VII Law of Pan-Subcontinentalism: People are Sovereign

People are Sovereign

The Subcontinent belongs to its people, to all its people. The people are Sovereign. The Subcontinentals decide the Subcontinent’s Laws and Policies and their Representatives who should channel people’s will in formulating them and implementing them.

The Subcontinent’s destiny is bound to Democracy. There is no other system, which can survive and prosper in the Subcontinent. In India it is a tried and tested system. Only democracy can legitimize the rulers.

There would be those, who say they want to live by God’s Laws and not man-made laws. Theoretically one can live by God’s Laws, the problem is however that it becomes the responsibility of the clergy to mediate between God’s laws and their implementation in a temporal setting and they neither have the objectivity, nor the expertise to accomplish that. They also exhaust their resources in analyzing, interpreting and debating God’s Law, that all concern for those who will be subjected to the Law, is easily overlooked. Moreover it is nigh to impossible to find a single acceptable interpretation to God’s Law, that the matter grinds to a standstill. So it becomes impossible to make God as the sovereign of the state, as one ends up making the clergy the sovereign.

At the most, God can be a sovereign over one’s heart, and through the channel of a citizen’s religious conscience can determine the outcome of the political process of the state.

Neither can a Monarchy, a Military Dictatorship or a One-Party Dictatorship determine the course of India’s Destiny. Only the Subcontinentals can determine the destiny of the Subcontinent.

It must be ensured that from the representatives of the people, there is absolute transparency, except maybe in cases of national security, and absolute accountability, and at all times there needs to be a constant reevaluation if the present framework of curbs and checks suffice to produce clean governance. Not just as representatives of the people, but as politicians as well, their assets and their campaign funding need to be made transparent. There needs to be besides the legal and administrative framework of checks and balances, also an interest on the part of civil society to organize themselves in NGOs and to try to investigate the truth.

Another weakness of the election system in the Subcontinent is that it is based on the Westminster model, where the candidate first-past-the-post gets elected. This skews the representativeness of the candidate. A two-stage model would be much better suited. The first two winners of the first election cycle in a constituency, in case none wins over 50% of the votes, would have to test their mettle in a second election cycle shortly after the first one.

There is also a need to establish a culture of one-on-one debates among the two front runners, and they should debate with each other why the one is a better candidate than the other. Depending on the size of the constituency, the debate may be aired live or not.

The democratic credentials of the representatives have to be supplemented by the democratic credentials of the political parties themselves. The right to stand as a candidate in a constituency should also be determined through an inner-party election for the candidature. Also all functionaries of a political party need to be elected by the rank and file of the party.

The Pan-Subcontinentalist is wedded to democracy, and despite its flaws, the Pan-Subcontinentalist sees it as the only available credible model. The Pan-Subcontinentalist also wants to ensure that he gets the best candidates to stand up for election and the representativeness of the candidate once elected is maximum.

VI Law of Pan-Subcontinentalism: Protect Cultural Wealth

Protect Cultural Wealth


The Subcontinent has played the stage for the birth and growth of a very rich culture and civilization. It has been the cradle of many Empires, much Spiritual Exploration, many Scientific Advancements and an enormous amount of Cultural Diversity.

It is this cultural wealth that gives new generations their anchor, their moorings. It is not only our inheritance from our forefathers, but also out debt to our progeny. The cultural heritage of the whole Subcontinent regardless of era it came up in, regardless of religious background in which it developed, regardless of region it was born in, belongs to all Subcontinentals. For the Pan-Subcontinentalist this is more precious than his personal wealth.

Time, poverty, neglect, greed and robbery have been ravaging much of our cultural heritage. This is in fact a matter of utmost shame for the whole subcontinent, because it is happening before our very eyes and we are acting indifferent to it.
It is imperative on Pan-Nationalists to show care for our heritage, by increasing awareness about it, by taking their families around to see the old splendor, by mobilizing their neighborhoods to establish perimeters around various cultural sites, by assisting Archeological Survey of India and other bodies in caring for the treasure, by banning people from taking these treasures abroad.

