[The external boundaries of India as depicted on the map are neither correct nor authentic.]

The people who inhabited the Indus Valley region later spread to the Gangetic Plains and then to the peninsular part of India. Later migrations took them even beyond to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Southeast Asian countries, and so on.

They founded numerous kingdoms identified by the dynasties in different parts of the subcontinent. Each of these kingdoms had their own names.

It is the medieval foreign travelers, later invaders and immigrants, who felt the need for a single name that would collectively refer to all kingdoms and peoples of the subcontinent. They took the Persian term “India” from the ancient writings of the Hebrews, Greeks, etc. - where it had been used to refer to the Indus Valley region - and began using it to refer to the entire subcontinent that now consisted of hundreds of kingdoms with peoples of so many different languages and cultures.

This is how the name “India” began to be used to refer to the whole of the subcontinent. The Mughals called the country Hindustan, a name derived from Indus or Sindhu.

The rulers of the British Empire followed suite; and one of the two modern nations that took birth on the departure of the British from the subcontinent chose to retain the name “India” as it meant some sort of historical continuity for them, and the name (politically) ceased to refer to the regions which it originally referred to in the ancient times. The other country, which actually consisted of most of the lands of the Indus Valley civilization, coined a new name for itself in “Pakistan”.

But (this is an important “but”), a large section of the people presently inhabiting the Indus Valley region and the nearby areas (Sindh, Punjab, NWFP, Balochistan, Kashmir, and parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan) are descendants of later migrant groups to the region (like the Arabs, Greeks, Central Asians, and so on), though a considerable percentage of these later migrants have also followed the earlier Indus people in moving eastward and coming to live in other parts of the subcontinent.

Some of the nomadic mountain tribes living in parts of present day Pakistan may have a better claim to the name “India”, than many of the advanced modern communities in that country (who are mostly made up of later Persian, Arab, and Central Asian immigrants).

A large percentage of the population of the political entity now called “India” consists of descendants of the people who inhabited the Indus Valley region during the heyday of the Indus civilization. Thus, the descendants of the people of the Indus civilization are now spread all over the subcontinent and are more concentrated in the central and southern parts of it.

Mahabharata is essentially a story that relates the spread of a section of the Indus people to the Gangetic plains. The division of provinces subsequent to the chess game played between the main characters opens up the story of the eastward spread, with the defeated party getting the forested and undeveloped regions to the east of the river Yamuna allocated as its portion. The winners had the right to retain the already settled and inhabited regions to the west of the river. The main events of the story took place in locations in Afghanistan and Punjab (Gandhar, present day Khandahar in Afghanistan; Takshaseela, present day Taxila in Punjab; and Kurushetra, the epic battle field, is in present day Haryana). Therefore geographically it is Pakistan that can claim the name “Bharat”!

(What began as a Comment to Hassan Rizvi’s article “A Himalayan Blunder – The Misnaming Of India!” grew too big and I thought it merited to be a separate article.)

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Every act of violence and terrorism is depraved and it affects the innocent common people more than others as the intended targets are in more or less safe places. This is true everywhere. The recent bomb blast in Bangalore and Ahmedabad claimed the lives of scores of innocent people and injured many more.

The helpless injured and the affected families have no consolation. There is no way for them to reconcile with what has happened to them and the cause behind such calamities, whatsoever it is.

It is said that death is the great leveler, and the deaths of the young and old, men and women, rich and poor, and healthy and unhealthy in the recent incidents of violence only prove this further.

The wailing relatives that never even thought of losing their near and dear ones so suddenly could never ever forget the loss till the ends of their lives.

The picture shows two fruit vendors in Ahmedabad lying dead on the road the moment after a bomb went off near the place where they usually did business for a livelihood. The innocent young man and woman have died on the harness of their profession, while the onlookers gaze from a safe distance.

“Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe.” - John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667)

“Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to defeat, for it is momentary.” - Mahatma Gandhi

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The linguistic bickering between the Dutch speaking and French speaking regions of Belgium has brought the country to the brink of a split. Prime minister Yves Leterme, the Dutch-speaking son of a French-speaking father, has found it impossible to keep the country united.

He further spoiled the chance of bringing together the Dutch speaking Flanders and the French speaking Wallonia by singing the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, when asked to recite the Belgian anthem.

The Wallons of the south think they are despised by the more prosperous Flemish of the north. The two communities have developed mutual hatred to uncontrollable levels that the prime minister could not manage to keep them together but has chosen to abandon his command when an economic crisis is at the doorsteps of Belgium.

Yves has now resigned after only four months of assuming office, and King Albert II has made him continue as caretaker prime minister.

Linguistic chauvinism has had its toll in this small country of western Europe. The linguistic squabble did not take long to degenerate into cultural and political animosity.

The Dutch language spoken in Flanders and the Belgian French spoken in Wallonia actually have only minor differences in vocabulary and semantic nuances from the varieties spoken respectively in the Netherlands and France. But the differences in economic progress between the two regions, a largely politicized issue in the country, now threatens to split Belgium into two forever.

The repeated amendments to the country’s Constitution have failed to solve the problems between the two parts of Belgium. Prejudiced and biased linguistic tendencies elsewhere in the world need to learn a lesson from the disastrous experience of Belgium.

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Chief minister M.Karunanidhi’s works of literature are going to be translated and published in the Chinese language soon. The Bharathiar University in Coimbatore has entered into an agreement with the Huaihua University of China to translate the entire gamut of the 85 year old DMK patriarch’s Tamil writings. The proposal came from the Chinese university, vice chancellor G. Thiruvasagam said.

The university has got the author’s permission to translate all his writings into English first.

Dr. M. Karunanidhi is a versatile literateur and journalist of high standards, besides being a shrewd political leader. In his writing life spanning almost seventy years, he has contributed volumes of poetic works, historical and social novels, commentaries on ancient poetic works, countless articles, and what not, to the Tamil literary world. Apart from these he has also penned the scripts and even lyrics for several Tamil movies, some of which are his own productions.

Fondly called Kalaignar (artist), Karunanidhi is a living encyclopedia of general knowledge and Tamil history. He is highly revered for his works even by his political rivals who, at one stage or the other in their career have acknowledged Karunanidhi, who has completed more than fifty years as a legislator, as their political guru.

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