Decolonizing Hinduism

A Primer on Indian Social Structures Caste is being used as a major weapon to shame Hindus. This crisp and easy primer presents a powerful counter to Western Universalism’s harsh attacks on caste. It is a long over-due toolkit to help all open-minded people gain an understanding of the subtleties of Hinduism’s complex social order. This social structure has, after all, produced a civilization with unparalleled diversity. The Vedic world view along with the historical journey of Varna and Jati demolishes the prevailing myths about caste.

Reclaiming Bharatavarsha is a collection of topical and exploratory essays organized around three broad themes. The first explores various facets of classical Bharatavarsha, which is defined as India before the advent of alien Islamic invaders and British colonisation. The second delves into the condition of an India under successive alien regimes. The impact of these regimes on our culture and society is contrasted with the conditions prevailing in the preceding classical era. The third studies the imprint of these bouts of foreign rule on contemporary national life. The three themes taken separately are complementary, and together they offer a scope for comparative analyses of the politics, culture, society, customs, and literature of different eras in the life of this ancient land.

From selected episodes drawn from the Puranas and the Mahabharata to the sacred history of the banana, from the 17th-century Bengali arrack to woke cinema, from the 1962 war with China to hair dyes, the book offers an eclectic mix of atypical essays, the narratives of which are filled with rare anecdotes and vivid details, all of which are backed by scholarly research.

The book also has a contemporary context—the unprecedented transformation of India over the last decade. A major outcome of this transformation is the surge in interest for recovering India’s national and civilizational past. This collective resurgence is an expression of cultural self-confidence, which had fallen by the wayside for centuries. Reclaiming Bharatavarsha is a humble addition to this national endeavour.

Embedded within the primary narrative of the Mahabharata lie numerous sub-tales known as upakhyaanas or upakathas. These lesser known stories play a vital role in completing the grand tapestry of the Mahabharata, thus giving this book its apt title. Unlike verse translations found in unabridged versions, the 67 upakathas presented here serve a different purpose. While they may appear as diversions, these narratives serve as vital threads, connecting the text and offering answers to lingering questions that readers may have. For instance, why did Ambaa, the princess of Kaashi, become the catalyst for Bheeshma’s demise in a later life? The Ambaa upakhyaana holds the answers. Similarly, the stories of Sage Parashuraama reveal why a brahmana like him possessed warrior-like qualities. Two upakhyaanas shed light on this enigma. Additionally, the Yayaati upakhyaana elucidates the reasons behind the Kurus descending from Puru, Yayaati’s youngest son, rather than the eldest. Moreover, the intriguing dialogue between Duryodhana and Shalya, where Duryodhana persuades Shalya to become Karna’s charioteer, is also explored in these Upakathas.

Kashi: The Valiant History of a Sacred Geography tells the story of the most sacred of all Hindu holy cities through the prism of sacred geography as is extensively documented in the Sthala Purana. The book features a summary of the Kashi Khanda from the Skanda Purana, an ancient text on the divine origin and leela surrounding the kshetra of Kashi. The history of this kshetra is enriched by the accounts of warrior sadhus, sages, kings, queens, devotees and ordinary citizens who dedicated their lives to preserving and reviving this sacred geography by doggedly building and rebuilding temples, taking up arms against invaders, meticulously documenting Kashi’s history and lore, and tenaciously sustaining pilgrimage routes and practices covering the holy sites of this pivotal city.

In particular, the lesser-known story of the warrior sadhus who defended the Kashi Vishwanath temple from marauding invaders is explored through the lens of sacred geography. Studied in this light, Kashi is both a spatial and metaphysical contestation. The current controversy and litigation over the Gyanvapi site cannot therefore be satisfactorily resolved without taking recourse to the idea of sacred geography, which has since time immemorial informed Hindus and indigenous societies worldwide about their identity and the relevance of space and place, culture and metaphysics, civilization and the development of nationhood.

India is expected to become a $25 trillion+ economy by 2050. With a size like that it will be the world’s second- or third-largest economic power, enjoying unprecedented influence over global affairs. This will also make India the third pillar of a tri-polar world—the US and China being the other two.

Will India seize the opportunity and assume leadership with responsibility? This book seeks to answer that. Besides becoming an economic and military superpower, it will also increasingly dominate in the culture sphere. India is already claiming its place in a new global order in the making, and in less than a decade, it will begin to assert itself globally in the realm of culture too. The book seeks to highlight these trends—spanning across society, government, diplomacy, economy, military, and culture— through the visions of leading Indian thinkers and public intellectuals who are considered experts in their chosen fields.

Invaders and Infidels: From Sindh to Delhi: The 500-Year Journey of Islamic Invasions is a work of gripping history, which tells the story of the origins and trajectory of Islamic invasions into India. It begins with the first Muslim conquest and ends with Babur’s invasion of Hindustan, spanning the period of the Delhi Sultanate which was in power for almost 320 years. This epochal story encompasses a vast sweep of events, which changed the history of India forever, and introduced it to an alien faith and a religious despotism such as the country had never experienced before. It comprises major and minor sagas of great heroism, untold savagery, stout resistance, brutal intrigues and epic tragedies.

Embedded in this narrative are two major themes, largely overlooked in the inherited Indian historical and cultural memory. For more than three hundred years, alien Muslim invasions into India were largely fleeting, transitory and unstable. However, the lasting legacy of these Muslim invasions is the permanent destruction and disappearance of Classical India. Invaders and Infidels will fascinate anyone interested in the story of pre-Medieval India, a gateway era in the history of this ancient culture and civilisation.