I donot subscribe to the view that Home Sapiens came from Africa.But still accepting it for an argument's sake, this is milleaneums ago andno people of the world around fashioned into different nations by the work oftime can call themselves to belong to that country.Mazzini will not belong to Italy, nor can Shakespeare belong to England. What is a Nation ?If Religion is binding force then why did Pakistan Split ?If Language is binding force then why is West Bengal in India ?If Ethnicity is bonding force then why do North and South Korea Exist ?If Ideology is binding force then why did Russia fall down ? A State is made by the times of the day, but a Nation is a bigger thing.A Nation is a civilisational and cultural entity.India is a cultural and civilisational entity.Take the example of Tirukural. It is a Tamil Book, take the first verse of the Kural andread it to an Assamese, he will not understand a word of it.But he will understand that it talks about Bhagavan !!! That is the cultural unity !!! The Shankaracharya Hill in Kashmir, reminds you of the boy from remote Kaladi in Kerala.A Kalidasa of Ujjain feels Himalayas as his own. Ganga is sacred even where Kavery flows ! People feel free to travel to all the places where they feel Rama walked,Sita slept, Hanuman jumped, Shiva danced !!!!There are hundred places in India where people believe Sabari lived !!!! Whether it is Dangs at Sabarikantha at Gujarat to the places where Saurabh writes in Madhya Pradesh !!!! Maharana Pratap is a hero not only for Rajasthan, but for whole country.Only because he was a hero that the great Baji Rao of Mahratta offered to make theMaharana of Udaipur the Emperor of Hindusthan, replacing the Mughals ! Almost entire India from Attock to Jinji and Tanjore was with Mahrattas, had not therebeen civil war between them, India would have become a single state even before !!! It is because we are a Nation that we have Krishnadevaraya write of Andal's Story in beautiful Telugu !!!It is because of us being one Nation that a Vivekananda of Bengal feels at home at Madras!!!When a Gandhi comes with Rama's name on his lips, he is a Mahatma not only for Gujarat but for kerala also. We from times immemorial are one Nation with as much diversity as Geography allows us to have, but as much unity as our Civilisational Consciousness is allowed to have.If that is killed , then as a Nation, we are dead !!!!! Regards,S.KarthikVandemataram
Well Said Mr. Karthik Srinivasan! When I was in India I did not feel what you said, but after living for more than 25 years in Los Angeles, I can sincerely appreciate what you said. Please send this email to The HINDU published from Madras. I would like to see it in Letters to Editor from Los Angeles in e-version! There is a need to inculcate this feeling the mind of our children and grand children all over the world.
Dear All It has been interesting to read various posts but I think it is prudent to be practical and analytical rather than have dogmatic veiws. Its no doubt that India and Indian Culture in various forms has co existed with the great civilsations of th earth....but defintely not in its present form....USSR and Czech Republic examples are good but equally you have to consider the USA and Canada....They are examples of multi cultural identities held together...If you take Europe at any given time the boundries have varied roman empire, greek empire, the holy roman empire, nepolian, first reich the examples are countless and the borders have changed with time culminating in at we have today.....India is a Big EU like union....Can a Greek or Italian state we ruled all of Europe so it is greece or italy today? Yes Cheras might have helped the pandavas that doesnt prove they were one nation, they were nations in an entity called the Indain subcontinent or Bhratha vansha.....Yes we celebrate Rana pratap and Shivaji....Ask how many people know about RRC , RJC, or even Krishnadeva raya in the north??It is a rude awakening when someone states " Aap Hindi Nahi Janthe...Aap Bharat me Kya karenge?" You dont know Hindi what are doing in India?We blame the outside intruders, for dividing us and creating disharmony but are we truly engaing everyone if so why would they look elsewhere....If you have travelled in deep UP Himachal you will see the difference between Indian bethren.I was recently in Austria a part of South Tyrol which was Austrian before WW2 where lots of Italians emigrated for work allegedly was inspected by higher american authorities after the war and as they heard many people speaking Italian that area went to Italy in the new borders!! Thats how current borders are created.I think at somepoint we have to be pround of what we are we were an ancient civilisation, we were invaded by many, some plndered and left some stayed and mingled and they all left an impact on our heritage and we have evolved....A good thing to learn from the Brits is they accept their history as facts, There were Celts and Picts...they were invaded by Romas, Vikings, Anglans, And Saxons and Normans and What is today as Britain is an amalgamation of all these influences....They don't go about we were Celts rest are outsiders....What if the indus valley people moved south they are still ancestors of Today's Indians...India is incredible...Its Indians who have lost their direction at times leading to the miseries which were foisted on us. My personal thoughts SR
If I can stop one heart from breaking,I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching,Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin, Into his nest again, I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson To: [email protected]
What I want to say is that a Tradition does exist which runs as a thread among the pearls. That is the civilisational consciousness of this country. The British education has badly hurt this tradition.
