Published: 09:02 AM, 08 August 2026
Rediscovering the Shared Civilisation of the Indian Subcontinent
Ziauddin Bulbul
The Indian subcontinent has long been more than a geographical expression; it is one of the world's oldest and most enduring civilisations. For thousands of years, this vast region has served as a meeting ground of cultures, languages, philosophies and faiths.
It is here that some of humanity's greatest religious and intellectual traditions were born, where empires rose and fell and where diverse communities learned to share rivers, markets, artistic traditions and collective destinies.
The history of South Asia is therefore neither a romantic tale of uninterrupted harmony nor an unbroken chronicle of religious conflict. Rather, it is the story of a civilisation that repeatedly sought accommodation amid extraordinary diversity and, despite recurring upheavals, created a rich and resilient cultural synthesis.
Long before the emergence of modern nation-states, powerful kingdoms and empires attempted to unite this diverse landscape under common political authority. From the Mauryan Empire of Ashoka to the Mughal Empire under Akbar, rulers governed populations distinguished by different languages, customs, ethnicities, and beliefs. Their administrations were not without flaws, nor were their reigns free from injustice or conflict.
Nevertheless, many recognised a fundamental political truth: enduring stability cannot be built upon forced uniformity but upon inclusion, tolerance and mutual respect. Ashoka's inscriptions urged respect for all religious traditions after the horrors of the Kalinga War transformed his vision of kingship. Centuries later, Emperor Akbar sought to institutionalise Sulh-i-Kul-"peace with all"-as a guiding principle of governance.
At the same time, the Bhakti and Sufi movements challenged rigid social and religious boundaries by emphasising personal devotion, compassion and the spiritual equality of all human beings. These traditions helped cultivate a civilisational ethos in which diversity was not simply tolerated but became an integral part of cultural life.
The subcontinent's greatest strength has always been its capacity to absorb difference without losing its civilisational identity. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and numerous indigenous traditions have all found homes within this region.
Persian enriched Urdu, Sanskrit influenced countless regional languages, and Bengali literature evolved through contributions from Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist writers alike. Music, architecture, philosophy, cuisine and artistic expression flourished through continuous interaction across communities.
The magnificent monuments that dot the landscape, the shared vocabulary of everyday life and the literary and musical traditions cherished across religious boundaries all testify to centuries of cultural exchange. Civilisations flourish when cultures converse; they decline when identities become prisons.
History, however, also demonstrates how religion has repeatedly been transformed into an instrument of political ambition. Religion itself is rarely the primary cause of conflict. More often, it becomes a powerful symbol through which struggles for authority, territory, wealth and influence are mobilised.
Across different periods of history, ambitious rulers, colonial administrators, ideological movements and contemporary politicians have discovered that fear can unite people more quickly than hope and that sectarian identities can be manipulated to divert attention from deeper political and economic failures. In such circumstances, faith, which should inspire humility and moral responsibility, is reduced to a vehicle for power.
The Partition of British India in 1947 remains perhaps the most painful reminder of the consequences of politicised religious identity. Millions of people were displaced, entire communities were uprooted and unprecedented communal violence scarred the collective memory of South Asia.
Families who had lived together for generations suddenly found themselves separated by newly drawn borders and hardened identities. Yet even in that period of extraordinary violence, another history unfolded alongside the tragedy. Numerous Hindu, Muslim and Sikh families risked their own lives to shelter neighbours belonging to different faiths. Ordinary citizens refused to surrender their humanity to the politics of hatred.
The challenges confronting humanity in the twenty-first century further expose the futility of sectarian divisions. Climate change threatens every nation irrespective of religious composition. Pandemics do not distinguish between believers and non-believers.
Artificial intelligence is transforming economies across continents, while cybercrime, environmental degradation, food insecurity and widening economic inequality demand unprecedented international cooperation.
The COVID-19 pandemic offered perhaps the clearest lesson in our shared vulnerability. Physicians, nurses, researchers, volunteers, and scientists from every conceivable religious and cultural background worked together to save lives. Vaccines emerged through global scientific collaboration and humanitarian assistance crossed political and religious boundaries.
The virus recognised neither temples nor mosques, churches nor monasteries. Human survival depended not upon religious identity but upon shared knowledge, scientific inquiry and collective responsibility.
The same lesson has been repeated whenever natural disasters have struck. Earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, catastrophic floods in Pakistan and Bangladesh, devastating wildfires across Europe and North America and humanitarian crises in many other regions have consistently demonstrated that suffering transcends every artificial boundary humanity creates. Rescue workers do not ask survivors which scriptures they follow before extending assistance. Compassion, unlike ideology, requires no passport and recognises no sectarian identity.
Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of people already understand this reality. Across the world, parents of every faith desire essentially the same future for their children: education, security, healthcare, meaningful employment, dignity and peace.
The schoolteacher educating children from different religious communities, the physician treating every patient equally, the entrepreneur employing individuals regardless of belief and the farmer cooperating with neighbouring families all quietly demonstrate that peaceful coexistence is not merely an idealistic aspiration but an everyday social reality. Their contributions rarely receive media attention because cooperation lacks the dramatic appeal of conflict. Yet it is precisely these ordinary acts of mutual respect that sustain societies.
Every society nevertheless contains individuals who seek to commercialise religion or manipulate it for political and financial gain. These self-appointed custodians of faith thrive by cultivating fear, exaggerating historical grievances and portraying coexistence as weakness.
They transform spirituality into an industry and devotion into a commodity. Such "merchants of God" are not confined to any single religion or nation. Every major religious tradition has witnessed individuals who misuse sacred teachings to acquire secular power. They differ in language, symbols and theological vocabulary but their methods remain strikingly similar: they simplify complex histories, create imaginary enemies and promise exclusive access to truth while profiting from division.
Despite their visibility, however, their actual influence is frequently overstated. The digital age has amplified extreme voices through social media algorithms that reward outrage over reflection and sensationalism over careful reasoning. Consequently, hatred often appears more widespread than it truly is. Beneath the noise of online discourse exists another, quieter world in which millions of people cooperate across religious, cultural and national boundaries every day.
Scientists from diverse backgrounds conduct collaborative research, universities educate students from every continent, multinational companies rely upon multicultural teams, humanitarian organisations serve vulnerable communities without discrimination and young people increasingly build friendships through digital platforms that transcend inherited identities. These everyday realities suggest that cooperation, rather than conflict, remains humanity's dominant mode of interaction.
None of this diminishes the importance of religion itself. For billions of people, faith continues to provide ethical guidance, spiritual comfort and a profound sense of meaning. Every major religious tradition encourages compassion, honesty, justice, humility, charity and respect for human dignity. The problem arises not from sincere religious belief but from its distortion. Authentic faith invites self-examination and moral discipline; false religiosity demands the constant examination and condemnation of others.
Genuine spirituality nurtures humility, whereas religious extremism cultivates arrogance and intolerance. A mature society therefore protects both the freedom to practise one's own religion and the equal freedom of others to practise theirs. Such pluralism does not require abandoning deeply held convictions; rather, it reflects the civilisational maturity to recognise that sincere belief and mutual respect are entirely compatible.
The future of the Indian subcontinent and indeed of humanity itself, will not be determined by those who shout the loudest or exploit fear most effectively. It will be shaped by countless ordinary individuals who choose dialogue over prejudice, evidence over propaganda, empathy over suspicion and shared citizenship over sectarian division.
Every act of fairness weakens extremism. Every refusal to circulate misinformation strengthens democratic society. Every friendship that transcends religious boundaries becomes a quiet affirmation of civilisation's highest ideals.
South Asia has inherited an extraordinary legacy of philosophy, literature, science, architecture, music and spiritual inquiry. It would be a profound betrayal of that inheritance if future generations remembered this civilisation only through the lens of religious antagonism.
The merchants of hatred will undoubtedly continue to seek followers and those who profit from fear will always attempt to divide societies for political or economic advantage. Yet their influence ultimately depends upon the willingness of ordinary people to become consumers of division.
The most enduring response is therefore neither vengeance nor silence but the conscious practice of dialogue, education, constitutional values, critical thinking, justice and mutual respect. Peace is not merely the absence of violence; it is the presence of trust, the confidence that another person's freedom strengthens rather than threatens our own.
If humanity is to flourish in the decades ahead, it must recover an older wisdom that the Indian subcontinent has repeatedly demonstrated throughout its long history: that cultures grow stronger through interaction, societies become more resilient through inclusion and faith achieves its highest purpose when it inspires compassion rather than division.
The future belongs not to those who build higher walls around identity but to those who build stronger bridges across it. In the final analysis, history will not judge us by the religious labels we defended most passionately. It will judge us by whether we preserved the dignity, freedom and humanity that every great religious and philosophical tradition ultimately seeks to uphold.
Ziauddin Bulbul is a versatile writer
and an Advocate of the Supreme
Court of Bangladesh.
