हिन्दू राष्ट्र: हिन्दुओं की रामकहानी

जो यह दावा करते हैं कि हम एक अधिनायकवादी हिंदू राष्ट्र में रह रहे हैं उनसे यह पूछा जाना चाहिए कि यह किस प्रकार का हिंदू राष्ट्र है जहां एक अरब शक्तिशाली हिंदू यहाँ की संसद, अदालतों, शिक्षा व्यवस्था और हमारे संविधान द्वारा न सिर्फ दोयम दर्जे के नागरिक करार दिए गए हैं बल्कि उससे भी नीचे धकेल दिए गए? यह कैसा हिंदू राष्ट्र है जिसमें दुर्गा पूजा और गरबा के आयोजनों पर बेरोकटोक पत्थरबाजी की जाती है और प्रधानमंत्री की कुर्सी पर बैठा एक शख्स कहता है कि इस देश के संसाधनों पर पहला हक अल्पसंख्यकों का है? यह कैसा हिंदू राष्ट्र है जहाँ हिंदुओं को अपनी ही धरती पर शरणार्थियों की तरह रहना पड़ता है और जहाँ कोई 40 हजार रोहिंग्या मुसलमानों को तो बसा सकता है लेकिन इसी देश के धरतीपुत्र 7 लाख कश्मीरी पंडितों को नहीं और जहाँ अदालतों का कहना हैं कि हिंदुओं की हत्या, बलात्कार और जातीय संहार करने वालों पर मुकदमा चलाने के लिए अब बहुत देर हो चुकी है? यह किस तरह का हिंदू राष्ट्र है जहाँ हिंदुओं के मंदिर सरकारों के कब्जे में हैं और अपने त्यौहार मनाने के लिए हिंदुओं को वक्फ बोर्ड के सामने जमीन के लिए हाथ फैलाने पड़ते हैं? यह किस तरह का हिंदू राष्ट्र है जहाँ शिक्षा का अधिकार अधिनियम में केवल हिंदुओं के स्कूलों के साथ भेदभाव किया जाता है और उन्हें ताला लगाने को मजबूर कर दिया जाता है? यह किस तरह का हिंदू राष्ट्र है जहां औरंगज़ेब और टीपू जैसे बर्बर शासकों को लेकर सरकारी खर्चे पर प्रकाशन किए जाते हैं, सड़कों के नाम रखे जाते हैं और त्योहारों का आयोजन होता है? यह किस तरह का हिंदू राष्ट्र है जहाँ एक ऐसा कानून बिल्कुल बन ही जाने ही वाला था जिसमें केवल हिंदुओं को, जबकि वे अल्पसंख्यक थे, सांप्रदायिक दंगों के लिए दोषी ठहराया जाता जैसा कि कश्मीर में देखा गया? यह किस तरह का हिंदू राष्ट्र है जहाँ सबरीमाला प्रकरण में अदालतों के फैसले और विधायी कानून केवल हिंदुओं के धर्माचारों में सुधार के लिए किए जाएँ लेकिन दूसरे धर्म को छुआ तक न जाए और अगर ऐसा कोई करे भी, तो वहाँ शाहबानो के मामले की तरह फैसले को पलट दिया जाए? यह किस तरह का हिंदू राष्ट्र है जहाँ हिंदू पूजा स्थल अधिनियम आज भी हिंदुओं को उनके प्रति हुए ऐतिहासिक अन्यायों को दुरुस्त करने के उनके विधिसम्मत अधिकार पर रोक लगता है जबकि वक्फ एक्ट मुसलमानों को एक 1500 वर्ष पुराने हिंदू मंदिर को इस्लामी संपदा घोषित करने की अनियंत्रित शक्ति दे देता है, गो कि इस्लाम अपने आप में महज 1300 वर्ष पुराना है? अगर एक हिंदू राष्ट्र में हिंदू को इस तरह नवाजा जा रहा हो तो इससे अच्छा है कि वह एक मुस्लिम राष्ट्र में रहे क्योंकि वहाँ कम से कम बराबरी का ढोंग तो नहीं होगा, एक काफिर को वही मिलेगा जो उसे मिलना चाहिए। अपनी इस कड़वे बयान में आनंद रंगनाथन आजादी के बाद से हिंदुओं के साथ धोखेबाज़ी करने वाली ग्लानि भरी झूठी कहानी और आत्मदोषानुभूति पर एक निर्णायक प्रहार करते हुए उसे चकनाचूर कर देते हैं। यहाँ कोई स्वांग या राजनीतिक शुचिता नहीं है, अगर है तो केवल राज्य प्रायोजित नस्ल भेद की वह ठोस सच्चाई जिसके साथ हिंदू जी रहे हैं।

