this land/maxim of hate

by Ananya S. Guha / October 5th, 2025

this land
gave birth to religions
cradled ancient civilisations
had divine poets and seers
who wrote epic tales and mused on
philosophical questions on
life and after life;
yes this land where marauding invaders
came, saw, loved and stayed back
mingled and gifted a language and poetry,
this land which foresaw its own destiny
by tolerance and secularism,
this land where a monarch experimented
with secularism and another sent Buddhist
emissaries abroad
this land now roars: this is all mine,
give it back to me, my temples, my gold,
my gods, and goddesses
give them back to me you idolaters, you
rocky fiends, give back my wealth and
diamonds,
this land where an apostolic Christian came
deep down south to preach doctrine of love
deracinating caste and schism ;
Is now fulminating to get back a pseudo history
through atavistic foibles .
this land now shouts, one religion one god
the apocryphal story, besmirching flowering
of cultures, languages and religions
into totalitarian oneness.
this land now seeks to eradicate history
and frenetically rewrite it in footprints
and sands of time, where bloodied force
comes back viciously to propagate
a maxim of hate.

Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India, where he was born and brought up. He has been writing and publishing his poetry for the last forty years. His poetry has been published in both electronic and print formats such as: Indian Literature, Other Voices, Osprey Journal, Glasgow Review, The Literary Nest, Up The Staircase, Asia Writes, Art Arena, Praxis Online, Muse India, Your One Phone Call, In Between Hangovers, The Peeking Cat Magazine, Post Colonial Text among others. He has also written widely on educational and social matters. He has ten collections of poetry and his poetry has been anthologized in various collections of Indian poetry in English. He holds a doctoral on the novels of William Golding. Read other articles by Ananya S..

This article was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2025 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.