French historian, Ernest Renan, has stated in his famous essay on nationalism:

It is no more the land than the race that makes a nation. The land provides a substratum, the field of battle and work; man provides the soul; man is everything in the formation of that sacred thing which is called a people…” 

One can infer from the above quotation that a piece of land is not merely a territory that people occupy. There is a connection between land and the indigenous people that are from that land. The land becomes the body for the culture, philosophy, values, language, tradition, food, religion, etc of the indigenous inhabitants to flourish and thrive in and in due course gets identified with the distinct culture it nourished. The people of the land in return are devoted and attached to the land in question. They nurture and develop the land and create inspirations and institutions, symbolic of their set of values in the land. There exists a symbiotic relationship between land and the people that occupy it.

A peek into the history of Kashmiri Hindus would exemplify this deeper understanding of land. They had to flee their ancestral home seven times, the latest being as recently as 1990. Each one was a saga of trauma and pain as the community faced religious fanaticism of the worst type. Many were savagely killed by fanatics who were influenced by an ideology foreign to this land. This agonising history repeated itself seven times. In the face of such brutal and bigoted atrocities, some Kashmiri Hindus stayed on while others came back to their land when the barbarism declined and conditions became conducive. They came back to the land during the reign of Zainab-ud-Din despite having faced iconoclast Sikander Butshikan’s barbarity just a few decades ago. Kashmiris also came back during Akbar’s rule despite the Iraqi Chaks’ inhuman cruelties just prior to the Mughal rule. The great Pandit Birbal Dhar with his political maturity had paved the path for the Sikh rule that restored peace in the valley and motivated the Kashmiri Hindus to go back to their land again. Even today while many are yet again displaced from their land, one can feel their yearning in several forums to go back to the land. They evidently revered their ancestral land and never gave up on it. In spite of deathblows, there was an understanding that only in their own land can they keep their culture, values and ethos alive. Besides, the land of Kashmir was of significance for the whole of Bharat also as it had generated wisdom in various streams of Indic knowledge systems that were treasured and practised by the Bharatiyas. The Yoga Sutras, the Ashtadhyayi/grammar, Shaivite, Vaishnavite and Tantric philosophy along with the Buddhist schools of Sarvastivada, Mahayana, Madhyamika and Yogacara, the Natyashastra, etc. all trace their roots to Kashmir. 

There is another very important aspect of land which we can best understand by looking at the example of Jews. The case of Israel highlights the need for a land not only for culture, customs, rituals, languages, beliefs of a community to thrive and flourish but also the need of that piece of land to establish and provide security to people with a common will to preserve their ancestral heritage. Renan had underlined the importance of the “common will” factor for a nation to survive and thrive. If one delves into the 3000-year-old history of Israel, this essential aspect of ‘land’ becomes clear. 

Case of Israel

The United Kingdom of Israel or the Judean dynasty came into existence around the early 10th century BCE. It was founded by King David (1010 BCE – 970 BCE) who had made Jerusalem its capital. Jerusalem is also known as Zion in the Hebrew Bible. His son and successor, King Solomon, expanded the kingdom and built the first temple of Jews in Jerusalem. Eventually though, the kingdom split into the Northern Kingdom and the Kingdom of Judea due to some conflicts but the land occupied by them essentially consisted of tribes whose collective cultural, religious, legal beliefs can be encapsulated as the Jewish religious beliefs that we know today. However, since their inception, people indigenous to this land faced various levels of hostility, discrimination and brutal persecution that is better known as ‘anti-Semitism’ today. The following is a brief account to understand the varying natures of antisemitism faced by the Jews that ultimately led to their cry and resolve for a Jewish land.

Ancient antisemitism – ethnic

Their first recorded persecution was regional in nature when the Northern Kingdom was destroyed and taken over by Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE. The Jews of the Northern kingdom were forced to then move to the Kingdom of Judea in the South. But, eventually in 587 BCE, the first temple of Jerusalem built by King Solomon was also destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian empire, the last of the Mesopotamian Civilization. The Kingdom of Judea thus conquered, drove the Jews to Babylon which was later ruled by the Persians. 

Their plight and pain on being driven by the land and an unshakeable reverence for their native land can be felt in the song – By the Rivers of Babylon.

By the rivers of Babylon

Where we sat down

And there we wept

When we remembered Zion

Cause, the wicked carried us away in captivity

Required from us a song

How can we sing King Alpha’s song

In a strange land?