मोदी का बनारस

मोदी का बनारस -यह सिर्फ़ पुस्तक नहीं यात्रा है। गंगा यहाँ की जीवनरेखा है। गंगा, बाबा विश्वनाथ के बिना इस नगरी की कल्पना अधूरी है। नरेन्द्र मोदी का बनारस से चुनाव लड़ना राजनीति की असाधारण घटना है। बनारस का सामर्थ्य, कर्तव्य को पूरी दुनिया ने देखा है। अगर सोच लिया जाए, ठान लिया जाए, तो कुछ भी असंभव नहीं है। नरेन्द्र मोदी ने बनारस में अपने तप से चुनाव तो जीता ही, साथ ही बनारस में अपने ख़िलाफ़ की जाने वाले दूसरी पार्टी नेताओं की साज़िशो को भी विफल कर दिया। देखते ही देखते मोदी ने अपने जीत का परचम बिहार, झारखंड, बंगाल तक फहरा दिया। मोदी की जीत एवं बनारस को लेकर लिए गए फ़ैसलों की कहानी है यह पुस्तक, जिसे हमेशा याद रखा जाएगा। यह पुस्तक आपको यह भी बताएगी कि बनारस से जीत की पटकथा कैसे लिखी गई, उसकी रूपरेखा किसने तैयार की थी। अमित शाह ने वर्ष 2010 में बनारस में क्या संकल्प लिया था। जिसे पूरा करने के लिए उन्होंने ना दिन देखा ना रात। यूपी और बनारस का चुनाव जीतने के लिए अमित शाह ने राजनाथ सिंह से ऐसा क्या वचन लिया था, जिसे लेकर सबके बीच में उन्होंने कह दिया कि मैं होता तो यह वचन कभी नहीं देता। नरेंद्र मोदी ने कोविड काल के समय को ही बाबा विश्वनाथ मंदिर के कायाकल्प के लिए क्यों चुना। क्या आप को पता है कि बाबा विश्वनाथ मंदिर के लिए जमीन एकत्र करने के क्रम में जमीनों की सभी रजिस्ट्री एक विशेष समय में की गई थी। आखिर क्यों? क्या आप यह जानते हैं कि बनारस के विश्वनाथ मंदिर में कितना सोना लगा है? एक आश्रम का तिलिस्म जिसकी जमीन को खाली करवाने में एक साल लग गया। आखिर कैसे खाली हुई वह जमीन। कैसे पीएम मोदी ने आर्किटेक्ट के पहले बने नक्शे को खारिज कर दिया था। क्योटो में ऐसा क्या है जो उसे बनारस से जोड़ देता है। मोदी ने जापान के शहर क्योटो को ही क्यों चुना? बनारस का ऐसा घाट जहां पर आप हेलीकॉप्टर से पहुंच सकते हैं। फ़्रांस के राष्ट्रपति ने बनारस में ऐसा क्या पूछ लिया, जिसकी पूरी दुनिया में चर्चा होने लगी। इन सब सवालों और जिज्ञासाओं का उत्तर आप को इस पुस्तक मोदी के बनारस में ही मिलेगा।

