‘Hindu rashtra is an alien concept’

kolkata: politicians may think otherwise, but those who have good grounding in tradition and religion understand that there are particular hindering factors for the hindu rashtravadis in the history and culture of the eastern region. in ancient times, there was never any religion called hinduism, which was a later identity given by the foreigners. and india as we know it, too, did not exist.this eastern part of india, for example, was outside the aryavarta proper. so, even if we talk about bringing back a state with the arya sanatan dharma as its guiding religion, it would be difficult in this gangeya part of the country, said kolkata's sanskrit college reader satyabrata bhattacharya. the scholar, who is one of the few pundits taking classes at the traditional tol run by the college, posed the problem thus: i am all for the preaching of my religion and bringing all those who had forsaken it, but forcing it on the unwilling ones is just the thing i don't like in case of some other religions. how can we do it ourselves? debaprasad bhattacharya, who has grown up in a scholar family of the traditional seat of learning bhatpara in north 24-parganas and himself researched on it history, explained the historical and social factors further. not only was the hold of brahminical religion always weak in what is eastern india now, but the very concept of a religious state is alien to it. besides, sanskrit, the great unifying factor in the spread of the religion of the aryans, never had a foothold here. telling people to live in a hindu rashtra now would be imposing another form of colonialism on them. within the multiplicity of religions, people have always preserved a stream of harmony, the young researcher stressed. it is manifest at the level of their everyday lore as well as during the religious observances at the grass-roots level. this was poignantly illustrated by sudevi bhattacharya, a science teacher whose passion is the study of religion. when i perform lakshmi puja at home, i always invite the muslim carpenter who works at my house. i would not like to live in any rashtra that leaves him out.