Skip to main content

Re-naming India as Bharat? First instill life into the country's body politic, its people!

By Sudhansu R Das 
Slogans, posters and narratives can qualify for patriotism if those audio visuals are backed by concrete actions.  Living patriotism needs sacrifice and without sacrifice patriotism is a loud noise only.  Lord Rama had sacrificed the Bhog Vilas of his palace to establish Ram Rajya; he had set an example of the finest form of patriotism.  What followed after that was the continuation of good governance for several hundred years. The existence of Hindu temples in Asia and in many parts of the world are proof of the outreach of the Ram Rajya. 
Today, keeping national interest above the hidden personal interest is the biggest challenge before the countrymen; this is the only way to make India strong and prosperous. Today, the world has become a place where might becomes right- a kind of jungle raaj announces the advent of the worst form of Kaliyug. The leaders of strong nations without Sanskar or proper religious  training make the leaders of the weak nations look like murgas; they behave as if they are their masters. 
There is one escape route from this embarrassing situation; the weak nations need to unite and develop their core strength; for that they need to focus on dedicated research to build the human resources, economy and weapons. The majority of the Indians are the practitioners of Hinduism which enshrines the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam; unless the people of the nation become strong economically, culturally and intellectually they cannot safeguard their core philosophy of love and peace. GDP growth can build wealth for the big investors but it can’t weave the core strength of the country which is inclusive growth based on education, skills and talents.  True Indian patriots should build the core strength of the country brick by brick.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary, Dattatreya Hosabale wants India to be named as Bharat.  This should have been done long before independence or soon after independence as Bharat is very much associated with the nation’s rich civilization for more than 5000 years. This is not like renaming a country but it is like restoring the original name, Bharat.  Bharat is the most precious social capital of India which instills confidence and self respect among the people.  Debating over Bharat is like doubting the country’s history, culture and civilization. There should not be any attempt to politicize the name Bharat which will be detrimental to the progress of the country. A nation should not be named by foreigners. 
Only restoring the name Bharat will not make the country strong. There is a need to instill life into Bharat. India’s core strength lies in its people who need to be properly educated and be freed from malnutrition, poverty and unemployment.  The biggest task before the country now is to stop population growth which will create unrest and force the government to spend huge expenditures on the social sector. It will never let the country rise from poverty and backwardness. Population growth without capacity building will build vote banks. Rapid population growth will change the entire demographic composition as it happens at an alarming pace in the tribal districts and in the backward districts of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh; the cultural landscape of those regions has changed.  More than seven and half decades is too long to educate people about the benefits of family planning. There is a lackluster approach to effectively use deterrence for checking population growth in the interest of the country. 
Massive bank frauds threaten to collapse the financial sector and neutralize the GDP growth gain. It erodes people’s trust and jeopardizes the future of millions of innocent depositors; the old people are hit hard.  There is a need for cyber commandos to deal with this situation as quickly as possible.  The majority of the frauds in its wide diversity germinate in Hyderabad; the city alone is capable of crushing the economy of the country into dust.  True patriotic leaders should put honest and efficient people in the financial sector to take on the menace head on. Lord Rama took the advice of saints and seers who were experts in statecraft; he had learnt governance from the demon king Ravana who had acquired all the knowledge of the Vedas. India has no dearth of intellectuals, saints and seers who can guide the leaders. Bharat is our home and the citizens are like the children of the rulers. True patriotic leaders will strengthen democracy which will breed good and capable leaders to build Bharat.
Lord Rama took Jal Samadhi after grooming Luv and Kush into capable leaders.  Similarly, the septuagenarian leaders should identify really capable leaders with budhi, sidhi, bichar and patriotism; they should hand over power to young leaders.  After that they can take Jal Samadhi or go to the forest ashram or to the caves of Himalaya. But, the greed for power and luxurious life seldom encourage them to walk on the path of Sanyas.  In India the majority of the regional political parties and the centrist Congress party suffered heavy electoral loss due to Santan Moha which blocked the growth of dynamic leaders within the party to take on BJP in the center. Frankly speaking, India is facing a drought in the second generation of quality leaders. This should not turn into a crisis. 

Comments

TRENDING

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan  In a groundbreaking  study  spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram  India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra  Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today. 

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu.  He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah  A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah  Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah*  ​A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .