A Sense of History and the Fundamentals

Which is why it is important to trace and understand these continuing and alarming consequences of the aforementioned narrative from a sense of history. While there is more than an ample supply of past and present literature dealing with this issue, some pointers are in order. Because, as we note, this detrimental narrative about India continues to strengthen its grip not just within India but globally.

This essay will focus on several key strands of this narrative including but not limited to Christianity, Colonialism, Marxism, Eurocentrism, and their offshoots in the form of secularism, caste-cow-curry bias, the Dalit discourse, feminism, and how these play out in the academia, media, intelligentsia, and shape public opinion.

The chief feature that becomes immediately evident in any study about India is the fact that it is the only surviving non-Abrahamic ancient culture and civilisation. Almost all non-Abrahamic cultures and civilisations were wiped out at their initial encounters with Christianity or Islam. It’s only Sanatana Dharma that has lived to tell the tale.

And the day India loses the memory of this tale — with all its horrific and monumental tragedies —is the day it will meet the fate of say Egypt or Persia.

Bharata’s cultural continuity has been more or less maintained intact in almost all realms: in dress, family life, social interactions, basic ethical conceptions like dharma, rituals, institutions, places of worship, traditions, art, music and so on. The reason why this continuity has been preserved owes to India’s fundamental philosophical conceptions rooted in the Vedas and the Dharmashastras. And these realms are the practical or outward manifestations of our Dharmashastras.

Here is P V Kane writing in his matchless volumes of the History of the Dharmashastra:

Our ancient sages laid the foundation [for philosophical and social harmony] by insisting that there is and must be harmony between man’s spirit and the spirit of the world…social reforms and politics have to be preached through our age old…philosophy. If our leaders and people throw away or neglect the Hindu religion and spirituality altogether, the probability is that we shall lose both spiritual life and social betterment. [Volume 5: Part 2. Emphasis added]

P V Kane wrote these prophetic lines in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Compare what “betterment” Bharata has achieved by a single-minded demonisation of Sanatana Dharma ever since.

At any rate, to realise this harmony of spirit and the world, ancient India beautifully conceptualised a fundamental attitude. This attitude is how one regards life itself. Our ancients regarded life as a grand celebration in all its aspects; life was worth living to the fullest with all enjoyments — for example, as the celebrated Chamaka Prashna shows us — as long as our enjoyment didn’t violate Dharma.