Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (R S S): Akhand Bharat
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The R S S and Akhand Bharat
The concept
R S S’s idea of “Akhand Bharat” includes not only Pakistan and Bangladesh, but also Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Tibet. It terms the combined region as a “Rashtra” based on “Hindu cultural” similarities.
The Sangh Parivar has long imagined an Indian nation that existed from the time of the Ramayana, covering the landmass stretching from today’s Afghanistan to Myanmar and Tibet to Sri Lanka.
A map titled “Punyabhoomi Bharat” published by the R S S-run Suruchi Prakashan, labels Afghanistan as “Upganathan”, Kabul as “Kubha Nagar”, Peshawar as “Purushpur”, Multan as “Moolsthan”, Tibet as “Trivishtap,” Sri Lanka as “Singhaldweep”, and Myanmar as “Brahmadesh”.
1944
Back in 1944, as the Muslim League pressed for a separate Pakistan, the historian Radha Kumud Mookerji first articulated the idea of Akhand Bharat in his presidential address delivered at an “Akhand Bharat Conference”.
“…The homeland of the Hindus through milenniums of their history has been nothing short of the whole of India stretching in its continental expanse from Kashmir to the Cape, from Nanga Parvat and Amarnath to Madura and Rameshwaram and from Dwarka to Puri,” Mookerji said.
Akhand Bharat was a fact of geography, he argued: “India has been fashioned by Nature as an indisputable geographical unit marked out from the rest of the world by well-defined boundaries and fixed frontiers about which there can be no doubt or uncertainty.”
1949
It’s a view the R S S, which was formed in 1925, started propagating in 1947, after Partition. At a press conference in Delhi on August 24, 1949, after the government lifted the ban on the R S S — imposed on it for its role in Gandhi’s assassination — M S Golwalkar, the organisation’s second sarsanghchalak, termed Pakistan an “uncertain state”. “As far as possible, we must continue our efforts to unite these two divided states…Nobody is happy with Partition,” he had said. He had repeated this view at another press conference held in Kolkata on September 7, 1949.
1965
At its meeting held in Delhi on August 17, 1965, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP’s predecessor, passed a resolution: “India’s tradition and nationality has not been against any religion… Muslims will integrate themselves with the national life and Akhand Bharat will be a reality, unifying India and Pakistan once we are able to remove this obstacle [ of separatist politics].”
2015
In 2015, R S S leader Ram Madhav, when asked about a map that showed Pakistan and Bangladesh as part of India, told Al Jazeera: “The R S S still believes that one day these parts, which have for historical reasons separated only 60 years ago, will again, through popular goodwill, come together and Akhand Bharat will be created.”
Now, with the BJP in power, some R S S leaders have said Akhand Bharat is in fact a “cultural idea”. All R S S publications also insist that Akhand Bharat is a “cultural” entity, not a national or political one.
S D Sapre and other ideologues
Outside the R S S’s headquarters in Keshav Kunj in Jhandewalan, west Delhi, a book titled Pratyek Rashtrabhakta Ka Sapna: Akhand Bharat (Dream of every patriot: Akhand Bharat), written by one Dr Sadanand Damodar Sapre, is on sale. The book says: “We can put the map of Akhand Bharat in our home so that it is always before our eyes. If the map of Akhand Bharat is in our hearts, we will be offended every time we see the map of divided India on Doordarshan, newspapers and magazines, and remind us of the resolution of Akhand Bharat.” (Pratyek Rashtrabhakt ka Swapn: Akhand Bharat)
Sapre writes of making the idea of Akhand Bharat “possible through our manliness (purusharth)”. “People who want Akhand Bharat must continue their efforts with indefatigable self-confidence. This is need of the hour,” says a line in the book .
R S S literature — books and songs — is replete with references to “Akhand Bharat”, and continues to be sold at book shops run by the organisation. The first edition of Sapre’s book was published in 1997. Its fourth edition was published in January 2015 by Archna Prakashan, Bhopal.
But all publications insist Akhand Bharat is a “cultural” entity, not a national or political one.
The late HV Sheshadri, who was sarkaryawah for many years, in his book, The Tragic Story of Partition (first edition in 1982, last in 2014), writes, “There is always the possibility that the divided halves will seize the first opportunity to nullify the unnatural division. Such a possibility need not to be ruled out in respect of Bharat, Pakistan and Bangladesh too.” He talks of the “ancient national roots” of Pakistan being “essentially Hindu” and raises a question, “Would it be a surprise if a state (Pakistan) based on such specious and artificial presumptions and devoid of any philosophical base would one day choose to enrich its life by returning to its ancient mother culture?”
Advocating the possibility of re-unification, he continues, “Gradually, the truth would one day dawn upon them (Pakistan and Bangladesh) that they have not, after all, benefited from Partition, and that their physical and mental happiness could result only from their union with Bharat and its cultural heritage.”
Government: The BJP’s stand
The Narendra Modi government has never spoken of Akhand Bharat in the same way as R S S leaders. However, BJP leaders have articulated the idea in political speeches.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has invoked “Akhand Bharat” in the context of the scrapping of Article 370, and while remembering the contributions of Sardar Patel. However, these articulations have largely been an assertion of the territorial integrity of independent India.
Delivering a speech in Nanded, Maharashtra in 2021, Shah said: “…The country’s first Home Minister and Bharat Ratna Sardar Patel had succeeded in making this region a part of Akhand Bharat, defeating their (the Nizam’s) nefarious intentions with perseverance, valour and strategic skill.”
On September 7 2022 , Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma mocked Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra: “Try to integrate Pakistan, Bangladesh and strive to create Akhand Bharat.”
2014, Gujarat
In 2014, Gujarat’s BJP government introduced R S S leader Dinanath Batra’s book Tejomay Bharat as supplementary reading in government schools. The book has a chapter called Akhand Bharat, which speaks about India including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
