NEW DELHI : When India was divided to create a separate State of Pakistan, the call for a so-called Akhand Bharat was issued stridently by the Hindu Mahasabha. On January 28, 1950, the Working Committee of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha adopted a resolution reiterating its determination to continue its fight for Akhand Bharat. It also declared that it was the birthright of every Hindu to agitate to attain it. Referring to that resolution, first Prime Minister Jawaharlal @Nehru wrote to chief ministers on February 2,1950, saying that it was “the stupidest proposal”. Nehru observed, “And yet, stupidity has a market if it puts on some kind of a nationalist garb.”
It is this “market” of Nehru’s critical observations that has been expanded by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the government run by its offshoot, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2014. They have done so by injecting the divisive force of Hindutva into the body politic of India. Their invocation of Akhand Bharat is a possibly a strategy to appeal to those who constitute the “market” for votes in the electoral arena.
This same “stupidest” proposal, as described by Nehru, was first taken forward by unofficial and extra-constitutional bodies like the Hindu Mahasabha. But now it is being pursued by top government figures, such as Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and it is even being endorsed by the Centre. Joshi recently tweeted a picture of Akhand Bharat with the words, “The resolve is clear—Akhand Bharat.” The tweet included the picture of a mural installed in the new Parliament inaugurated on 28 May, which depicts several of India’s neighbours as part of the RSS-BJP’s idea of Akhand Bharat.
At the international level, the tweet immediately stoked an uproar among neighbouring countries. In Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, serious objection has been expressed to Joshi’s picture of the mural. In fact, the tweet and mural did not go down well in the entirety of India’s neighbourhood, where concerns are being expressed that showing them as part of India clearly indicates the obliteration of their status as sovereign entities.
The spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, said the mural was not about “Akhand Bharat” but “depicts the spread of the Ashokan empire and the idea of responsible and people-oriented governance that he adopted and propagated”. He asserted, “That’s what the mural and the plaque in front of the mural says.” When his attention was drawn to Joshi’s tweet on Akhand Bharat, he remarked, “I’m certainly not going to comment on statements that other political leaders might have made.”