There are two types of narratives on India by Urban Naxals. One is that India was never a nation. It was an assortment of princely states that was glued together by the British. This new secular, socialist India had nothing to do with the India of the past. But now that such an India exists, the second type does not want to acknowledge it’s existence. They want this nation to be subsumed under the identity of South Asia. The ulterior motive for both these groups is to deny the spiritual unity behind this nation which has survived to this day.
When the British conquered India, they had to come with a narrative to justify the barbarism and the looting. They knew that if they held on to India, they would be a first rate power and the loss of it would make them look like a glorified Belgium. They came up with multiple explanations.
The first said: Don’t be guilty of being an invader. Indians have been invaded for ages, usually through the Khyber Pass. We innovated and invaded through the sea. India is a wounded civilization and land of defeat. The second argued there is nothing in common among these people. These people are foreigners to each other. ” A ‘Native of Calcutta,’ argued Sir John Strachey, a formidable provincial governor in Victorian India, was ‘more of a foreigner to the hardy races on the frontiers of Northern India than an Englishman’ could be”
Now comes Navjot Sidhu, Minister of Local Government, Tourism, Cultural Affairs, and Museums of Punjab.
Speaking at the seventh Khushwant Singh Literature Fest in Kasauli, Sidhu, in an attempt to highlight the cultural closeness between Punjab and Pakistan, said, “If I go to Tamil Nadu, I don’t understand the language. Not that I don’t like the food, but I can’t take it for long. That culture is totally different. But if I travel to Pakistan there is no such difficulty. The language is the same…everything there is just amazing.”
Technically it is correct. I feel the same going from Kerala to Punjab. The difference is that Malayalis are not sending terrorists to Punjab. They are not trying to wage a war against their neighboring states. There is a lot in common between Tamil Nadu and Punjab. It takes
