Incredible India! Mera Bharat Mahan!!

 Incredible India!

"Mera Bharat Mahan!" (My India is great) is an exciting slogan every Indian is proud to proclaim. And rightfully so. because we boast of five thousand years of history and are one of the fastest growing countries in the world. This history is worthy of evaluation and reevaluation and we never tire of telling and retelling our stories. And like in any comprehensive study of history, our picture will be complete only if we ask three pertinent questions- "Where did we come from?" "Where are we today?' and 'Where do we want to go from here?' This blog is a brief study on how India reached its present modern status. It's a sketch of India's journey from traditions to modernity, insular to global, and national to international. This is a research on the pioneers, the makers, movers and builders of modern India. A story of sweat, tears and blood!

Lately, our cultural and political conversations seem to revolve around two great issues - Nationalism and Nation building. These two subjects are discussed and debated nationwide, both among the intelligentsia and the common man. A clear understanding of these issues is germane to our future growth and for this, we have to shift our focus to the foundations of our nation. We need to evaluate our core values, traditions, ideas and ideologies, examine the changes that either hindered or helped our growth and identify the catalysts that transformed us into a modern nation. Therefore, history can never be forgotten because it provides the building blocks for our future.

Why History?

Why do we need History? The National Geographic's visual history of the World gives an incisive explanation: 'We  live in hectic time 24 hours new cycles leave us feeling behind the curve or irrelevant. On the internet, gossip acquires fact status in a Nano second. Within sustainable knowledge is only a mouse click away we google our history like fast-food, ready for quick consumption. The web has arrived, a virtual volcano spewing in every direction with no barricade to stop the flow of unfiltered words & doctored images. We're stranded trying to make sense out of the blinding fog of misinformation. Historical truth is heard commodity to find.. we occasionally need to pass, catch our breath, get a grip on ourselves, straighten our lapels, and realize that world history - like everything else worthwhile - demands high quality scrutiny. Vetting. "(Forward by Douglas G. Brinkley, 2005, page 12)

Therefore, we need to look beyond myths, legends and speculations to understand the real history of humanity. For this reason, historians reach and analyze data from anthropologists, archeologists, linguists and scientific technocrats in order to arrive at concrete conclusions.

Contemporary Reality

You can now hold a book and read it in your mother tongue you could go to a school and graduate from a university you have grammar books and multilingual dictionaries in your language And so many newspapers to choose from! But there was a time in India when we had nothing of these. It's hardly 150 or 200 years that we began to enjoy all these. And who were the makers and movers of these modern facilities. Here is the truth of history: Most of these are the creative work of Bible translators and Christian servant

Linguistic Tools

The blog presents a research on the pioneering contribution of Christian servants and Bible translators in making India a modern nation by transforming Indian languages, literature, linguistics, education, printing, journalism and culture.

Based on my analysis of over 100 Indian languages, it has been proved that the Bible translators, between 150 and 200 years ago as pioneers, developed 85 dictionaries, 116 grammar books and 45 newspapers/journals in these languages when India had nothing of these. Also, modernization of the script in most of these languages was the work of these Christian servants.

In the field of literature, in most Indian languages, there was no prose. By publishing Bible portions in Indian mother tongues, as pioneers, these Christian servants introduced prose to India. In many Indian languages, the first novel, drama, travelogue or biography was published by these servants. Also linguistics, the study of the science of languages is a Christian contribution. Besides, these developments led to the promotion of education from kindergarten to Universities.

In printing, the first press was established by Christian servants in 1556 in Goa, followed by units in Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu in 1700 and Serampore, West Bengal in 1800, spreading network of printing presses throughout India. This led to the production of journals and newspapers.

In journalism, the first vernacular newspaper was published in Bengali and Hindustani by Serampore missionaries in 1818, besides an English journal, Friend of India. In most of other Indian languages also, these workers produced the first newspaper or journal with all these pioneering development efforts, these Christian servants effected major socio-economic transformation of India.

Call from the Prime Minister

Moreover, the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Nehru invited Cardinal Valerian Gracias to involve the Catholic Church in building up a modem India, focusing on the areas of health, education and socio-economic developments. Cardinal Valerian Gracias invited all the Bishops and Religious congregations in India to accelerate the services the Church were providing in these areas. Thus, "the establishment of Catholic Relief Services, Voluntary Health Association of India by Rev. Fr. James Tong, the Catholic Hospital Association of India, the CBCI Education Commission, Catholic Charities India and Caritas India are an examples of responding to the call of the Prime Minister to focus on the areas of health, education and socio-economic development." ("John Chathanatt, Jaya Peter Silent waves Claretian Publications, Bangalore , 2012, page no.9.)

The era we live today is termed "post truth era" where truth is defined as 'relative' and not absolute. Therefore when we dig off the past much came has to be taken to differentiate between speculation and revelation, myth and reality. Also sometimes, truth hurts. However, we don't need to be frightened to face it up, because ultimately, it's only 'truth that would triumph' as engraved at the entrance of our Parliament in Delhi, "Satya Meva Jayathe". Therefore, a critical evaluation of our past will give us advocate lessons to further build an Incredible India!

The story of India begins with 'we, the people of India'...