Part 1 of this series can be ‘accessed ‘ here. This is Part 2.
Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas projects to geographically & economically unite India to promote Secularism.
National River Waters interlinking, Coastal Water Desalination & Recycling Plants to resolve large looming Water Crisis across India / Hi-Speed National Information Highway connectivity Grids to bridge Digital Divide in India / An Institutional system for transparent Exploration & development of all Natural Resource Wealth of India/ Implementing High-Quality affordable Healthcare & Education across India / A Long Term National Energy Policy to safeguard secure India’s Energy interests / National Grid Highways & Coastal ways to logistically connect every part of India geographically & economically.
In an increasingly complex divided world, India must accord the Ministry of Culture with the importance it requires and chooses persons with an obvious aptitude for the job
Such National projects of scale and creating durable assets of pride for the entire Nation will create Jobs and goodwill for millions of Indians cutting across Caste, Creed and religious lines thus ushering in True Secularism in India.
All latest scientifically proven research data, recent discoveries and evidence gathered about India’s Cultural Heritage should be shared with young Indian generations through appropriately introduced new chapters in School & University Study curriculum instead of politicising it under some pretext or other.
A new independent contemporary Cultural Study course on India’s Cultural heritage involving all States of the Union should be introduced at leading Universities across India to ensure the new generations of Indians are aware of whats factually right and wrong about its history and culture. Many developed Western countries facilitated its citizenry to understand its own history and culture just as it factually and truthfully is without dressing it up or distorting it.
For India its important to build on our rich ancient Cultural pride as its the only Fuel that can help build an united India and overcome Caste and religious divides that has plagued Indian society for long and help develop a clear understanding of the historical forces responsible for the evolution of Indian society in the Ancient, Medieval and Modern times.
However, a real challenge facing our Parliamentary Democracy with such diverse myriad ethnic, regional and linguistic identities that make up the Indian mosaic Nation State is how to ensure India can still redeem its destiny to become 21st Century Economic & Cultural powerhouse and not just merely end up as World’s most populous Nation !!!!!!
Though its true Indian sub-continent is Multi-Linguistic, Ethnic and religious, but it also has strong Common ancient unifying Cultural & geographical bonding through the Sindhu Saraswati Civilisation dating back more than 10000 years as per latest archaeological evidence thus eclipsing the multi Linguistic, ethnic and Religious divide with enough strength to still create “One Race One Culture One Civilisation” revolution in the entire Indian subcontinent. India should create a Cultural Pride Renaissance programme to unite masses of different faiths and linguistic backgrounds through education and awareness of True history, Culture & Scientific analysis of its rich ancient Civilisation & its genetic roots !!!
In an increasingly complex divided world, India must accord the Ministry of Culture with the importance it requires and chooses persons with an obvious aptitude for the job. The Ministry of Culture needs people with deep interest and knowledge in the Cultural heritage of India and the world, and a firm sense of India’s place in it.
Modern India must combine specific Constitutional measures to protect its overall ancient Cultural ecology and natural heritage
The Ministry of Culture, GoI should form an eminent team of World’s Top Historians, Archaeologists, Linguists, Genetics experts, Art & History Writers and Vedic Scholars with proven track record of deep unbiased study & understanding to review the Cultural Heritage and geography of Ancient India to scientifically collate all evidence and provide a factually balanced & proven updated perspective. Surely if facts are separated from fictions, well documented and backed by scientifically proven evidence collected over time, its possible for the right perspective of India’s history & Cultural heritage to emerge and be assimilated into the modern Indian society.
Also, Ministry of Culture is tasked with implementation of blueprint for establishing a modern Secular India by celebrating the ancient rich History, Culture, Religious freedoms and natural beauty of its unity in diversity to preserve and promote peace & harmony among citizens of India.
If GoI without disturbing Personal faiths, linguistic & Ethnic identities can successfully create a greater overriding powerful National Identity of Cultural Pride and Prestige it will greatly assist the Indian subcontinent erase historical mistakes and distortions of the Past and bypass the Religious & ethnic diversities which have traditionally stood in the way of Unity and growth for the People of entire Indian subcontinent.
Such an endeavour will also gradually sound a death knell for Caste / Creed and religion based Vote Bank Politics from making a mockery of the Indian Democracy and its Institutions of governance. The idea of a modern secular India should somehow be built on top of its Cultural heritage drawing from the rich wisdom of its past into the future.
Even in the midst of its economic success China has made Protection and Promotion of its Intangible Cultural Heritage as a State project because it believes to safeguard its intangible Cultural heritage is not to linger in history, nor to live in the past !!!!
While seeking to safeguard its intangible cultural heritage, China seeks to enhance its people’s Cultural identity and creativity, and encourage more innovative spirit in the building of a harmonious and better society. China realised its far-reaching impact on both today and the future and therefore made it the obligation and responsibility of every citizen to give more support to this cause and exert more influence in the safeguarding of its Cultural heritage.