Modian Consensus

Modian Consensus: The Rediscovery Of Bharat maps the Indian political trajectory of the last 150 years. It locates various periods of consensus that developed in Bharat from time to time and drove the policy, planning and politics of the day. Four of these consensus phases of the past have been identified as Civilisational Consensus, Gandhian Consensus, Nehruvian Consensus and Secular Consensus. The fifth and ongoing phase, the book argues, is Modian Consensus. The book examines how the politics of the day finds itself willy-nilly amidst a consensus around the politics of Narendra Modi. In the current phase, parties and politicians diametrically opposed to Modi’s ideas are compelled to follow the line of policies and programmes set by him. The impact of this consensus can be observed far beyond the domain of politics as it stands on the three postulates of cultural rootedness, assertive nationalism and welfare for all. The book explores various manifestations of Modian Consensus, including the challenges it faces and what it augurs for the future of Indian politics.

Adhyatmikta

Adhyatmikta:Explorations into Hindu Spiritual Practices looks at the fundamental questions and issues faced by a dharmic spiritual practitioner in today’s age. It guides one to navigate the spiritual path with a judicious mix of practical experience and guidance from the traditions and texts. The book also contains detailed articles on devatas in Hinduism.

Hindus in Hindu Rashtra

To those who claim we are now living in a totalitarian, fascist, Hindu Rashtra, one must ask: What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where a billion-strong Hindus have been, through our parliament, through our courts, our education system, and our constitution, reduced to not just second-class but, rather, eighth-class citizens? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where Ram Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Durga pooja processions, and even Garba celebrations, are attacked and stoned with impunity? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where a sitting Prime minister says minorities have the first right to resources? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where Hindus are forced to be refugees in their own land, where one can settle 40,000 Rohingya Muslims but not 700,000 Kashmiri Hindus, the land’s original inhabitants; where the judiciary says it is too late to prosecute those who raped, murdered, and ethnically cleansed lacs of Hindus? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where Hindu temples are exclusively controlled by the State, where Hindus must beg for Waqf land to celebrate their festival while the government usurps hundreds of thousands of acres of temple land and is responsible for more than 100,000 temples losing lakhs of crores in rental income? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where the Right to Education Act discriminates only against Hindus and their schools, forcing tens of thousands of them to shut down? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where monsters like Aurangzeb and Tipu who perpetrated large-scale Hindu genocides are eulogised through State sponsored publications, naming of roads and cities, and organising of festivals? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where a law was about to be enacted through with only the Hindus would have been held guilty in a communal riot even if they were in a minority for example in Kashmir? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where court judgments like the Sabarimala and legislative enactments like the Hindu Code Bill purport to reform only Hindu religious practices but dare not touch practices of other religions, and if they do, the decisions are promptly reversed like in the Shah Bano case? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where The Places of Worship Act continues to deny the Hindus their legitimate right to correct historical injustices and reclaim thousands of demolished temples? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where the Waqf Act gives overarching powers to Muslims to declare a 1500-year-old Hindu temple to be on Islamic land when Islam is only 1300 years old? If this is how a Hindu is rewarded in a Hindu Rashtra, he’d much rather be in a Muslim Rashtra because then at least there’d be no pretence of equality – a Kafir will get what he deserves. In this searing commentary penned with clinical precision, the author shreds to smithereens once and for all the guilt-tripping, self-loathing fake narrative that Hindus have been duped with since Independence. There is no pretence, no political correctness, only unvarnished truth – that the Hindus are living under State-sanctioned Apartheid.

Somewhere Among the Stars

“When I first shared this story with a monk-friend, he asked me why I wrote it as fiction and not biography. Many others who read this book may have the same query. So let me share: the first reason was the most obvious one — Ahana hardly lived an outer life, her entire life unfolded within, in her consciousness. Outwardly, her biography could be written in a single paragraph: She was born in India, in the early sixties, to academic parents and grew up in a university environment. She met a young man when she turned eighteen, perhaps fell in love, and left her studies and social life to live in an obscure ashram in the Himalayas and explore Vedanta. She then left the ashram and came to Almora, a small Himalayan town, where she lived alone in a cottage.

 

Inwardly, however, Ahana’s life was rich, fascinating, multihued, multilayered, profoundly inspiring. The more I discovered and understood of her life, the more I realized how much is possible, and how much the human being can attain, in a single lifetime — none could come to her and remain unchanged. So how does one write a biography of such a being?

