The concept of India a Hindustan continues...

Why should the burden of national renaissance be on the shoulders of Hindus? Hindus are more than 80 per cent of India. For them, this is their only country and the land of the birth of their religion. The Vedas, Avatars, Gurus all are from this country. India is the land where Hindus live and in the eyes of the world, India has a Hindu cultural identity. Therefore, if Hindus take the initiative for self-purification and a renaissance, the dynamics of change will induce other religious minorities to willingly follow, without being coerced to do so, since it is after all their legacy as well. That is why renaming India as Hindustan would give that necessary focus to our country. The English world “India” is an adaptation from the Greek “Indi”, which in turn came from the ancient Iranians calling our land “Hindu” to represent the areas beyond the Sindhu. All those who came to India from time immemorial (from Fa Hsien, to Vasco da Gama, to traders, scholars, plunderers, tyrants and even the early imperialists) have called this land Hindustan. In colloquial speech, Muslims, and other minorities even today call India as Hindustan. Iqbal’s heart-warming poem cum lyric “Sare Jahan se Achha…” ends with Hindustan.

No hardline Muslim leader therefore can think such a renaming objectionable. The word Hindustan is also a Sandhi of two words – Himalayas (Hi) and Indu Sagar (Indu), and secular in construction. There is no connotation of a Hindu theocratic state in the term Hindustan, while Hindu Rashtra may have been given such a connotation by it’s critics. Therefore, I am at a loss to understand why at the time of framing our Constitution, we chose to begin the Preamble with the words “India that is Bharat”, instead of “India that is Hindustan”. Paradoxically, Bharat has a religious connotation, while Hindustan does not. One has to read the Vishnu Purana to recognize that.

Hindustan does not mean that the land belongs to the Hindus. Even on that score a citizen has a claim to Hindustan by birth.

to be continued...