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Introduction
The Mammoth Hindu Conferences that have been going on from the deep South in Nagercoil up to Amritsar and Jammu in the North and from Bombay in the West up to Patna and Guwahati in the East due to the efforts of Swayamsevaks and other devoted Hindu workers have signalled that the present Hindu upsurge is not a fleeting wave nor limited to any particular region.
A striking aspect of this great awakening is with regard to the word 'Hindu' itself. Over the last hundred years and more, that word was sought to be despised and banished from the nation's mind. The Hindu was taught by the British to consider everything associated with 'Hindu' as parochial, communal, superstitious and obscurantist. Giving up the Hindu identity was even made a condition precedent for Hindu-Muslim unity which in turn was considered the precondition for the quitting of the British. The British, more than ourselves, knew that in that word Hindu lay the spark of real national pride and unity. If ignited, it could blaze forth and spell the death-knell of their Empire here. All the great leaders of national renaissance in the recent past like Swami Dayananda, Swami Vivekananda, Shri Aurobindo, Lokamanya Tilak and Gandhi had fought against this psychological onslaught.
It is this soul of Hindusthan - the Hindu consciousness - which has now begun to articulate and re-manifest itself.
Author : H.V. Seshadri
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