Nationalist Interpretations of the Vedic Heritage

Abstract

The corpus of Vedic texts is a part of the  orally preserved inheritance over more than the last three millennia. It has been a subject of modern academic scrutiny for  more than two centuries. The anti-colonial political movements in twentieth century India sought inspiration from the hymns of the Vedic literature in terms of keeping the social fabric close-knit and celebrating the pride about one’s motherland. Under the strict colonial censorship, it was convenient to use the Vedic hymns to create and re-shape the collective memories of a distant past. The proposed paper will discuss a few case studies of how the Vedic heritage was de-contextualised to refashion its meanings that were aimed at nationalist adhesion. While the process did indeed widen the sphere of acceptance of the Vedic ideology, it also added a mysterious aura around it and resulted in the waning of an academic discourse around the Vedic Heritage. Thus, the paper will study the inter-relationship between heritage, nationalism and the academic discourse.