Ahead of the G20 Summit where heads of states and governments along with significant leaders of various institition will meet, the central government on Tuesday released a set of two booklets that traces India’s history back to 6,000 BCE. Two booklets – Bharat, The Mother of Democracy and Elections in India – will be handed over to the dignitaries at the summit.
Both the booklets, in a total of 40 pages, talk about epics including Ramayana and Mahabharata as well as the anecdotes of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Akbar along with India’s transition to electoral democracy. Both the booklets focus around the idea of the existence of democracy in the subcontinent for millennia.
The First book depicts India as the mother of democracy. It features the bronze statue named ‘the dancing girl’ that was believed to be from the Indus Valley civilisation which existed around 5,000 years ago. The statue was described as a sign of confidence where the girl is ‘self-assured and looking at the world eye-to-eye. Independent. Liberated’.