The Northerners may not know much about Krishnadevaraya. But they worship another person from Andhra, Sri Vallabhacharya, who was almost lived in same time. He is a hero in Gujarat, Rajasthan and has much following in Madhya Pradesh. Born on the banks of Godavari, he travelled throughout the length and breadth of India. And a sampradaya is present in his name. Maharana of Mewar gave shelter to the Vigraha he worshipped and which was in danger due to Aurangazeb's destructive orgy in Mathura-Vrindaban. And when prosperity attained Mewar after his coming, the place where the Vigraha was stationed became the Lord's permanent abode and still famous as SriNathji !!! Common people have preserved places where he sat and gave discourse. It is called as Mahaprabhuji ka Baitak. Such instances can be multiplied.
Dear ShankarWell said but you will equally appreciate that the ones abroad are equally as fervent as the others regarding the culture. Mera Joota Hai Japani Yeh Patloon Englishtani Sar Pe Laal passport British Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani!! KarthikOne size does not fit all Let us not forget but for British excavations we would have still not known the antiquity of many of our cultural heritage (the bigtemple included).You and I will not be corresponding in this media but for that english education...and Indians( particularly tamils) will not be ruling the roost in US and Europe...as we did not get taught Hindi and once you cross Guntur...you cannot survive.... I am not denying some south Indians are venerated in the north but not all of them... Shankar again...Thanks for adding evidence to my arguement with th reach summary...the sun worshipers and saurashtrans are part and parcel of Indian culture yes they can trace their ancestry to Iran but they are as Indian as all of us... Thats Incredible India...It welcomes it assimilates it evolves it demonstrates its greatness in that....I think that concept of India of mine and I am proud of it. KR Sri
If I can stop one heart from breaking,I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching,Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin, Into his nest again, I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson To: [email protected]
You have quoted the famous film song But I feel a better description of those out of the country and feel for it will be the lines by Mohammed Iqbal in Sare Jahan Se Accha
Gurbaton me ho agar ham, rahatihai dil watan me, Samjo wahe hame bhi, dil ho jahan hamara !!!!
We remain far away, yet our heart is with the Nation, Indeed we remain there, where our heart is !!!!
Not just a few south Indians, you can check for the Mutts in Kashi built by Kumara Gurubarar and many saints patronised by North Indians without any tinge of North south divide.
Great men like Gandhi, Bharathi,Radhakrishnan, Vivekananda have all criticized British education system, I just repeat the charge.
I donot at all agree that without british education, we would have been in wilderness. Abdul Kalam says that Rockets were first invented in India. Before Marconi, J C Bose had invented technology for Wireless communication, the West refused to recognise this until recently. When Sister Nivedita asked JC Bose to patent his knowhow, he refused saying that his knowledge belonged to the world !!! That is Incredible India for me.
On one side – we had excellent metallurgy, Maths, astronomy, rocket science, medicine etc etc which is right. But it is also right that at the beginning of 18thC we lost most of them.
The British education definitely benefited us because that was the only possible common system then butBritish are not to be blamed for we loosing our traditional knowledge.
I refer in all my presentation that “ vellaikaran” only saved our epigraphs. After British, we have not brought out a single volume of our epigraphs from Mysore. Fortunately the State Archeology of Chennai – thanks to the towering people who headed it brought out volumes.
We are still destroying our epigraphs, miniatures, sculptures and we are to be blamed.
Similarly there are close to 50 articles condemning another religion using Kathakali for their religious themes but no one is organizing a kathakali or Therukkooothu or Karagattam or kattaikkoothu in our temple. They only organize light music in temples. We will end destroying our tradition.
India has a great adoptability. We adopted violin, viola, harmonium, clarinet, saxophone even in our carnatic music. That is why it rejuvenated itself.
Bharatha Natyam adopted to stage format.
Vedic learning adopted to text books for higher learning leaving the oral tradition to basic Vedas and text books with sound notations were published for higher learning. Hence many such schools are very active now.
We learnt English and now they are dependent on us even for finding a location in their country. We guide them sitting at Chennai. We adopted all there financial systems and still continued savings and economically better than them. We are following Japanese production system and are better than them in every aspect except for our delivery ( due to roads) and have the best auto companies here.
The problem with us is we are not focusing on all our tradition and once we do ( need to do urgently as the generation which knows it is ageing) we will be better than them in everything.
To sum up – India has the ability to assimilate and digest every thing new and change it to Indian. Simply – when we are in Rome, we make others Indian.
Indian tradition is saved by all the four : 1. One who fought the onslaught ( some won like Vijayanagar, Sivaji – some lost like Srirangan, Himu), 2. one who ran to safety for protecting our traditions ( Like Srirangam people or Nalanda people who fled to Tibet), 3.One who stayed and adjusted with them ( Like Rajputs) and 4.by people who became part of the country ( Like our Thomas Munroe,)
I agree with you. Even as late as 1820, madras presidency had more schools, more students as % of the population. Dharampal has done an excellent job in collecting data from british records. Sampath
Dear Sankar Nobody could have summaries this as beautifully as you have done. Thank you Sri
If I can stop one heart from breaking,I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching,Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin, Into his nest again, I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson