NO MORE 'BANDAA' BUT 'VYAKTI'

NO MORE 'BANDAA' BUT 'VYAKTI'

This word 'bandaa' that is so frequently used even by north-Indian Hindus to denote a man is demeaning in Vedantic terms. It is derived from the Islamic concept of the believer (Momin) being the slave of Allah and goes directly against the transcendental truth of man being the everfree Atman, the sovereign monarch of the universe, instead of being its cowering bondman. Man, the Real Man, is God Himself, the Master of the universe, the Witness of cosmic phenomena, and not a lowly, fearful creature waiting on the whims of a capricious, omnipotent, partial God who damns infidels to eternal hellfire for not reposing faith in Him.

Words have their power and this easy percolation of Islamic terminology via Urdu into Hindustani, a linguistic cultural conquest of sorts, induces Hindus to subscribe to Islamic thought which is antithetical to the pristine thought of the Upanishads. We must be vigilant and work towards purging such demeaning words as 'bandaa' (slave) by popularising such words as 'vyakti' (individual). We must recover our lost heritage, our original modes of linguistic communication, our Hindi language as it ought to be in alignment with national thought and not as per alien accretion polluting it. This will work wonders for the recovery of culture, long infringed upon and altered beyond reasonable bounds. In it lies India's national recovery as well. Now no more 'bandaa' but 'vyakti'.

Written by Sugata Bose