"Global Times In-depth" Why did India's "Mahābharata" narrative anger many countries?
2024-08-18
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[Global Times special correspondents in India and Nepal Cao Chong Chen Jianyang Global Times reporter Chen Zishuai] Editor's note: At a seminar organized by the Pakistani Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on August 6, the country's scholar Shujaat severely criticized India's "Mahābharata" plan as evil. This is not the first time that Pakistanis have criticized India's concept, and Pakistan is not the only country to protest against India's "Mahābharata" narrative. Even American "Foreign Policy" magazine, French "Le Monde" and other European and American media believe that this narrative is part of the Hindu nationalist ideology and is "historical revisionism." So, what exactly is "Mahābharata" and why has it caused widespread controversy internationally?
Territorial ambitions vs cultural concepts
During the Indian Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) elections this year (April 19 to June 1), Pakistan once again discussed the "Great Bharata" mural in the new Indian parliament building. According to a report by the Indian Economic Times in May, the controversy caused by the mural highlights the concerns of India's neighbors about their own security. Many Pakistani journalists and experts believe that the mural shows that India wants to claim sovereignty over the territory of its neighbors. Some Pakistani scholars also said that it is necessary for all countries to respond to "India's gesture."
In fact, it is not only Pakistan that has strongly opposed this mural. When it was unveiled at the inauguration ceremony of the new Indian Parliament building in May last year, politicians and academics from Nepal and Bangladesh protested against India's actions. According to the Kathmandu Post and other media reports, on May 30, 2023, Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) Oli (current Prime Minister - Editor's Note) called on then Prime Minister Prachanda, who was planning to visit India, to "ask New Delhi to remove the mural" and "correct this mistake." On June 5, 2023, the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked India to explain the mural. Alamgir, leader of the Bangladeshi opposition Nationalist Party, said that displaying Bangladesh as part of the "indivisible map" of other countries is a threat to Bangladesh's independence and sovereignty.
So, what exactly is this "Mahābharata" mural that has caused public outrage? According to reports from the Times of India, Le Monde, and other media, the literal meaning of "Mahābharata" is "Indivisible India", which is the so-called "territorial scope" claimed by India during the reign of King Ashoka during the Maurya Dynasty in India in the 3rd century BC. The Indian side believes that this scope extends from today's Afghanistan to Myanmar, including the territories of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Le Monde said that this territory is similar to the borders of the Indian region under the rule of the British Empire, but for Hindu nationalists, it depicts a dream of a "greater India" based on the influence of Hinduism. The Hindustan Times said that the "Mahābharata" mural hanging in the new Indian parliament building depicts some ancient sites in Nepal, such as Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha Sakyamuni.
"For decades, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is closely associated with India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been promoting the concept of 'Mahābharata'." According to the US magazine Foreign Policy, the RSS designated August 14, the day before India became an independent country in 1947, as the "Indivisible India Pledge Day". The organization created a map and naming method about the "Mahābharata" and taught these to students in the schools it manages. The RSS described the scope of the "Mahābharata" in a textbook, which used Sanskrit names to refer to the oceans to eliminate the influence of Islamic culture, such as the Bay of Bengal became the "Sea of the Ganges" and the Indian Ocean became the "Ocean of the Hindus". The RSS-affiliated publishing house produced a map on which Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and other countries were given new names.
The Times of India and other media reported that in 1965, the Indian People's League (the predecessor of the BJP) passed a resolution stating that "unifying India and Pakistan, the Great Bharat will become a reality". During Modi's visit to Pakistan in December 2015, the then national general secretary of the BJP, Madhav, said: "RSS still believes that one day (Pakistan and Bangladesh) will come together again through the 'goodwill of the people' to create the 'Great Bharat'." At that time, the BJP distanced itself from this statement. In April 2022, RSS Chairman Bhagwat said at a public rally that India would become the "Great Bharat" within 10 to 15 years. The US magazine Foreign Policy said that this provided the first timetable for the "daydream" of Hindu nationalism.
When the "Great Bharata" mural was "unveiled" in the new Indian parliament building in May 2023, the Indian Minister of Parliamentary Affairs wrote on social media: "The determination is very clear - 'Great Bharata'." Regarding this mural, a spokesman for the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the time that India's idea was "a manifestation of an expansionist mentality that attempts to suppress not only the ideology and culture of India's neighbors, but also the ideology and culture of religious minorities in India itself." After the mural sparked dissatisfaction in many countries, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that India "has no territorial ambitions" in other parts of South Asia. According to Indian media reports such as the Wire, an RSS spokesman claimed that "Great Bharata" is a cultural concept, not a political concept.
Perhaps realizing that it is impossible to establish the Great Bharata by redrawing national borders, some Indian media and politicians hope to establish the so-called "Cultural Bharata" through cultural connections. For example, the Times of India said that it is unrealistic to rebuild the Great Bharata, but there is a chance of success in establishing an "alliance of like-minded countries." The media said that in 2012, Modi, who had not yet become the Prime Minister of India, said that the Great Bharata did not mean that India would go to war against any country, "without war, it will happen through the consent of the people...we call it Sanskrit Bharata (Cultural Bharata)."
According to the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy, the policies formulated by the Modi government increasingly reflect the political-geographical concept of "Great Bharata" that transcends national borders. In 2019, India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, which selectively provided religious minorities (mainly Hindus) from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and other countries with a path to Indian citizenship, but excluded Muslims. Indian Home Minister Shah then linked the relevant criteria to the National Register of Citizens, sparking concerns among Muslims that they might be deprived of their citizenship. In the same year, the Modi government deprived the Indian-controlled Kashmir region of its special status. Modi also made high-profile visits to Hindu temples in Bangladesh, Nepal and elsewhere, suggesting that these countries fall under the protection of Hinduism.
Indian Prime Minister Modi profile picture Source: Visual China
'An act of strong revisionism'
Foreign Policy magazine bluntly stated that Mahabharata has long been part of the Hindu nationalist ideology and is related to the core principles of the RSS, "organized unity" and "purification." When talking about this "revisionist behavior," the French newspaper Le Monde said that Mahabharata is "an ancient dream of Indian nationalists" and that this view of national geography is at the core of Hindu characteristics.
Xie Chao, associate researcher at the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times that India's "Great Bharata" narrative is essentially an extension of the domestic "Bharata" narrative. As Hindu nationalism has become the dominant ideology in current Indian society, the BJP needs to think about how to maintain the stock of the "Bharata" narrative and the future incremental mobilization effect. Previously, with the help of the mural incident at the completion of the new parliament building, the BJP successfully pushed the "Great Bharata" narrative onto the domestic and international public opinion stage. It can be foreseen that the BJP will continue to enhance the public mobilization ability of this narrative through the upgraded version of the "Bharata" narrative in the future, and by implanting the dream of restoring the "history and glory" of Hinduism into Hindus, it will attract more people who are still hesitant about the Hindu nationalist narrative, and mobilize its huge overseas Hindus to maintain the BJP's long-term ruling position.
Lin Minwang, deputy director of the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times that after the Modi government came to power, its basic philosophy was the typical core philosophy of the BJP, that is, "India is for Hindus". Against this background, they need to revise and reinterpret history. The "Mahābhārata" narrative mainly deals with two aspects of relations, one is the relationship with the West, and the other is the relationship with Muslims. The most important part of the "Mahābhārata" narrative is to list Muslims and Westerners as "invaders and outsiders" in India.
Das, assistant professor of political science at St. Xavier's College, University of Calcutta, India, said that the "Mahābharata" narrative seems to portray most of today's South Asian countries as part of a larger, indivisible polity in the past. "It is a powerful revisionist act to regard India as a much older political entity." The US magazine Foreign Policy bluntly stated that the fact is that such a country or polity does not exist. The history of South Asia is made up of multiple kingdoms whose rulers came from different ethnic groups and spoke different languages. In addition, most historians believe that even in ancient times, India's territory never included countries such as Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal or Sri Lanka. Those areas that once belonged to India have never been ruled by the same direct leader except during the British colonial period.
Foreign Policy magazine also stated that historically, conflicts in India were not primarily caused by religious conflicts. In the past, Hindu leaders had hired Muslim generals to fight Muslim rulers, and vice versa. The "theorists" of the RSS and the BJP described India as a "country that has long been ruled by Islam". They believe that India is a Hindu country and must restore its so-called former glory. This idea that "glorious Hindu rule was ended by Muslim invaders" was actually a deliberate construction of British colonialism aimed at dividing and ruling the region, and the RSS readily accepted this statement.
“Could lead to violence, displacement and ethnic cleansing”
Besides sparking protests internationally, the so-called Mahabharata narrative has not always been met with praise in India.
An owner of a Hindu supplies store told the Global Times' special correspondent in India that the Mahabharata resonated with him emotionally and culturally. The owner believes that the current Pakistan and Bangladesh are "an integral part of ancient Indian civilization", and the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 was a traumatic event that tore apart the geographical and cultural structure of the once basically unified region. A political science student who believes in Hinduism said that as a Hindu, the idea of the Mahabharata tugs at his heartstrings. He believes that the Mahabharata narrative stems from a desire to restore the cultural unity destroyed by the colonizers. However, the student said that maintaining peace, religious harmony and improving the living standards of all Indians must take precedence over any nationalist ideology and territorial revisionism. "The modern nation-state is based on the principles of self-determination and democracy, so India must respect the sovereignty of other countries. Forcibly unifying the region under the Hindu nationalist agenda may lead to conflict and bloody unrest."
"While Hindu nationalists may gloss over this with romantic notions of ancient cultural unity, the reality is that modern nation-states have long since transcended this primitive identity," a Muslim student majoring in political science told the Global Times' special correspondent in India, saying that the premise for establishing the Mahabharata is an infringement on the sovereignty of modern nation-states such as Pakistan and Bangladesh. Claiming the supremacy of Hinduism and attempting to attribute the territories of other countries to India would be an extremely undemocratic move that could undermine peace and stability in the entire South Asian region. The pursuit of the Mahabharata could lead to violence, displacement and ethnic cleansing, which are unthinkable. Any attempt to undermine the hard-earned sovereignty and secular democracy of Pakistan and Bangladesh would be a retrogressive and intolerable move that the international community would categorically reject.
In addition to establishing the "Great Bharata", another goal of the BJP and RSS is to establish a Hindu state. According to the Times of India, Hindu nationalists have long dreamed of establishing a "Great India", a country that matches the "scale and glory" of ancient India - the "Great Bharata" and the Hindu state. "One of our highest goals is to make our Hindu state fully glorious and great." The RSS wrote in its manifesto. In 2017, representatives of 150 Hindu groups met in Goa to discuss plans to establish a Hindu state. However, the media, including the Times of India, warned that the establishment of a Hindu state would weaken India's national unity, encourage separatist tendencies, cause greater internal conflicts, and stifle India's dream of becoming a "world leader."
