Akhand Bharat

14 posts / 0 new

Sat, 2018-07-28 18:20

WWWTT

Akhand Bharat

Someone I have met through work turned me on to this. I found it very interesting, and kind of odd that I have never heard of this before???

Germany has reunited, much discussion here on babble and elsewhere of Korea unification China and Ireland, but never the subcontinent? Why is this?

There is also a name for it Akhand Bharat.

Here's some research reading for those interested

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1016612/pakistan-india-and-bangladesh-will-...

http://www.india.com/news/india/akhand-bharat-india-pakistan-utopian-uni...

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/markandey-katju/india-and-pakistan-must-re...

Now I did come across some links that are negative towards this but decided to take the position as a pro reunification poster for the time being.

Sun, 2018-07-29 02:48

bekayne

WWWTT wrote:

Someone I have met through work turned me on to this. I found it very interesting, and kind of odd that I have never heard of this before???

Germany has reunited, much discussion here on babble and elsewhere of Korea unification China and Ireland, but never the subcontinent? Why is this?

Well, for starters, there's religion.

Sun, 2018-07-29 10:17

WWWTT

There’s also religion in the largest atheist country China.

Lots of different religions around the world. I think what you’re getting at is the Hindi Islam divide is too large great bitter?

this divide wasn’t always there, but instead was notoriously created by the British colonial mind set to divide and conquer.

Heres a really good link! Not directly about the sub continent but still a must read for anti colonialism!

http://www.basfeijen.nl/system/divideconquer.htm

Tue, 2018-07-31 19:52

Mr. Magoo

Quote:
There’s also religion in the largest atheist country China.

China, to their credit, is nearly half "unaligned".

But in India (according to Wikipedia):

Quote:
According to the 2011 census, 79.8% of the population of India practices Hinduism and 14.2% adheres to Islam, while the remaining 6% adheres to other religions (Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism and various indigenous ethnically-bound faiths).

79.8 + 14.2 + 6 =100%

Tue, 2018-07-31 20:11

WWWTT

Thanks Mr Magoo, I already mentioned the lopsided lean towards the Hindi faith in India.

What I'm getting at is that the people of the sub continent can get over their differences, possibly by shrugging them off as an exaggeration promoted by the British colonists decades ago, than perhaps reuniting could be a possibility?

Tue, 2018-07-31 20:22

cco

The only religion the British brought to India is Christianity. One can certainly blame the UK and US for their share of divide-and-conquer politics, especially during the Cold War, but the Pakistan Movement wasn't British-founded or backed, and neither Islam nor Hinduism was imposed upon the subcontinent by Europeans.

Wed, 2018-08-01 13:19

(Reply to #6) #7

voice of the damned

cco wrote:
The only religion the British brought to India is Christianity.

And, even then, they didn't do an especially bang-up job of it, given that less than 3% of Indians are currently Christian.

For many years the British East India Company had a policy of opposing the incursion of missionaries into India, on the rather plausible reasoning that it would eff up their business interests. It was only in the 1830s that this policy was changed, under pressure from the more "idealistic" evangelical lobby.

https://tinyurl.com/y7wsoyym

Wed, 2018-08-01 15:57

Timebandit Timebandit's picture

Conflicts between Hindi and Muslim citizens are still regularly causing deaths in India. I think it's more complicated that just setting their differences aside.

Wed, 2018-08-01 18:36

(Reply to #8) #9

WWWTT

cco wrote:
The only religion the British brought to India is Christianity. One can certainly blame the UK and US for their share of divide-and-conquer politics, especially during the Cold War, but the Pakistan Movement wasn't British-founded or backed, and neither Islam nor Hinduism was imposed upon the subcontinent by Europeans.

Thanks for the link and post cco!

Now from I have read in your post it does or may appear that the British did play a hand in promoting division.

Wed, 2018-08-01 18:42

(Reply to #9) #10

WWWTT

Timebandit wrote:

Conflicts between Hindi and Muslim citizens are still regularly causing deaths in India. I think it's more complicated that just setting their differences aside.

Agreed. Also disappointed. Do you believe it's the history of violence that makes resolving violence complicated?

I myself find it sometimes difficult to forgive and forget. But I'm drawing my experience from people whom I have known personally and not a group or religion. Except lawyers, I hate lawyers! LOL

Wed, 2018-08-01 19:04

#11

Timebandit Timebandit's picture

Generations of sectarian violence doesn't just end overnight. So yes, partly history, but also partly the nature of exclusionary religious beliefs baked into a culture.

You should see what they do to atheists in Bangladesh.

Thu, 2018-08-02 04:14

#12

voice of the damned

Wendy Doniger, whose work has been attacked by Hindu fundamentalists, argues that the fundy worldview is a holdover from British colonialism...

Much of my work, including the book under attack, has been devoted to the representation of aspects of Hinduism that the Victorian Protestant British, when they ruled India, scorned as filthy paganism: polytheism, erotic sculptures, spirited mockery of the gods, and rich, earthy mythology. In the wake of the British, in their shadow, many Hindus who worked with the British—I am tempted to call them sepoys—came to share these sentiments. They also took on the British preference for the Sanskrit texts created and perpetuated by a small, upper-caste male elite, regarding as beneath contempt the vast oral and vernacular literatures enriched and animated by the voices of women and lower castes.

It is this “alternative” Hinduism that is denied by Batra and by many Hindus in the fundamentalist movement known as “Hindutva.” Pankaj Mishra, in his review in The New York Times Book Review, expressed the hope that my book would “serve as a salutary antidote to the fanatics who perceive—correctly—the fluid existential identities and commodious metaphysic of practiced Indian religions as a threat to their project of a culturally homogenous and militant nation-state.”4

Though I'd imagine that the anti-Islamic aspects of Hindu nationalism have roots predating the British by a longshot.

https://tinyurl.com/ya3ljs5t

Thu, 2018-08-02 16:50

(Reply to #12) #13

WWWTT

Timebandit wrote:

Generations of sectarian violence doesn't just end overnight. So yes, partly history, but also partly the nature of exclusionary religious beliefs baked into a culture.

You should see what they do to atheists in Bangladesh.

Ok thanks TB.

This link backs you up. -Beware-clicking on it there's some graphic stuff!

https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/rumana-hashem/rape-weapon-silence-ath...

Thu, 2018-08-02 18:50

#14

Timebandit Timebandit's picture

I was thinking more about the murders - usually by hacking to death with a machete - of atheist bloggers and publishers, but that will do.

I’m not clicking the link, btw.