A Confident Bharat Can Promote the 'One Earth, One Family, One Future' theme
02 Dec 2022 16:59:45
As Bharat assumes the new global responsibility to lead the powerful G20 group of nations from Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made Bharat’s vision very clear when in an article to commemorate the occasion he said that the country will work to promote the universal sense of oneness.
G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation representing around 85 percent of the global GDP, over 75 percent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. Apart from Bharat, the G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union.
“The previous 17 Presidencies of the G20 delivered significant results -- for ensuring macro-economic stability, rationalizing international taxation, relieving debt-burden on countries, among many other outcomes,” the Prime Minister said in his article.
“We will benefit from these achievements, and build further upon them. Bharat sees all living beings, and even inanimate things, as composed of the same five basic elements -- the 'panch tattva of earth, water, fire, air, and space. Harmony among these elements, within us and between us, is essential for our physical, social, and environmental well-being. Bharat will work to promote the universal sense of oneness. Hence our theme is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” i.e.'One Earth, One Family, One Future," he wrote.
"Our priorities will focus on healing our 'One Earth', creating harmony within our 'One Family' and giving hope for our 'One Future'," he added.
"During our G20 Presidency, we shall present India's experiences, learning, and models as possible templates for others, particularly the developing world," the Prime Minister emphasized in his article.
What the Prime Minister said in his article has been the world mission envisioned by the galaxy of ancient great seers and modern savants like Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda, and Rishi Aurobindo; Lokmanya Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi; Veer Sawarkar and Dr. K. B. Hedgewar. Their vision was quintessentially based on the solid bedrock of Sanatana Culture, Ethos, life values, and the World View of Bharat.
Bharat since time immemorial has held dear to itself the mission of peaceful co-existence of all beings and proclaimed “Let everyone be happy; let everyone be free from all ills”. This ancient nation never tolerated the idea of the ‘greatest good of greatest numbers’ but propagated the concept of “total good of all beings – animate and even inanimate. And the Prime Minister exactly re-asserted this motive when he said in his article that the theme Bharat will work with G20 is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” i.e.'One Earth, One Family, One Future," focusing on ‘One Earth, creating harmony within our ‘One Family’ and giving hope for our ‘One Future.
The present-day world is confronted with a harsh reality of discord and disruption destructing human society and hitting the balance of nature. Today the world is divided into various exclusive groups known as nations that are engaged in promoting their own selfish agenda. The war has torn asunder the regions of the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia; Terrorism has hit hard bleeding several nations across the globe; attacks by biological weapons like Coronavirus literally taking a toll on millions of lives and so on making the task of human unity and harmony most difficult to achieve. We must remember that India assumes the Presidency of G20 at such a crucial juncture and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces on the very first day his mission to initiate steps towards universal peace.
Exuding confidence the Prime Minister on assuming the Presidency of G20 said that we will accomplish our mission. However, the most pertinent question is how we are going to achieve this mission. The very first condition to make our nation capable of fulfilling this task is to have firm, unshakable faith in our cultural ethos and life values and of course in our history. Unfortunately in our country, this is the main factor that is seriously lacking. Our own people do not take pride in our history, and traditions, negate and neglect our national heroes, grossly unsubscribe to the scientific achievements of our ancestors, and so on and so forth.
Our history books still teach us about the theory of the ‘Aryan Invasion’ and divide people of this land into the invading hordes of the ‘Arya’ who pushed the ‘Aboriginal Dravidas’ further down south. We are still told how the society stands divided into castes and sub-castes, tribes and sub-tribes and that we were never a nation in the past but a conglomerate of various ethnic groups speaking different tongues and practicing varied ways and modes of worship.
The Prime Minister referred to this sorry state of affairs during the course of the speech he delivered at the function to commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of Assam’s brave hero Lachit Borphuken who defeated the mighty Mughal Army of Aurangazeb in the Battle of Saraighat near Guwahati. Hardly, anyone knows about the heroic deeds of this great son of Bharat whose leadership and valor drove the invading Mughals to retreat and never ever dare attack Assam.
But our history textbooks hardly mentioned such heroes and heroines who fought against the invading forces and pushed them back in the past. The so-called ‘historians’ who wrote these history textbooks described these incidents in our history as “Tanglewood Tales” i.e. the period of confusion and darkness. The later periods were divided into the “Mughal Era” and the “British Era”. For them, the Hindus or the Bharateeyas did not have a history of their own worth mentioning.
This resulted in creating a sense of self-negation and led to an inferiority complex among the people of Bharat, especially those educated in the present system. We are aware that the foundation of the present system of education was laid by an Englishman called Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay.
Macaulay had an ulterior motive in introducing this English education system. It was to erode the sense of patriotism and duty towards the integrated personality of our country. Macaulay explained his intention to his father in 1836. In a letter, he wrote: “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern- a class of persons Indian in blood and color but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. He further wrote, “No Hindu who has received an English education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion…If our plans of education are followed up there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal 30 years hence.”
