{"id":120793,"date":"2021-12-01T17:58:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T00:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120793"},"modified":"2021-12-01T17:59:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T00:59:29","slug":"india-that-is-bharat-review-a-book-of-consequence-for-constitutional-reform-in-former-european-colonies-including-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/01\/india-that-is-bharat-review-a-book-of-consequence-for-constitutional-reform-in-former-european-colonies-including-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018India That Is Bharat\u2019 Review: A Book of Consequence for Constitutional Reform in former European Colonies including Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\">by<a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/swarajyamag.com\/author\/21739\/D%20V%20Sridharan\"><strong>D V Sridharan<\/strong><\/a>-Nov 16, 2021\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gumlet.assettype.com\/swarajya%2F2021-08%2F5dd0c04a-42bf-4dee-bd15-e424b63b8743%2FBharat_book.png?q=75&amp;auto=format%2Ccompress&amp;w=610&amp;dpr=1.0\" alt=\"\u2018India That Is Bharat\u2019 Review: A Book Of Consequence\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Author J Sai Deepak and his book&#8217;s cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Snapshot<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>J Sai Deepak\u2019s book \u2018India That is Bharat\u2019 is a rigorous survey\nof India\u2019s political history since the Papal Bull of 1493.<\/em><\/li><li><strong><em>India\nthat is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution. J Sai Deepak.\nBloomsbury India. 2021. Pages 484. Rs 404.<\/em><\/strong><em><\/em><\/li><li><em>here\u2019s a genre of videos on YouTube\ncalled the \u2018unBoxing video\u2019. It mostly interests DIY buffs and techno-novices\nwho receive products by mail and need help to figure out how to use what they\nhad ordered, whether it be a gadget or a tool for home garden, hobby or\nworkshop.<\/em><em><\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>J Sai Deepak\u2019s book&nbsp;<em>India That is Bharat: Coloniality,\nCivilisation and Constitution<\/em>&nbsp;quite unsettled me. I was\nbewildered by all manner of information that began swirling around me. The\nauthor on an over-drive with passion for his subject was difficult to keep pace\nwith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is more than an ordinary book. It is an empowering course\nmaterial with many resources to take away. It is not quite amenable to review\nin the usual way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is when it struck me I best explain it in the manner of\nunBoxing a set of resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the proposed trilogy is published, a storm will have been\nstirred up. By then, I expect there will be in the books, knowledge enough to\nhold one\u2019s ground, and maybe even engage in combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sai Deepak\u2019s credibility is high as a man who works with hard\nfacts from original sources. You can verify this from the tens of viral videos\nat large in which he takes on all questions, however tricky and answers them\nwith ease and precision. He seldom wastes a word, nor lacks the right one for\nhis need, or deviates from the point in the discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All these qualities come through in his writing., which doesn\u2019t\nmean he can be understood if you are paying less than full attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that said, let me return to the question: \u2018What\u2019s in the\nbox of resources\u2019, as I choose to call the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Volume-1 begins with a long section (over 25 per cent of\nthe book\u2019s length) identifying what Bharatiyas need to combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a word, it is coloniality, which best is more quickly\nunderstood and sized by defining its four etymological cousins. Colonialism is\nthe intent to capture territories, colonisation is the physical act of capture.\nColonialisation is the soft framework to control the captured land, its wealth\nand people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coloniality is when the colonised people begin to be\nunconsciously colonised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, there is postcolonialism, which is the acme of a\ncolonial project\u2019s success. It happens when enough of the conquered minds begin\nto consciously propagate the colonial cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I understand it, the difference between coloniality and\npost-coloniality is this: the former has unconsciously internalised the\ncoloniser\u2019s prescriptions, and the latter is consciously aligned with the\ncoloniser\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Western universities of the US, in particular, are quite\nslick-skilled in producing a steady supply of post-colonial minds, many of\nwhich can be spotted in our academe, media, Bar &amp; Bench and polity.\nIncidentally, one of the crucial skills this book will teach you, is the\nability to identify colonial and post-colonial minds. To me, that\u2019s more than\nhalf the battle won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The long section on coloniality ends with these words: The\nbattle must include European and Middle Eastern coloniality, in that order,\nsince the former protects the latter and the latter rides on the former\u2019s\ncoattails to legitimise itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me turn to the next goody in the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quite early in the book, Sai Deepak will have introduced you to\nthe acronym OET, which expands as ontology epistemology theology. One may\ndescribe the three respectively, as a culture\u2019s metaphysical beliefs, knowledge\nstructure and praxis of rites and rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If one thinks it through, when coloniality rises, the acronym\nOET will have lost its first letter, because its indigenous organic past will\nhave been slain and put away as dead. It will have equipped itself with a\nsingle book to serve its epistemological needs and a single drill for its\nritual routines. On whether you feel enriched by the breadth and depth of the\nOET you are heir to or find it retrograde, depends on your