Exactly, Pakistanis should be fine with "Panju", is not it?
It's inaccurate. We're not all punjabis - simple. However, in the secular republic of India, the river Ganges is described by Modi and adherents of hindu nationalism thus:
India's dying mother
by Justin Rowlatt
The Ganges is one of the greatest rivers on Earth, but it is dying.
From the icy Himalayan peaks, where it begins, right down to the Bay of Bengal, it is being slowly poisoned.
The Ganges is revered in India but it is also the sewer that carries away the waste from the 450 million people who live in its catchment area.
Pollution from the factories and farms of the fastest-growing large economy in the world – and from the riverside cremation of Hindu true believers - has turned its waters toxic.
The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, promised two years ago to clean up the Ganges, but can he do it?
Can the sacred mother of Hinduism be saved?
The Swami
The source of the Ganges lies among the soaring, snow-clad peaks of the Himalayas.
As a rose-pink dawn rises over the jagged teeth of the mountains, the valley where the river begins remains in deep shadow.
It takes hours for the sun to scale the great crags. Only then does a single shaft of sunlight finally penetrate into the chasm.
It strikes a glacier called Gangotri, suddenly illuminating its cloudy blue and white depths.
It is easy to understand why this is one of the most sacred sites in all Hinduism. Up here in the cold fresh air the great shimmering body of frozen water appears radiantly pure.
At the foot of the glacier there is a cave in the ice. This is “Gaumukh”, the cow’s mouth, and the chuckling stream of crystal clear icy water that emerges from it is the beginning of the Ganges.
Ma Ganga, it is known in Hindi: “Mother Ganges”. It’s an apt name - the Ganges has nurtured and supported the rise of Indian civilisation.
As the stream snakes down from the mountains it gathers pace and volume, joined by hundreds of others bringing snowmelt from the vast Himalayan watershed.
But studies show that even here in the Himalayas the water is becoming increasingly polluted.
And the further you descend, the more pronounced the legendary river’s problems become.
In the holy city of Rishikesh, Swami Chidanand Saraswati is leading the evening
aarti, a Hindu fire ceremony.
He is an irrepressibly cheerful man, the flickering light of the butter candles he circles in front of him twinkle in his eyes as he chants and sings along with the music. About 50 monks take part, watched by a couple of hundred devotees.
These river aartis are a celebration of the Ganges. A similar ritual is performed in towns and villages all along the 2,500km-long (1,500-mile) river.
All day pilgrims have been descending to the water to bathe, part of an ancient ritual of purification.
Hindus revere the Ganges as a god. They believe she came down from heaven to cleanse the Earth, and that bathing in her waters can wash away a person’s sins.
The Swami has built the ashram into a huge enterprise. He glances down modestly when I ask how many followers he has. “Perhaps a million,” he replies. But his demeanour changes when I ask about pollution in the river. His brow furrows.
Too many people think the Ganges not only purifies sin but also has the power to cleanse itself, he says.
Sitting here by the Ganga I can tell you, before we take a bath in the Ganga we need to give Ganga a bath.”
“People think Ganga can take care of my sins, can take care of anything, and they forget that while Ganga can take care of your sins it cannot take care of your waste, of your pollution.”
Campaigning for a serious effort to clean the river, he says, occupies most of his time. He is in no doubt that India is killing the Ganges, “killing its own mother”, he says, and he is determined to save her.
For me
if Ganga dies, India dies. If Ganga thrives, India thrives.”
The prime minister, Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, also sees cleaning up the Ganges as nothing less than a mission from God.
“Ma Ganga has called me,” he told the crowd at his victory celebration, when he was swept to power in a landslide victory two years ago.
“She has decided some responsibilities for me. Ma Ganga is screaming for help, she is saying I hope one of my sons gets me out of this filth,” he said. “It is possible it has been decided by God for me to serve Ma Ganga.”
........
I suppose a case could be made for non-Hindus refusing to be called "gangadeshis" since the river Ganga is not of direct importance per se. However, even then, Indian non-Hindus cannot deny the centrality of Ma Ganga to Indian development politically as a nation state.
@TheGreatMaratha I don't know why you're getting annoyed at me. I'm telling it how I see it. If it comes down to some kind of vote, so be it. You still haven't explained
why Ganga and its derivatives is unacceptable to you as a descriptor of geographic and geopolitical origins, when used entirely without malicious intent.
I am happy that Pakistanis are in fact "Indian" with specific regard to the IVC, but the term "India" stands usurped and misappropriated and that cannot be undone even in a few years - it would entail a massive national project akin to the Greece-Macedonia dispute. Pakistan doesn't have the time for that hence that is my reason for not being able to accept the confusing descriptor "Indian" to describe the IVC lineages at this point in time. We're not all "Punjabi" for obvious reasons so you can't call all Pakistanis that either. Finally, "Hindustani" while being a variant of Industani and hence historically reasonable, is rendered unacceptable at this point in time because of its appropriation both by the nation state India and by the religion "Hinduism". Pakistan cannot be regarded as "Hindustan" for both those reasons and the confusion that will exist because of the appropriation of those terms by (a) a faith group and (b) another nation state. So, since Ganga and its derivatives are available and not appropriated elsewhere, my question about
why it's offensive still stands.