 

 And second, as I discovered in writing this book, a biography ties you down to facts and timelines while fiction can free you of all such needless fetters. Ahana’s life, I feel, is the stuff poetry is made of.”

The Eternal Feminine

A woman is not just a form and a figure; though her form itself is significant of deep-guarded secrets and the capacity to create marvels out of a seed state. She is the Force, Shakti, Wisdom, Strength, Beauty, Love, Delight that is everywhere and in all beings. This book is not just an attempt to discover and evoke her through myths and legends of India, but to unravel the mysteries of the ‘Eternal Feminine’ with a view to discover the truth behind what a woman truly represents as seen through the awakened eyes of the mystics and the spiritual culture of India.

Symbols and Parables

India is a land of stories which, apart from their age-old charm, are a simple way of communicating profound truths. This book is an attempt to bring alive some of the deepest mysteries of existence through the narrative of stories.

From Partition to Progress

After the partition of Bengal in 1947, the influx of refugees from across the border created one of the world’s largest migration crises. In the early years after independence, Prime Minister Nehru imposed the Nehru–Liaquat Pact, an agreement with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, which did not serve India’s interests but instead helped Pakistan.

 

In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The objective of the law is to confer citizenship to persecuted minorities, including Bengali Hindus. However, the Congress and communist parties opposed it.

 

From Nehru to Modi sheds light on the struggles faced by Bengali Hindus in post-independent Pakistan. It exposes how the Congress under Nehru’s leadership failed these persecuted refugees. The book also highlights the role of Syama Prasad Mookerjee in advocating for a homeland for Bengali Hindus in West Bengal. The tenacious efforts of organizations such as the RSS, Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and later the BJP in demanding dignity, rehabilitation, and citizenship for these refugees are also explored in some detail.

Crossing Continents

Since the 13th century, numerous European have travelled to India. Driven by a thirst for adventure or trade opportunities, they embarked on extraordinary voyages across the sea to India. Their journeys were fraught with obstacles, including attacks by marauding gangs and animals, exposure to harsh climates, treacherous terrain, and unknown tropical diseases. Nonetheless, the desire to explore India’s exotic and distant lands propelled them forward.

 

Almost all of them kept meticulous journals of their travels, chronicling the course of Indian history. Crossing Continents explores the stories of several such travellers: Niccolao Manucci, William Hawkins, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Mark Twain, Athanasius Nikitin, Fanny Parkes, etc. All these travellers were relatively unknown at the time and were of little significance in their native homes. They were not bound by their rulers to report in a certain way, which was why their reports were largely unfiltered, unbiased, and unhindered. Each of them travelled to India with different objectives. One seeking precious gems while another a means to fend off debts. Others were driven purely by a desire to travel. They arrived in India during different periods and had unique stories to share. Their untiring pens stitched together a dispassionate history of India—a land of unfathomable contradictions—where sadhus meditated in high-mountain caves and merchants haggled in bustling markets.

Genome to Om

Spectacular advances in modern science and technology have made our lives more comfortable but not necessarily healthier or more peaceful. We are facing serious existential risks for nature and humanity where the developments are challenging our understanding.

 

Genome to Om explores the desired transition from modern science to meta-science, blending ethical, moral, and spiritual insights while recognizing the interconnectedness of all aspects of life. It emphasizes a holistic scientific approach, talking of the marvels of science and technology, and the consequent perils that have engulfed all living beings and the planet itself. The authors pose intriguing questions about the wonders of the cosmos, life’s origin, and most of all, the goal and purpose of life’s journey. Genome represents the dynamic modern science, while Om embodies universal consciousness as the ultimate reality. This book is an endeavour to bridge the gap between empirical knowledge and higher-order wisdom, advocating an innovative, inclusive, technologically advanced, yet spiritually enriched and ethically grounded future. The daring proposal seeks the possibility of progressing from the Anthropocene to an ideal Omcene epoch. Genome to Om offers hope for the meaningful progression to a meta-society, and the onward journey towards harmony between scientific progress and timeless human values to reach our full potential seeking unity in diversity for universal peace and well-being, and to continue the journey of life, the Om Way.