The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) is the best example of how the British distorted our history and glorious past. The mischievous propaganda carried on by the British under the cover of historical research during the last century has struck deep into the minds of our people including the poisonous roots of the Aryan invasion theory. It still rules the roost even after it was blasted by scholars and excavations at Rakhigadhi in Haryana.
The impact of Macaulay’s education pattern is still visible even after 75 years of our independence. What a tragedy! Even to this day, the same insidious indoctrination of young minds is carried on in the schools and colleges of our country. As a result, many of our people believed that we had no national life and nothing great whatsoever. Leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru used to say that we are “a nation in the making”.
It was during the Congress government rule since independence there was no serious effort to change the education system to instill pride and self-respect in our true history, our heroes, and their heroic deeds. The entire work of setting the tone of our history textbooks was contracted to the Communist and Leftist ‘experts’ who only drew a sort of sadistic pleasure at the distortion of our history. It was after the BJP Government came to power under the leadership of Narendra Modi the demand for re-writing history textbooks started surfacing. But it took almost six years for the government to initiate this process.
Speaking at the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Borphukan on Nov 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi observed that Bharat’s history has been promoted as a “history of slavery”. This was done as a part of a conspiracy to intentionally suppress the ‘countless stories of victory over tyranny during the long period of invasions by attacking hordes. It was a deliberately committed mistake not to include those events in the mainstream to generate a feeling of pride and self-respect, Modi observed.
Modi is not the only person making such observations on the conspiracy. His colleague in the party and Home Minister Amit Shah too echoed similar sentiments when he asked: “Who is stopping us from presenting history properly and in a glorious manner? He appealed to students and university professors to remove the distortions in our history from our textbooks.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been at the forefront of demanding course correction in the syllabus of history for a long. The Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Samiti (ABISS) has initiated work in this respect and the first textbooks are expected soon to be introduced in the school curriculum.
Teaching true history is essential to instill a sense of self-pride and confidence in society. Such a confident society can alone bring about the desired change and become instrumental in accomplishing the mission a country is destined to fulfill. Bharat has a mission and a commitment to the world to accomplish. The Prime Minister referred to this commitment in his article quoted at the start of this article. The Bharatiya society of late is slowly showing signs of its awakening from the deep slumber of self-ignorance caused by what the Prime Minister called “colonial conspiracy’. The sooner it gets recharged to its original self the better to accomplish the mission of 'One Earth, One Family, One Future, set by the Prime Minister. The world is looking at Bharat with great hope and conviction.
This confidence was visible recently when the visiting heads of G20 mission were taken to the Cellular Jail in Andaman where revolutionaries and freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar were incarcerated for two consecutive life terms. They visited the cell where Veer Savarkar was put by the British government for 11 years before he was released. And we have our own leaders like Rahul Gandhi who untiringly hurl all kinds of vile abuses at our great freedom fighters and heroes.
G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation representing around 85 percent of the global GDP, over 75 percent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. Apart from Bharat, the G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union.
“The previous 17 Presidencies of the G20 delivered significant results -- for ensuring macro-economic stability, rationalizing international taxation, relieving debt-burden on countries, among many other outcomes,” the Prime Minister said in his article.
“We will benefit from these achievements, and build further upon them. Bharat sees all living beings, and even inanimate things, as composed of the same five basic elements -- the 'panch tattva of earth, water, fire, air, and space. Harmony among these elements, within us and between us, is essential for our physical, social, and environmental well-being. Bharat will work to promote the universal sense of oneness. Hence our theme is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” i.e.'One Earth, One Family, One Future," he wrote.
"Our priorities will focus on healing our 'One Earth', creating harmony within our 'One Family' and giving hope for our 'One Future'," he added.
"During our G20 Presidency, we shall present India's experiences, learning, and models as possible templates for others, particularly the developing world," the Prime Minister emphasized in his article.
What the Prime Minister said in his article has been the world mission envisioned by the galaxy of ancient great seers and modern savants like Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda, and Rishi Aurobindo; Lokmanya Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi; Veer Sawarkar and Dr. K. B. Hedgewar. Their vision was quintessentially based on the solid bedrock of Sanatana Culture, Ethos, life values, and the World View of Bharat.
Bharat since time immemorial has held dear to itself the mission of peaceful co-existence of all beings and proclaimed “Let everyone be happy; let everyone be free from all ills”. This ancient nation never tolerated the idea of the ‘greatest good of greatest numbers’ but propagated the concept of “total good of all beings – animate and even inanimate. And the Prime Minister exactly re-asserted this motive when he said in his article that the theme Bharat will work with G20 is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” i.e.'One Earth, One Family, One Future," focusing on ‘One Earth, creating harmony within our ‘One Family’ and giving hope for our ‘One Future.
The present-day world is confronted with a harsh reality of discord and disruption destructing human society and hitting the balance of nature. Today the world is divided into various exclusive groups known as nations that are engaged in promoting their own selfish agenda. The war has torn asunder the regions of the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia; Terrorism has hit hard bleeding several nations across the globe; attacks by biological weapons like Coronavirus literally taking a toll on millions of lives and so on making the task of human unity and harmony most difficult to achieve. We must remember that India assumes the Presidency of G20 at such a crucial juncture and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces on the very first day his mission to initiate steps towards universal peace.
