Nationality is the capacity of a people to function and develop as an organic unit. As this capacity is ever changing and growing and seeking fulfillment in various modes, nationality is more of the nature of a dynamic impulse to realise a common individuality than of a static unity already attained. It is not so much a feature as a feeling. It is not merely a heritage of the past but more a power of the present. Its importance is not in what has been achieved but in its hopes of future achievements. The nationalism which seeks consolation in the records of bygone ages is like the pauper who delights in going over the pages of old account books relating to his thriving business prior to his insolvency. The

. true national spirit, is to be seen in a persistent desire to effect closer union and association among the individuals and groups constituting society, in a growing sense of community of interests, social, religious, economic, political and other, in an instinctive opposition to forces within and without the nation which tend to endanger its solidarity, and in the ability to evolve new ideals and institutions to embody the spirit of the collective life. The capacity to grow, to expand, to assimilate the helpful, and oppose the harmful influences is, in fact, a truer symptom of national life than an obstinate clinging to mere existence and past glories, Nationalism is not a passive sentiment of love for a great past, but

an active yearning for a greater future, a collective will to conquer fresh fields, to explore new regions of self-expression. Political nationality is an idea of recent growth. It emphasises territorial unity and unity of government. As a result of the impact of European nations, their literature, political ideals and institutions, and the subjection for the first time in her history of all India to a central ruling power, under the British, Indians have acquired a new consciousness of territorial and political unity which we call Indian Nationalism.

But Hindu Nationalism is another distinct phenomenon and has a history stretching from ages immemorial through an unbroken succession of sages, kings, teachers, reformers and philosophers, down to the latest movements of Hindu revival and unification such as those inaugurated by Daya-nanda Saraswati of the North and. Sree Narayana Gurudev of Malabar. The unification t of a vast humanity forming nearly a fifth of the world’s population, and consisting of innumerable cultures, races, languages and religions as presented in India must necessarily be a slow process spread over many millennia and effected by different methods In the foregoing pages we have attempted to draw the bare outlines of the important stages in the evolution of Hindu Nationalism, and depict the exhausting struggle it had to keep up all through the ages against the domestic imperialism of the priestly class: Brahmanism like all imperialism’s, though an eternal foe of nationalism, has not been an unmitigated evil. It has served even more than British Imperialism to, enforce subjection of all the disunited peoples of -this continent to a common socio-religious system, and thus create a consciousness of Hindu unity. Brahmanism has always served as a challenge to the national spirit, as a provocation to the country to unite and oppose its exploiters and seek new methods of consolidation and internal readjustments. Hindu Nationalism from the days of Rama and Krishna, in all its vicissitudes, has thus manifested itself as an undying opposition to all that Brahmanism stands for, just as much as Indian Nationalism has assumed the form of a revolt against British Imperialism. To sum up what we have described in the previous chapters for a clearer grasping of the principles Hindu Nationalism stands for, we may divide its history into four periods. (1) The Indo-Aryan, (2) the Indian or Buddhistic, (3) the Mohammadan and (4) the British.

The earliest and the most glorious’ expression of the national spirit was seen in the hearty intermingling of the Aryas and the Indians and the founding of the Gangetic kingdoms mentioned in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata with their great Rishis, immortal kings, and divine heroes and heroines whose stories furnish perennial inspiration to the Hindus even at the present day. The prominent national heroes and heroines were Janaka, Rama, Sita, Krishna, the Pandavas and Draupadi. The Upanishads and the original teaching of the Gita embody the ideals of that ancient nationalism. It stood for (1) unfettered association and union of the Aryas and the Indians, and (2) for a religion of spiritual enlightenment, belief in the One Supreme Spirit and of salvation that could be obtained through purity and knowledge of the self. As against this were arrayed the priests who, (I) opposed association with the Indians whom they condemned as Dasyus or Sudras, (2) advocated the system of four castes, (3) set themselves up as a caste of Brahmans, “(4) elaborated a religion of animal sacrifices combined with feasting, drinking, dancing and other indulgences, (5) split of Kshatriyas into two camps, and finally (6) caused the disastrous Mahabharata War Their literature is found in the Brahmanai and some of the Sutras.

 The second period of Buddhistic Nationalism covered about fourteen centuries from 60o B.C. to 800 AD, The Buddha was the soul of the renaissance and the age was marked by glorious achievements in every sphere of national life—literature, arts, philosophy, science and industry, architecture and sculpture, education and religion, foreign relations and internal politics. Almost everything historical of which India can be proud was attained under the influence of Buddhistic Nationalism. The Brahnianical opposition to it was represented in, (1) the codification of Manu and the composition of some of the Sutras and Puranas and Dharma Shastras, (2) political revolutions, usurpations, plots and murders of kings, (3) encouragement of foreigners with idolatrous practices, (4) development of highly immoral and debasing secret rites called Tantrikism, (5) persecution of Buddhism, and (6) establishment of Rajput ascendancy and the religion of temples with all the indulgences, and much more of the immoralities associated with the ancient sacrifices.

