Mushtanda; and Bharat

[Robert Zydenbos]

Am Sat, 18 Mar 2000 schrieb Vishal Agarwal:

> Dr. Zydenbos wrote: No, not in such a crude form. For that matter, India as
> a block did not exist either...........
>
> VA responds: The concept of nation state itself is fairly new, so why should
> India be held to different standards. Notwithstand its colorful diversity,
> the concept of Bharat has existed for at least 15-18 centuries. Else why
> would we have dozens of verses like [...]

Please bear in mind the contexts in which utterances are made. Of course
there is such a thing as "India", but intelligent people should beware of
overly reifying it. There is such a thing as multidimensionality of even a
single individual's social identity. And any Indian who is reasonably sane
and not living a pipe dream should be aware of that.

> There are 100's of such verses in the Puranas and the Itihasas, and in
> comparison, does Europe have anything?

Of course. Start with the fact that "Europa" is an ancient Greek name, and
from there you can follow it right down to today, and in various languages.
But if you do not want to find out for yourself, I suggest that you consult
lists other than the Indology List.

> Therefore, the remarks of Dr. Zydenbos are one sided.

Not at all. Of course it would be possible for a polemicist to pretend that
they are by imposing a one-sided interpretation and make a big point out of
this; a person of ill will can always do so, and I do not think that we should
worry too much about that.

RZ