Bharat Hind--Greater India

In "War at the Top of the World," there's talk of the Hindu-Nationalist BJP party in India and how they want "Bharat Hind"--a Greater India, successor to the Raj.

This would involve the destruction and annexation of Pakistan, as well as the absorbtion of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The Indian Ocean would be an Indian lake with a sphere of influence extending from East Africa to Antarctica to Australia.

So how might we get such a power in the 20th Century?

No Partition would be a good start, or perhaps Pakistan is devoured in the 1970s during the war over Bangladesh.
 

Thande

Donor
Erm, Bharat Hind means 'Hindu India', not 'Greater India'', and the BJP absolutely definitely does not want to conquer Pakistan. They're the ones who did the most for the Indo-Pakistan peaceful relations a few years ago! When you're a party whose ideology focuses on Hindu supremacy in India, the last thing you want is to add another hundred million Muslims!

Really, I think whatever you read this in was spectacularly misinformed. It's like saying the Republican Party in the USA wants to conquer Canada because they don't like Canada's more left-leaning politics, ignoring the fact that that would then be another 35 million Democratic voters at the election after and they would never get into power again.
 
It sounds like they would have to take over a lot of unstable territory, with a demograpic that produces a lot of military age boys and that doesn't want to be part of either Greater or Hindu India. Sounds like a recepie for peace and prosperity.

When would it happen and what other polecies would they follow?
 
Really, I think whatever you read this in was spectacularly misinformed. It's like saying the Republican Party in the USA wants to conquer Canada because they don't like Canada's more left-leaning politics, ignoring the fact that that would then be another 35 million Democratic voters at the election after and they would never get into power again.

I think he was talking about members of the BJP, not the party as a whole.

The guy has traveled extensively in the region, so he can't be too much of a moron.
 
I think he was talking about members of the BJP, not the party as a whole.

The guy has traveled extensively in the region, so he can't be too much of a moron.

But Thande is right, it is not party policy; to be honest if some members of the BJP do want a 'greater India', I doubt they will have space for those who aren't Hindu. Remember, this is the bunch who destroyed the Mosque at Ayodhya, tolerance ain't their strong point.

Besides, travelling extensively in a place doesn't ensure enlightenment :)
 
But it certainly reduces the likelihood of the person not knowing what they're talking about.

Not so sure to be frank-I mean look at the number of threads we've had on this board where Americans had travelled in Europe or Europeans travelled in America and yet managed to completely misrepresent either place in their writings. :)

Anyway, strangely enough I was talking about the BJP about 3 months back with the cultural staff at the Indian Embassy (was meeting them regarding a museum project) and for various reasons we ended up discussing the Ayodhya Mosque destruction and the two embassy staff members I met (both Hindus, by the way) explained a bit about the BJP. Not a nice bunch.
They are very much into a Hindu India, not a greater India-any who want a greater India would most probably want it as Hindu only. There is something about any group who start believing they are descended from 'Aryans' that mean the extremists amongst them want no one else in their little world.
 
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