Book Review - Breaking India

Before starting anything, sample this : 2 authors, 5 years of research, 476 pages of data and analysis, bibliography of 61 pages, references to innumerable websites, books,and articles. Even this doesn't say how serious and important is this work -> Breaking India - Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines. Authored by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan this work talks about various kinds of threats that are systematically unleashed by various coordinated forces on India and its religion. Before reading anything further, go to this official website to know more. 

The map shown is what the authors warn about in the book.

Introduction: 

There are global forces which don't like the idea of integrated India and constantly try to balkanize India so that balkanized India serves to fulfill their ultimate ends. Rajiv Malhotra calls these forces centrifugal forces. There are some interests which want to see India as one united country and these Malhotra calls as centripetal forces. Needless to say, centrifugal force that India is subjected to is far more stronger than the centripetal force which tries to unite India.

What are the centrifugal forces that want India to be divided and sub-divided? Though there are innumerable forces, institutions, individuals, all invariably fall into these three category -

1) Islamic radicalism linked with Pakistan
2) Maoists and Marxist radicals supported by China via intermediaries such as Nepal
3) Dravidian and Dalit identity separatism being fostered by the west in the name of human rights.

As the authors say in the introduction, this book focuses on the third issue -
the role of U.S. and European churches, academics, think-tanks, foundations, government and human rights groups in fostering separation of the identities of Dravidian and Dalit communities from the rest of India.

Synopsis:

The range of topics, institutions, individuals that are covered are huge that just for convenience, I have divided the issues raised by this book into these sub-headings (no way it's comprehensive)

1) Creation of identities, faultlines 

India is a diverse nation comprising of various cultures, languages, identities. But despite so many variations, there is something that creates pan-Indian identity. But the centrifugal forces (several churches, NGOs, individuals) are desperately trying to sever this pan-Indian identity and create several limited identities in its place.

2) Creation of race theories, their large implications in forming identities

Race theories were the products of colonial constructs of 18th century and are outdated. Still, to this day they are regurgitated to divide and sub-divide India. The creation of Aryan theory is well known and we know how the British used it to justify their dominion. The church and the colonialists have used Biblical myth of Ham to justify both racism and colonialism.

The authors warn of the outcome of creation and manipulations of race identities (master race, slave race having strong parallels with Aryan and Dravidian race theories) citing the examples of Sri Lanka and Rwanda. These two countries witnessed the worst civil wars of history killing thousands of people. 

3) Dravidian and Dalit faultlines

There are consistent efforts to portray Dravidian identity as an unique identity and different from pan-Indian identity. Same goes with the Dalit identity. Every effort is made to keep them apart from mainstream Hinduism and pan-Indian identity. Once the identities are separated from the pan-Indian identity, it can be used to map it to Christianity. So, many high profile churches are involved in this because it ultimately helps in proselytizing.

4) Dravidian Christianity, digesting Hinduism 

Attempts have been made to portray history of Christianity in India as an ancient one starting from the myth of St.Thomas. Just to give you a glimpse of some crackpot theories, sample these:

1.    India is a Dravidian Christian nation.
2.    Veda Vyasa is a Christian missionary.
3.    Shakti is the holy ghost in the christian trinity.
4.    Famed 6 Darshanas, Purva mimansa et al.have christian origin.
5.    Hinduism and Sanskrit were formed in 2nd century A.D.     

Did you say "Are you freaking kidding me?" but yes,these are the kinds of spurious theories which are passing of as scholarship. Basic contention is this: Anything good in Hinduism should be of Christian origin. First they tell Hinduism and Christianity are similar. Then they say Christianity as the pristine,the only truth and there is no salvation without Christ. All these so-called academic exercises are done only to aid conversion.

5) India and Hindu bashing industry of the west

India and Hindu bashing industry of the west is highly lucrative. There are many institutions which are dedicated to do this job. Of course they do it in the name of 'human rights', 'empowerment', 'protection of minorities' etc. There is a huge nexus of this India-bashing industry which uses every possible incident in India in the international circle to portray India and Hinduism in a bad light. These are high paying roles which promises reputation, money, foreign trips etc.

6) Church interests and U.S. direct involvement  

Church has severe interests in India and for its evangelical plans, it has mapped India to be inside the 10/40 window. India falls under the region where church has planned aggressive evangelism. The other major regions which fall under this region are China, Arab countries where proselytizing is outlawed or heavily restricted. So, India becomes the natural target.

To fulfill the mission of 'reaching out to the unreached masses' which is an euphemism for conversion, the church can go to any extent. For instance the Church and Maoists have come together in North-East India to break away from India.

