The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi delivered the concept of Panchamrit at Glasgow. It consists of five elements fighting against climate change. The concept has emerged from the Hindus ethos. The theory of nectar is largely concerned with saving the planet and safeguarding the existence of humanity from the clutches of monsters. At the same time many American States celebrated October as the Hindu Heritage Month. Several US States including Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts, have proclaimed October as the Hindu Heritage Month, noting that Hinduism has “contributed greatly” to America through its unique history and heritage. The respective declarations issued recently from the office of the governors of various states, Congressmen and Senators noted, “Communities of the faith have long served as beacons of hope, sharing their beliefs and bettering their communities through service; improving and inspiring the lives of thousands of followers around the world. Hinduism has contributed greatly to our state and nation through its unique history and heritage.” Hindu heritage and culture are thousands of years old; it is our duty to share them with the world and pass it onto our next generations for them so that they take pride in their roots. The acceptance of Hindu Heritage Month could evolve and engage the world to understand the larger issues of the world and resolving them together. The vedic mantra which was stirred by Vivekanad in 1893 still finds resonance.
This article is an attempt to find out what are Hindu Views of the World order and why is it necessary to weave the relations with neighbours through the texture of Hindu order? The modern world order had seen different shades, dictated by successive imperialist European Powers from the 19th century to the 21st century. The polemical world splintered ideological ground, which was categorised as a Left and Right. The communist regime was put into the category of Left and the Capitalist route was identified as Right. Both amassed a whopping arms and ammunition across the world, they also tried to create a bull fight scenario among their satellite States. The post Second World War order was bloody and very disturbing. The end of the Cold War had seen more dictatorial trends and unruly behaviour of America. Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, and Afghanistan were systematically attacked and weakened. The new trend of 21stCentury world order, which talked about changing the axis from the West to the East, is not very different from its earlier format. The emerging China is using the same methods and techniques which were being used by Britain and America. The Chinese approach during the pandemic has shown how China could be reckless and dangerous to world peace and existence to humanity!
Blurring of Lines
The Hindu World Order is neither Left nor Right. It consists of both. The new RSS Sarkaryavah Shri Dattatreya Hosabale said that the geographical, religious, and political divide of Left and Right and East and West have blurred, dimmed, and melted. The integral Hindu world order is based on the essence of humanity, which was shown by India during the 1971 Liberation of Bangladesh massacres when thousands of refugees took shelter in India. It is based on the 1988 proposal of Rajiv Gandhi for elimination of nuclear bombs from the world. There are many more examples when lakhs of people from across the world, belonging to different religions, took a dip in the spiritual Kumbh in Prayagraj or Hardwar for the realisation of common existence. Same is true of the realisation of ‘One Sun, One World and One Grid’. The idea of India is the idea of humanity, not merely geographical confinement of a particular community or people. What is important to understand is that Hindu culture of the Indian subcontinent is umbilical cord, it brings them together. The rest of cultural currents are external. They create fissures than unity and solidarity. The Indo-Bangladesh relations of the last ten years is a model to showcase in the Indian subcontinent.
Obtaining Peaceful World Order
In fact, recent India-Bangladesh relations have bloomed Hindu culture. Therefore, it becomes a necessity to channelise the Hindu textures of making a peaceful world order. To begin with, South Asia could be the starting point. The question could be asked: who are the people scared of booming ties between the two countries? India-Bangladesh relations are deeper than any other strategic partnership and a “role model for ties between two neighbouring countries,' said Indian Foreign Secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla. He said further ‘on humanitarian, political and diplomatic facets of the 1971 war, Indian Air Force played a key role in supporting the struggle of Mukti Vahini. India’s humanitarian response to the refugee issue during that time to be one of the most sophisticated and empathetic in contemporary history. India Bangladesh relations have been strengthened through first neighborhood policy and look act policy. It is equally important to acknowledge that Modi’s first foreign visit since the pandemic was to Dhaka at the invitation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to commemorate the golden jubilee is the testimony to the highest priorities of Indian policy.
Bharat: Mother to Many Foreign Cultures
South Asia has a very complex geography and mixed cultures. The historians called it a melting pot of different cultural heritage like Hindu, Islam, Christianity, Malay and Chinese. Largely it is made of Hindu culture. Not merely South Asia but more than 54 countries spanning from Himalaya to Indian Ocean were born out of Hindu culture. The archival evidence is testimony of this truth. The systematic cultural looting and burning have created larger space for foreign religions and ideas. This continued unabated. Post-independent India was heavily burdened with Western piggy knowledge and continued to rejoice the colonial tests in the post-colonial era. During the Cold War, American think tanks structured aur syllabi and textbooks. The weakening of Indian ethos being categorised as an unscientific and unrealistic story.
The historians called it a melting pot of different cultural heritage like Hindu, Islam, Christianity, Malay and Chinese. Largely it is made of Hindu culture. Not merely South Asia but more than 54 countries spanning from Himalaya to Indian Ocean were born out of Hindu culture
The new regime started to weave a new India to reestablish its lost glory. While understanding India’s cultural history through the prism of world politics, Western centric cold war period was in complete denial of Hindu culture. In Asia there were two major contenders of Asian World Order. Once again China adopted the same tricks and methods to weaken the Hindu culture in the Indian neighborhood. Whether it was Bangladesh or Pakistan, Nepal or Afghanistan, China used to demean the Hindu culture. That is how the Nepal PM was lured to pronounce that Ram Mandir and Ayodhya are in Nepal. It is not merely that the number of Hindus drastically declined from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, but Hindu’s ethos and culture were ruthlessly uprooted by successive regimes in Indian neighborhood. The right to property acts in Bangladesh forced the Hindu populace to flee from there.
Restoring Hindu Culture in Subcontinent
The crucial question is how to get done? What India should do to deter the inimical factors which are dismantling Hindu culture in the 21st Century? Firstly, merely flavors of the soft power are not enough. Even the father of the soft power concept Joseph Nye has also modified his ideas of soft power. Therefore, when he transformed the soft power into smart power, he mixed the soft power with hard power. The hard power is all about military strength, economic baggage, and political will. India needs to pursue a hard power to expand and restore Hindu culture in Indian subcontinent. Hard power does not augur a perpetual conflict or war with the neighbors. Secondly, a new brigade of intellectuals needs to be identified. 50 years of research and seminars in and around the world on Indian culture, must be reviewed, most of them deliberated overtly and covertly to undermine the salience of Hindu culture. Surprisingly, most of these seminars and workshops were funded by Indian funding agencies like University Grants Commission, Indian Councils of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and a couple of others. Under the mandate of the New Education Policy, all these funding agencies should take up the challenges to revive Hindu culture. Thirdly, people-to-people contacts should be initiated not merely with South Asian countries but with almost 54 countries where imprints of Indian culture were deeply ingrained. Lastly, universities and institutes must play a lead role in creating a mindset of understanding and professing Hindu culture.
There is no doubt that the wave of Hindu culture in the subcontinent will bring prosperity and development. That is the spirit of the First Neighborhood Policy. After becoming an independent country, Bangladesh demanded satellite data from India in 1972, which was blatantly denied on the ground of national security. In 2014 while taking oath as the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi advocated for a joint satellite for South Asian countries. This change of mindset needs to be aggressively pursued. The weaving of Hindu culture will cement the fissures and slippages of diplomatic trust deficit. The concept of Panchamrit is the major plank of Indian foreign policy.
