This is a moment of fulfilment, because on this historic occasion of
the inauguration of the Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture, one of
the major dreams of Mananeeya Eknath Ranade, the founder of Vivekananda
Kendra, is being realized. The idea behind this institute is to
study, do research in and propagate the national unity of India, as
understood by our ancient seers and cherished by the great sons and
daughters of India throughout her long history and spelt out by modern
sages like Swami Vivekananda and Mahayogi Aurobindo. This is a crying
need of the times particularly with regard to the north-eastern region,
where separatist forces are extremely active to disrupt the unity of
India.
Vivekananda Kendra has from its very inception taken keen interest in
this part of the country. It may seem strange to some that the Kendra
which is based in the south-western extreme of Bharat should feel so
concerned about the north-east lying in the opposite extreme of the
land. In fact, there is nothing strange about it. This has happened,
time and again, in our long history. Swami Vivekananda, born and brought
up in Calcutta, discovered his life mission in Kanyakumari. Parvathi
doing Tapas in Kanyakumari is the daughter of Himavan in the north.
These are the signs and symbols of the fundamental unity of this unique
country, which we all adore as Bharat Mata.
But it is also our experience that often we tend to forget the obvious.The
unity of India, like human love, has to be diligently and continuously
nursed and nourished lest ignorance and selfishness, narrow-mindedness
and sectarianism overshadow the sentiment of unity. Unfortunately that
is what is happening all over the country, and in a very alarming manner
in the north-east.
Sentiments are deliberately being whipped and people are told that
they are not children of Mother India. The threat of dismemberment of
the nation is hovering over the horizon. Under these circumstances it is
absolutely necessary that all our efforts should be made to re-discover
the fundamental unity of India. We must be very very clear that we are
not inventing something that was not there before. We are only
re-discovering the ancient cultural unity and strengthening it and
expressing it in a modern idiom for the sake of the present generation,
which has unfortunately been brainwashed into forgetting it by a
misconceived education system and vested-interest groups. This is the
kind of the work which the Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture
intends to take up.
The unity of India has been an article of faith with us. It is based
on a spiritual perception. It is the same divine Mother whom we worship
as Kamakhya Devi in Assam who is worshipped as Devi Kanyakumari in Tamil
Nadu in the South. Over thousands of years our forefathers have been,
with supreme devotion, dedicating themselves to keeping alive this
delicate sentiment. It has been an organic and living unity. It cannot
be compared with what the Americans have been doing. They are a modern,
and not yet fully-formed nation. Their attempt has been to melt
disparate elements into a totally new alloy. They called it ‘the melting
pot’ experiment. The experiment has not succeeded. It is not likely to
succeed because it is not in keeping with human nature. According to
this author our model is not even that of the mosaic of cultures because
the concept is more mechanical than organic. The Indian model can be
described as a fundamental, seminal unity, manifesting as vibrant,
colourful diversity.
India is the only country where the sublime truth of unity in
diversity has been understood, appreciated and also practised from time
immemorial. We have done this with regard to the various castes,
communities and religions within India; we have also accepted and
assimilated people from across the borders, whether they came to India
as invaders, traders or refugees. In course of time all of them have
been accommodated in our national and cultural framework. What India can
legitimately be proud of is that we have never annihilated or
exterminated any group. As Swami Vivekananda stated:“We have never been a
conquering race, and this blessing is with us”. This is because we
never believed that we have to bulldoze all humanity into one, uniform,
monotonous mould. Our concept of nation has been beautifully described
in theAtharva Veda:
Janam bibhrati bahudha vivaacham
Naanaa dharmaanam prithvi yathaukasam
Sahasram dhaaraa dhravinashya meduham
Dhruveva dhenu anupashuranthi
(This land standing firm like the Kamadhenu, nourishes in a
thousand ways, people of different worship and speaking various
languages as if in a family.)
It is needless to state that every part of India east or west, south
or north has equally shared in the cultural life of India and each, in
its own distinct way, has contributed to the rich and colourful
national edifice. The picture would have been incomplete without the
contribution of even the smallest among them. Totality alone is the
reality. In fact, as Mahayogi Aurobindo has pointed out, the real
centres of India’s cultural dynamism and creativity were spread
throughout the length and breadth of India and were not drawn into and
concentrated in the various state capitals or the national capital. Hundreds
of such dynamic centres kept the cultural life of India alive when
political capitals succumbed to foreign invaders and other cultural
patterns. Even today, in spite of all the communications revolution that
has been achieved and the much talked about globalisation, India can
achieve her best only if the regional and sub-regional centres of
cultural life remain active and even autonomous to make a cultural
efflorescence possible. In fact, that is the rationale behind such
centres of intellectual and cultural activity.