vulnerability to\ncoloniality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sai Deepak cites several intellectual sources, among them a\ndozen little known Latin Americans, who have helped him understand the contours\nof coloniality. Based on my experience with reading at least two of the authors\nin the original, I confess I quite quickly came face to face with my inadequacy\nto comprehend them with any ease. Sai Deepak\u2019s sharp intellect and legal acumen\nequip him to extract the essential from the complex and lucidly present his\nsummary without any loss of accuracy. This is a gift of much value for the\nyoung and serious student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet another bundle in the box consists of a large collection of\nextracts from many original documents. Among these are the actual and saddening\nwords of some members of our Constituent Assembly battling \u2014 and, failing \u2014 to\nkeep \u2018Bharat\u2019 as the sole name for the new state; the Papal Bull of 1493 that\nso generously offered the world to Portugal and Spain to carve up between\nthemselves; potted histories of the 30-year war, the Treaty of Westphalia, the\nTreaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. Also included are extracts from\ndebates in the British Parliament on the Government of India Act, on the East\nIndia Company Charter, and on educational reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His reason for laying out all this as part of evidence puzzled\nme at first. Then it hit me: we tend to dismiss colonialism merely as an\nexercise in greedy wealth transfer. We also tend to believe only Catholic\ncountries of Southern Europe are of an evangelical bent, but not so an England\nafter Henry VIII, and the Lutheran and Calvinist nations that had spun away\nfrom Papacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It, therefore, startled me to learn that post the Treaty of\nWestphalia that ended a fratricidal 30-Year War among Christians, they had all\nclosed ranks for the common Christian cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, the East India Company is more sinned against than\nsinning in this regard. It would have been quite content to be left free to go\nafter gold, rather than market god. It was the British crown, parliament and\nclergy that mandated it to evangelise, using part of its profits. When direct\nrule by the crown followed, evangelical fervour was further stoked, with state\nprotection given to the church\u2019s activities. All the while a sanctimonious\ncharade was maintained that the ruler will not intrude in the natives\u2019 ways,\nhowever distasteful they are thought to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast to the finesse of the British conversion operations,\nthe Islamic colonials were laughably clumsy, what with bloodied swords held\naloft, eyes roving for women and the body doubled under the weight of the loot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can see the white man shake his head and mutter: Tut, tut.\nThat\u2019s not the way to do it, you Turk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You get a clearer picture of the European coloniser\u2019s suavity\nfrom Sai Deepak\u2019s own words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Coloniality was the fount of\nEuropean colonialism, which in turn was rooted in the coloniser\u2019s religious\nbeliefs that gave birth to his sense of racial superiority that placed the\nChristian White European coloniser at the top of the world order. It was this\nsense of superiority, which the European coloniser treated as both a divinely\nordained right and scientific fact, that led to the creation of racial\nhierarchies the world over. Coloniality reshaped the very concept of history\nand time through the creation of constructs as \u2018modernity\u2019 and \u2018rationality\u2019,\nterms which are loosely used in contemporary everyday conversations without the\nknowledge of their colonial origins. This colonial matrix of power, to which\nboth modernity and rationality were integral, had the effect of negating the\ncultural experience and subjectivities of colonised societies, so much so that\naccording to the coloniser, their histories began only upon his advent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to wealth transfer and proselytisation, there was\nyet another colonial objective. It was to influence the Indian constitution-making\nprocess with a view to alienate it from Bharat\u2019s OET roots and rule it through\npostcolonial proxies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This project began with several British parliamentary debates\nindicating what was desired: at best, an anglophone India that would retain\nemotional bonds with the crown and by their god\u2019s grace will also someday\nbecome a devotee of Christ. This is equivalent to turning post-independent\nIndia into a brown dominion with space for it on the same shelf as Australia,\nNew Zealand, South Africa and Canada. If that were not possible, then as a\nminimum deal, a new nation is hamstrung by its own constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The British parliament\u2019s desires and directives were well\ninternalised by a duo and led to an action plan in the Montagu-Chelmsford\n(Montford) Reforms 1918. Its mission was to keep the new nation tethered to the\ncrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In what must rank as brilliant sleuthing in historical research,\nSai Deepak establishes with evidence that the League of Nations armed with the\nStandard of Civilisation metric, put paid to any hope of independent India\nreconnecting with its OET.