In the third period of Muhammadan ascendancy, the national spirit is represented by a succes¬sion of great teachers and saints beginning with Sree Shankaracharya and later on Ramanujacharya, Nanak, Chaitanya, Ramanand, Kabir, Eknath, Tukaram, Ramadas and others. Their nationalism stood for, (I) an intellectual synthesis of all the different schools ofphilosophy and religious sects,. (2) opposition to priestcraft, (3) a practical religion of Bhakti or devotion to one God and the leading of a pure life, (4) ignoring of the caste differences, (5) development of the vernaculars, and (6) fraternisation with the Mutiammadans and recognition of the identity of the spiritual teachings of both Hinduism and Muhammadanism. The Brahmanical revival was represented by many famous men such as Kumarila Bhatta, Madhavacharya, Sayanacharya and others. Most of the Puranas and the Dharma Shastras were composed in this period. Buddhism and Jainism were extirpated. The religion of the temples was everywhere established. Caste laws were promulgated and rigorously enforced. Sati, child-marriage and prohibition of widow remarriage were made compulsory. Slavery and the institution of dancing girls received a great impetus. Dark rites like human sacrifices and debasing secret rituals increased.

In the British period the Hindu national spirit its first great exponent in Raja Rammohan Roy. The Brahma Sanlaj, which he founded, started with a revolt against idolatry and other forms of priestcraft, later on made a feeble protest against caste and attempted a reconciliation with Christianity. Rammohan Roy had been greatly influenced by Muhammadanism and took a great interest in the Sufi, authors. The movement did not penetrate to the masses. It was too much a business of the- high caste Hindus for their own improvement to grow into a national power. After giving to India, some of her most distinguished leaders and patriots, it has relapsed into passivity and some silent good work. The next and the more forceful” national awakening was led by Dayananda Saraswati and his Arya Samaj. Its prominent feature was a bold exposure of the wickedness, deception, superstition, and immorality associated with temples, uncompromising condemnation of idolatry, and merciless exposure of the deceits and the vices of the secret sects. It condemned the castes based on birth and accepted the Vedas as the only true exposition of divine wisdom. “The true religion is found in the Vedas and the -Upanishads which enjoin that learned persons should teach and preach truth to the people, and show them the necessity of abandoning falsehood and of doing good to all. The knowledge of the Vedas, good company, belief in virtue, self-control and pure character result in the obtainment of heaven.”* The Arya Samaj has continued to this day to be a champion of Hindu Nationalism, mixed however, with an unbecoming animosity towards other faiths, which is not of course warranted by the broad principles of the founder.

Under British rule Brahmanism has acquired a. constitutional status and the force of law. Caste distinctions have become mechanically rigid and: caste-law the unwritten common law of all Hindus. Though the spirit of Brahmanism is being under-mined, its forms have become crystallised, legal, political and even economic values and meanings have been attached to social and religious customs,. which have thus stolen a permanent place in the scheme of British Indian law and administration,. from which they can be unseated only by direct state action.

No other country in the world can claim such a proud though tragic record of national life which has, through at least five thousand years, stood consistently and fought unflinchingly, undaunted by failures, for the same noble ideals of human brother-hood, a religion of righteousness and service devoid of unmeaning priestcraft, and the spirit of the widest tolerance between differing peoples and religions. These form the three tests of Hindu Nationalism :–(i) Opposition to caste, (2) opposition to priestcraft and idolatry, and (3) interreligious tolerance and fraternisation. For many centuries nationalism stood its ground in spite of the deadly antagonism of the most powerful aristocracy known to history, and made India honoured among the nations of the world. Her vitality was, however,

*Page 395, Satyarthaprakash, by Durgaprasadi 1908.

wasted in the protracted internal struggle and her own children flung open the flood-gates of foreign domination. The loss of political freedom has, for the time, subdued the national spirit. The two imperialisms, Brahrnanical and British, placed one above the other, have fairly crushed all independent life out of the Hindu peoples, who have now no courage to own their own teachers or to speak out their mind’s agony or to oppose the true enemies of their freedom. The nation’s fate hangs, not indeed on the foreign doctor who attends on her with due diligence but on the return to her bosom of her own children, young and old, high and low, in that spirit of brotherhood which alone will enable her to clasp them in one loving embrace and murmur through her tears of joy: “You quarreled and parted, and I was dying. You have united and come back, I am happy.”