India is perhaps the only country in the world that has not
colonised, enslaved, exploited nor conquered any nation, said Dr.
Krishan Gopal Ji, Sah Sarkaryawah of RSS speaking at the first
anniversary celebrations of the Group of Intellectuals and Academicians
(GIA), a forum for socially committed professional women.
Delivering the Special Lecture on Nationalism, Dr. Krishan Gopal Ji
explained that Nation as seen in the western model was a more recent
phenomena, just 200 odd years old, while Nation in the Indian
Civilizational context was akin to the concept of a ‘Rashtra’. It has
the same cultural foundations, beliefs, shared sacred geography, customs
and much more, providing a feeling of oneness, in spite of great
distancesand adaptations to local environments. “The Western notion of a
Nation is about you and me but Rashtra talks about or shows the way to
sacred oneness,” he said. Elaborating on the concept, he added that the
western Nation concept was built for political supremacy and commercial,
economic acquisitiveness (greed to exploit the other). The state became
narrow entities for control.
Taking the same theme forward, keynote speaker Ms. Monika Arora
advocate, Supreme Court who is also the convener of GIA explained that
the season of Spring (also the Indian New Year) – Basant Ritu, in the
Indian Rashtra is observed all through the country, in Punjab it is
Baisakhi, in Assam it is Bohaag Bihu, in Maharashatra it is Gudi Padwa,
in Andhra Pradesh it is Ugadi, in Bengal it is Poila Baisakh, in Kerala
it is Vishu and in entire northern India it is also the time for
NavRatri or Durga Puja, just to name a few regions.
These cultural festivities were the binding force of a larger Indian
Nation or Rashtra which date back to centuries, she said. Mentioning the
recent anti-national activities at the JNU campus by a handful of
students, she added that this stemmed from the teachings of some JNU
lecturers who thought of Nation only as that given by the European
Concept and handed down to India by the British when they ruled India.
They do not have the vision to see that there can be other
manifestations of Nationhood which are civilizational. However, this
required independent thinking. Therefore one cannot blame the students
when our teachings and understanding of our own country was flawed.
In her address Dr. Geeta Gunde, who spent a life time with India’s
eminent Corporate Sector and now heads an NGO Mahila Samanwayin
Maharashtra applauded GIA for getting women out of their narrow circles
to discuss and debate pertinent national and international issues, and
also actively take on leadership role in framing the social discourse!
“Many social groups which consist of women discuss only women related
issue but GIA has broken out of the stereotype. These women are
analysing developments and participating in nation building. Women
should not just ask for their rights, they should also participate
equally in every sphere of society,” said Dr. Gunde.
Other eminent scholars and activists present were Nandkumar Ji, Akhil
Bhartiya Sah Prachar Pramukh of RSS, Dinanath Batra Ji educational
activist and convener of Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti and Dr Rama
Principal of Hansraj College where the event took place. Group of
Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), is a forum of socially committed
professional women who hold seminars, workshops, symposiums to discuss
and debate contemporary issues confronting the country. It was founded
in 2015, as a questioning platform to give some academic depth in an
over-charged socio-political atmosphere where political rhetoric and
hysteria seems to submerge all other voices.
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