The Indian experiment has great relevance to the present world
situation. Peaceful co-existence of all the nations of the world, rich
and poor, big and small, white and black, and north and south can be
assured only on the basis of a philosophy that accepts the principle of
unity in diversity, that Truth is many-faceted and can be approached in
different ways, that each has to contribute in its own distinct way to
the sum total of world culture, that the strength of the whole lies in
the strength of each of its parts. In the perilously poised world of
today, where selfishness and hypocrisy rule the roost, this is the only
philosophy that can save the world. Hollow words like ‘globalisation’
and a ‘new world order’ are only deceptive.
Another area of study which is of intense interest for the
institute is the health of the body-politic of the north-eastern region.
Health is defined as a state of equilibrium. Equilibrium may be
disturbed by internal or external reasons. Demographic imbalance can
play havoc with the health of a nation. The north-eastern
region being a border area has always been extremely sensitive from this
point of view. It continues to be so even today. The partition of
India, instead of solving the issue, has made it more complicated.
Demographic equilibrium can come under strain through external factors
like the influx of refugees, immigrants and infiltrators. Ever since the
dawn of the history migrations have taken place either in droplets or
on a massive scale. Every nation is worried about the imbalance created
by them and takes steps to guard against the threat posed by them. Here
is a tolerance level beyond which no nation can permit alien inflow. If
it allows this, out of indifference, ignorance or incompetence, the
price that has to be paid is self-extinction.
Every state in the north-eastern region is now facing the problem of
people coming in either as refugees, immigrants or infiltrators from
across the border.We have to be constantly alert to see whether
the tolerance level is being crossed and what the impact of the inflow
is on our socio-economic and cultural life. No nation can afford to be
indifferent in this regard. But, strangely enough, there in our
country ivory-tower intellectuals who openly say that the inflow from
outside is solely due to the miserable economic conditions and that we
should adopt an open-door policy on humanitarian grounds. There are
visionary intellectuals who propose that the only solution is to uplift
the living conditions of the poor, undeveloped neighbouring countries
from which people migrate to India. I shall cite one example. The
January issue ofSeminar, a leading intellectual journal of India,
published from Delhi, said- Migration will continue, especially from
Bangladesh and Nepal. No wall, law or police force anywhere in the
world has been able to stop it. People, like water, always find their
level for survival. But if massive inflows are to be checked then we
have to find strategies of helping Bangladesh and Nepal develop their
economies and help curb an outflow of people.
There is another subtle reason also. Culture may be defined as the
manifestation of the soul of the nation, visibly reflected in all walks
of life. It is something like that of the of the spirit or Atma. Both
interact upon each other. If the culture, Sukshma Shareera, gets
contaminated by outside influence, the soul also becomes clouded, and if
this continues unchecked, it might even get extinguished. The
demographic equilibrium, when disturbed, leads to the distortion of
culture and consequent annihilation of the national soul. Close
monitoring of all these influences at the subtle level has to be taken
up as a matter of priority. The association of competent, sensitive and
talented individuals and resource-persons has to be ensured for the
success of this.The Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture will always keep this in its heart and pursue the matter diligently.
I have already pointed out a few areas of activity which the institute
has on its agenda. As was pointed out at the beginning, Mananeeya
Eknathji Ranade was all eyes and ears to the problems and developments
in the north-eastern region. Swami Vivekananda, too, with his deep
vision and foresight had realised the importance of this region. Towards
the end of his earthly career, having almost completed his mission, he
visited places like Guwahati and Shillong on a pilgrimage, taking his
mother along with him. His biographers have pointed out how disturbed he
was at the state of affairs at that time. Things have not improved
since then.That explains why Vivekananda Kendra deems it its
bounden duty to pay special attention to the cultural educational
activities of this region. Politics has always been scrupulously avoided
by the Kendra because it wants to bring together all men of good-will
to serve the cause of the Hindu Nation.
Vivekananda Kendra realises very well that it is easy to start an
Institute of Culture, but it is very difficult to run it properly, bring
to fruition the noble objectives for which it has been established. For
this, we will always seek the co-operation of all like-minded
individuals and institutions with an open mind. All of us are conscious
that the problems faced by our country are so numerous and so complex
that no one institution or person can single-handed hope to solve them. All
those who are interested in the progress and welfare of the country
will have the support of each other and supplement one another. That is
the spirit in which we launch this National Institute of Culture in the
name of Swami Vivekananda.
[Transcript of the talk delivered during the Inauguration of the Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture building in Guwahati, 1996]
