Dharmic Nation: Freeing Bharat, Remaking India

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

We are amidst a battle between dharma and adharma.

Bharat's uniqueness is its dharmic character, held up by mainstream Hinduism and three other major religions-Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism-which were birthed here, not to speak of the myriad other smaller vanvasi and other traditions that argued with one another and yet co-evolved to create this unity in diversity. Despite being home to more than a billion Hindus, India faces threats both from outside and inside, from those who want to dismantle this civilization even as their own is falling apart from the excesses of wokeism, secularism and Islamism.

India, inheritor of a 5,000-year civilizational heritage that is coterminous with the idea of Bharat, faces extreme challenges in the twenty-first century, where forces inimical to its dharmic heritage would want to eviscerate it eventually. Western academia and India's liberals, including some sections of the judiciary and the bureaucracy, are using internal fault lines to push woke Hinduphobic ideas. They are also creating imaginary divisions between Hinduism and Hindutva and trying to promote fissures among Hindus in India and those who have made their homes abroad.

This book is a call to all Hindus to rediscover the essential dharmic heritage of Bharat and close ranks to defend dharma. For this, Hinduism must become a partly missionary religion once more, and encourage Indians who follow Islam and Christianity to become more dharmic in character. For India to rise, a rediscovery of Bharat's dharmic nature is vital.

R. Jagannathan has been at the forefront of Indian journalism for well over four and a half decades. Currently the Editorial Director of Swarajya magazine, he has been part of many launch teams, including Business Today, DNA and Firstpost.com. He headed and revamped many business publications, such as Financial Express, Indian Management, Business World and Forbes India. He started his career with Financial Express in Mumbai. His recent focus has been on digital commentary and journalism, including commentary on Hindutva and dharmic ideology. He was awarded the Shriram Sanlam Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. His first book, The Jobs Crisis in India, dealt with another urgent issue.

The Freeing of Bharat, and the Rediscovery of Dharma

However, in an indirect way, this book does talk about dharma and Hinduism, inter alia, for a reason. The fuzzy idea of dharma, which means 'that which upholds', right conduct, personal responsibility, integrity and ethical behaviour or a mix of these-in these four pillar religions, is critical to the ideas that germinated in India that is Bharat.