History of the Akhand Bharat idea, and in the imagination of the RSS

Asked what he meant by his tweet, Joshi told The Indian Express on Thursday: “The concept of Akhand Bharat comes from ancient Indian culture. The new Parliament building depicts various facets of Indian culture, representing every region and all its facets.”

ಸಂಕಲ್ಪ ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟವಾಗಿದೆ – ಅಖಂಡ ಭಾರತ 🇮🇳#NewParliamentBuilding#MyParliamentMyPride pic.twitter.com/tkVtu3CCoh

— Pralhad Joshi (@JoshiPralhad) May 28, 2023

The mural has triggered some concern in Nepal where a few politicians have demanded that the visiting Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal should raise the issue with New Delhi. Nepal’s former PM Baburam Bhattarai has said the mural could cause unnecessary diplomatic disputes, PTI reported.

The Mural in Parliament

On Friday, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said: “The mural in question depicts the spread of the Ashokan empire and the idea of responsible and people-oriented governance that he (Ashoka) adopted and propagated.”

The artwork occupies one of the 16 niches in the Constitutional Foyer of the new Parliament building. Murals in the other niches are dedicated to Indian sages, ancient texts, and the Ramayana; one of them is dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru.

The official description of the mural says: “Between 265 and 238 BC, Ashoka spread the message of Buddhism and got it inscribed at many places”.

Akhand Bharat

The Sangh Parivar has long imagined an Indian nation that existed from the time of the Ramayana, covering the landmass stretching from today’s Afghanistan to Myanmar and Tibet to Sri Lanka. A map titled “Punyabhoomi Bharat” published by the RSS-run Suruchi Prakashan, labels Afghanistan as “Upganathan”, Kabul as “Kubha Nagar”, Peshawar as “Purushpur”, Multan as “Moolsthan”, Tibet as “Trivishtap,” Sri Lanka as “Singhaldweep”, and Myanmar as “Brahmadesh”.

Back in 1944, as the Muslim League pressed for a separate Pakistan, the historian Radha Kumud Mookerji first articulated the idea of Akhand Bharat in his presidential address delivered at an “Akhand Bharat Conference”.

“…The homeland of the Hindus through milenniums of their history has been nothing short of the whole of India stretching in its continental expanse from Kashmir to the Cape, from Nanga Parvat and Amarnath to Madura and Rameshwaram and from Dwarka to Puri,” Mookerji said.

Akhand Bharat was a fact of geography, he argued: “India has been fashioned by Nature as an indisputable geographical unit marked out from the rest of the world by well-defined boundaries and fixed frontiers about which there can be no doubt or uncertainty.”

The RSS position

In 2015, RSS leader Ram Madhav, when asked about a map that showed Pakistan and Bangladesh as part of India, told Al Jazeera: “The RSS still believes that one day these parts, which have for historical reasons separated only 60 years ago, will again, through popular goodwill, come together and Akhand Bharat will be created.”

Now, with the BJP in power, some RSS leaders have said Akhand Bharat is in fact a “cultural idea”. All RSS publications also insist that Akhand Bharat is a “cultural” entity, not a national or political one.

However, the RSS began propagating the idea of “re-uniting” India almost immediately after Partition. At a press conference in Delhi on August 24, 1949, M S Golwalkar, the second Sarsanghchalak, said: “As far as possible, we must continue our efforts to unite these two divided states… Nobody is happy with Partition.” Golwalkar repeated this at a press conference in Kolkata on September 7, 1949.

At its meeting held in Delhi on August 17, 1965, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP’s predecessor, passed a resolution: “India’s tradition and nationality has not been against any religion… Muslims will integrate themselves with the national life and Akhand Bharat will be a reality, unifying India and Pakistan once we are able to remove this obstacle [ of separatist politics].”

A book by S D Sapre that is popular at RSS gatherings says: “We can put the map of Akhand Bharat in our home so that it is always before our eyes. If the map of Akhand Bharat is in our hearts, we will be offended every time we see the map of divided India on Doordarshan, newspapers and magazines, and remind us of the resolution of Akhand Bharat.” (Pratyek Rashtrabhakt ka Swapn: Akhand Bharat)

The late RSS Sarkaryawah H V Sheshadri wrote: “There is always the possibility that the divided halves will seize the first opportunity to nullify the unnatural division. Such a possibility need not to be ruled out in respect of Bharat, Pakistan and Bangladesh too.” (The Tragic Story of Partition)

The BJP’s stand

The Narendra Modi government has never spoken of Akhand Bharat in the same way as RSS leaders. However, BJP leaders have articulated the idea in political speeches.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has invoked “Akhand Bharat” in the context of the scrapping of Article 370, and while remembering the contributions of Sardar Patel. However, these articulations have largely been an assertion of the territorial integrity of independent India.

Delivering a speech in Nanded, Maharashtra in 2021, Shah said: “…The country’s first Home Minister and Bharat Ratna Sardar Patel had succeeded in making this region a part of Akhand Bharat, defeating their (the Nizam’s) nefarious intentions with perseverance, valour and strategic skill.”

On September 7 last year, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma mocked Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra: “Try to integrate Pakistan, Bangladesh and strive to create Akhand Bharat.”

In 2014, Gujarat’s BJP government introduced RSS leader Dinanath Batra’s book Tejomay Bharat as supplementary reading in government schools. The book has a chapter called Akhand Bharat, which speaks about India including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.