By Harsa Kakar
The onset of the 21st century marks a time of new realizations and revelations of real images of state’s agendas beneath their superficial advocacy of democracy.
It has been more than two months since both the states of India and Pakistan celebrated their 75 years of independence. These years could be termed as a roller-coaster ride for their bilateral relations. Particularly, keeping an eye on the current Indian government’s aggressive stance and their discriminatory policy towards Muslim community and other ethnicities within India which is then again affecting its relations with its Muslim neighbors including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in particular. In the presence of this chaos, there is the existent birth of the concept of Indian reunification known as “Akhand Bharat”. And, to think of a possible relation between India’s harsh treatment towards its Muslim population and the concept of a reunified India are important to keep an eye on.
The concept of Reunification of India refers to an attempt of India to regain its ‘extended’ territories (which include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Burma and Myanmar which were partitioned by the then colonial power i.e., British India in 1947) under the greater banner of Hindutva Ideology. This concept with addition to the concept of ‘Akhand Bharat’ led to the narrative that India wants to reunite this whole sub-continent under its flag in the future. It is important to keep in mind that, it was only in the last 100 years of British colonial rule, when they ‘collected’ so many diverse territories, and never before India had been so big. The British, being from outside, did not interfere in the religious inclinations in the area and more than half of India in 1947 consisted of 565 princely states.
The concept of “Akhand Bharat”, according to Ancient Bharatiya scriptures, dates back to 3rd Century BC when the Bharatiya subcontinent had its parts which include modern-day independent nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Modern India, Nepal, Burma, Tibet, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Ancient Indian philosopher and strategist who is religiously followed by Hindu believers in India known as, Chanakya also articulated the idea of an “Akhand Bharat”, which means all states in the region being under one authority. The great freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, propounded the notion of an “Akhand Bharat” as well as a “Hindu Rashtra”. Thus, explaining the RSS government’s notion of a reunified India since they are believed to be radical followers of their ancient Hindu civilization and beliefs.
The Indian government’s indifference and intolerance towards other religious communities especially Muslims, since they are in majority in the area comes from that All-Hindu Bharatiya concept which they expect is going to happen in the coming 10 to 15 years. Regarding this, there is also another belief that they want a reunified India to have free markets in this whole region and make their own form of European Union. That is to say, this is their way of taking India to new economic heights in the race for a global power. However, In the wake of current Indian government’s stance towards its muslim population, how can a reunified India exist is a huge question on the face of representatives of the notion of “Akhand Bharat”.
The concept of a reunified India gets even hard as one looks towards India’s course of action in the past two to three years towards its Muslim population. Let’s start with sectarian violence alone. More than 10,000 Muslims have been killed in that regard by radical Hindu groups since 1950 and BJP has never batted an eye on it. Additionally, Indian government under BJP abolished the article 370 of Indian constitution thus taking away rights from Jammu and Kashmir as a state which is then again, a Muslim majority state. Furthermore, Indian government’s ban on hijab for Muslim girls took away their right to their religious freedom and imposed their so-called ‘secular’ notion. This again led to an outrage in India and fed Muslims with more rage and anger towards their state which was once again ignored. A very recent case that proved to be the last nail in the coffin of hope of Muslims of India, when the 11 years long imprisoned convicts of the Bilquis Bano case were released and most likely proven innocent. And the situation gets worse with each passing day.
Talking of India and its relations with its muslim neighbors, India has diverse relations with each one of these states and those relations will presumably be strained if India kept on having the suppressive policy towards its Muslim population. Due to their religious Islamic ideologies and values that they share, all the surrounding Muslim states would likely keep their distance with India and it will also prove to be reversing for India in its race towards “the best democracy”.
Starting with Afghanistan, for as long as the Taliban rule is in Afghanistan, India’s notion of an “Akhand Bharat” is impossible with regard to their religious values and beliefs and they would never be able to stand India’s ‘secular’ state of affairs with all the fuss about hijab bans and Muslim boycotts. Speaking of Bangladesh, keeping into account the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh’s notion of a more progressive Bangladesh than India or Pakistan has molded things to a notable extent. They presumably would not want to join in on such ‘chaos’ all over again that they once separated from. Coming to Pakistan, both Pakistan and India indifferent narratives when it comes to India’s treatment towards its Muslim ethnicities. Thus, generating a deadlock between the two. As much as the notion of “Akhand Bharat” is concerned, Pakistan has called it a fuss and avoided it as an ‘irritating’ habit of their rather aggressive neighbor.
To think of a future with regard to this concept, India might try its luck in the next 10-15 years in which she is to reach new economic heights as a regional power. India will definitely have to do it by force, which is then again, a very huge stake to risk on. All the surrounding Muslim states are on their way to progress and will definitely be important regional actors by then. To sum it up in easy words, it is impossible for India to bring these states back under its flag and under its rule, at the least not by force.
To conclude, the concept of “Akhand Bharat”, a notion propagated in today’s world by the radical and “anti-Muslim” government of India. However, it is almost impossible for anyone to think that it would be possible for India to be reunified given the circumstances that India is ruthless towards its second largest population which is the Muslim.
Author: Harsa Kakar – Assistant Research Fellow at Balochistan Think Tank Network (BTTN), at BUITEMS, Quetta.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights).