Guruji: A drishta-XI
Guruji on the common ancestry, culture and traditions of Bharatiyas
S. Gurumurthy
Guruji had defined Hindu Rashtra [read Indian nation] as the trinity of values consisting of (i) devotion to Bharat as motherland (ii) fraternal feeling as the children of the common Mother and (iii) consciousness of the common current of national life traceable to common culture and heritage, history and traditions, ideals and aspirations. [Bunch of Thoughts p175] He reiterated that the realisation and belief that we are 'the children of the same forefathers', 'from the same stock' and 'of this soil' and that 'our great forefathers were one' and 'our aspirations are also one' constitutes ‘Indianisation”. [Ibid p646]. The fact that the people of India, regardless of their faith, are descendents of common forefathers and belonged to the motherland Bharat – that the culture, heritage and traditions of their ancestors constitute their common roots to which their history, a product of land and people, links them – is Guruji's central philosophy of [Hindu] nationalism. Guruji was clear that the common ancestral, cultural and tradional roots constitute national identity.
Pakistan officially owns common ancestry with Hindus. Ignores two-nation theory
Bharat was Partitioned and Pakistan was founded on the basis that the Muslims were not part of Indian [read Hindu] society, culture history and tradition; that the Hindus and the Muslims had little in common; therefore, they both constituted separate religions, societies and nations. Mohammed Ali Jinnah in his Presidential Address to the All India Muslim League at Lahore on March 22, 1940, defined how Hindus and Muslims were different thus: “Hindus and Mussalmans derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes, and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other and, likewise, their victories and defeats overlap.” But, Guruji held the diametrically opposite view. Guruji's philosophy was that, regardless of faiths, the ancestry, heritage, culture, and tradition are common and that constituted the national identity of the people of Bharat [including the Muslims of divided Pakistan and Bharat]. Whether Guruji was right, or was Jinnah, can be easily proved by what ancestral and cultural root and identity the Islamic Pakistan claims now. It might shock Jinnah in grave, if he knew that his own creation at huge human cost and bloodshed, the government of Islamic Pakistan, traces Pakistan's origins to pre-Islamic [read Hindu] historic, ancestral, cultural, and traditional roots, which constitute the commons of both Bharat and Pakistan and Hindus and Muslims. The Islamic Pakistan government's official website links Pakistan people's origin to Indus Valley, Gandhara, Aryan [read Hindu], Buddhist culture and traditions and regards Mauryas, Guptas, Kushanas, Harashavardhana, and Panini and Chanakya besides, as their ancesters. But it has taken care to avoid the word 'Hindu', using 'Thakashakas', 'Aryans', 'Mauryas', 'Guptas', 'Kushanas', 'Harsha Vardhana' instead. Here follows the shocking revelation in detail. It reaffirms Guruji as a seer who, trancending the context, saw the truthful text of common ancestry, culture and traditions of all Bharatiyas, Muslims included and Jinnah as just a politician, who, blinded by the context of power politics, was divisive and divided the Muslims from Hindus, and Pakistan from Bharat.
Indus Valley, serpent worship, yoga, meditation as Pakistan's ancestral and cultural heritage
The official website of Islamic Pakistan government [See Pakistan History Through Centuries by Dr Ahmed Hasan Dani: http://www.heritage.gov.pk/html_Pages/culture.heri.html] on Pakistan's history and culture explicitly owns as part of Pakistan's cultural heritage the pre-Islamic – Aryan, Hindu, Buddhist – forefathers, history, institutions, literature, art, kings, teachers, heroes, who are as much common to Hindus and India. It includes Indus Civilisation, Maurya, Gupta, Kushana, and Harshavardhana empires, Gandhara culture and Sikh period, in the history and cultural heritage of Pakistan. It owns [pre-Islamic, non-Islamic] Indus civilisation as the pride of [Islamic] Pakistan. It proudly proclaims Gandhara culture [again pre-Islamic, non-Islamic] as “the high water achievement of the people of Pakistan.” It traces the “bullock-harnessed plough” “system that still prevails in Pakistan.” as the legacy of Indus civilisation. It proudly claims that Indus Valley “urban populace” had developed “a sense of moral honesty, discipline, cleanliness and above all social stratification in which the priests and the mercantile class dominated the society.” It is proud that Mohanjodaro was “the first planned city in the world”, with drainage system to “separate the clean from polluted water, for the first time seen in the world”. It says that the discipline of Mohanjadaro “is derived from the strict practice of meditation (yoga) that was practiced by the elite of the city, who appear to have trimmed their beard and hair combed and tied with golden fillets.” Proudly owning “the unique local concept” “of highly meditative man, seated in his heels, with three or four heads, and combining in himself the power to control the animals probably with a crown of horns or some times a tree overhead” in Mohanjadaro seals, it claims that that “is this supreme deity, depicted on seals, that draws the serpent worshippers and overpowers the animals.” It says that “[A] part from these there was no concept of nature worship as we find in the Vedas of the Aryans” in the Indus valley. What does all this mean? This. That the Islamic Pakistan accepts yoga, meditation, worship of deities, and serpent worship as part of its culture and heritage. It needs no seer to say that there is nothing Islamic about Harappa or Mohanjadaro which are as much common to Hindus and Bharat as they are to Pakistan. As Guruji would say, the Indus Valley constitutes the common history and culture and the Indus Valley people are common forefathers of all Bharatiyas, Muslims included.
