Rahul Gandhi was wrong when he said to the students at Cambridge University, England, on 23 May 2022, that ‘India is not a nation.’ As usual, it is impossible to decipher his utterances. But let us try.
The very university where he made this daffy recitation, defines ‘nation’ thus:
“a country, especially when thought of as a large group of people living in one area with their own government, language, traditions, etc.”
- Cambridge English Dictionary
Did Rahul Gandhi mean India is not “a country,” or does not have its “own government, language, traditions, etc.”?
What do Mahatma Gandhi the father of the nation, Dr B R Ambedkar the architect of our constitution, and our history and civilization say about India being a nation?
Mahatma Gandhi exposed the British claim of ‘India not being a nation.’ He wrote in Hind-Swaraj, “The English have taught us that we were not one nation before and that it will require centuries before we become one nation. This is without foundation. We were one nation before they came to India. One thought inspired us. Our mode of life was the same. It was because we were one nation that they were able to establish one kingdom. … India was one undivided land so made by nature. … They [our ancestors], therefore, argued that it must be one nation. Arguing thus, they established holy places in various parts of India and fired the people with an idea of nationality in a manner unknown in other parts of the world.”
The existence of India as a nation was beyond the comprehension of British and other Western colonisers and the easiest way out of this confusion was to question the very existence of India as a nation.
Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of our constitution said, “Though the country and the people may be divided into different States for convenience of administration the country is one integral whole, its people a single people living under a single imperium derived from a single source.” In short, India was a nation.
The preamble to the constitution of India contains the word “India.” Article 1 of the constitution says “India, that is Bharat [भारत], shall be a Union of States,” not a federation of states like the US. The units (states) in a union do not have the right to make or amend constitution, or to secede. Units in a federation have separate constitutions and can secede.
‘The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation,’ a 1966 book by American historian Granville Austin remains unmatched till today for its primary sources, research, and clear thinking. He called India a nation in the very title of the book.
Bharat [भारत] is mentioned by Chanakya (375–283 BCE), is mentioned twenty-two times in Srimad Bhagavad Gita (c. 200 and 500 BCE), and in Rig Veda Samhita (c. 1500 and 1000 BCE). Bharat had Maurya Empire (322 BCE -185 BCE) and Gupta Empire (early 04 CE to late 06 CE). Our civilization is 5,000 years old. We trace it to The Indus Valley Civilization (C. 3300 BCE – 1900 BCE). It is the second oldest civilization that ever existed. Only the Mesopotamian civilization was older than it.
Rahul Gandhi also said that India was akin to European Union (EU) and not to a nation like UK. He is wrong again. EU is like a federation, each member has its own constitution and is free to secede, that is leave the EU. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. India has a “single imperium derived” constitution. The states do not have separate constitution and cannot secede. UK, like India, has a single constitution though it is unwritten, that is uncodified. And like India, the UK is also a union of the states comprising the states of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. So, India is a nation more like UK and is certainly not a federation like the EU.
We have been a nation since thousands of years because of our civilization, history, culture and territory. Rahul Gandhi was amiss to claim that we are not a nation. His claim was inopportune and mischievous and will flame the fires already raging in the tumulus times we are in.
