| by Swadesh Roy
( May 24, 2014, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to the eminent historian Irfan Habib, Indian civilization started after reaching the Homo sapiens in Afghanistan from Africa and then they came to India. Historians have calculated a period, but it is difficult to calculate exactly when the civilization of Indian sub-continent was started. Despite, we can say modern civilization of India has beenproduced more than five thousand years ago because one of the main mother book or epic of this civilization Mahabharat was written more than five thousand years ago. It may be say, according to Mahabharat, which was the time of modern civilization. Because, that was the time of beautiful marriage between liberal society and wise thinking and it continues in that society. Thus, after three thousand year of that society we got Ramayan, which is also an epic and one of the mother books of the world. In this book we got the Muni (Wise man) named Jabali, he was non-believer, but he was acknowledged by that society as a great wise man. We got another Muni named Bashisty, he was not Brahamin but by achieving knowledge he became Brahamin and the society acknowledged him as a Brahamin. So, we got a continuity of a liberal society in Indian civilization from her early modern era or pre historical age. After that we got the same kind of liberal society which was described by the great poet Rabindranath, “ Shak, Hundal, Mughal, Phatan ak dhe halo lin( India contains all the human races like Shak, Hun, Mughal, Phatan).” It is the beauty of Indian civilization and it is continuing now. In spite of all the cast problems of Indian Hindu society, to some extent the Indian society and their democracy are more liberal than European democracy. European democracy has made a good governing system but supremacy of Christianity is still in their society. We all accept that, in spite of cast problem and Hindutva in their politics, no one is supreme in Indian society; theirsociety accepts all kinds of human thought and race in the same way. Along with the all shortcomings, India is a diverse forest.
Now a million-dollar question, after the landslide victory of a ‘Hindutva up- holding Party’, Bharatio Janata Party (BJP), will India destroy their long liberal civilization. Will India impose the supremacy of the Hindutva in a multi believed,multi thinking society and a great heritage of the civilization? Will they try to build up a mono cultural society? If they try it and if they become successful then one of the great civilizations of the world will be destroyed by them. Analyzing the result of the Indian election, any one will say that the result of the Indian election does not indicate that Indian society wants Hindutva as the only dimension of their society. BJP has a landslide victory but they got only 31 percent of votes. So, if they got all the votes that casted in favor of their party, which is in favor of Hindutva that is only 31 percent and 69% of people casted their vote against Hindutva. Besides, from early nineties to this election, this time BJP raised less HIndutva, they emphasized more on development and a strong government. For example, their leader Narendra Modi’s one of the election commitments is, he will make more cities. India needs more cities now, because through the social welfare rule of congress last ten years a huge number of people of India have upgraded from the below poverty line, now they want to come the city. Because they want job, they want better life. The characters of all the Indian old cites are cosmopolitan and a well live -together of all culture. It is the beauty of Indian cities, Indian societies and Indian lives. Even than Modi elected from that Varanasi which is a holy city for the Hindu devote but it is also the city of multi-cultural, multi religious and multi race. The nature of the new city of India will be same. If anyone wants to make an embankment of this natural water flow, he will fight against the civilization of India and that will be one of the causes of destroying civilization. Besides, we have seen many civilizations arrested their mother books and knowledge in the name of religion for the sake of politics or controlling the people. Ultimately, their mother knowledge was misinterpreted in the name of religion and they have cut easily from the roots of their diverse old civilization even they have destroyed their civilization and they have made a regimented society, which is blind.
We have seen that, in Hindutva politics there is a tendency to present the mother knowledge books and the character of those books as a part of religion and religious person. Now Indian media is so much powerful and if they get the help of the government or the government use the media for presenting mother books as religious books it will ultimately help to arrest the mother knowledge as a religious book. In Indian civilization, there are huge numbers of mother books and those are helping to make the society liberal still now. Here it is to mention, some misinterpreted has made a chronic problem in Indian society, which is cast problem and a kind of Hindutva. Mr. Modi has come from a lower cast family so he knows better the pain of it. That is why; if he gives more emphasis to pull out the Indian society from cast problem and help them, who are trying for a long time to stop the misinterpretation of mother books it will be more rational than to use religion in politics.
Every civilization is the asset of the world and the human race. So,the modern world is always searching their old civilization, and it is not for only knowing the history it is one of the main fuel of human race for going forward. Indian civilization is one of the assets of the world. India is now Asian economic power but still a poor country but economically rich western world respect India for its vast civilization. Religion has come in human life as one of the components of the civilization, it is an eternal believe of a man, it is not the component of the politics. So in the name of politics, exploiting religion is a danger, because when a eternal believe come in the political dynamics then politics lose its own dynamics and it turns into a belief abandoning its logical character. Each rational person of the world expects, India should not ruled by that kind of politics, which will be the cause of destroying its great civilization. So, every rational person of the world expects Mr. Modi as a Prime Minister of India, the biggest democratic country of the world, will uphold his development issues not Hindutva. It is better if religion stays in mind and politics stays in state machineries; no one should try to give them marriage.
Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor, The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh he can be reach at swadeshroy@gmail.com
 According to the eminent historian Irfan Habib, Indian civilization st...){kind=link}