India – A Country Proud
India is a country of many names and colours where each stroke paints a past that sang about a future. While I grew up in this city of Djinns, New Delhi, as a child surrounded by both the most modern of thoughts and facilities, I had a foot rooted firmly in our ancestral beliefs. I also found out a harsh misunderstanding that degraded my view of my motherland for most of the schooling years, which is a time when misleading thoughts begin to prevail. In sync with popular belief, peers filled my head with ideas about the wonders of a western world that grew out of bounds, moulding my child-like mind to march in that manner. However, that shadow of judgement broke when I grew up to study more about a woman who donned an Armor of scriptures, a sword of a lineage and a cloak of a thousand languages, a woman named India.
Birth of A Country
This woman was born around 7000BCE when early settlement began in her wake and man turned towards self-sustenance. Farming, education and idol worship deemed necessary for an early survival, this gave rise to one of the first most modern edifications by humans – The Indus Valley Civilization. Boats and grain, governments and chess, lodgings and religion were only a few of the check points that this settlement had risen to provide and much to the astonishment of modern archaeologists, it birthed the only ancient language that has yet to be deciphered by our bright minds.
As our Lady India grew into adolescence, the Aryans meddled with local blood to forge a strong race from where the first layer of Sanskrit Literature and scriptures arose – The Vedas. Vedas were the knowledge house composed by high priests that penned down all aspects essential for the upkeep of life on earth, from practical use of resources with a blend of supernatural religious beliefs to the origins of the oldest form of medicine – Ayurveda, where nature’s gifts have the power to cure what it pained.
Hitting an early adulthood, maturity set in with India, as she grew wiser and personified herself as Buddha. Lord Buddha, born as a prince on India’s ground took to the life of a sage spreading peace in various forms. He wrote the many sutras that not only are followed by the modern age man but by rulers inspired by the life he sanctioned. He showed us that even though the seven sins prevail on every bend, empathy, peace and humility go a long way, about thousands of years. Countless encounters with each transgression only made his belief stronger that every man had the makings of a benevolent being, far from the sea of intranquillity.
A Country on Rebellion
With many languages at her disposal, India began to succumb to every quest laid in front of her. Be it in the form of her Greatest Dynasty – Mauryan Empire in the north or the Chalukyas of the Deccan, she convinced herself that power was the greatest of gifts and to have it, was to triumph. She played the part of ruthless rulers who shed gallons of innocent blood with eyes glistening of a greater goal -conquering the world. Chandra Gupt Maurya, Asoka or Harshvardhana, all these mighty warrior kings had spread their wings to the upper most regions of our lady’s borders, driving out any foreign invader with the swift might of warfare.
But none slept with a calm mind, none knowingly tried to better their conscious until their sentient took over. The might of them was brought down by the humanitarian aspect of Buddhism which stood in front of them as a mirror, reflecting the sadistic reality they ensued.
A Country Conquered
Having stayed out of much trouble for a few years, now it was time for India to take charge and unleash what she was preparing for – defence. Her armour was moulded by the mighty Rajput and Marathas who clung to her frontiers like moth to flame. Manning them each night, great soldiers kept the enemy at bay. But India could only safeguard her lands for a hundred years post which began a relationship of romance with the handsome foreigner who adorned her with riches but striped her bare of culture, ethics and wealth.
Humbled by this experience, India let the Mughals spread their seed as they ventured further down her tracts. Mughals from the middle-east established the most beautiful monuments like the Red Fort and Taj Mahal the world had ever seen, they gave a proper structure to the haphazard dynasties that lay in her wake and embarked upon a marriage of nearly five hundred years.
Hell, Hath No Fury Like a Country Scorned
After her rendezvous with the Mighty Mughals, India found herself defenceless yet again as a herd of westerners invaded her privacy. British and Portuguese intrusion set off a spark within her that took flight for another two hundred years until she could declare herself an independent nation who would take no more and no less. For these years they disregarded her very being, her very existence was being questioned; India’s riches stripped bare from her bosom, jewels she adored with great pride were taken away as if they never belonged. To counter this harassment, she embodied herself in the form of a Non-Violent being – Mahatma Gandhi; a fearless warrior princess – Rani Lakshmi Bai and an educated might – Bhagat Singh among the many others who fought for the independence of their own birth right – A Free India.
Having jotted down her timeline in my own words, I now know the struggle it takes to make a great nation with embracing the complexities of a contemporary society while keeping intact the core of its very being intact leaving its impact on generation to come.