So why does India, an ancient civilisation State and no less , still regard the study, protection and promotion of its rich Cultural past as some kind of Non Secular plot and thus perpetuating myths of India’s history & cultural past spread during the British rule is often only colonising minds of young generations of Indians with prejudices and complexes transmitted from the biased interpretations of its own history, the social environment and accident of birth and thereby creating a society of Divide and Rule as a State policy as was followed by the Imperial British which impoverished & partitioned India.
Therefore modern India must combine specific Constitutional measures to protect its overall ancient Cultural ecology and natural heritage. It must explore a long-term mechanism to incorporate Indian Cultural Heritage into its economic and social development so that its rich ancient Cultural heritage will not only provide the spiritual geographic homeland for its people, but also make important contributions to the all-round coordinated sustainable development of its society and economy as a whole.
Majority Vote Bank politics is no answer to Minority Vote Bank politics with both only masquerading as Secularism and hurting India’s growth as a Nation & creating States within States thus only legitimising concepts of Religious & Caste based identity Politics
India must also strive to promote equality in its society. Through the post-independence years, there have been different statutory bodies that have dealt with the various specific aspects of discriminations & Human rights violations in India.
Time is now ripe to merge all into an Apex Institutional Body as Equal Opportunities & Rights Commission established with Constitutional safeguards to tackle resolve all issues of discrimination in the Indian society under a New comprehensive Equality and Human Rights Act of India.
Many experts believe as India climbs up the economic food chain and builds a strong middle class, there will be Social and Civil unrest if inequality and identity challenges are not addressed suitably by the Political leadership. India must adequately balance the next stage of its socio-economic development and pay adequate attention to identity & inequality issues prevalent in its society & prevent them causing roadblocks in its National development.
Another logical outcome of lessons from India’s turbulent history could be to have a fresh debate on whether India could transition into a USA style Federation of independent linguistic-based States but with strong robust Federal Institutional architecture to assist the elected Political executive to administer effectively all Multi-State priority governance subjects for National good.
Many experts argue such a Federation could allow the Indian State to experiment much more with sub-national development reforms at State and City levels while facilitating better Federal administrative agility, Institutional expertise and regulatory capacities thus ushering in a more stronger proactive governance delivery model. The popular well-executed reforms will get adopted seamlessly by all States of the Federation while maintaining the basic tenets as per strict Constitutional safeguards of the Federal structure of the Republic. Ultimately a democracy can succeed only if it keeps faith in the wisdom of people and provides a good reason for them to stay united, so its time for India to become such a democracy, and therefore a true strong federation.
Respected thought leaders like Mr S.Gurumurthy and Dr S.Swamy have said that time has come for the assertion of the Indian civilisation and its core Culture concept and decolonising the socio-economic development model of India.
Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee said India being the oldest continuing civilisation is going to be younger” in coming years with the largest number of skilled young working professionals and India can provide spiritual knowledge leadership to the world.
Sanjeev Sanyal noted economist and history Writer says for Indian civilisation to be kept alive and thriving its important for India to conduct its own deep scientific exploration of its Cultural past and tell its own Story and quotes an African saying “ As long as the Lions don’t have their own storytellers, the history of the Hunt will always glorify the Hunter “…an apt reference to colonial era biases in the History of India.
Dr Raj Vedam co-founder of Indian History Awareness and research says failure to inculcate a national Indian identity is due to a failure of positive narration of history which leads to an inability to connect to the past and justifies the quest for National identity since as an ancient Society and Culture unless we know where we came from … how will we know where we are today and where we are going tomorrow !!!!!
As per Dr David Frawley the Vedic Scholar, for India to gain its true place of respect in the World of nations it must reaffirm its own Civilisational identity honouring its profound and enduring Dharmic traditions as only a strong Cultural bonding can effectively deal with all divisive forces disrupting the progress of India as a modern United Secular nation.
Majority Vote Bank politics is no answer to Minority Vote Bank politics with both only masquerading as Secularism and hurting India’s growth as a Nation & creating States within States thus only legitimising concepts of Religious & Caste based identity Politics.
As India steps forward towards a truly shared economic future, it must shed old stereotypes that reinforce a divide & rule analysis of India on narrow religious sectarian lines and instead look deeper, seeking transparent robust policy solution based economic models that work across a variety of States and at the district levels across the Country.
India’s Policymakers should seek to move outside the box on inclusive growth & development issues, and consider how to bring about positive radical socio-economic change across India. Without removing the Caste/Creed & religious frictions in its Society, India cannot effectively implement much needed basic reforms in Healthcare, Education, Water nor can it deliver Social Welfare & Justice for all its citizens.
Today India needs a few catalysing forces to reach its full economic potential and become a global role model overcoming key socio-economic developmental obstacles and to build an inclusive, sustainable and equitable society is therefore only by reinforcing its ancient rich common core Culture concept.
Can we expect such an endeavour from the NDA Govt or are such policy thrusts too difficult, far-fetched and unrealistic to ever achieve in India by any Political party in power ????
Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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