India In 2050

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.

India’s New Right

After nearly ten centuries of invasions and colonial rule, and seven decades after achieving a bloodied and partitioned freedom, the Indian nation-civilisation is experiencing a remarkable surge in nationalism. There is a strong urge to revive and assert itself politically, culturally, and economically.

 

India, that is Bharat, is challenging its colonised mindset and manners, striving to write its own story and history, which were distorted by its colonisers and tormentors. India’s New Right captures this pivotal moment in Bharat’s life. The book seeks to understand this exceptional period in Bharat’s history through the eyes of the many protagonists driving this change. Some of these individuals are prominent public figures, while others are faceless individuals working behind the scenes to bring about change.

 

The book features nearly fifty full-length interviews woven into the larger narrative. It covers a wide range of subjects, from youth to economy, history to popular culture, law to gender identity, minorities to ghar wapsi, and the demographic war.

A Dharmic Social History of India

How India, a land of diverse ethnicities, religions, and languages, has managed to maintain its social cohesion and harmony for thousands of years? How has it managed the forces of social stratification, social exclusion, social stagnation, and social emancipation? Are the institutions of caste and untouchability, jathi and varna peculiar to India? Or is there some other deeper coda to Indian society that sustains it through millennia?

 

This book explores these questions by tracing the origin and evolution of India’s social systems from the ancient Harappan civilization to the present day. It reveals the underlying principles, values, and worldviews that shaped India’s social dynamics and enabled it to adapt and thrive in changing times. It also highlights the role of Indian spiritual values, especially the concepts of yajna and bhakti, in fostering social inclusion and emancipation. Drawing on historical data from various Hindu traditions and biographical data of civilizational-spiritual seers, the book challenges the common perception of these seers as mere rebels or social reformers. Instead, it shows how they were agents of self-realisation who also energised the society to achieve social transformation.

 

This book is not only a comprehensive and insightful account of India’s social history but also a valuable source of inspiration and guidance for anyone who seeks to create a more peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous world.

The Battle for Consciousness Theory

The Battle for Consciousness Theory: A Response to Ken Wilber’s Appropriation of Sri Aurobindo’s Work and Other Indian Thought is a compelling and meticulous account of the digestion and subversion of the work of one of India’s greatest sages—Sri Aurobindo. The book uncovers the systematic co-opting of Sri Aurobindo’s seminal ideas by the American theorist Ken Wilber and their reformulation into his own ‘Integral Theory’. Based on extensive research spanning a quarter century, the book provides deep insights into the developments that shaped (and distorted) the Aurobindonian discourse in recent decades. It discusses the ramifications of the enhancement of Western Universalism at the expense of Vedic and other Indian traditions while analyzing certain limitations in Wilber’s work.

Being Hindu

Being Hindu adopts a longue durée view of history and attempts to contextualize the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its progenitor, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), as political phenomena by examining certain medieval state structures and instances of advocacy and popular mobilization in the colonial period. Further, it studies the politics of Narendra Modi and the policy initiatives undertaken by him as the prime minister of India to highlight their apparent cultural and moral underpinnings. Its eventual objective is to make a case for the historical authenticity of the Hindu mode of politics that emerged in post-Independence India. The attempt, in other words, is to demonstrate that it is a thing in its own right and not a cynical invention of hostility towards religious minorities, an irrational or ‘fascist’ mindset, or sundry anxieties, but has precedents in frameworks and practices going rather far back in history. The BJS and the BJP are thus shown to be locatable in a long tradition of Hindus organizing their political practice or politics through cultural resources and a cultural imagination distinctive to them. Narendra Modi, similarly, brings an inclusive Hindu catholicity and sangathanist outlook to his politics and developmental agenda. Being Hindu, in this way, relates a brief history of the political expressions of being Hindu over slightly more than eleven centuries—from the ascension of Aditya I, the first of the imperial Cholas, in 870 CE until our own time and age.

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