It was noted that the first king of Persia, Cyrus the Great, was tolerant towards the Jews and with his permission, they returned to their land, rebuilt the city of Jerusalem and the temple of Solomon and thus re-established their Jewish culture. The Jews peacefully submitted to the Persian rule.     

The Persian empire was subsequently taken over by the Greeks led by Alexander during which some Jews also made a base in Alexandria in Egypt when the city was founded by Alexander. The Greek Empire was split over 4 kingdoms with Jerusalem being initially under the Ptolemaic dynasty and later under the Seleucid dynasty. Alexandria remained under the Ptolemaic empire. Greeks followed the Hellenic culture whose way of life and belief system was in contrast to the Jewish monotheistic beliefs. The Greeks of the Seleucid dynasty were vehemently working on the spread of Hellenic culture and religion over the regions conquered. Their aim was to colonise the native people but a significant fraction of Jewish populace of the Seleucid empire refused to Hellenise their customs and beliefs and revolted against them. Thus, in a series of battles against the empire armies, they recaptured the city of Jerusalem in 164 BCE. In fact, Hanukkah is the Jewish festival commemorating this recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. These battles also involved the sacrifice of many Jewish rebel warriors. 

While this revolt has been recorded as a conflict between “Judaism” and “Hellenism”, this marked the beginning of the rise of pious Jews who were determined to preserve their religious and societal values. 

The Jews ruled over the land for the next 100 years under the Hasmonean dynasty. Unfortunately, due to internal conflicts between the royal families and their willingness for foreign interference led to Jerusalem being taken over by the Roman generals – first Pompey and then Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was tolerant and gave legal recognition to Judaism as a religion. 

However, conflicts still emerged due to differences in Jewish monotheistic beliefs and Roman polytheistic beliefs. Additionally, the Jews were subjected to crippling taxation by the Romans and their client kings like ‘Herod the Great’ that severely impoverished them. Herod, before his death, installed an eagle on the Jewish temple and massacred the Jewish sages and their students who dared to remove it. A big pain point was when Roman Emperor Caligula ordered his statue to be set up at every temple in the Roman Empire including the Jewish temple – an idea inconceivable to the Jews. These events subsequently led to the rise of Jewish nationalism among some Jews called the Zealots who had a desire to liberate their holy land from foreign hands. There existed different opinions by different factions of Jewish people, but the zealot’s determination for revolution superseded others. Thus followed the great first Jewish revolt in the year 66 CE and lasted until 73 CE – a long series of clashes between the Roman army and the Jewish militia. The Roman empire was facing other indigenous rebellions and was determined to make an example of the Jews to curb other rebellions. Consequently, the heavily armed and highly professional Roman army led by General Vespasian and his son Titus squashed the rebels, destroyed Jerusalem and burnt their Holy temple. Josephus, a Jewish priest and historian who wrote valuable works on the Jewish revolt of 66–70 CE, estimated that one million Jews died in the First Great Revolt against Rome. The triumph was commemorated with Judaea Capta coins (Jews are captured) and the Arch of Titus, which depicts the Holy Temple’s treasures being paraded

Post the first revolt, Jews were dispersed by Romans. Rabbinic Judaism is said to have gained prominence post this that allowed the Jews to continue their spiritual life in the absence of their core centre. A determination to practise their religion and liberate their land led to two other revolts by Jews with the last revolt, Bar Kokhba, proving to be extremely fatal and devastating for them – approx. 580,000 Jews died in the fighting alone as per Roman historian, Cassius Dio. The rest were driven away or forced to leave their ancestral land by the then Roman Emperor, Hadrian. But he wasn’t content with that – he wanted to erase the Jewish attachment to the land. So, he renamed the entire province of Judea as Syria Palestina after an ancient sect of Philistines whose origins were traced to Southern Europe as per a recent DNA study. 

The Jewish-Roman revolt was not only one of the greatest calamities in Jewish history similar to the scale of the holocaust but it also took away from the Jews their spiritual centre and political authority over the land they revered! 

Medieval antisemitism – religious

Post the Great revolt, many Jews migrated or were sold to slavery in various Roman provinces in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. Soon, Rome split into western and eastern Roman empires with the latter known as the Byzantium empire. Christianity became the dominant religion of the empire by 390 BCE. Western Roman Empire was taken over by a Germanic barbarian tribe in 476 BCE and with that much of Europe fell into barbarism. Eastern Roman Empire continued to flourish under the Byzantium empire for another 1000 years. Jews reportedly were again persecuted by the barbaric tribe in the west and by the Christian Byzantium empire in the east due to their religion. The Theodosian Code, a compilation of laws under the Christian Empire, restricted the Jews in various respectable occupations like civil service, army, etc and allowed them only to practice ‘socially inferior’ jobs like tax and money lending that were considered as ‘necessary evil’ professions. Unfortunately, the Jews got caged in these professions for a long time which in turn disrupted their lives in the later centuries when they became subject to social anti-Semitism. 

