Within the case of India, the absence of any uniform linguistic, spiritual or ethnic id meant that the development of the nation’s territorial claims needed to be constructed round one thing apart from these clearly outlined id markers. On the identical time, this marker of Indian nationality would additionally must be expansive sufficient to put declare over the huge territorial expanse of British India. Consequently, nationalists from numerous backgrounds have invoked an concept of ‘historic, cultural, and civilizational ties’ to legit Indian nation state’s borders. Whereas what constitutes these ties and what’s its scope has been a matter of fixed debate inside Indian nationalism even to this present day, the primordial nature of a shared nationwide unity is past query inside Indian political tradition.
This paper will argue that in tracing the traditional basis of the Indian nation, a lot of the Indian nationalists, whether or not from Hindu nationalist backgrounds or being self-avowedly secular, drew upon explicitly Hindu traditions, historical past, and imagery. This was performed not merely as a part of an elite-driven fashionable undertaking of making an summary nation, but it surely additionally confirmed appreciable lodging and appropriation of prevailing spiritual and regional modes of belonging. Furthermore, other than appropriating a few of these modern modes of belonging, nationalists additionally needed to work in the direction of tracing the origin level of the Indian nation. This seek for origins invariably led to an immutable definition of the Indian nation that had been in existence since antiquity and this antiquity was kind of Hindu in character. The ultimate results of this train was the stable entrenchment of inviolability of India’s ‘sacred geography’ throughout the political tradition of India.
Hindu legacy of the Indian Nationwide Congress
In the course of the anti-colonial battle of the early 20th century, a big problem in framing a declare for Indian independence was to display that the individuals residing throughout the boundaries of British India might represent a nationwide neighborhood. This declare would, because of this, entitle them to the suitable of nationwide self-determination, which in flip paves the way in which for independence from British management. Whereas many Indian nationalist leaders and intellectuals proposed concepts round Indian nationwide id, the concepts that emerged from Congress Social gathering are notably necessary to look at as not solely was it a principal power within the anti-colonial battle, but in addition had a hegemonic standing in politics of post-colonial India (no less than until the late 90s).
Whereas Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru assumed a commanding function throughout the Congress get together and Indian politics after 1950, it should not distract us from the varied strands of Hindu traditionalism that have been current throughout the Congress earlier than Nehruvian domination and continued their presence even beneath his management albeit in a much-diminished function. As an example, William Gould has proven that Congress throughout the United Provinces throughout the 30s and 40s actively collaborated with Arya Samaj and employed a distinctly Hindu vocabulary at native temples, festivals, and competition celebrations to mobilize the plenty. Highly effective Hindu traditionalist figures of the Congress like Purshottam Das Tandon, Madan Mohan Malviya, Sampoornanand, and Govind Ballabh Pant have been outstanding throughout the politics of the United Provinces and have been key to the favored mobilization.[1] Equally, throughout the context of Bengal, Joya Chatterji has demonstrated the shut collaboration between Congress and Hindu Mahasabha all through the 40s. She additional argues that collaboration between each of them was essential in bringing concerning the partition of Bengal on spiritual strains.[2]
Outdoors of the United Provinces and Bengal, outstanding Hindu traditionalists of Congress included Rajendra Prasad, Okay.M. Munshi, and most outstanding of all, Mahatma Gandhi. A plethora of native Hindu volunteer organizations actively cooperated with Congress in popularising campaigns for the boycott of international fabric, upliftment of decrease castes, and actively engaged with Congress’ election marketing campaign of 1937. Congress’ message was often disseminated by way of native temples and on the event of Hindu spiritual festivities. Whilst early because the Eighteen Eighties and Eighteen Nineties, Congress leaders together with teams like Arya Samaj had been advocating for the safety of cows, which have been thought-about the priceless possessions of India and a logo of India’s ritual purity.[3]
Whereas spiritual and mythological symbolism might be simply seen as part of Congress’s technique to develop into a well-liked group, it was additionally a part of an try to search out the origin and foundations of an Indian nation. Even earlier than the mass mobilization turned a characteristic of Congress’s politics, outstanding leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, and Lala Lajpat Rai have been speaking by way of the Hindu neighborhood as a ‘nation’. (Dasgupta) The legacy of discovering these foundations is seen even within the Nehruvian conception of the Indian nation.
