New Delhi
The idea of India that was once junked by the colonial regime has started blooming to its fullest glory, as experts and historians amid the Amritkaal dust away the last vestiges of ignorance making it their mission to bring to the world’s fore, a civilization that has existed since Puranic times in continuity, as India holds the presidency of G20 nations.
Speaking at the Festival of Ideas hosted by NewsX, The Sunday Guardian and India News that are a part of iTV Network, on Day II during “The Many Ideas of India” session, as moderator and NewsX senior executive editor Priya Sahgal raised the question as to why suddenly “liberal has become a bad word” and what then is the “India idea”, ICCR president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said: “It is all a matter of interpretation. Politicians do so according to convenience.” Amb Pavan Varma, author-diplomat, and former Rajya Sabha MP added: “India is not just a nation but a civilisation,” and pointed at the cultural unity of the land that is now a young modern nation despite being one of the few ancient civilisations. Indian historian Vikram Sampath agreed that there can be no one idea of India, but several, for everything here is in multiple—be it politically or culturally.
Thereafter, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Sudhanshu Trivedi said: “India itself is an idea and it is embedded in its very name Bharat, which emerges from two Sanskrit words ‘Bha’ meaning knowledge, the light of knowledge and ‘rat’ meaning attached so together it implies the ever-unending quest for knowledge that India has taken up since the days of Puran that today soft landed Chandrayaan-3 on Moon’s south pole a pioneering feat.”
Founder Editor of C-Voter psephologist Yashwant Deshmukh said India’s idea is “inclusive, vibrant and always forward marching”. There are so many societies, democracies who might contend that they too are all of these, but the difference that he always finds he said “in them and us is the sense of optimism”.
“Charaiveti , as they say, is Sanskrit and is the life motto of this nation,» Deshmukh explained it means “chalte raho, keep moving may what come, and that national character has been instrumental in strengthening the social fabric of India. Author Harinder S. Sikka put it as the coming together of thousands of years of conscience and knowledge that have enriched the soil of the country. As a young nation with a plethora of culture, sensibilities, custom, language that have only added over the centuries, filmmaker Suparn Verma felt India as an idea will take great strides across the globe “not just in the next few decades but half a century at the speed we are going”. Ashwin Sanghi, author of bestsellers like Chanakya’s Chant asserted, “India is an idea of civilization that has withered all storms and continues to do so.”