Exuding confidence the Prime Minister on assuming the Presidency of G20 said that we will accomplish our mission. However, the most pertinent question is how we are going to achieve this mission. The very first condition to make our nation capable of fulfilling this task is to have firm, unshakable faith in our cultural ethos and life values and of course in our history. Unfortunately in our country, this is the main factor that is seriously lacking. Our own people do not take pride in our history, and traditions, negate and neglect our national heroes, grossly unsubscribe to the scientific achievements of our ancestors, and so on and so forth.
Our history books still teach us about the theory of the ‘Aryan Invasion’ and divide people of this land into the invading hordes of the ‘Arya’ who pushed the ‘Aboriginal Dravidas’ further down south. We are still told how the society stands divided into castes and sub-castes, tribes and sub-tribes and that we were never a nation in the past but a conglomerate of various ethnic groups speaking different tongues and practicing varied ways and modes of worship.
The Prime Minister referred to this sorry state of affairs during the course of the speech he delivered at the function to commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of Assam’s brave hero Lachit Borphuken who defeated the mighty Mughal Army of Aurangazeb in the Battle of Saraighat near Guwahati. Hardly, anyone knows about the heroic deeds of this great son of Bharat whose leadership and valor drove the invading Mughals to retreat and never ever dare attack Assam.
But our history textbooks hardly mentioned such heroes and heroines who fought against the invading forces and pushed them back in the past. The so-called ‘historians’ who wrote these history textbooks described these incidents in our history as “Tanglewood Tales” i.e. the period of confusion and darkness. The later periods were divided into the “Mughal Era” and the “British Era”. For them, the Hindus or the Bharateeyas did not have a history of their own worth mentioning.
This resulted in creating a sense of self-negation and led to an inferiority complex among the people of Bharat, especially those educated in the present system. We are aware that the foundation of the present system of education was laid by an Englishman called Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay.
Macaulay had an ulterior motive in introducing this English education system. It was to erode the sense of patriotism and duty towards the integrated personality of our country. Macaulay explained his intention to his father in 1836. In a letter, he wrote: “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern- a class of persons Indian in blood and color but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. He further wrote, “No Hindu who has received an English education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion…If our plans of education are followed up there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal 30 years hence.”
The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) is the best example of how the British distorted our history and glorious past. The mischievous propaganda carried on by the British under the cover of historical research during the last century has struck deep into the minds of our people including the poisonous roots of the Aryan invasion theory. It still rules the roost even after it was blasted by scholars and excavations at Rakhigadhi in Haryana.
The impact of Macaulay’s education pattern is still visible even after 75 years of our independence. What a tragedy! Even to this day, the same insidious indoctrination of young minds is carried on in the schools and colleges of our country. As a result, many of our people believed that we had no national life and nothing great whatsoever. Leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru used to say that we are “a nation in the making”.
It was during the Congress government rule since independence there was no serious effort to change the education system to instill pride and self-respect in our true history, our heroes, and their heroic deeds. The entire work of setting the tone of our history textbooks was contracted to the Communist and Leftist ‘experts’ who only drew a sort of sadistic pleasure at the distortion of our history. It was after the BJP Government came to power under the leadership of Narendra Modi the demand for re-writing history textbooks started surfacing. But it took almost six years for the government to initiate this process.
Speaking at the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Borphukan on Nov 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi observed that Bharat’s history has been promoted as a “history of slavery”. This was done as a part of a conspiracy to intentionally suppress the ‘countless stories of victory over tyranny during the long period of invasions by attacking hordes. It was a deliberately committed mistake not to include those events in the mainstream to generate a feeling of pride and self-respect, Modi observed.
Modi is not the only person making such observations on the conspiracy. His colleague in the party and Home Minister Amit Shah too echoed similar sentiments when he asked: “Who is stopping us from presenting history properly and in a glorious manner? He appealed to students and university professors to remove the distortions in our history from our textbooks.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been at the forefront of demanding course correction in the syllabus of history for a long. The Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Samiti (ABISS) has initiated work in this respect and the first textbooks are expected soon to be introduced in the school curriculum.
Teaching true history is essential to instill a sense of self-pride and confidence in society. Such a confident society can alone bring about the desired change and become instrumental in accomplishing the mission a country is destined to fulfill. Bharat has a mission and a commitment to the world to accomplish. The Prime Minister referred to this commitment in his article quoted at the start of this article. The Bharatiya society of late is slowly showing signs of its awakening from the deep slumber of self-ignorance caused by what the Prime Minister called “colonial conspiracy’. The sooner it gets recharged to its original self the better to accomplish the mission of 'One Earth, One Family, One Future, set by the Prime Minister. The world is looking at Bharat with great hope and conviction.
This confidence was visible recently when the visiting heads of G20 mission were taken to the Cellular Jail in Andaman where revolutionaries and freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar were incarcerated for two consecutive life terms. They visited the cell where Veer Savarkar was put by the British government for 11 years before he was released. And we have our own leaders like Rahul Gandhi who untiringly hurl all kinds of vile abuses at our great freedom fighters and heroes.