Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma claims India to be "civilizational democracy" and "not a constitutional democracy"

Guwahati, Sept 23: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday (Sept 22) claimed that India is "not a constitutional democracy" but a "civilizational democracy". The Assam CM was speaking at the inaugural programme of the 3rd edition of Lokmanthan 2022.

 

 

 

 

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, a major characteristic of Indian civilization is that it does not consider the country only as an inert political entity. "Bharatvarsha is not just a nation-state that came into being in the 19th century, but a living entity. India nurtures one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The sense of Indian identity is not a 19th-century phenomenon when India began to imagine itself as a nation-state," said Assam CM Sarma.

 

  

The CM further said, "The sense of India is a civilizational continuity of the past several millennia. It is true that the European colonial powers could not succeed in destroying the ancient beliefs and traditions of the indigenous population of India. It was because of the inherent power of Sanatan civilization that remained unbeatable in the face of European powers."

 

 

 

 

 

Referring to eminent litterateur Birinchi Kumar Baruah, Sarma said that the litterateur commented that the conception of India as our mother country was conceived by Sankardeva five centuries ago who wanted the people to feel proud of being born in his holy country of Bharatvarsha, as India provides an immense opportunity for the development of men's moral and spiritual potentialities.

 

 

Himanta Sarma also said, "For us, our nation is akin to our Mother, a vibrant goddess whose every geographical appearance - the landscape-rivers-hills and mountains find a place in the verses and hymns of the Indian scriptures. North East had deeply enriched the great ancient Indian civilisation. Eminent 15th-century Vaishnavite saint Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev was the first to associate Bharatvarsha with Assam and referred to it as its motherland."