Takshakas and Aryans as Pakistan's ancestors, their kingdoms at Gandhara with capitals at Pushkalavati and Takshasila as its cultural heritage
The Pakistan official website also talks about the Aryans, who, it says, built and lived in villages, and believed in nature gods. It says, “Aryans conquerors developed there own religion of the Vedas, practiced animal sacrifice and gradually built up tribal kingdoms all over the Indus Valley.” It says that “[T]he most prominent” Kingdom built by the Aryans was “that of Gandhara with capitals at Pushkalavati (modern Charsadda) and Taxila, the last having been the older capital of Takshaka, the king of serpent worshippers”, adding that, “Takshasila (a Sanskrit word, literally translated in to Persian Mari-Qila) survives in modern Margala.” It proclaims that Taxila “became the stronghold of the Aryans, whose great epic book Mahabharata was for the first time recited here.” It points out that at “that time Takshasila or Taxila lying on the western side of Margala remained the capital of the Indus land, which was called Sapta-Sindhu (the land of seven rivers) by the Aryans”, and adds that because of its central location, “the new capital of Pakistan has been established at Islamabad on the eastern side of Margala hill”. It talks of “the Aryan village at Hatial mound lying above the pre-Aryan bronze age capital of Takshakas (Serpent worshippers).” All this again means what? This means that the Islamic Pakistan accepts the Aryan ancestry and the Vedic religion, animal sacrifice, and the Aryan kingdoms at Gandhara with capitals at Pushkalavati [now Charsadda] and Taxila, bearing the name of Takshaka, the Hindu serpent king as its cultural heritage; it even traces the name Takshasila into its present name Margala or 'Mari-Qila, the Persian equivalent of the Sanskrit name Takshasila; it owns [the Hindu] concept of Sapta-Sindhu to comprehend Indus rivers, and links itself to epic Mahabharata that, it says, was authored from Taxila. So, precisely as Guruji would say, Aryans and Takshakas are the ancestors of Muslims [of Pakistan or India] as much as they are ancestors of Hindus. Likewise, as Guruji would assert, Taxila University, Mahabharata, Sapta Sindhu, serpent worship are all part of the historic and cultural heritage of Muslims [of Pakistan and India] and of the Hindus.
Taxila University as Pakistan's heritage; Panini and Chanakya and Maurya, Gupta and Kushana emperors as their ancestors and heroes
The Pakistan government goes on and proudly owns and talks of the “oldest University of the world was founded at Taxila”, where, “the great grammarian Panini, born at the modern village of Lahur in Sawabi District of the Frontier Province” taught his linguistics and grammar. It claims, with pride, that it was on the basis of Panini's “grammar that modern linguistics has been developed.” It says proudly that “[I]t is in this University that Chandragupta Maurya got his education, who later founded the first sub-continental empire in South Asia.” It points out that Chandragupta “developed the Mauryan city at Bhir mound in Taxila, where ruled his grandson, Ashoka, twice as governor.” Ashoka, it says, “introduced Buddhism in Gandhara and built the first Buddhist monastery, called Dharmarajika Vihara, at Taxila, and proudly notes, “Ashoka has left behind his rock edicts at two palaces, one at Mansehra and another at Shahbazgari”, written in local language. What does all this mean again? Again this. That the Islamic Pakistan owns the Taxila University as part of its cultural heritage; it celebrates Panini as the great grammarian who taught at Taxila University, Chandragupta Maurya, student at Taxila University, as the first empire builder of Pakistan and Ashoka, once governor at Bhirmound in Pakistan, as its ancestors. It holds out two of Ashoka's edicts as its heritage. So, as Guruji would say, Panini, Chandragupta Maurya, and Ashoka are the forefathers of the Muslims [of Pakistan and India] and the Hindus. Panini's grammar is as much the heritage of Islamic Pakistan as it is of Hindu India, as Guruji would assert.
And what then has forced Pakistan government to ignore Jinnah's two-culture, two-society, and two-nation ideology that divided Bharat and own [Guruji's concept of commonality of ancestors, culture and heritage with Hindus? But, as the long story is not over yet, and continues, await the next parts for answer.
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