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Is India Simply a Geographical Location?

发布时间:2018-03-30
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The Idea of India is a Modern Construct, India is but a geographical expression. Do you agree?

Winston Churchill’s statement about India that it is merely a geographical expression. This statement has made many historians ponder over it time and again. No doubt India is a nation of contradictions, but there is no doubt that this a nation of intermixing faiths, traditions, values, culture and languages. The variety in topography, climate, diversity of cultures and religions can nowhere be found except in india.

Is it not this land that has given birth to a majestic and imposing India by integrating the action and reaction of various thought processes, sects and religions? Isnt it the land of more than 22000 dialects and where more than twenty major languages are found? It is in this land that you will find to every question and issue, there are more than 1.2 billion answers , each different from the other. But this is the singular thing about india which unites it: its pluralism. It is in this pluralism that we feel pride, whether sitting in our classrooms or in a social gathering.

But the question before us has the other side too. And we need to look athis construct of india from various other view points. Three schools of thought have primarily influenced the Indian history, namely the nationalist , the imperialist and the Marxist school of thought. Each school of history looks at India through the prism of their respective viewpoints. Imperialist Historians support the statement that India being a geographical expression, and that the idea of India is a modern construct. On the other hand, Nationalist Historians delve deep into ancient history to search for the idea of India. And Marxist Historians construct the idea of India from the perspective of social structure. It has been pronounced by Imperialist Historians that the Indian subcontinent was divided into many independent states having many religions ,sects, beliefs, tribes with different customs and languages. They also insist that this nation has been invaded since ancient times by Alexander, Hunas, Shakas, Mughals and the British. All of them succeeded in invading India because it was only a geographical expression as espoused by these historians.

In 1815 Metternich, the Chancellor of Austria declared that ‘Italy is mere a geographical expression’ because Imperialist forces wanted to exploits the resources of Italy. We see similar motives of Imperial forces when Imperialist Historians say that India has been a geographical expression.

This makes one ask if the theory that India is but a geographical expression is a myth. If so, why some of the western educated Indians still believe in this myth? Actually, they have certain valid arguments like India was never a single political entity, and that this land has always been divided into many princely states ruled by different dynasties having different customs, traditions, lifestyles, languages and food habits etc. They insist that the common man always identified himself with his regional and parochial expectations. We also find that dialect, if not language, changes after every yard in India. And so does the taste of water. Even in 1947, at time of Independence, India had hundreds of independent princely states though controlled by the sovereign British monarchy. The feudal lords of these princely states have been fighting continuous battles, and all the great dynasties be it Mauryans or Mughals, could reign on this land only through the use of force. This is also suggestive of the fact that aggressors like Alexander, Mohammad Gauri and British could invade this land only because of the lack of unity among the princely states. These independent states failed to present the picture of a unified India which could assert her voice as an independent nation on the global firmament.

When Britishers came, they tried to unite India through unified transport system as well as uniformed administrative and judicial system. Britishers also used English as the official language to connect all Indian states, and also to overcome the linguistic disparities. Uniformity in govt offices, buildings, departments and official etiquettes strengthened this process of unification and finally this land was transformed into a “nation”. These facts actually underline the “myth” that India has been a geographical expression only, and that nationhood to this land is a contribution of Britishers only.

Out to counter this theory, Nationalist Historians searched for the thread of unification in ancient India, and found that India was a unified state in Mauryan times, a fact which is underscored by the inscriptions found at many places during the reign of Ashoka. They also assert the point that India has definite geographical boundaries with Himalayas in the north and east, Indian Ocean in the south, which bestow on India the status of a subcontinent nation. And here the point of imperialists is totally contradicted by the nationalists. Because here we see that whosoever entered india, be it an invader or a preacher, each and everyone found one thing common, that this differentiated, variegated india is but one.

It may be relevant that India, as we see today, may have been a legacy of the British rule but the fact remains that they didn’t create India.. It has been there since times immemorial. One concedes that this land has different religions, races, cultures, customs, languages and lifestyles but all these, when combined and coalesced, go into making a majestic India, rich in diversity and solid in unity.. We take pride in the sense of “we” in this part of the world.

Since the Indus Valley civilization, there have been archaeological proofs of a definite government, population with different customs, and evidences of foreign relations established by a central government. The religious sense of continuity also contributed to the shaping of Indian culture. There is a reference to 33 crore Gods and Goddess in the Vedic Era, and we also find Gods and Goddesses in natural forces which have been virtually defied. Conversely speaking, this has, in fact, lent Indian society the necessary flexibility to absorb different sects and schools of thoughts. Later, around 600 BC we witness 64 different religious sects with Jain and Buddhist movements as the forerunners. The great Mauryans were concerned with these different sects, pluralistic social order and different thought processes and that is why Ashoka propounded the concept of ‘Dhamma’. This concept endorses the supreme doctrine of Vedas in the form of ‘Vashudhev Kutumbhkam’ which means Whole World is a family.

There has always been an undercurrent of continuity in the cultural history from the ancient times to the modern times.. Actually the underlying concept of Indian state lies in the fact of ‘unity and diversity’. In the words of ‘Max Muller’, the famous scholar, “There is, in fact, an unbroken continuity between the most modern and the most ancient phases of Hindu thought, expending over more than three thousand years”. ‘William Jones’ of Asiatic Society and ‘Charles Wilkins’ through their translated versions of ‘Abhigyanshakuntlam’ and ‘Bhagwadgita in English have introduced Indian heritage to the western world atlarge. These scholars had a definite view that Indian culture has been bound by a bond of continuity since ancient times, and the present Indian intelligentsia draws its energy from this souI .

Our nation has been marked and shaped by many forces: the hindu traditions and mythology, the rise of diverse religions like Buddhism and Jainism, the era of islam the colonial rule. All of them have have created something unique. The diversity is not just of the glorious past but even in the contemporary era.. infact it astonishes many that how india has managed to survive with this plurality.strangely, it this plurality which has helped india rise successfully. Infact at the time of independence, it blossomed as a democratic nation , when autocracy was a norm for the governments of the time.

India is arguably one of the oldest civilizations. It actually represents the essence and soul of the ancient civilizations.. Through centuries people of this subcontinent have travelled freely within the political and geographical boundary, but have never moved beyond this area. The history of the people of diversified india matches and overlaps with each other but rarely with any other group of nations. Their travails, their victories, their dreams have all been shared. But there is something more as well. This ‘more’ denotes the stream of mysticism which has been continuously flowing on this land, and continuous to attract seekers from the West. This stream unifies this land with a spiritual strand. Indian sages and intelligentsia were more interested in the inner world of consciousness than outer world. That is why India was. materialistic development as achieved in Western Countries.

So India is not merely a piece of land or political entity. What we have is a chaotic, but at the same time magnificent india. It is the land of adventure , where all avenues are open to do every possible thing.‘Romain Rolland’ wrote, ‘If there is one place on the face of the earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.’ He seeks to bury once and for all the theory of India just being a geographical entity.

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