Whereas Nehru’s conception isn’t imbued with spiritual symbolism in the direction of which he confirmed a sure discomfort and opposition, it definitely does hint the inspiration of the Indian nation by way of an explicitly Hindu origin level. In that sense, we are able to see that Nehru’s conception of the Indian nation’s territorial boundaries has a lot in frequent with the Hindu nationalist creativeness of the identical. Furthermore, with important sections of Congress having employed Hindu symbols for the articulation of nationwide id and fashionable mobilization, such an origin level was by no means actually up for contestation, even for Nehru.
Nehruvian nationalism, Hindu nationalists, and Indian territoriality
Nehru, whereas exhibiting an acute consciousness of the absence of a single tying id or attribute that might underpin Indian id, was working with a framework inside which the existence of an Indian nation or Indian id was not in query. Underlying this reality, Nehru in his e-book Discovery of India writes:
“…there isn’t a mistaking the impress of India on the Pathan, as that is apparent on the Tamil. This isn’t stunning, for these borderlands, and certainly Afghanistan additionally was united with India for 1000’s of years…Modifications of faith made a distinction, however couldn’t change completely the psychological backgrounds which the individuals of these areas had developed…She was like some historical palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and but no succeeding layer had fully hidden or erased what had been written beforehand. All of those existed in our aware or unconscious selves, although we might not have been conscious of them, they usually had gone to construct up the complicated and mysterious persona of India.”
(Nehru, 61)
The spirit of the above strains can also be demonstrated throughout the narrative construction of Discovery of India, which goals to have a good time the cultural and mental contributions made by totally different spiritual and ethnic teams to the ‘Indian psyche’. However this notion of an assimilative ethos and syncretic cultural consciousness of being Indian couldn’t take form of a nation-state with out a territorial demarcation to strengthen it. This territorial notion was extracted from a primordial previous that fashioned the very base of Nehru’s ‘palimpsest’. The sources of this primordial previous belonged principally to Hindu spiritual texts and archaeological monuments. This in flip meant that Indian territorial limits can be outlined by way of a distinctly Hindu heritage and vocabulary. A transparent expression of this sort of territorial definition of India got here from Nehru in one among his letters written to Zhou Enlai in 1963, as follows:
“The Himalayas have at all times dominated Indian life, simply as they’ve dominated the Indian panorama. One of many earliest Sanskrit texts, although its date is unsure—the Vishnu Purana—makes it clear that the Himalayas fashioned the frontier of India. It states that the nation south of the Himalayas and north of the ocean is named Bharat, and all born in it are referred to as Bharatiyas or Indians.… The earliest reference to the Himalayas is within the Rig Veda, which was written about 1500 B.C. It states that the Himalayas symbolize all mountains (tenth Mandala, tenth Adhyaya, Sukta 121.4). The Kena Upanishad, written someday about 1000 B.C., speaks of Uma the daughter of the Himalayas—Umam haimavatim”
(Eck)
Consequently, whereas within the bigger image of defining Indians and Indian nationalism, Hinduism is merely one of many traditions which have formed its previous and shaping its current, it’s central to Nehruvian nationalism in asserting sovereignty and territorial rights. In accordance with Nehru, individuals residing throughout the above-mentioned territorial boundaries proceed to stay Indians regardless of the change in faith and variety of languages and ethnicity.
Alternatively, Hindu nationalist custom, not like Nehru, accord rather more area and primacy to the Hindu previous and traditions in defining the current Indian nationwide id. Therefore, they arrive at a virtually equivalent scheme of defining India’s territorial extent as outlined by Nehru. That is demonstrated throughout the writings and speeches of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar, each of whom have pivotal roles in defining the political vocabulary of Hindu nationalism. As an example, whereas defining his conception of Indian territory, Savarkar wrote
“We have now met with no higher try to outline our place as a individuals than the terse little couplet within the Vishnu Puran- The land which is to the north of the ocean and the south of the Himalaya mountains is known as Bharata inhabited by the descendants are Bharata.”
(Savarkar, 7)
Equally, Golwalkar, whereas asserting Hindu declare over the Indian nation, additionally arrives at an analogous territorial demarcation as follows:
“Hindus got here from nowhere, however are indigenous youngsters of the soil at all times, from instances immemorial and are pure masters of the land…And we have been one nation- Over all of the land from sea to sea one kingdom! – is the cry of the Vedas!”
