Cultural nationalism holds India together: Nirmala Sitharaman

HYDERABAD: Cultural nationalism is the glue that will keep India united despite external and internal challengs to the country, Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. She said essential oneness of Bharat was expressed in many languages and dialects and can be corroborated and verified.

Delivering a talk on ‘Re-Emergence of India, that is Bharat-Role of First Estate’ organized by Samskruthi Foundation, the defence minister said the country’s cultural oneness is not something that came today. “It’s there for generations, part of which is documented in history books and interpretations by scholars. Our cultural oneness existed, is recorded and documented and geographically linked right from North to North-East and other parts of Bharat,” she said.

She explained even ancient Tamil literature mentions Mathura in UP and Lord Balarama, who refused to be part of Kurukshetra war, went on a pilgrimage and visited temples like Tirupati and Tiru Anathapuram. “Our cultural values were reflected in speeches of Adi Shankaracharya and Vivekananda too,” she said.

Expressing concern over degrading cultural and moral values in the country, RSS leader Suresh Soni Ji said, Bharat inherited value systems over generations and this needs to be passed on to future generations. “Like we have identification for email or WhatsApp, we should also have cultural identity. Unfortunately, there is a fundamental lapse, where cultural values are vanishing in technology era,” he said. He said now in our country all systems are in place, but not our cultural system.

Former Chief Justice of Patna High Court L Narasimha Reddy said while judiciary, legislature, executive and media are four pillars of India, the fifth pillar is ‘culture’. “Ideally, the first pillar should be culture,” he said.

BVR Mohan Reddy of Cyient Group said his firms have been giving priority to moral and ethics. “Our education system has been focussing on marks in exams, not on core cultural values. Parents and others should take the lead in inculcating values,” he said. Shanta Biotech chairman Vara Prasad Reddy said culture is our identity and should be take forward for generations.

“There should be political will to restore our cultural values in the education system too,” he said.