"Remember history, or you shall be forgotten by history" -- we have heard phrases like this a thousand times, yet we keep forgetting. So, we are condemned to repeat the same lessons over and over.

The Malaysians -- the politicians as well as the clergy -- have forgotten their own history, and therefore the nation is at the brink of disintegration. We must learn from them so as not to make the same mistakes.

Decades ago, Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul warned us of what could happen in countries like ours, where a foreign culture is forcibly imposed upon an indigenous one. In particular, he mentioned five countries: Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Interestingly, all these five countries belong to the great civilization of Sindhu Valley.

It was the great Arab Historian of the 10th century BC, Al Beruni, who mispronounced Sindhu as Hindu. The historian collectively called all the lands and the islands beyond the Sindh valley "Hind".

He was not the first to mispronounce the word. Much earlier, the Chinese had called it Shintu. There are indications that the early Arabs knew about its civilization from the Chinese merchants and some of the tribes abbreviated it to Shin.

A thousand years later, Al Beruni's magnum opus on India is still in print and remains an interesting read. The great historian wrote about the civilization with an unparalleled passion, translated various spiritual and other texts into Arabic and glorified the people as worshipers of "One" God.

This was of course not acceptable to Sultan Mahmud, the ruler of Ghazna, who wanted religious justification for the looting of India. The book, therefore, was published after Mahmud's death.

Much later, when the Moguls came to India and settled there, they called their kingdom Hindustan. "Hindu" was never used to identify a certain religion, but rather a civilization as well as the geographical location. The Portuguese did the same when they distorted the word further into "Indies". Later, the British pronounced it India.

We -- Nusantarans of old and modern Indonesians -- shared this very same civilization with the Iranians, the Afghans and the peoples of Bharat (present day Indian subcontinent). As pointed out by Coedes, the French historian, the rulers of the subcontinent never colonized us. They did not impose upon us their religious and other beliefs. We shared with them those beliefs.

The westerners called us lesser India -- a misnomer though it recognized the fact that we belonged to the same civilization. We were not "lesser" in any way. Indeed, our archipelago was recognized as SvarnaDvipa, the gold-yielding islands. The seas only separated us. Such geographical separation though did not separate us culturally. We still shared the same cultural roots.

Yoga as a science developed from such roots. So, we find yoga in its various forms all over the subcontinent, and even on our islands. Yoga has nothing to do with "Hinduism" as religion, but with "Hindu" as a civilization.

"Hinduism" as religion is a fact that must be recognized today. The religion of modern Hindus is as much a part of the Great Sindhu, Shintu or Hindu civilization as yoga is. But that does not reduce yoga into a religious belief or system.

Indeed, the word yoga was already in use thousands of years before the word "Hindu" came into common usage. If we are to use Al Beruni's terms, then we all are Hindus. The Indian pilgrims performing haj in Arabia were called Hindi.

Our common ancestors, the Hindus of old, developed yoga as a system for general well-being, but mind you, the "Hindu" here is not the same as the follower of Hinduism as a religion. The Hindu here is Al Beruni's Hindu, a person belonging to the Sindh valley civilization.

Interestingly, the most clear traces and remnants of this civilization are found in the modern Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

To say yoga is Hindu is to say that the law of gravity is Christian because Newton who discovered it was Christian. Or, the theory of relativity is Jewish because Albert Einstein had Jewish blood running through his veins. What about the numeral "O" then? The Arabs first learnt it from the peoples of Sindh and later brought it to the west. Is it safe to use the same?

I am convinced without any doubt that the current developments in our country are orchestrated by a group of people who want to uproot us from our cultural heritage. Their motive is all too clear. They are trying to colonize us not only economically, but also culturally. Malaysia has fallen into their prey. The Malaysians can boast of their material development, but without self-identity as Melayu, they are on an irreversible journey toward disintegration.

We are living through very decisive moments in time and history. The options are too clear. The writing on the wall speaks loud. The options are limited, either we become a backyard of some country out there, or stand up and say "no" to any and all attempts to "uncivilize" us, to uproot us culturally.

The writer is Spiritual Activist, author of more than 110 books, founder of several organizations (www.anandkrishna.org, www.aumkar.org, www.californiabali.org, www.brazilindonesia.org)

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