(Golwalkar, 59)
As discernible from the above assertions, for each Golwalkar and Savarkar, an necessary function has been prescribed to the current inheritors of this geography, who’ve been referred to as ‘descendants of Bharata’ and ‘indigenous youngsters of the soil’. In each of those circumstances, these inheritors are Hindus and adherents of different spiritual traditions born in India (like Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism). Thus, there’s a notable exclusion of Muslims and Christians inside this definition, one thing that Nehru doesn’t do regardless of arriving on the identical territorial definition.
The similarity within the territorial notions of Savarkar, Golwalkar, and Nehru is kind of exceptional if one takes into consideration the vehement opposition that Nehru and Hindu nationalists confirmed towards one another all through their political life. Consequently, this convergence of opinion round conceptions of Indian territory meant that it didn’t stay merely a theoretical assertion that could possibly be shed away with the waning of the general public reminiscence of the anti-colonial battle. Reasonably, as famous by Ashutosh Varshney in his paper on dominant conceptions of nationhood in post-colonial India, the sanctity of India’s territorial boundaries has remained a steady characteristic of the political tradition. Varshney additional argues that, whereas Indian nationalists have been contesting the relative function of tradition and faith in defining nationwide id, the idea of a ‘sacred geography’ was by no means contested and has remained central to the political tradition of India (Varshney 229-230). Therefore, despite the fact that Hindu nationalist teams like Hindu Mahasabha and Bharatiya Jana Sangh didn’t wield any considerable energy both in states or central authorities for the primary 20 years after independence, the examination of Nehru’s stance and a substantial presence of Hindu traditionalists throughout the Congress makes it’s hardly stunning that this idea would purchase unquestionable salience.
How this notion of ‘sacred geography’ manifested itself inside Indian political tradition might be summed up by what Sankaran Krishna has referred to as ‘cartographic anxiousness’ of preserving and defining the nationwide frontiers. Krishna argues that this anxiousness is born in a foreign country being suspended between ‘former colony’ and ‘not but a nation’. The Indian nationalists, due to this fact, have been caught in a course of of reworking the polity whose frontiers have been outlined by colonialism into one whose borders conform with what might be thought-about a nationwide neighborhood (Krishna 508).
At this juncture, it’s pertinent to ask if the nationalist conception of sacred geography was completely a by-product of colonial modernity, or have been there sure concepts that kind a bridge between our understanding of pre-modern and fashionable notions of Indian territoriality. Whereas the above account might recommend that Indian nationalists have been build up their declare solely primarily based on a handy studying of historical texts and historical past and never making an allowance for the modern realities of Indian cultural practices; such an understanding wouldn’t have the ability to clarify how numerous communities throughout the nation additionally imagined themselves to be part of the sacred geography and what have been the parts of their lived custom that made them amenable to the adoption of Indian nationalist discourse. For this function, Anthony D. Smith’s dialogue of nationalism is especially helpful.
‘Sacred Geography’: Invention of modernity?
In accordance with Anthony D. Smith, id, because it manifests inside nationalism, is neither completely a creation of recent social and financial forces neither is it an expression of an already current collective id that modernity grants a distinct kind within the modern world. Reasonably, it’s a mixture of each of those, and due to this fact, attracts upon a ‘deposit of historical past’ which might be accessed by the nationalists. The nationalist studying of this historic deposit is in flip influenced by the targets that the nationalists are attempting to attain in a specific context (Smith 171-172). This ‘deposit of historical past’ isn’t merely textual but in addition must have necessary materializations throughout the social practices of the neighborhood, which is striving to develop into a nation. This ensures that the historic creativeness of the nation isn’t decreased to mere abstractions and its pre-modern antecedents can be utilized to construct a nationwide id. Within the context of the ‘sacred geography’ of Indian nationalism, students like Diana Eck and Peter Van Der Veer present essential insights into these antecedents.
