Born in this land called India, also called as Bharat, but referred to by our Islamic neighbors as Hindustan; who exactly am I? What is my identity? Where lies my purpose? What are my responsibilities and most importantly, where are my priorities supposed to connect with those of others from my own land?
The lack of this defined identity is one of the most predominant cause of unrest and divisive character of our country. A country can never be classified as a Nation, unless the people believe in a shared common identity. Unity does not lie in diversity; unity lies in shared values, shared responsibilities and a shared vision for a nation and its future.
Historians have offered various theories as to the origin of the name Bharat for our country. According to one version, the Rig Veda’s 18th hymn of the 7th book describes a vicious war known as “Dasharajna” or battle of ten kings; where ten of the most powerful tribal kings of those times fought against King Sudasa of the Bharata tribe of Trtsu dynasty. Sudasa was victorious in this battle and in honor of this victory, the people of this region started to identify themselves as member of the Bharata tribe and the land was named Bharat Varsha, meaning the land of Bharata. In another version, according to the Mahabharata, our land was named Bharatvarsha after the legendary emperor Bharata Chakravarti; who was the founder of Bharata dynasty and the ancestor of the Pandavas and the Kauravas; who fought against each other in the battle of Kurukshetra for the throne of Hastinapur, also known as the Mahabharata battle.
The term ‘India’ has evolved from the Greek Ἰνδία to Latin India as known in the old English (5th - 12th century AD).
The origins of the name ‘Hindu’ is said to have derived from the river Sindhu, the name of the Indus river as mentioned in the Rig-Veda, somewhere around 1700 - 1100 BC. The neighboring Arabs and Persians who uttered the alphabet ‘s’ as ‘h’, called the land as Hindu which then morphed into Hindustan - the land of Hindu.
Mahmud of Gazni invaded Hindustan around 1001 and started the process of six hundred years of Islamic rule over majority of the country, which was challenged successfully by the Maratha Empire that formally existed with the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1674 and ended in 1818 with the defeat of Peshwa Bajirao the 2nd at the hands of the British East India company. In 1858, the governance was transferred to the British Crown and India became a colony of the Britain till 1947, when it gained independence.
The Constitution of India, as presented to the people of India by Dr. Bhimrao ‘Babasaheb’ Ambedkar was exclusively a document for the People’s Rights and Freedom, and defined the identity of the country as “a shared race, culture and language (that) may provide the basis for a patriotism that was particularly Indian … For nationality to exist there needed to be more than a common race, language or culture. There needed to be a “spiritual essence,” a tie of kinship. Above all, it required “the will to live as a nation” (Ambedkar 1946: 39)”. It can be interpreted that according to Dr. Ambedkar, the identity of our Nation would be a “social feeling” that imbibed a sentiment of fellowship and superseded class and caste differences.
Contrary to his opinion, today we are a nation divided along religion, regionalism, caste, creed and financial inequality. Socialism as a political tool has been the main pillar of all political parties, but in reality the mix economy of free-market and socialism has given rise to lack of rational calculation of costs of development, bureaucratic inefficiency and deep rooted state corruption at all levels of governance due to the concentration of power in the hands of government officials; with limited freedom to entrepreneurs and free-market customers.
This has led to pre-millennial, millennial and GenZ generations of our country to live under the restrictions of aspirations that cannot be met, being victims to distorted thinking about the historical past, myths about governmental successes; all which lead to bad attitudes, poor civil and social habits, lack of self-care, various addictions and lack of balance in life. This further leads to a lack of a clear sense of meaning, purpose and direction in life, with no clear idea of who they are and what they should achieve in life. Without proper guidance, sufficient support from all parts of society, and clear perspectives; they lack the required skills and insights to develop effective strategies in life and sustainable action plans to implement changes in their outlook and daily activities to achieve successful goals.
In order to overcome many of the issues that are creating social and civil unrest in our country and its effect of the deteriorating law and order implementation; its the responsibility of our elected representatives to define our country by one single name - which will be its identity. Once the name has been chosen and made permanent. Governmental ideology cannot be a mix of socialism and free-market. It has to be one or the other, for a clear definition for effective long term strategies. People make up the society that makes up a Nation. If the guidelines stated by Dr. Ambedkar are followed, it would mean that class, caste and religious differences have to be overcome. This can happen by officially identifying our people only by name, age, gender and skill-sets; and replacing cronyism with meritocracy. Cronyism via religion, caste, creed, political affiliations and financial bonding exists as fact of life, rather than an exception. This is one of the prime reasons for constant civil unrest; the others being unfulfilled political promises, differentiation in economic opportunities, institutional ignoring of merit in favor of vote-bank politics, and the lack of effective implementation of law and order which, when reinforced by an inefficient and at times incompetent judiciary leads to a constant social frustration among the majority.
Technology is assisting our current generations to overcome many issues, but the dependence of technology means an higher distrust of the government, its policies and its leaders. Our country is fractured from the inside and unless there are decisive changes that positively impact the majority of our citizens, a looming Constitutional disaster should not be a surprise to anyone.