There have of course been cases, where some groups have deliberately destroyed our cultural heritage – the Bamiyan Buddhas come to mind. Perhaps that what cannot be left alone in its original location due to prevalent political and security conditions, can be moved to a more safer and less controversial location. Accepted, that it would have been difficult moving the Buddhas, but where possible, the option should be availed of. Anyway those whose agenda it is to destroy culture and sometimes even remove all traces of it, should be crushed without mercy, for they attack the very core of the soul of the Subcontinent.

Culture however lives not only in old buildings. Culture is everywhere in diverse forms – music, singing, dancing, films, cartoons, festivals, etc. Culture is the creative expression of people. However culture in general has come under attack by several religious minded groups - be it banning music or be it vandalizing shops selling Valentine cards. Culture cannot be suppressed. Pan-Subcontinentalists swear to put a stop to any intimidation of Subcontinental society by such groups.

It is not just high-culture that needs protecting. In the Subcontinent we also have a multitude of languages, tribes with their own peculiar customs and beliefs. Due to homegenization, these cultures are dying off. It is imperative, that these cultures be protected, that tribes should be able to pass on their customs and workmanship to the next generation, and the state should support this. One needs to give the smaller cultures the necessary Lebensraum to survive and prosper. The more diversity there is, the richer are the Subcontinentals. Those cultures, which cannot be saved, they should be recorded, and the cultural wealth passed on to and integrated into the mainstream.

The Pan-Subcontinentalist swears to pass on his own family-specific culture but also the general Subcontinental culture on to his progeny and those under his guardianship and responsibility.

III Law of Pan-Subcontinentalism: Unity of the Subcontinent

Unity of the Subcontinent


The Subcontinent is India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Tibet.

The Subcontinent can however unleash its full energies and magic only if it is united and consolidated again. Subcontinental Unity is not simply a slogan, it is our destiny. The Subcontinent is one living organism. When cut, the whole Subcontinent will bleed, and that is what it is doing today.

It is one thing to have multiple administrative areas on the Subcontinent. That in itself does not violate the Subcontinent's Unity. But segregative ideologies and inviolable borders do violate the unity.

Some day the Subcontinent has to be united and it is the vow of each Pan-Subcontinentalist to see to it that it does, and once it does, the Pan-Subcontinentalist will fight to keep it united. The Pan-Subcontinentalist will not rest till the borders come down and the fences are uprooted.

Borders, fences and walls can at most be used as a temporary mechanism, to keep away Subcontinentals who have devolved into barbarity from harming the more stable parts of the Subcontinent, or they can be used to regulate people overly desperate to migrate due to economic hardships or disasters from overwhelming the capacities of other regions. Otherwise there are no reasons for borders or fences.

The Subcontinent should either bring civilization to barbarized Subcontinentals or should try to otherwise neutralize their capacity to harm others. The hands of those, who are victims of barbarity and on the front-line of war against barbarity, ought to be strengthened. The Subcontinent should also not shirk from its responsibility to help those, who are desperate or lack hope of economic upliftment. All should be done to hasten the speed of bring down borders and fences.

Any Subcontinental should be able to travel from Tibet to Sri Lanka, from Baluchistan to Myanmar without the need of any visa, any document, any restriction or any checks. Where ever he goes, he will be made to feel at home and welcome, he will be made to feel amongst his own. The mountains of Afghanistan would be Subcontinentals to climb and so too would be the beaches of Unawatuna of Sri Lanka to dive.

Any Subcontinental should be able to travel anywhere in the Subcontinent, he should be able to live anywhere in the Subcontinent, should be able to study anywhere in the Subcontinent, should be able to work and do business anywhere in the Subcontinent, for the Subcontinent is his Home.

