‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’: From battlecry to street slogan

“India that is Bharat shall be a Union of States” The Constitution of India

The words of the Constitution are crisp, clear and precisely worded, and “Bharat Mata” does not figure in them. But as an idealised visualisation of soul within the paper and ink of the Constitution, it is popularly eulogised as “the idea of India” — an abstract thought or vision without any concrete shape or form, least of all that of a goddess, a modified version of other feminine devotional figures which abound in Hinduism. This “idea of India” was set forth by Rabindranath Tagore in Bharat Tirtha, an epic ode to the nation, in 1909, whose galloping rhythm causes the blood to course faster in the veins.

But in India 2016, the elections to state Assemblies are taking place under sweltering summer conditions and there is tension in the air. It is the season of hidden camera stings, scams, and exposes. “Bharat Mata” has been symbolically brought into the fish-market reality of national and regional politics. Some amongst her worshippers rage that those who refuse to say “Bharat Mata ki Jai” disrespect the country and must be banished or driven out while one particularly frenzied political personality amongst them has even threatened to behead such people.

In the opposite corner are many who hold contrary views — amongst them the learned clerics of the Darul Uloom Deoband, who have issued a fatwa for the community, prohibiting the shouting of “Bharat Mata ki Jai,” which in their perception is contrary to the tenets of Islam, hence forbidden. In an obvious attempt to boost his political stock, All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA Waris Yusuf Pathan dramatically grandstanded that he would never utter “Bharat Mata ki Jai” even under pain of death.

It is important therefore that “Bharat Mata,” and the idea of India as conveyed in the sublime language Bharat Tirtha is understood by these political vultures, because never have we needed the great poet’s humanism and vision more than the present moment. “Bharat Mata” has been targeted in university campuses by political carpetbaggers dividing them and the nation with a calculated agenda of political apartheid.

A good example is that of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who cynically compares the anti-minority pogroms of 1984 in Delhi and 2002 in Ahmedabad, declaring the former to be “more secular” on the twisted reasoning that it was “spontaneous” while the latter was “engineered” by the political establishment in Gujarat.

Others are working overtime to conjure threats to the various sectarian groups with which their interests are linked to develop political traction for themselves in their own constituencies.

However, in the entirely different world of the Indian Army, “Bharat Mata ki Jai” is a traditional, multi-faith battlecry, where soldiers of all denominations place their country before their religion or denomination.

Roared through many voices, “Bharat Mata ki Jai” has sustained and exhorted the Indian soldier on many bullet-scourged battlefields as he has closed with the enemy for the final reckoning.

The Indian soldier is truly the ultimate Indian — the man and, increasingly, the woman who comes from every part of the country, ranging from the streets of Mumbai to the jungles of Nagaland. He worships his God in church, temple, gurdwara or mosque. He dresses in identical uniform when he goes into battle and does not carry any outward indication of his religion (except those of the Sikh faith) other than on two identity discs, one each around his neck and the wrist, on which are inscribed his regimental number, blood group and his religion.

The purpose of this last is to identify his remains if he dies on the battlefield, so that the appropriate funeral rites may be conducted for him, in accordance with the religion which he professed in his lifetime.

But now, with elections to many state Assemblies underway, the battlecry of the warrior has been misappropriated by the political demagogues and turned into street slogans by the politician. These are the enemies within the gates whom the soldier may have to deal with if and when called upon to do so.

Meanwhile, life has to continue. In Kolkata, a flyover under construction crashes onto the street below killing and injuring many. There is severe drought in Maharashtra, Bundelkhand and Rajasthan, with a huge internal migration of distressed people from rural to urban areas in search of fodder and sustenance underway. These are major human calamities, but political parties assess them purely in terms of the electoral calculus.

“Bharat Mata ki Jai” is in the political arena now and bids to become a significant factor in determining the trend of public opinion and the ultimate outcome of the elections.

The writer is a former Chief of Army Staff and a former member of Parliament