Sanatan, Secularism, Khilafat and Vande Mataram!

President’s House, New Delhi

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 By Pankaj Deka*

“Himalayam Samarabhya Yavadindu Sarovaram
Thyam Devanirmitham Desam Hindusthanam Prachakshathi”

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(The holy land, surrounded by Himalayas in the North and the Indian ocean in the south, created by the Gods themselves is called Hindustan !)

Sanatan is a time tested secularism in Indian ethos, being not intolerant towards other religion which have always welcomed and protected minorities including Parsis, Muslims, Syrian Christians (1800 years ), Jews ( 2000 years),Jain, Buddhists have co-existed for 2500 years  and Sikhs for 400 years. One can go to a religious places to any religion and find Hindus there.

One should remember India was ruled by the Mughals 1526-1857 Bloodiest Holocaust in history which was ignored by modern historians and British 1757-1947 , thereafter rule via propagation of amended Secularism (1976).

Also read: Ram, ‘Ayuddha’, and United Nations!

The first milestone in the race of appeasement of the Muslim leaders was the Khilafat movement of 1919-1924. This is what Jawaharlal Nehru had to write about the movement: ““Owing to the prominence given to the Khilafat movement in 1921, a large number of Moulvies and Muslim religious leaders took a prominent part in the political struggle. They gave a definite religious tinge to the Movement, and Muslims generally were greatly influenced by it. Many a Westernised Muslim, who was not of a particularly religious turn of mind, began to grow a beard and otherwise conform to the tenets of Orthodoxy. The influence and prestige of the Moulvies, which had been gradually declining owing to new ideas and a progressive Westernisation, began to grow again and dominate the Muslim community.” (Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography, Page 71-72).

Khilafat was a religio-political movement launched by a section of the Muslim League for the preservation of the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Mehmed V as he was regarded as the Khalifa (leader) of the entire Muslim Ummah (religious community). It should be clear from the description that, one, it was a religious movement; and two, it had nothing to do with India’s independence. More importantly, the myth of the Ottoman Emperor as the Khalifa of world Muslims had been shattered by the dismantling of the empire by the British and the French after World War I, and subsequently when Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the newly elected leader of Turkey, abolished the title of Khalifa in 1924. Later Mahatma Gandhi regretted sponsoring the Khilafat, but it was too late by that time.

Then Vande Mataram had to be compromised in the name of appeasement – an initiative taken to please the Muslim leaders. Vande Mataram are the words that instil a sense of patriotism were penned by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875 as an ode to Mother India. Two years after Chatterjee’s death in 1896, Congress session at Kolkata, Rabindranath Tagore recited the poem for the first time . In 1923 Congress Session at Kakinara, Andhra Pradesh, it was criticised by Congress President Maulana Md. Ali Jauhar but Vishnu Digambar Paluskar continued singing citing ‘even British couldn’t stop me from singing’ then all the Congress leaders left the stage. Congress session at Kolkata decided to cut the song to its first two stanzas in 1937. But this too failed, as they wanted complete elimination of the song. Eventually, when India became a republic, Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana, was adopted as national anthem.

It was in the 1931 Congress session at Karachi under Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s chairmanship, the Flag Committee agreed to hoist the Tricolour as national flag citing Saffron (Hindu, Sacrifice ),White (Christian, Peace ),cGreen (Muslim, Prosperity) replacing Saffron flag.

India for ages has been a land of sages and seers as well as a land of scholars, scientists. It has been a land of technologies for centuries – long before modern laboratories were set. India invented the Number System, Aryabhatta-Zero, “Pi”, Algebra , Trigonometry, Calculus , Quadratic equation, Place Value System , Decimal system , Numeral Notations , Binary Numbers, Algorithms, Ruler Measurement , Theory of Atom, Heliocentric Theory, Wootz Steel, Smelting of Zinc, Seamless Metal Globe, Iron-Cased Rockets, Crescograph, Cashmere wool, Jute, Shampoo-chāmpo, Ornamental buttons, Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada), Card game-Kridapatram, Snakes and Ladders-Mokshapat, Pentium Chip, USB, Candied Sugar. World’s first university Takshila 700BC with more than 10,500 students from all over the world studied above 60 subjects,Nalanda 4th century BC, Harappan culture, Sanskrit, Yoga, Charaka- Ayurveda 2500 years ago, Sushruta- Surgery, Cure for Leprosy, Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. The art of Navigation- river Sindh 6000 years ago ,Reservoir and dam for irrigation- ‘Sudarshana’ in Raivataka . According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896-India was the only source for diamonds to the world, USA-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus too was attracted by India’s wealth.

In India today we want to ensure that each person can follow whatever religion he chooses or choose to be atheist – Nir Ishwara Vad. India will remain a progressive country only till it remains a secular country. And it will remain a secular country only if Hindu persist in its demographics. India has been tolerant enough to practice appeasement in the name of Amended Secularism , Some fissiparous have even gone to the extent of resisting the introduction of Yoga and Surya Namaskar on the ground that they are of Hindu origin. But if if Yoga and Surya Namaskar are Hindu, then what is the Law of Gravity ?

I believe Secularism and Hinduism are two sides of one coin.  It is time all Indians realise how we value Secularism through our very nature of practice.

*The writer is a Guwahati-based social entrepreneur working towards drawing public attention on United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in India. The views published here are personal.

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