The right-wing politics and lobbying is very strong in the U.S such that they eventually influence the policies of the U.S which can have many far reaching effects on India.

7)  Pan-Islam, China and the west

These are three civilizations which are working for the world's domination. They fight amongst themselves owing to difference in ideology. But when it comes to India, they all come together because they have a common enemy: India and its culture. All these forces have made India an ideological battleground. Truth be told, they have nothing to lose but everything to gain. The increase of Jihadi network in Kerala, the Naxalism in some states, Maoism in the north-east India and the huge infrastructure and networks these forces have created bear testimony to the fact that they are getting more stronger by the day.  


The Ultimatum :

This book should be studied by all who want to see India as one united country. The book is not trying to churn out some conspiracy theories but instead relies on hard,well-documented facts. So, the importance of the book can't be overstated. This book is important in many levels like: strategic,security, policy making etc.

Once you finish the book, you might get a feeling that India is a piece of meat lying on the ground waiting to be devoured by the vultures flying in the sky. The vultures which represent the centrifugal forces are far more equipped, organized, networked than the centripetal forces. The message and gentle warning that the book gives,if simplified could be:'be vigilant,organize,strategize or perish'

Macaulay lives on...

I'll start with a small tidbit from history which I am cocksure that you wouldn't have studied in your history classes.

Circa 1813 : India was ruled by the East India company. The first stone for the introduction of western education to Indians was laid. Sita Ram Goel in his book History of Hindu-Christian encounters explains the unfolding of events that led to the introduction of western education for Indians:

The renewal of East India Company’s Charter in 1813 had opened the Company’s dominions to Christian missionaries. It had also advised “introduction of useful knowledge and religious and moral improvement.” A controversy had been going on ever since regarding the system of education suitable for India. The Orientalists among the British rulers advocated retention of the traditional Indian system. They were afraid that imparting of Western knowledge to natives would encourage them to claim equality with white men and demand democratisation of the administration. The Anglicists, on the other hand, were convinced that knowledge of Western literature, philosophy and science would wean Hindus away from their “ancestral superstitions” and draw them closer to the religion and culture of the ruling race.

Christian missionaries were, by and large, with the Anglicists. One of them had written in 1822 that, through Western education, Hindus “now engaged in the degrading and polluting worship of idols shall be brought to the knowledge of true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.” Missionaries felt immensely strengthened when Alexander Duff, an ardent advocate of Western education, reached Calcutta in 1830.

Alexander Duff was convinced that “of all the systems of false religion ever fabricated by the perverse ingenuity of fallen men, Hinduism is surely the most stupendous” and that India was “the chief seat of Satan’s earthly dominion.” He studied for some time the effect which Western education was having on Hindu young men attending the Hindu College and similar institutions which had come up in Calcutta and elsewhere in Bengal since more than a decade before his arrival. He came to the definite conclusion that Western education would make the Hindus “perfect unbelievers in their own system” and “perfect believers in Christianity.” In an address delivered in 1835 to a General Church Assembly he proclaimed that knowledge of Western literature and science would “demolish the huge and hideous fabric of Hinduism” brick by brick till “the whole will be found to have crumbled into fragments.”

A Committee of Public Instruction had been set up by the Government for recommending a suitable system of education. Alexander Duff had been made a member of the Committee in 1834. Next year, T. B. Macaulay, a member of the Governor General’s Council, was appointed to preside over the Committee. He wrote a Minute on February 2, 1835, advocating Western education. There was a tie between the Anglicists and the Orientalists when the Minute came before the Committee on March 7. Macaulay used his casting vote and forced a decision. The Western system of education was adopted. In a letter written to his father in 1836, Macaulay predicated, “It is my firm belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolator among the respectable classes of Bengal thirty years hence.”

Macaulay argued that providing education based on Sanskrit is of no use for India’s development, and batted instead for education based on English. He (in)famously envisioned creating “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect”. [You can find the complete minute here] He correctly identified the strength of Indians was in their tradition, heritage and spirituality. Once you make them believe all that they valued are just a baggage of hogwash, you can easily rule them. As simple as that. In a way, you can call Macaulay a visionary because what he had envisaged did turn out to be true in the future.

I am not adding his one more cardinal sin of adding racial theories which were very prevalent in Europe during 19th century to the new curriculum. Thus applied racial theories to the Indian populace were initially used by colonialists to divide and sub-divide India. This was later used by evangelical missionaries and political parties to serve their own ends. The commie historians who were to rule Indian academics post-Independent India kept this repudiated, outdated theory intact and these hoax theories are peddled even to this day.This is a big story in itself. Let's keep it for some other day.