II Law of Pan-Subcontinentalism: Brotherhood of the Subcontinentals

Brotherhood of the Subcontinentals


The basis of any nationhood is the bonding between the people. If this bond is healthy, the nation will be healthy. The nation has to be seen as the big family.

In the Subcontinent we have many apparent differences – racial, ethnic, religious persuasion, caste, subcaste, class, political leaning, etc., still we are all children of the same Subcontinent. That what divides us also binds us, weaving a tapestry of unimaginable richness and plurality. Our ancestors were born from the womb of this land, and their ashes and bones are mixed with the very soil and water of this land. Our geneology has strong and deep roots in this land. In the Subcontinent, the history would always be alive and give us comfort and warmth and tell us of our identity.

That makes us Brothers. That makes us equal in birth and belief. That makes us bound with the bonds of Subcontinental Brotherhood. And Brothers should respect and love each other.

Our strength is in unity. Together we are unbreakable. Together we are strong. Together we earn the laurels, together we mourn our losses, and together we lick our wounds, and together we rebound.

The world will respect us only as much as we respect ourselves. There is still residual shame within the hearts of the Subcontinentals. It is shame of colonization, it is shame of religious conversion, it is shame of thousands of years of untouchability, and this shame has twisted our thinking. In order to escape this shame, we try to identify ourselves with the colonizer, with the missionary and the ghazi, with the higher caste, and as a means to underline our distancing from this shame, we adopt the same methods as those of the colonizer, the converter, the casteist. We wear the clothes of the colonizer and worship his skin color, we try to be more pious than ghazi, we treat the castes considered below one’s own (rather low) caste with contempt.

We have to let go of this deep-seated shame, let go of the feeling of inferiority and to see that our roots are strong and deep. We have to open our eyes and see, that we are the most beautiful people on earth. We have to realize, that we need not prove ourselves to God and to please God by doing his work; if we keep our hearts clean, he will come and live there on his own. We should realize that caste is a label and not a hierarchy.

It may be the case that one feels a stronger affection towards one’s ethnicity or sub-nationality, to those of the same religious persuasion, etc. That is natural. However one cannot allow that to color one’s views to an extent, that one shows favoritism towards those of the same ethnicity or discrimination towards those of other subcontinental ethnicities. The bond of Brothership of the Subcontinentals demands a more enlightened perspective.

The Brotherhood of the Subcontinentals also demands a more tribal perspective, where the tribal lines are drawn at the Subcontinent. At the same time as we feel closer to each other, we need to also be aware of who are not our brothers. To our Brothers, we owe affection, respect, courtesy, consideration, tolerance, non-discrimination and warmth. To others, we owe the same, but not necessarily of the same degree. The degree of social dues we owe to others can be shown by the following hierarchy:

1. Pan-Subcontinentalists
2. Subcontinentals
3. People from neighborly countries, who are considered as extended family to the Subcontinentals
4. People from neighborly countries, whose nations are friends of the Subcontinent
5. People from further away, whose nations are friends of the Subcontinent
6. People from further away, whose nations are neutral towards the Subcontinent
7. People who are unfriendly towards the Subcontinentals
8. People who are hostile towards the Subcontinentals
9. People who have Subcontinental blood on their hands
10. Ideological enemies of Pan-Subcontinentalism

The ideological enemies of Pan-Subcontinentalism are the segregationists, the traitors and the deniers of the Brotherhood of the Subcontinentals. 

One also has to look at the ideological resistance to accept Pan-Subcontinentalism historically. Just because one does not believe in Pan-Subcontinentalism, does not make him an enemy. It just means, that we are still living in an era of ignorance, an era of narrow-mindedness, an era in which the spirit of Brotherhood has not been liberated in his heart. One needs to give each soul the time to receive and embibe the message of Brotherhood.

