Is the present India a Nation ?

Kaka D Iralu *

A map of India showing the population over regions (the key)

India as a sub-continent inhabited by many races such as the Dravidians, the Aryans and the Scythians is very much recorded in the annals of human history. The word India, in that context, is also mentioned in the Bible in the book of Esther (c 5th Cent. B.C.), in chapter I: 1 and 8:9. But India as a nation that embraces the whole Indian subcontinent has never been mentioned in the pages of human history.

Conforming to this political and historical fact, the real India that the Portuguese, English and Dutch discovered at the turn of the 16th Century was an Indian subcontinent of over 500 Princely States. As for India as Bharat or Hindustan, it is the mere creation of religious bigotry on the part of the Hindus. Such an assertion is religious bigotry because religion is not and cannot be the basis for the origin of a nation. After all, if religion is to be the basis for nationhood, then an American who has converted into Hinduism would have to be called an Indian by nationality.

On the other hand, the Mongolian races that inhabit the North and North East fringes of the Indian Sub-Continent have never been a part of the mainland Indian sub-Continent. They have never been a part of the Indian subcontinent through racial affinity or even by military conquest prior to 1947. Religious influence from the mainland Indian sub-continent whether Hinduism, Buddhism or Islam has had its influence on some of these Mongolian races like the Meiteis, the Ahoms, and the Tripuries etc. But the other tribal Mongolian nations like the Nagas remained unaffected by such religious influences up to the present day. v Coming back to the question of whether the present India is a nation or not, the dictionary defines a nation as: "A body of people marked off by a common descent, language, culture or historical tradition within a concrete geographical territory." In other words, a nation in order to be qualified as a nation must possess concrete anthropological historical and cultural facts to support its claim to nationhood.

But the present geographical India and her claim to be a nation defies all these universal laws that governs the existence of any nation on earth. This is because ancient India, as stated earlier was a subcontinent of Dravidian, Aryan and Scythian races with their own distinct national and cultural identities. In that past multinational and multicultural scenario of south Asian history, the Tamilian nation had no affinity with the Kashmiri or Punjabi Aryan nations physically or culturally.

Even in the present context, to recognize the Tamilians or Punjabis as nations in their own rights is anthropologically and culturally valid. They are also both great nations in their own historical rights. But to classify the two as a nation called India is absurd. After all, whether in the past or in the present, what racial or cultural affinity has a Dravidian Tamilian with an Aryan Punjabi?

Therefore, going by anthropological, historical and cultural facts, the present India can only at best, be a collection of sovereign Republics but not a nation. This fact was insisted by Sharad Bose, the elder brother of Subhas Chandra Bose before the partition of India and Pakistan took place in 1947. But the likes of Nehru, Gandhi and Patel who were all trained as barristers in England insisted that India must be a modern nation state.

As a result, what they, in collaboration with the British created- was an India "conceived and made in England." The present India is therefore "a foreign made country" that does not conform to the laws of nationhood. The present India is an artificial India totally uprooted from its ancient roots. It is a superficial India with a face made from England.

And however grand that face may be, the geo-political and legal structure of the present India has no roots in Indian soil, culture or history. Even its present Constitution is based on western principles of law and governance. This fact was admitted by noted Jurist Nani Palkhivala when he said: "Let us not pretend that the rule of law is a concept which can be regarded as a part of the Indian psyche." (Nani Palkhivala, We the nation-The lost decades, p.212).

Now to superimpose this none existent Indian nationhood notion on her Mongolian neighbour nations like the Nagas, Ahoms and Meiteis etc. and insist that they too are part of that fictitious Indian nation is a totally unacceptable proposition. Tell us: How can we be a part of something we believe does not exist at all? This is why nations like the Naga nation who had declared their independence prior to India have been defying the Indian invasion of their ancestral land for all these past six decades.

Here the Naga nation's assertion to the right of nationhood is more valid then India's own claim to be a nation. This is so because unlike Indians, Nagas have a similar polity, democracy and legal system that bind the different tribes together into a nation that has tangible reality. They also genetically belong to the Mongolian nation and not the Dravidian or Aryan nations of India. As such, our Constitution (Yehzabo of Nahgaland) is modelled in conformity to our own unique polity, legal system and traditions.

Today's India's colonization of her neighbour Mongolian nations is the second colonization of the independent Mongolian nations inhabiting the North Eastern fringes of the Indian subcontinent. India today rules these occupied colonies with retired military Generals and Police officers called "Governors." These Governors have extra ordinary Judicial and Executive powers that can declare these colonies as disturbed areas and promulgate draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

India also rules these territories through their puppet heads of states called "Chief Ministers." These are the modern Maharajahs of post colonial India. Indeed the past six decades of post colonial Indian rule has been more horrifying than the first colonization of South Asia by the white races of the Occident. But sooner or later a day of reckoning will come and colonization of any sort-white or black- will forever be erased from the soils of the Mongolian nations of South Asia.