My beloved country

Posted on by Sushmita Sahay

India celebrates its 75th independence day on this 15th of August 2021. As innocent children long ago, the concept of nation, national boundaries and India as a geopolitical entity; all were limited to Geography, History and Civics text books. An inch of distortion in drawing it to scale would invite a reduced score in the tests and a loud dig at the student by the teacher for giving away territory or snatching territory without war!! In fact, free hand drawing of the map of India would always end up giving territory or destroying her beautiful arches and claiming some of China, Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan! Child’s play, you see!😀

But on the eve of our Independence day, some disturbing recent events have made me look at the changing territorial boundaries of my nation as it has evolved from the Bharatvarsh it was thousands of years ago, to the incredible India it is today! According to the Vishnu Purana written around 600 BC :

उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् ।
वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः।।

Uttaraṃ yatsamudrasya himādreścaiva dakṣiṇam
varṣaṃ tadbhārataṃ nāma bhāratī yatra santatiḥ.

Vishnu Purana(Verse 2,1,31)

This shloka means: “The country/ landmass (Varsam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bharatam; there dwell the descendants of Bharat. Bharat was a king and this land getting his name is a story in itself. They used this term to distinguish it from other varsas or continents.

Amazing fact is that this Bharat Empire i.e. Bharatvarsha, Hindustan or India included the present Pakistan, Afghanistan, parts of China, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, North-West Tibet, Nepal and Bangladesh. Interestingly, same Bharatvarsh was referred to as Jambudwipa in some ancient texts.

Here I present the changing shape of my beloved country India a name it was given by Western invaders in the 16 th century . Ironically, one of the oldest countries in the world, enters it’s seventy-fifth year of free existence once again, after two hundred years of colonial domination.

  • Jambudwipa
  • Bharatvarsh
  • Hindustan
  • India during the British rule
  • India before the partition of 1947
  • India post partition
Maps credit Wikipedia and Google.

I leave it to you my discerning reader, to see how territories were shaved off in acts of aggression and of deceit by oppressors, rulers and neighbours. To top it all, still wet behind the ears map makers of some social media platforms with autoCAD as their only tool of knowledge have also taken it upon themselves to give a definitive territory to India.

P.S : The story of India is quite long and cannot be contained in this microblog. I invite you to do your own reading to understand the sentiment.Long Live my Country! Jai Hind!🇮🇳

29 thoughts on “My beloved country”

  1. Thank you dear for bringing this up. My kids found this so interesting.
    Yes the story of India is unique and incredible. The more you learn the more you get into it.
    God bless my India and may we be able to love and protect it .

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  3. Name of our beloved country should b changed to “Bharatvarsha” . Both, Hindoostan and India, are names given by aggressors.
    We should hv followed the path of Sri Lanka, Myanmaar, etc.

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    2. We in Bengal still call India as Bharatvarsha.
      As a child I had asked this to my maternal grandfather. Why do Bengalis call India as Bharatvarsha? And he had patiently answered .
      Fond memories.💖

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      1. Bengal has always been one of the custodians of all things Indian. That is the beauty of this province, hosted the East India company for the longest time and still retains its identity. Thank you dear Arpita for sharing your thoughts here… ❤️😊

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  6. One of your best Artcles I have ever read. You have Described Bharat so well from Ancient time till today. Loved it ❤❤Jai Hind Jai Bharat. 🙏😊

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Published by Sushmita Sahay

Expressed words carry a world of meaning in them. I love to read, write and speak. Sharing my random musings here is a pleasure 😊