"India, most emphatically, is not the land of Hindus only" (Editorial in The Telegraph in response to the call for a national holy book)

Editorial: The Telegraph, 10 December 2014

NOT BY A BOOK

Neither the religion nor the dharma of the Hindus is derived from one book. The distinction between religion and dharma is introduced deliberately: the former refers to a set of rituals and practices and the latter to a path to be followed to lead an ethical life. Both religion and dharma are fed by diverse texts and beliefs. This is what distinguishes the religion of the Hindus from the belief systems of Judaism, Christianity and Islam each of which is determined by one book. It is thus astounding to learn that sections of the Bharatiya Janata Party are contemplating a move to declare the Bhagvad Gita as a "national text" or a "national book". This was announced by none other than the minister for external affairs, Sushma Swaraj, a loyal and veteran member of the BJP. The choice of the text is as surprising as the decision to impose a "national text". The Bhagvad Gita as it stands today was in all probability composed - all of 700 verses - around the second or third century AD. It is now read as a part of the Mahabharata. Anyone familiar with Indian tradition knows that there are texts that predate the Bhagvad Gita and are considered the foundation stones of Hindu philosophy and religious practices - the Vedas and the Upanishads. It is difficult to understand why the Gita should be privileged over these texts that are arguably more profound and spiritually more significant than what Krishna told Arjuna in the middle of Kurukshetra. If a group of self-styled Hindu zealots believe that Hindus need a single sacred book then the Gita is not quite the obvious choice that it is being made out to be.

There is, however, an argument to be made at a completely different level. India, most emphatically, is not the land of Hindus only. There are people who live in India who follow religious practices and beliefs different from those of the Hindus. And almost all these people have their own prescribed sacred texts. The selection of the Bhagvad Gita as a "national text" will be an imposition on these people and serve to exclude them from a sense of belonging to India. Such a move needs to be criticized and resisted. The cultural and the intellectual strength of India is grounded precisely in the fact that it is not based on one privileged text. The roots of Indian tradition are watered by diverse streams of which the Bhagvad Gita is only one and by no means the predominant one.