Our Vision, Our Will, Our Way

This timeless motto of universal happiness and peace is the heritage of this ancient Indian civilization, which assumed the character of Bharatvarsha in Bharat Khand. Here, a nation, which Megasthanes noted “never invaded others and was never invaded,” existed long before the ideas of civilization evolved elsewhere.

This ageless nation is the embodiment of the eternal values enshrined in the concept of “Sanatana Dharma” which, according to Maharishi Aurobindo, is synonymous with Indian nationalism. The idea of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – world as a family – is integral to the concept of Sanatana Dharma. This gigantic idea is an exclusively Indian contribution to world peace. This ancient nation evolved a world-view based on the motto “Loka samasta sukhina bhavantu” (Let the entire world be happy) thousands of years before any League of Nations or United Nations was thought of to avoid global strife. The Indian nation evolved this grand vision not by marching its armies and conquering the rest and offering peace; but by the inner-directed pursuit of universal values by the Rishis living in the forests and mountains of India.

The well-being of all, in short, is the Indian mission. It is not limited to the residents of Bharat or the adherents of any particular faith or creed. That is why Bharat received with open arms all faiths and people fleeing persecution-whether it was the Jews, Parsis, Muslims or Christians-and preserved and protected them long before any other civilization could think short of exterminating those who differed from the ruling faiths and people. Israeli society has openly acknowledged that out of over a hundred nations in which Jews sought refuge, only in Bharat they were received and treated well. It is because religion in ancient India meant faith in general and not any particular faith. It is this ancient Indian mind that formulated the Constitution of India, guaranteeing equal treatment to all faiths and their adherents and it is not the Constitution that shaped the Indian mind.

Diversity is an inseparable part of India’s past and present national tradition. The BJP not only respects but celebrates India’s regional, caste, credal, linguistic and ethnic diversity, which finds its true existence and expression only in our national unity. This rich tradition comprises not only the Vedas and Upanishads, Jainagamas and Tripitaka, Puranas and Guru Granth Sahib, the Dohas of Kabir, the various social reform movements, saints and seers, warriors and writers, sculptors and artists, but also the Indian traditions of the Muslims, Christians and Parsis.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is a proud inheritor of this tradition while all other political parties have branded everything associated with this great tradition as sectarian, unworthy of being followed. The post-Independence tendency to reject all ancient Indian wisdom in political life led to all pre-Independence values and symbols-be it the idea of spiritual nationalism expounded by Swami Vivekananda, or the concept of Ram Rajya articulated by Mahatma Gandhi, or the soul-stirring “Vande Mataram” song composed by Bankim Chandra-being discarded as unsecular and unacceptable. The BJP rejects this attitude and idea of disconnecting from the past. The past is inseverable from the present and the future. That is why Swami Vivekananda said, “It is out of the past that the future is moulded. It is the past that becomes the future”.