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We existed as a nation before British: Why Rahul Gandhi needs to stop rediscovering India
FirstpostIt was fashionable among the Western scholars, evangelists and Indologists to refer to India not as a nation but a conglomerate of nations. Articulating the British view, John Strachy wrote in 1880: “This is the first and foremost thing to learn about India that there is not, and never was an India, or even any country of India possessing, according to European ideas, any sort of unity – physical, political, social and religious, no Indian nation, no ‘people of India’, of which we hear so much.” To understand the view of Strachy better we need to take a look at another description of India done by JA Dubois under the auspices of the East India Company. The so-called political institutions of Europe might, indeed, hinder, instead of helping the growth of our national life; while under conceivable conditions, mere political subjection might not be able to touch even the outer most fringe of that life.” Regarding India as a country, as a nation and about Indian nationalism, Jawaharlal Nehru had also reached the same conclusion as Gandhi, Bipin Chandra Pal, and RK Mookerjee. To a somewhat bare intellectual understanding was added an emotional appreciation and gradually a sense of reality began to creep into my mental picture of India, and the land of my forefathers became peopled with living beings, who laughed and wept, loved and suffered; and among them were men who seemed to know life and understand it; and out of their wisdom they had built a structure which gave India a cultural stability which lasted for thousands of years… These seem to me something unique about the continuity of a cultural tradition through five thousand years of history.” In Nehru’s opinion, this cultural aspect of India is precisely the definition of India, the Indian nation and Indian nationalism. He says: “That vision of five thousand years gave me a new perspective, and the burden of the present seemed to grow lighter.” This is Nehru talking about the continuity of India as a nation, Indian nationalism, and Indian culture in terms of 5,000 years.
History of this topic
‘Nation First' key to India's progress, says President Murmu
Deccan Chronicle
Opinion: BHARAT vs INDIA – Contours of Nationalism vs Pseudo-Nationalism
India Today
To Say That India Was Never A Nation And Became One After British Came Is An Absurd Assertion - News18
News 18
Review of The Nation and its Citizens: Tales of Bondage and Belonging: A lived experience
The Hindu
Interrogating the nation state
The Hindu
Why Rahul Gandhi’s Idea of India Just as a 'Union of States' Is Inadequate
The Quint
Rahul Gandhi Defends His Idea of Nation at Cambridge University, Says India is a Union of States
News 18)
Questioning India’s ‘nationhood’ reflects Rahul Gandhi’s constitutional and historical ignorance
FirstpostShashi Tharoor writes: A struggle between two ideas of India
The Hindu
Opening up the debate on the idea of India
Live MintDiscover Related
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