Who should write history? This is a very serious question that one should contemplate on. Some say history is written by the winners and conquerors. This is true even in case of India. Indian history is never written from an Indian perspective. It was always written with the invaders' perspective be it Moguls or the British. That's the sole reason that we are conditioned to see the invaders as heroes or liberators. So,our history books are full of invasions, wars and subjugation. These are just the products of colonial constructs which are peddled even to this day. Anyone who is a product of this kind of education can never admire the greatness of this nation. All that he can have is contempt for it and its past. People like Vivekananda or Aurobindo are just a few honorary exceptions to come out of the kind of western education introduced by Macaulay. Even people like them, discovered the greatness of India only because they chose to go beyond what was taught to them. Else, even their intellect and perception would have been crippled.

We can see this phenomenon clearly in this country : To be called as an intellectual, you should have an absolute disdain for its heritage and you should be able to debunk it. That's one of the criteria for being a 'progressive' in this nation. The more you debunk the tradition, the more intellectual you appear. Those people who debunk even the profound things of this culture have no problem in accepting absolute trumpery of predatory cultures and religions that have invaded India. This is just a small instance to show the triumph of Macaulay's education system.

So I readily agree when someone says 15th August 1947 is just an end of physical (or administrative) slavery but mental (or intellectual) slavery continues even to this day. I think it's high time that we broke the shackles of mental slavery and came clean.

The real growth, the only goal...

I've often wondered what drives people to action. The driving force that makes people to perform a gamut of actions in the world ; from the grossest to the most profound. There are many explainations for this from psychology to sociology. The most famous one known to even a rookie in manangement studies is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Although Maslow's theory tried to explain, it fell short to explain comprehensively. Then i turned my gaze to our very own system of yoga, not to be disappointed by the explaination provided.

This article in Huffington post from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev prompted me to write this post. Yoga considers everything as energy. It's only the manipulation that we can do about it. Even fundamental physics says the same thing. So, fundamentally it's all the same energy manifesting in a zillion different forms. If that is the case, a human being is no different from the law as after all he's a microcasm in the macrocasm called universe. 

Someone who is born and brought up in India would have at least heard of the words 'Kundalini' and 'chakra' if not known anything about them in detail. Kundalini is a very vast concept in itself. To put it succinctly, it is an enormous dormant energy waiting to get awakened. Once it gets awakened, it can do phenomenal things. But if it is mishandled, it can cause a lot of physical and psychological damage. That's why it's aptly compared to a sleeping serpent.

As the above mentioned article clearly describes, chakras are the energy centers in which the energy channels called 'nadis' meet. Though they are in the form of triangle, because they symbolize growth and movement they are called chakras (wheels). When the dormant energy Kundalini begins to arise in the human system,it rises through these chakras. As the energy gets concentrated on a particular chakra, the dominant quality of the person changes accordingly. Even though there are 114 chakras in the human system, the dominant ones are 7 in number.

The seven chakras are : Mooladhara, Swadhisthana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Vishuddhi, Agna, Sahasrar. Depending on their physical locations, we can call them as higher and lower chakras but it no way denotes anything as inferior or superior in their quality. Mooladhara is the very first chakra and is located at the base of the spine. If the enegies are dominant in this chakra, food and sleep will be predominant qualities of life. Swadhisthana is the second chakra & is located just above the genital organs. If the energies become dominant here, the person will be incessant pleasure seeker and pleasure can be seeked in many different ways.

The next chakra is Manipuraka which is located just below the navel. When the energies move here, it pushes the person towards action. And action can be of so many types. When the energy moves towards the next chakra, Anahata which is located in the heart area, it makes the person very creative. The next chakra is Vishuddhi which is located in the throat region. If energies move towards this chakra, the person becomes extremely powerful in many ways. Political power and the likes appear to be pygmies in front of this kind of power.

If the energies move towards Agna, which is located between the eyebrows the person becomes intellectually enlightened. A new kind of peace and semblance dawns upon him. The next chakra, Sahasrar which is at the crown of the head is often described as thousand petalled lotus. The word Sahasrar also implies that its magnitude and significance is very vast; in fact, unlimited. When the energies reach Sahasrar, the person becomes extremely ecstatic.

Any spiritual seeker has to embark this journey from Mooladhara to Sahasrar in his ultimate quest towards self-knowledge. There can be a million ways to reach it. The seeker can choose any way which is appropriate to his nature and temperament. Once the seeker completes his journey, he would have known everything in this universe that is worth knowing.