Moving on, 7th Century CE saw the birth of Islam in Mecca post which Middle East, North Africa and the Iberian peninsula (now Spain and Portugal) were conquered by the Arabs. Along with the conquest, Arabs were on a mission to convert people with polytheistic religious views. They however spared the Jews due to their monotheistic beliefs. Having secured favourable views among the Arabs, they went on to become traders between the Arabs and the European Catholics by the early 11th century CE. This helped the Jews gain some tolerance among the European Catholic people and gave them the confidence to establish themselves in all of Western Europe. 

But this sense of comfort among the Jews was short-lived with the rise of the Seljuk dynasty in the early 11th century CE. Seljuks were a Turko-Persian Muslim empire that was on an expansion drive. Upon reaching Jerusalem, they started persecuting the Christians there which in turn angered the European Catholics. Pope Urban II called for a crusade against the Muslims in 1095. The Europeans then organized religious expeditions to save their brethren and their holy land of Jerusalem. However, this again created havoc for the Jews as, along the way the Catholics believing that Muslims favoured the Jewish people, exploited the Jews financially, forced them to surrender and slaughtered some others defencelessly. This period was also known as the First Crusade. Blood libels were another antisemitic phenomenon seen during the medieval period where the Jews were falsely accused of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood. According to German-American historian Walter Laqueur, while the numbers recorded were 150, those accused were brutally murdered. The key here was false accusations due to a preconceived notion. 

The Jews, exiled from their land, became vulnerable to varying levels of exploitation in spite of them adjusting and complying with the societal norms imposed on them. They strived to survive and continue on the path of their ancestral way of life. 

Racial antisemitism – social, political and professional 

From this period on, there were many accounts of Jewish persecutions reported in Europe for different reasons and in different time periods due to which Jews moved frequently searching for a new and safer abode with the prominent ones being: 

• Black Death – a deadly bacterial infection that engulfed Europe in the mid 14th century. It decimated nearly half the population in Europe within 5 years. Unfortunately, the Jews were again falsely accused of spreading the outbreak on the assumption that they poisoned the drinking wells. But actually, they seldom used the common wells and a lot of Jewish customs/rituals were cleanliness rituals. The Christians believed that Jews actions were to further the Muslims motive of killing Christians as Jews were favoured by the Muslims. This rumoured belief led to mass massacres of Jews across western Europe with many burnt alive. Sadly, the governments of the day did little to prevent the rioters. This compelled the Jews to migrate again to the Mediterranean region which was then under the Ottoman empire. The Ottoman Empire was Muslim and they tolerated and welcomed the Jewish people. 

• Cossack Riots – A section of Jews had migrated from Spain, Portugal and other regions of Europe to Poland during the First Crusade, the Black Death and other events of unfair treatment meted out to them. Poland was soon considered a safe haven for Jews. In fact, as per the Jewish historian Dubnow “ they were not confined in their economic life to purely subordinate occupations, as was true of their western coreligionists; they were not engaged solely in petty trade and money-lending, but carried on also an important export trade, leased government revenues and large estates, and followed the handicrafts and, to a certain extent, agriculture; in the matter of residence they were not restricted to ghettos, like their German brethren. All these conditions contributed toward the evolution in Poland of an independent Jewish civilization.” 

A Polish Lithuanian commonwealth came to be established in 1569 CE and it became an influential force in the region. The Jews flourished in this regime due to the nobility. But, the scenarios for them again changed in the 1648 uprising of the Cossacks against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The uprisings were against the Polish domination and against Commonwealth forces and since the Jews served as middlemen between the peasants and the Poles, they were not spared. They became scapegoats for all parties involved – the Cossacks, the Russians, the Swedes, their allies and the Poles themselves massacred 40,000 to 50,000 Jews on unconfirmed suspicions of collaborations. The losses incurred by the Jewish community in this period is said to have exceeded the catastrophes of the Crusades and the Black Death in Western Europe. The uprising had left an indelible mark in the history and minds of the Jewish community 