Veer and Eck word that elaborate networks of pilgrimages throughout India had strengthened the notion of ‘sacred geography’ a lot earlier than nationwide self-determination turned an more and more necessary challenge inside Indian politics. This ‘sacred geography’ though, rather more outstanding in Hindu custom and referenced by Indian nationalists primarily by way of it; additionally existed for Sikhs and Muslims by way of a community of extremely commemorated shrines. Therefore, this current framework of pilgrimage granted sacrality to locations throughout India and could possibly be referenced to create a ‘sacred geography’ inside Indian nationalism (notably inside Hindu nationalism). These ties have been finally used to transcend the boundaries of area people affiliations and construct affinity with Indian territory. These practices existed over and above the textual traditions referenced by nationalists which we have now already seen, and collectively each of those might present a concrete manifestation of territoriality that might situate a given place inside a bigger Indian neighborhood.[4]
It should be famous, nonetheless, that Veer and Eck’s idea of the pre-modern ‘Bharata’ didn’t undergo the ‘cartographic anxiousness’ of post-colonial India. The boundaries of ‘Bharata’ weren’t required to be outlined rigidly and no polity might exert centralized management over all of the territories of recent India earlier than the arrival of British rule. In that sense, Indian nationalists have been modifying fluid pre-modern concepts into a contemporary notion that might conform to the norms of a nation-state. However on the identical time, this train was not completely an imposition or fashionable invention because it might draw upon the already current pre-modern vocabulary to make its case.
Accommodating different patriotisms throughout the sacred geography
Whereas the above account would possibly privilege faith as an necessary consider popularizing the elite discourse of nationalism amongst the plenty, Christopher Bayly additional nuances our understanding of nationalism’s pre-modern antecedents by taking a look at not simply spiritual but in addition regional belongings in colonial and pre-colonial India and consequently tries to take away among the teleological strands current inside Van Der Veer’s argument. By illustrating by way of quite a few examples from Punjab, Awadh, and Maharashtra, he argues that throughout the early colonial interval, the resistance to colonialism was additionally expressed by way of explicitly regional metaphors and vocabulary. This regional patriotism often tried to accommodate numerous spiritual communities however on the identical time, it was not in a position to assimilate them into a standard id. Therefore, these regional expressions didn’t search to precise themselves independently of faith, they fairly emphasised the regional understanding of non secular tenets to point out anti-colonial resistance. These tenets have been then often morphed and merged with an Indian nationwide sense of belonging. This coexistence of regional belongings throughout the ambit of Indian nationalism was, in flip, instrumental in shaping the linguistic federalism of India after 1947.[5]
Going by this conception, nationalism, regardless of being a contemporary political phenomenon, doesn’t must fully change the already current conceptions of the collective creativeness. Reasonably, it builds upon these imaginations which can be already in place and expands their scope by linking them to the bigger undertaking of nation-building. Therefore, spiritual and regional identities fairly than impeding Indian nationalists have been extremely instrumental in spreading nationalist concepts. Subsequently, the political expression of those identities didn’t must conflict with the notion of India’s sacred geography.
Whereas inspecting the above-mentioned frameworks, it should be famous that reaching these lodging was on no account a uniformly profitable course of throughout India. Nationalist claims proceed to be challenged within the areas like Kashmir, Punjab, and Nagaland, the place impulses of non secular and regional belongings at instances tended to oppose the inviolability of India’s territorial integrity. Much more importantly, there was a marked exclusion of any Islamic notion of territoriality in Congress’s nationalist applications. Taking cognizance of this exclusion, William Gould argued that regardless of Congress’ assertion of being a secular get together, its distinctly Hindu understanding of Indian heritage and its casual affiliation with the organizations like Arya Samaj and the RSS, contributed considerably to the alienation of Muslims of United Provinces and their motion in the direction of the demand of Pakistan.[6]
Conclusion
This paper highlights the family tree of Indian nationalism’s territorial claims. It argues that regardless of ideological contestations inside Indian nationalism on many key points, there was a marked convergence on the difficulty of defining the Indian nation’s territorial boundaries by invoking a primordial previous that was primarily Hindu in character. This activity was not merely a creation of recent anti-colonial battle however drew upon and accommodated many ideas from the present vocabulary of a Hindu spiritual and regional belonging. This, in flip, meant that regardless of the range of linguistic, ethnic, and non secular identities inside India, the existence of the Indian nation throughout the boundaries of British-controlled territories of India was past query because the previous has ordained it to be so. Furthermore, the range of latest India was not a formidable impediment in nation-building as lots of the identities that might disrupt this undertaking weren’t solely accommodated but in addition celebrated. However this undertaking was not uniformly profitable and had limitations that turned seen with the creation of Pakistan and insurgencies in Kashmir, Punjab, and Nagaland.
Notes
[1] See Gould 35-87
[2] See Chatterji 191-266.
[3] See Gould 131-166.
[4] See Eck and Veer 1-78.
[5] See Bayly 98-133.
[6] See Gould 131-160.
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