India is a vibrant, diverse democracy, held together not merely by its constitution but by a civilisational continuity that runs deeper than any modern institution. For India to truly progress, to become self-sufficient, self-reliant, and confident in its place in the world, the nation needs a rallying vision larger than administrative slogans. Viksit Bharat (Developed India) is a worthy goal, but it does not stir the national imagination. A bigger dream does.

A Civilisational Entity

The idea of Akhand Bharat, not as a political map, but as a civilisational destiny, has the potential to become that larger-than-life vision. It can inspire Indians to think beyond immediate gains and see themselves as part of a culture that has survived millennia, united diverse peoples, and shaped the spiritual and intellectual fabric of an entire region that is today geographically and politically known as South Asia. Such a vision gives purpose, pride, and direction. It reminds Indians that our future strength lies not only in economic growth but in recognising the civilisational inheritance that binds us, an inheritance capable of motivating a generation to build a stronger, more cohesive, and more confident Bharat (the ancient name of modern India).

People in Bharat, and increasingly many outside it, have begun speaking of Akhand Bharat - or undivided subcontinent - again. This is not a sudden political fashion, nor a recent invention of rhetoric. The idea is far older, rooted in a civilisational memory that predates every modern border. From the Himalayas to the southern seas, the subcontinent has shared a cultural rhythm, a spiritual foundation, and a historical continuity that no partition, no empire, and no constitution could fully erase. The borders came later; the civilisation came first.

The vision of Akhand Bharat is simple at its core. It imagines the Indian subcontinent, today divided into India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Myanmar, and Tibet, as one interconnected civilisational space. Not a political union, not a territorial ambition, but a cultural and emotional continuity. This is the point many misunderstand, sometimes deliberately; Akhand Bharat is not about redrawing lines on a map; it is about recognising the lines that never disappeared from our collective memory. It breathes the deep-seated heterogeneity of Indian thought, where no single doctrine dominates and where contradictions coexist without embarrassment.

Not A Political Structure

To call Akhand Bharat a recent or politically motivated concept is to ignore history. Long before the word nation-state entered our vocabulary, this region functioned as a single civilisational block. The Maurya empire under Ashoka stretched across much of South Asia; the Guptas fostered a golden age of science, literature, and philosophy; the Mughals brought their own administrative and cultural frameworks, blending with and being shaped by the land they ruled. Empires rose and fell, but the civilisational core remained remarkably stable.

Pilgrims, monks, scholars, and traders travelled freely. The Grand Trunk Road connected present-day Afghanistan to Bengal, acting as the main artery of economic and cultural exchange. Rivers, forests, ports, and towns formed one vast economic organism. A monk from Bodh Gaya walking to Sri Lanka did not feel foreign; a scholar from Taxila studying in Kanchipuram moved within a familiar intellectual world. Even the languages Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit flowed across this space effortlessly, weaving together local tongues into a broad civilisational tapestry.

Our epics and scriptures, the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vedas, Upanishads, Jain Agamas, Buddhist Tripitakas, were not confined to any modern border. They travelled everywhere, carried in the memories of people and the rhythms of daily life. They provided a common reference for ethics, governance, and personal conduct. Whether in Kabul or Kanchipuram, people recognised the same stories, the same values, the same spiritual compass.

This is Akhand Bharat in its truest sense, not a political structure but a shared civilisational heartbeat.

Partition Broke The Land

During the struggle for independence, the idea of an undivided Bharat was not fringe thinking; it was mainstream. Leaders across ideological lines, Hindu, Muslim, nationalist, socialist, believed that the unity of Bharat was natural, and that the British “divide and rule” policy was the only real obstacle.

K.M. Munshi passionately advocated for Akhand Hindustan. Mahatma Gandhi, often quoted selectively, believed that the subcontinent was bound together by civilisational ties far deeper than political differences. He repeatedly said that as long as the British stayed, there would be no genuine unity between communities, and that partition was not the will of the people but a consequence of political manoeuvring.

Muslim thinkers like Mazhar Ali Khan argued strongly for a united Bharat. The Khan brothers openly challenged the Muslim League to let the electorate decide. In 1944, the Akhand Hindustan Leaders’ Conference in Delhi, chaired by historian Radha Kumud Mukherjee, brought together scholars and leaders who viewed India not as landmass but as a living civilisation with an unbroken flow of culture.

Partition broke the land, but the civilisational undercurrent remained.

Idea Survives In Cultural Memory

After 1947, Akhand Bharat faded from political discourse but grew stronger as a cultural sentiment. Organisations like the RSS, VHP, Hindu Mahasabha, and others kept the idea alive, not as a call for expansion, but as a reminder of a civilisational unity that political boundaries had disrupted. They argued that unity does not need annexation, it needs cultural reconnection.

Today, the idea is often attacked or misrepresented, usually by those who view everything through territorial or political lenses. But to the millions who speak of Akhand Bharat it is not about absorbing nations. It is about acknowledging shared roots, something the diaspora does naturally.

Unity In The Diaspora

Walk into a gathering of South Asians abroad, in the U.S., the Gulf, Europe, and you will see Akhand Bharat in its simplest form. People do not ask, “Are you Indian or Pakistani?” They connect over language, food, festivals, music, accents, humour, and the familiar comfort of shared culture. A Tamilian and a Sindhi, a Bengali and a Pashtun, a Punjabi Hindu and a Pakistani Muslim, outside the subcontinent, they all recognise the common civilisational thread instantly. What divides them here, unites them there. In the diaspora, Akhand Bharat is not debated; it is lived.

Not About Erasing Borders

In the 21st century, Akhand Bharat is not about restoring empires or dissolving sovereign states. It is a mindset , the understanding that the subcontinent’s destiny is intertwined, whether we acknowledge it or not. In a world marked by rising identity politics, border tensions, and cultural fragmentation, the idea of Akhand Bharat offers an alternative narrative; reconciliation, cooperation, and shared growth. It encourages people to look beyond the politics of 70 years and rediscover the unity of 5,000 years.

It asks nations not to erase borders, but to build bridges; in trade, in culture, in environmental cooperation, in educational exchange, in spiritual dialogue, in people-to-people contact. Akhand Bharat is a call to remember that before we became citizens of different nations, we were inheritors of the same civilisation.

A memory of who we were , and a possibility of who we can be

In the end, Akhand Bharat is not a cartographic dream. It is a cultural memory that refuses to fade, no matter how many lines are drawn on a map. It is the quiet knowledge that a civilisation once stood tall here, unified not by force but by shared values, shared stories, and shared destinies.

Whether Akhand Bharat ever becomes a political reality is immaterial. Civilisations are not built on boundaries; they are built on memory, continuity, and cultural confidence. And that confidence is returning in Bharat today; perhaps that is why the idea has resurfaced so strongly. Akhand Bharat is not a slogan; it is who we were. And it may yet be who we become again, a region moving forward with mutual respect, shared heritage, and the calm strength of a civilisation that has survived far longer than any modern border.

It may be the idea for peace and harmony in a politically divided South Asia

(The author is an Indian Army veteran and a contemporary affairs commentator. The views are personal. He can be reached at  kl.viswanathan@gmail.com )