• Pogroms in Russia – The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth collapsed by 1795 and was taken over by the neighbouring empires. The Russian Empire being one of them, acquired territories with large Jewish population which were later demarcated as ‘Pale of Settlement’ implying territories within Russia where the Jewish residents were confined to. The Jews were forbidden from residing in other parts of Russia except under strict conditions like conversions from Judaism. Life in the Pale was economically strenuous for the Jews due to the limited occupations available to them. However, the Jews endeavoured to preserve and transmit their culture and traditions. Things changed for the worse for Jews with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia in March 1881. Rumour mongers created the perception that Jews were responsible for this heinous act that sparked the horrendous pogroms or anti-Jewish riots primarily in the parts of the Pale settlement of Russia between 1881 and 1884. Tsar Alexander II’s son, Tsar Alexander III, also blamed the Jews for his father’s death and issued laws like the ‘May Laws’ that imposed harsh restrictions on them. Further, the role of Jews as moneylenders and businessmen added to the resentment against them during this period. A Russian Minister Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev believed that pogroms were a protest by the rural population against Jewish exploitation. In the aftermath of these pogroms – Jews had to search for a new land to inhabit again – this time many emigrated to the newly formed United States and some to Western Europe. It is estimated that two million Jews left the Russian Empire between 1881 and 1914. The Jews remember these pogroms as the “Storms in the South.” 

While anti-Semitism, pogroms and persecution of Jews did not end with this move – in fact, the worst was yet to come but a movement was seen during this period among the Jewish intellectuals – the Zionist movement. Zionism, or the Jewry desire of returning to their ancient land of Zion/Jerusalem, was always inscribed in the minds of Jews. The incessant anti-Semitism, discrimination, failure of their acceptability as equal citizens in the host countries despite their efforts of assimilating themselves and fatigue of the ‘othering’ tag concretized this idea of finding a safe space in their spiritual land. 

Judenstat, or the Jewish Land, was first proposed by a Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, Theodor Hertzel in 1896. A secular individual who is said to have been a Germanophile, was compelled to think about this idea when he faced and witnessed deep-seated anti-Semitism notably during the Dreyfus affair in 1894 where a Jewish French army captain was falsely convicted as a spy. What worried him during the trial was anti-Semitic chants among the crowds who were drawing an equivalence between being a traitor and being Jewish. It dawned on him that anti-Semitism in ingrained in the society and it was fundamentally impossible for the Jews to be seen as ‘equal’ despite their sincere assimilation efforts. The only solution, according to him, to the widely discussed ‘Jewish Question’ in those times was the acquisition of their own land. 

A Jewish land would normalise the existence of Jews, as per Theodore. It will not only provide a safe space for the persecuted and the painful tenuous existence of many but will also give the Jews living in other parts of the world an equal stance as they too have a land to go back to as a result of which they would face less animosity. The thought of a Jewish territory echoed with many Jews seen in the first Zionist Congress in 1897. They realised the significance of having their own land as prescribed in their holy books. A territory with sovereign control would solve their over 2000 years of defenceless history and would let them fearlessly express their culture, practises, beliefs and the religion, Judaism, above all. The initial ideas of finding a land in Africa were dismissed on the insistence of the Jews in Russia who were facing the bitter pogroms. The Jews then sought to go back to their indigenous and sacred land – Zion. 

To sum up, the ancient antisemitism, primarily ethnic in nature, compelled the Jews to abandon their ancestral land. Subsequently, they tried to survive but they again faced religiously motivated antisemitism when Christianity emerged as a new faith and imposed restrictions on them impacting their livelihood. The occupational choices made as a result of such restrictions came to bite them in the form of racial, social and economic antisemitism in the later periods. Thus, persecution was a major part of Jewish history. The sufferings endured highlighted their vulnerability to exploitation due to a lack of their own land. Their will to exist just as Jews captured in the Spartan hymn – “We are what you were and we shall be what you are” was a living soul and this soul needed a territory of its own to feel protected. Jews understood the value of that one piece of land they can call home to survive. Israel was the culmination of this dawning. 

What about present-day Bharat?  

India since ancient times was also a revered land for its people. Bharatvarsha as defined in the Vishnu Purana: 

उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् । वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः

I.e. – The geographical area (varam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhāratam. Known as Bharatvarsha, or the land of Bharat where the descendants of King Bharata live.

