uttishTa Bharata
Over the last two days, I finished watching about twenty episodes of 'Chanakya'. I started watching the series to take my mind off the imminent results, which btw, were supposed to be out yesterday. But, it turns out UPSC was just being a tease.
The main theme of the series so far, has been 'uttishTa Bharata', which I think translates to 'wake up India'. This came as a surprise to me. To me Chanakya is synonymous with Arthashastra. But, Arthashastra played only a minor role so far in the series.
With Alexander's impending invasion of India, Chanakya exhorts the 'janapadas' to rise above their regional chauvinism and strive to serve 'ma Bharati'. He cautions his students to the danger of dividing residents of India on the basis of 'janapadas' (like Magadha, Lichchavi, Malav, Kekayi, Gandhara etc.) He advocates bridging people across the country through 'sanskriti' - which is above the local language and customs. He believed that only a unified India could rise to the challenge posed the Greek invaders.
In effect, what he has exhorted is the 'federal sentiment' - a prerequisite for states to come together to form a nation. It's the sentiment that binds America into a nation, and the lack of which leaves the EU only as a confederatoin.
However, none of the textbooks I used have cited Chanakya as one of the foremost proponents of the federal sentiment in India. Has the director used his creative license to ascribe more to Chanakya than there was?
The main theme of the series so far, has been 'uttishTa Bharata', which I think translates to 'wake up India'. This came as a surprise to me. To me Chanakya is synonymous with Arthashastra. But, Arthashastra played only a minor role so far in the series.
With Alexander's impending invasion of India, Chanakya exhorts the 'janapadas' to rise above their regional chauvinism and strive to serve 'ma Bharati'. He cautions his students to the danger of dividing residents of India on the basis of 'janapadas' (like Magadha, Lichchavi, Malav, Kekayi, Gandhara etc.) He advocates bridging people across the country through 'sanskriti' - which is above the local language and customs. He believed that only a unified India could rise to the challenge posed the Greek invaders.
In effect, what he has exhorted is the 'federal sentiment' - a prerequisite for states to come together to form a nation. It's the sentiment that binds America into a nation, and the lack of which leaves the EU only as a confederatoin.
However, none of the textbooks I used have cited Chanakya as one of the foremost proponents of the federal sentiment in India. Has the director used his creative license to ascribe more to Chanakya than there was?
posted by Anand at 7:40 PM
4 Comments:
FYI, the director of the series, Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi, is a BIG RSS sympathiser if I'm not mistaken. So, there have been enough creative licenses taken to establish Chanakya as a thinker par excellence a la Aristotle or Pluto. I don't have much objections to it as we do not have any chronicled evidence to counter it. So, creative license stays! But I'm not an RSS/BJP sympathiser
Oh that explains!!
I now recollect my 7th class social studies teacher saying something about 'excess saffron' in the tele-series :)
As long as the idea is good, logical and do-able, how does it matter who preaches it? More power to RSS/BJP..
I am so glad you can't vote :P
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