Last week, at the National Executive, the BJP came to a conclusion:
"Refusing to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ is disrespect to
Constitution."
When
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was asked for his opinion, he said: "Bharat
Mata ki Jai is not merely a slogan. It was a mantra of inspiration to countless
freedom fighters during the independence struggle. It is the heartbeat of a
billion people today. It is the reiteration of our constitutional obligations
as citizens to uphold its primacy.”
While everyone's discussing whether people should be 'forced' to
raise slogans, veteran historian Irfan Habib has said that the idea of 'Bharat
Mata' is not even Indian.According to Habib, 'Bharat
Mata' was an import from Europe and there was no evidence of any such
imagination in either ancient or medieval India.
So, did
the idea of 'Bharat Mata' come from Britannia? In the 2nd century, Roman
Britannia came to be personified as a goddess, armed with a trident and shield
and wearing a Corinthian helmet. She sat on a lion too.
The
picture above is that of Goddess Britannia.
And,
here's how 'Bharat Mata' is portrayed.
“Bharat Mata has nothing to do with India’s ancient or medieval
past. It is a European import. Notions of motherland and fatherland were talked
about in Europe,” Prof. Habib said while delivering a
lecture in the
memory of late historian Bipan Chandra at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The
historian said Indians never represented their country in human form as a
mother or father, it was an European concept.
Habib's
statement comes even as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has
instructed his men to do everything to spread 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' all across
the country and the world.
On Sunday,
Bhagwat said that people who "did not want to stand with the qualities of
Bharat, have already carved out a separate country for them."
However, explaining his stance, the RSS chief today said that
nobody should be“forced” to raise the slogan.
“We have
to create so great an India that people will themselves say Bharat Mata ki Jai.
We don’t need to force it on anybody. We have to give direction to the world
with our life. There is no need to force our system and thoughts on anyone;
there should be a desire to consider the whole world as ours,” a statement
issued by RSS affiliate Bharatiya Kisan Sangh on Monday quoted Bhagwat as
saying.
This comes exactly a day after the same Bhagwat said that the
RSS wants the whole world to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.
"We
want to make Bharat (India) rich, free from exploitation and full of self-respect.
For that we will have to live that Bharat in our lives,” Bhagwat had said at
the launch of a book on the life of late Madan Lal Agarwal, co-founder of
Friends of Tribals Society.
