Chapter 1 Introduction continues...


English language and mores were used by Christians to convert Hindus. But Hindus used the same to modernize and consolidate themselves, and finally overthrow British imperialists.
In the early 20th century, a sinister attempt to divide the Hindu community on caste basis was made (in 1932) when the British imperialist offered the scheduled castes a separate electorate. But shrewdly understanding the conspiracy to divide India, Mahatma Gandhi by his fast unto death and Dr. Ambedkar, by his visionary rejection of separate electorate, foiled the attempts by signing of the Poona Pact.
But the possibility that such attempts at dividing India socially maybe made again in the future cannot be ruled out.

Segmentation, fragmentation, capitulation and finally balkanization have been part of the historical process in many countries to destroy national identity and thereby cause the political division of the nation itself. Hindus of today are being confused by others on whether the Republic of India founded in 1947 is a legatee of the ancient Hindu India, or a new nation altogether forged as a byproduct of British rule and a series of foreign invasions earlier. This confusion, is at the core of our identity crisis. The confusion will, however, disappear if we decide we are: An indigenous people of an ancient nation of continuing unbroken civilization, or an artificial administrative by- product of foreign invasion and colonialism.
Writing a research paper in 1916 titled “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis, and Development,” for an Anthropology Department seminar at the prestigious Columbia University in New York, Dr. Ambedkar stated that there is no country that can rival the Indian Peninsula with respect to the unity of its culture. It has not only a geographical unity, but it has over and above all a deeper and much more fundamental unity – the indubitable cultural unity that cover the land from end to end.

To be continued...