The landmass bordered by the Himalayas in the north, the seas in the south and the great river systems within facilitated the development of a unique and diverse civilization. The nature of the land enabled a robust exchange of thoughts and ideas across the length and breadth so that great philosophies emerged from the people of this land that built a distinct culture. The people believed this to be their sacred geography and created many objects of veneration like the 51 shakti peethas spread across, the four mathas established by Adi Shankaracharya at the four corners of Bharata and the Shankaracharya hill in Srinagar and a number of universities instituted in different parts of this land. They adorned the land with beautiful monuments, temples, forts, palaces, etc. The Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, records by foreign travellers like Hieun Tsang, the numerous prayers and rituals practised till today provide further evidence of the reverence for this sacred geography that was seen among the natives of this land – Bharatiyas. 

Bharatiyas flourished here so much that according to economic historian Angus Maddison Bharat was the world’s most productive region, from 1 CE to 1600 CE. It was this wealth that attracted many Islamic invaders in the medieval era and commercial pirates of Europe in the eighteenth century. Quoting from the book ‘Case of India’ by Will Durrant: 

This wealth,” says Sunderland, was created by the Hindus’ vast and varied industries. Nearly every kind of manufacture or product known to the civilised world – nearly every kind of creation of Man’s brain and hand, existing anywhere, and prized either for its utility and beauty-had long been produced in India. India was a far greater industrial and manufacturing nation than any in Europe or than any other in Asia. Her textile goods – the fine products of her looms, in cotton, wool, linen and silk – were famous over the civilized world; so were her exquisite jewellery and her precious stones cut in every lovely form; so were her pottery, porcelains, ceramics of every kind, quality, colour and beautiful shape; so were her fine works in metal – the iron, steel, silver and gold. She had great architecture – equal in beauty to any in the world. She had great engineering works, great merchants, great businessmen, bankers and financiers. Not only was she the greatest ship-building nation, but she had great commerce and trade by land and sea which extended to all known civilised countries.”     

Fast forward to this day and age – a lot has changed in Bharat that is India. Islamic invasions, conversions and European colonization changed the nature of the land. Temples were destroyed, converted, names of cities and towns were converted and people got converted too. Conversion was essential to establish the supremacy of the invaders. A converted mass demanded a separate land as they felt disconnected from the Sanatana culture of Bharat and this led to a division of the land. The remaining part of Bharat came to be known as India and has a secular character now. The ideas and thoughts promulgated since its new Avataar has distanced the Bharatiyas more and more from the indigenous culture and knowledge of this land. To take pride, own, understand and practise the 5000-year-old civilization, culture, traditions, knowledge wasn’t institutionalised in the name of secularism and social harmony. For instance, India just a few years ago owned Yoga when the whole world had embraced it as a cool quotient. In fact, in its current form, it’s still limited to physical exercise and well-being when the Yoga sutras entailed a deeper philosophical value. Like Yoga, there is a treasure house of such knowledge, practises and philosophy that Indians themselves have to rediscover and understand. Additionally, any reclamation or correction of wrongdoings needs a lot of justification. So, there is a detachment from the values that this land had generated in the past.  

Another case in point is that foreign invaders and colonists had a myopic view of the land and were looking to just plunder its resources. Sadly, this attitude has now also been internalised in new India where the inhabitants view it just as a land that can be used for greener pastures elsewhere. The first PM of India had a romantic view of modern India. He built many National Institutes of importance to attract, invest and train the Indian Intelligentsia or the creme de la creme of Indian minds who in turn would spearhead the industrial, technological, medical and scientific growth of the nation. Sadly, this noble thought too didn’t become a reality for India. Rather, brain drain became the predominant phenomenon. Talent was not being cultivated to work for the land, but for each individual’s personal growth. Many Bharatiyas who have moved to different lands for better opportunities and furthering their growth can be heard saying “Initially I was an Indian but now I am a ….” – implying a disowning of the identity and in some cases, a deep aversion towards the identity – the result, hands off any responsibility and duty for the betterment of their ancestral land. In essence, they have given up on the land – a contrarian attitude to the one seen in Kashmiri Hindus.

Finally, there is also an expectation that India is to be seen as an open landmass without borders and security so that anyone can come and indulge. All that matters for this land is how one’s going to satisfy the inhabitant’s selfish needs and rights. 

It’s said that the environment influences what you become. It’s true for the Bharatiyas of today who do not have the same reverence and attachment for the land that their ancestors laboriously built and preserved. The same Spartan Hymn “We are what you were and we shall be what you are” – the spiritual soul is dwindling for this land. Now what we have is just the land called India sans any commitment and will to achieve greatness in this land that is rooted in its indigenous values and ethos! In such a scenario, will this land be able to achieve the greatness seen in the past? A more significant question is, do the indigenous people of the land have to continuously face gory persecutions like the Jews to understand the value of their ancestral land – India that is Bharat?