Words matter: Indian, not South Asian. Greater Indian subcontinent, not South Asia. Atman, not Soul. Bhagwan, not God.
Be proud of your Indian identity, use correct words and definitions.
There are continuous efforts to first, hyphenate Indo-Pak in order to give the failed nation geopolitical legitimacy and similarly, there are efforts to dilute the Indian identity by using the term South Asian. South Asian is a concept which U.S. alphabetical agencies came up with and there is no need to use this term unless absolutely necessary. Indians need to be proud of their identity and not use a broader, diluted, and foreign term – South Asian. Also, those small nations which used to be part of Bharat might be struggling with finding an external ancestor and rejecting Bharat as their parent. They can claim to be South Asian. Indians however do not need to fall into this trap.
India is the parent to South Asian nations. Indians have a strong history and identity and are capable of self-identifying correctly vs. using outsiders to give them defined labels. Same is true for referring to what used to be Bharat as the greater Indian subcontinent. These days efforts are being made by the U.S. to yet again redefine the region as Indo-Pacific. Regardless, in daily parlance and in Indian media it is okay to use the term – greater Indian subcontinent to denote proper location of India.
Those carved out of India often mislead others by things such as Indo-Pak grocery store, or even Indian restaurants named so but run by Bangladeshis. Why? Identifying as Indian brings legitimacy.
Atman is the not the same thing as soul. Souls supposedly go to hell, heaven and get harvested. Atman is a concept which is all-pervading, everlasting, the only imperishable truth. Atman is not the same thing as soul as believed by Abrahamic religions. Even gurus like Vivekananda have erred in translating atman as soul; perhaps to make things easier for readers but we should stop putting a false equivalence. This is a time when looney missionaries are co-opting many Hindu practices and them falsely arguing that Jebus will save your soul is impossible from any Vedic lens. Atmans are not souls, nor can they be saved, converted or harvested.
We should use the term Bhagwan, not God. God is an Abrahamic term and not the same thing as Bhagwan. Bhagwan is the all-pervasive existence, the Brahmand, is often abstract, ever-expanding and impossible to put a boundary on. Bhagwan should not be confused with one’s Ishta devata though many do use the terms interchangeably. It is still okay to do so though there should never be references as God Krishna or God Shiva. Its better to use Shri Krishna or Bhagwan Krishna or Bhagwan Shiva or Ishvara.
Let us be mindful when we see or use these terms. They are loaded with nuance and there’s always a trap set to further dilute Hindu and Identities. Choose your words wisely.
Image: Indian Youth
DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.
When the Christian, Islamic and Communist people talk about India, they talk about what India is not, instead of talking about what India is. For many generations all 3 blocks have built a narrative and have taught their generations the same negative portrayal of India and its people. Instead of teaching that they all looted India, they are busy portraying that they are the ones who bought civilisation to India. When we ask Muslims countries about minorities, they invariably end up talking about Muslims who are not Sunni, instead of talking about non Muslims. This should a level of barbarism and ignorance that has not been seen. The use, rather the misuse of intellect by the west and the lack of intellect in Islamic barbaric society is only confirms how uncivilized they are. India continues to preach the concept of peaceful mutual co existence while the Abrahamic and Communist continue to propagate the opposite and in fact all Islamists, Christian western countries and China are in agreement about how to characterize India. It is the subtle differences between the 3 different narratives that was one of the factors why some Indians managed to understand the ground reality. Majority of Indians continue to believe that the west civilized us. Many Indians believe that Islamic barbarism and gross human rights violations are a gift from the Muslims and were meant to help us become civilized. There is much confusion as Indians are conditioned to believe in the false narratives carefully constructed by Islamists, Christians and Chinese. India needs to build capacity. West occasionally asks itself on how to classify India while all the time believing and perpetuating the understanding that Indians are not civilized and that India is not a civilisation. Only those who have been converted (using dubious means) are to be considered human beings. Indians continue to call the west, Islamic and Chinese civilized people and our leadership portrays them in a beautiful way. By doing this we hope to avoid conflict when in reality the west, Isla mists and Chinese continue to annex and destroy India in their own ways.