The ideological enemies of Pan-Subcontinentalism would be the elites of various ethnicities, who have acquired vested interests in seeing the Subcontinent fragmented, elites who use the false ethnicity-based nationalism to cordon off their own enclave in the Subcontinent and consider it their feudal property, elites who profit from closed societies and markets, elites who quarante their own people in order to lord over them. These elites need to embrace the enlightenment of the Subcontinental Brotherhood, and to look for new ways to consolidate their preexisting influence; or these elites need to be overthrown.

The elites will tell you, that their ethnicities cannot live together with other ethnicities of the Subcontinent for some reason or another, they will manufacture lies of past conflicts or present them to you selectively or distort the historical truths, or they will tell you that reconciliation is impossible. These are segregationists with vested interests.

There will be others, who will be working for outside powers, and not let the unification and consolidation of the Subcontinent proceed at their behest, as the outside powers feel threatened by the emergence of a powerful Subcontinent. These are traitors.

There will still be others who will directly attack the foundations of Pan-Subcontinentalism, because of their prejudices or their misplaced ideological loyalties. These are deniers.

If the segregationists, traitors and deniers do not relent and make way for Pan-Subcontinentalism to realize itself, then they are to be considered enemies and should be crushed without remorse.

I Law of Pan-Subcontinentalism: Love the Subcontinent

Love the Subcontinent


There is no love above this love of land! Even if there is any other love that competes with it - the love of Family, the love of God, the love of Freedom; that love can never be in opposition to this love. Even if your heart is pulled by your other affections, the love of land stays the anchor in your life.

The land is holy because it has sustained and nurtured thousands of generations of our families. It is on this land, that they have been born, they have been nurtured, they have grown up, they have been loved, they have loved, they have toiled, they have laughed, they have cried, and they have again become one with its soil. It is this land, where we have grown from beasts to men, where our ancestors gained their wisdom.

Its mountains, its plains, its rivers, its trees and forests, its very air say that they are your home, the home of your lineage, and may be the home of your progeny also.

Love the land enough, and God will get his share. The mandirs and masjids, gurudwaras and girjaghars, stupas and pagodas, muths and deras, all stand on this land. It is through bowing and meditating on this land, that we touch God. Love this land which holds God's houses.

Those who forbid you to love the land, the land of the Subcontinent, tell them they have lost your eyes and ears.

Pan-Subcontinentalism - The Preamble

Pan-Subcontinentalism is the Nationalism of the Indian Subcontinent. The adherents of Pan-Subcontinentalism, the Pan-Subcontinentalists identify themselves with the whole Subcontinent and pledge their loyalties to a movement to establish a political union of all ethnicities at home in the Subcontinent over an area encompassing Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tibet. Once established, the Pan-Subcontinentalists’ loyalty would lie with such a Civilization-State.

In the Indian Subcontinental Union, the People would be sovereign and it would be ruled according to the principles of democracy. It would be structured as a federation of states based on linguistic and administrative divisions. The Union would have a strong center.

Pan-Subcontinentalism is also a Nationalism based on certain principles, principles which will help both the establishment as well as the preservation of such a large democratic political union. Just as important is the nature of society, that should flourish in such a union – it should be based on equality, freedom to practice and preach religion, communal peace, tolerance, celebration of diversity, decency, respect for privacy, spirituality, freedom of thought, free movement, openness, caring, social conscience, good neighborliness, moral courage, respect for law and citizens’ rights, justice, press-freedom, opportunity for all, thirst for knowledge, scientific inquisitiveness, spirit of exploration, creativity, good work ethic, healthy living, sustainable development, equitable growth and environment-friendliness.

Pan-Subcontinentalists swear to fight ethnic and religious segregationists, fascists, uber-passionists and warriors, and to not allow them to control, radicalize and rip apart society. Pan-Subcontinentalists swear to fight all groups with vested interests in disunity or instability of the Subcontinent, using all means available, peaceful if possible, violent if necessary.

Pan-Subcontinentalists swear to contribute to the creation of an ecologically sound, an economically developed, a scientifically advanced and a militarily strong Indian Subcontinental Union.