THE EVOCATIVE LINES 'Mein Bharat ka rehne wala hoon, mein Bharat ki baat sunata hoon (I am a native of India, I tell the story of India)' from Mahendra Kapoor's hit song from the 1970 film Purab Aur Paschim captured a richly patriotic vein in Indian cinema. The movie's maker and lead Manoj Kumar came to be embodied as "Bharat Kumar" in the public imagination for the films he made from the 1960s till the early 1980s. The films spoke directly to an audience of a young nation beset with serious challenges to its sovereignty and a lack of self-confidence fostered by centuries of foreign rule. In a simple and unadulterated fashion, Manoj Kumar's films gave Indians something to cheer about in the aftermath of a demoralising defeat inflicted by China in 1962 and internal turmoil over new states and languages. They spoke of civilisational greatness and an elevating vision of the future. 'Hai preet jahan ki reet sada… (where peace and harmony are eternal traditions)'—songs from the films Manoj Kumar made are staples for patriotic occasions right to this day, but the theme, redolent with the clash between "Bharatiyata (Indianness)" and Western values adopted by the progressive set, surfaced often enough in Hindi cinema. The 1971, Dev Anand's superhit Haré Rama Haré Krishna captured the sentiment, beckoning youth lost to the Hippie drug haze back to their values and cultural lineage. The Kishore Kumar number in the film summed it up: 'Ram ko samjho, Krishna ko jaano O mastano (Understand Ram, know Krishna o intoxicated ones).' The cultural chasm between "Bharat" and "India", despite their apparent interchangeability, was a political and social one too. It was a clash between Nehruvian notions of modernity and more organic alternatives, a language rift between north and south, and perceptions of exclusion and inferiority. It was, above all, a discussion about how to define national identity and the substantive elements that constituted a new nation.

India-Bharat

Bharat, That Is India…

One Vote for One Nation That Is Bharat