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was quite simply achieved, and as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even as the League of Nations was readied for a 1919 launch, the\nMontFord Reforms of 1918 had flattered India to become a founding member of it,\nan honour with, as it turned out, a crown of thorns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once that happened, India was limited to being a nation (and not\na civilisational state, as befitted it) and agreed to be measured by LoN\u2019s\nStandard of Civilisation; which meant Bharat\u2019s civilisation was open to evaluation\nand certification by an essentially Anglo Saxon enterprise, which was certain\nof the civilising power of its faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also in 1919, as if on cue, the final Government of India Act\narrived and offered itself as the model for Bharat\u2019s constitution. That this\ndid inspire the Constitution Drafting Committee was admitted by Dr B R\nAmbedkar, its chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thoughtful Indians puzzled as to how we find ourselves where we\nare, with a strange self-identity, will find this saga a very educative read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I found myself going forward and backwards through the pages of\nthe book, panting to keep pace with the author while marvelling at the scope of\nhis undertaking, the labour that has gone into it and his virtuoso exposition\nof varied subjects by pulling down parts from tens of shelves and fitting them\nall neatly together until you get the big picture \u2014 which I must caution is not\npretty. But then, how pleasant is it ever, to know that Bharat faces an\nexistential threat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are hints in the book to believe Sai Deepak has taken note\nof murmurs from the judiciary about it being its duty to recognise the primacy\nof what\u2019s called \u2018constitutional morality. I suspect the two volumes to follow\nwill address this threat looming ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me return to Sai Deepak\u2019s book. Yes, it is not an easy book\nto read, but then these are not easy times that we live in. So what does the\nreviewer part of me recommend you do with it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Buy the book and read it even if its rigour daunts you. Read\nas much as you can, and let it live on your bookshelf. I wager you will return\nto it sooner than you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2 It will help to first read Dr Gautam Sen\u2019s magisterial\n&#8216;Foreword&#8217; to it. And, read Sen again after you finish the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3 Watch the several tens of videos featuring Sai Deepak that\nabound on YouTube, Watch them, whether or not they directly relate to this\nbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4 When you have read the book \u2014 or even just after reading this\narticle \u2014 see if you can identify the colonials and post colonials amongst us\nand in politics, judiciary, legal fraternity, media and the academe. It would\nbe an awakening that will return you to the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5 If political and social turmoil trouble you, wear the book as\nglasses through which to see happenings, for understanding what\u2019s at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a book you will keep returning to refer to in the coming\ndecade. Whether or not you want or like, you will be pushed to take a position.\nI believe this volume and the two to come, will offer you, wise counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>This piece was first\npublished on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@goodnewsindia\/a-book-of-consequence-6c5dace3adcf\">Medium<\/a>,\nand has been republished here with permission.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>D V Sridharan was a\nsea-going engineer in the 1960s. For the last 40 years, he has been passionate\nabout the environment, especially water conservation and eco-diversity. He\u2019s\ncurrently in the second decade of his land regeneration work at pointReturn, 100km\nsouth of Chennai. He tweets at @strawsinthewind.<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>see also<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstpost.com\/art-and-culture\/india-that-is-bharat-book-review-j-sai-deepak-makes-pressing-arguments-about-colonialism-9917511.html\">https:\/\/www.firstpost.com\/art-and-culture\/india-that-is-bharat-book-review-j-sai-deepak-makes-pressing-arguments-about-colonialism-9917511.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Description<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/ca\/india-that-is-bharat-9789354350047\/\">https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/ca\/india-that-is-bharat-9789354350047\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>India, That Is Bharat<\/em>, the first book of a\ncomprehensive trilogy, explores the influence of European &#8216;colonial\nconsciousness&#8217; (or &#8216;coloniality&#8217;), in particular its religious and racial\nroots, on Bharat as the successor state to the Indic civilisation and the\norigins of the Indian Constitution. It lays the foundation for its sequels by\ncovering the period between the Age of Discovery, marked by Christopher\nColumbus&#8217; expedition in 1492, and the reshaping of Bharat through a\nBritish-made constitution-the Government of India Act of 1919. This includes\ninternational developments leading to the founding of the League of Nations by\nWestern powers that tangibly impacted this journey.<br>\n<br>\nFurther, this work also traces the origins of seemingly universal constructs\nsuch as &#8216;toleration&#8217;, &#8216;secularism&#8217; and &#8216;humanism&#8217; to Christian political\ntheology. Their subsequent role in subverting the indigenous Indic\nconsciousness through a secularised and universalised Reformation, that is,\nconstitutionalism, is examined. It also puts forth the concept of Middle\nEastern coloniality, which preceded its European variant and allies with it in\nthe context of Bharat to advance their shared antipathy towards the Indic\nworldview. In order to liberate Bharat&#8217;s distinctive indigeneity, &#8216;decoloniality&#8217;\nis presented as a civilisational imperative in the spheres of nature, religion,\nculture, history, education, language and, crucially, in the realm of\nconstitutionalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>see\nextracts of about 5 reviews below<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/ca\/india-that-is-bharat-9789354350047\/\">https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/ca\/india-that-is-bharat-9789354350047\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>byD V Sridharan-Nov 16, 2021\u00a0 Author J Sai Deepak and his book&#8217;s cover. Snapshot J Sai Deepak\u2019s book \u2018India That is Bharat\u2019 is a rigorous survey of India\u2019s political history since the Papal Bull of 1493. India that is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution. J Sai Deepak. Bloomsbury India. 2021. Pages 484. Rs 404. here\u2019s a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}