
I think it goes much farther back…the idea of one country existed even in 1857….during tht failed attempt ..rulers frm many states across the country had united to fight the english under the leadership of the Bhadur Shah the mughal ruler……..
ANN said
I agree Jackal! When I said freedom movement, it definitely encompasses First war of Indian independence.
Anonymous said
Interesting perspective, but is not so uncommon, Most people think this way about the history of the Nation
Try reading “Argumentative Indians by Amartya Sen” it will give you a fresh perspective into being Indian.
Yes we might have different languages, yes we might have differing traditions, but the cultural thread that holds us together is very strong. We are the oldest civilization which is still flourishing, with the original beliefs.
Also Hinduism is not such a monolith as you might like to believe. did you know that for about a thousand years the promonent religion in Indian subcontinent was Buddhism.
The West , The Chinese and the Indians « Wanndering - in thoughts and actions! said
[...] The ease with which we Indians have adopted to the western thinking is several times rightly attributed to English colonialism (Related Who is an Indian ) , I think it is more deeper than that. I am sure that the Chinese wouldnt transition to western thought or English, as easily as we did. My premise is language is culture and culture is language – existing in symbiosis. Indian thought and languages have evovled over milleniums and is based on very logial constructs as much as abstractions. Sanskrit, the mother of almost 80% of Indian languages is considered the most(sic) perfect language. As logical as it gets, a good deal of abstraction and complex patterns are embedded in the works written over centuries. [...]
sidrai said
I believe you would be surprised to know that the Idea of India as a Nation existed from the Ancient times and one of the ‘most recent’ examples I can highlight is of during the time of Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya who existed about the same time as that of Alexander who then invaded India. Chandragupta Maurya’s campaign under the leadership of his Guru Chanakya united the whole of India politically into one nation.
And if you study about Chanakya, he very clearly says that he is not doing anything new but the concept of an Indian nation is very old, perhaps from the Vedic period.
And the other most interesting fact that will again amaze you is that Chandragupta Maurya was not the first king who politically united India. India was politically united by King Bharata from whose name India derives its name as Bharat and whose descendants were Pandavas, Kauravas from the Mahabharat. These might be referred to as myths by some, but now thats a different article and topic to talk about.
I am again not sure if King Bharata was the first king to politically unite India. Because if you study Ancient Indian History, the idea of India as a Nation seems always to have existed even before King Ikshvaku who is the direct ancestor of all the Kshtriyas and who ruled over the whole of India.
And for your reference the most recent political unification of India before the Mughals was done by King Samudragupta from the Gupta dynasty, whose period is referred to by some Indian Historians as the ‘Golden Age of Hinduism and India’.