We are then exposed to the nature of colonization and how it affected the consciousness of our people to such an extent that the only way the native felt they could redeem their dignity was by "adopting European culture and thought processes". It made them forget and detest their own roots and made them think of their past and history as a colossal failure, thus undermining their self-confidence. The entire colonization process aims at universalizing and standardizing ways of life instead of allowing the diversity of different groups and societies to flourish. Introducing such an absolutely brilliant school of thought to Bharat, illustrating it's need and significance to a civilisation that is in dire need of intellectual capacity is in itself a huge achievement of Deepak and he doesn't stop there. He uses it illustrate to us it's civilisational relevance and puts a mirror to our face to show the true extent of Coloniality in our state and the urgent need to shed us off of this demon that has pervaded us in every aspect of society. Devastation of some fantasy that Bharat was scattered micro nationalities tied together only by the British (Primary sources are used)

Thoughtful Indians puzzled as to how we find ourselves where we are, with a strange self-identity, will find this saga a very educative read. In contrast to the finesse of the British conversion operations, the Islamic colonials were laughably clumsy, what with bloodied swords held aloft, eyes roving for women and the body doubled under weight of the loot. He finally shows us how Protestant Christian values were universalied through international laws, the League of Nations and other such world bodies and how it affects everyone even today and especially Bharat as it is the only standing civilisation since the dawn of Christianity and Islam.

Reviews

This is the first book of a trilogy where the author explores the roots and influence of European colonialism on the Indian state of Bharat. Colonisation is a process by which the people of one nation establish colonies in other societies while retaining their bonds with the parent nation, and exploit the colonised societies to benefit the parent nation and themselves. I can see the white man shake his head and mutter: “Tut, tut. That’s not the way to do it, you Turk.” Till the day we, as an individual, stop using the colonizers morality test to judge our society or using their outlook to understand our history or try to achieve the modernity as defined by our colonizers, we will remain colonized.

To summarize, The book mostly inspect and surveys the tumor that is and not much of a remedy is provided. Maybe the next two book will provide the remedy or as individuals, we have to do the surgery ourselves. "India That is Bharat" is an absolute WOW of a book which energizes new impressions and sentiments. J Sai Deepak delves into the past, notices the present, and I hope in the second book, he reaches out to the future. In fact, the East India Company is more sinned against than sinning in this regard. It would have been quite content to be left free to go after gold, rather than market god. It was the British crown, parliament and clergy that mandated it to evangelise, using part of its profits. When direct rule by the crown followed, evangelical fervour was further stoked, with state protection given to the church’s activities. All the while a sanctimonious charade was maintained that the ruler will not intrude in the natives’ ways, however distasteful they are thought to be. Hence Supreme Court Advocate and practicing lawyer, J. Sai Deepak ’s “India That is Bharat” comes as a timely and refreshing antidote to antiquated notions of thinking. The book lays out in an objective and lucid manner, the impact of colonialism on Bharat and some potential ways adopting which such impacts may be minimized, if not altogether, eliminated. India, That Is Bharat, the first book of a comprehensive trilogy, explores the influence of European 'colonial consciousness' (or 'coloniality'), in particular its religious and racial roots, on Bharat as the successor state to the Indic civilisation and the origins of the Indian Constitution. It lays the foundation for its sequels by covering the period between the Age of Discovery, marked by Christopher Columbus' expedition in 1492, and the reshaping of Bharat through a British-made constitution-the Government of India Act of 1919. This includes international developments leading to the founding of the League of Nations by Western powers that tangibly impacted this journey.The third part of the book called CONSTITUTION and stamps the fact how secular is just Christian secular (with context to 1858 act passed by the Raj). The liberal sounding laws that were/are not actually liberal but were really oppressive to the native folks and thus the need for decoloniality of an Indic brand. A) The left-liberal intellectuals are largely Macaulay-putras - English Medium educated with a colonial mindset. A good example is the “privilege” narrative which they have copied from the West and tried to hammer in India. Or “anti-Brahminism”.

The sad and unfortunate precedent of unwarranted, interference with the religious practices continues to this day with many Governments in states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh going to illogical lengths to intrude in the management of the affairs of temples by enacting the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Regulations. These statutes provide unfettered powers to the concerned State Government to assume the control, management, affairs and assets of Hindu temples. Interestingly Sai Deepak himself is at the forefront of a litigation against these draconian and anti-diluvian measures and the matter currently is pending adjudication by the Apex Court. In ‘India, That is Bharat’, Deepak takes on the role of an intrepid explorer. His quest leads him to the very core of the idea of Bharat, where he immerses himself in an exploration of its fundamental underpinnings. Starting with a deep dive into historical accounts, he unearths the gradual corrosion that has plagued this concept throughout the ages. In the final part, the author analyzes the role of Christian secularism and gives a sneak-peek into whether it had an influence during the framing of the Government of India act of 1919, which formed the basis for our constitution later. Debates and discussions in European parliament about the Company's role, later brought under the Queen's rule, are explored. They provide chilling insights into how the British empire wanted to subjugate the people of Bharat in all aspects. The European approach to look at Indic philosophies and traditions from their ethnocentric lens resulted in them superimposing their worldview on Indic traditions. While Sanatana Dharma encompasses all aspects of life, the Christian colonizer reduced it to be a "religion" of "books." We are made aware of how these standardizations and laws percolate to this day, resulting in government control of Hindu temples in a supposedly "secular" state.With a view to ameliorating the malevolent designs of colonialism from constantly festering in the psyche of policy making mavens and the common man alike, decolonization attempts to “release production of knowledge from the stranglehold of the West, which could lead to greater diversity of thought and subjectivity, in particular, resurgence and re-existence of indigenous perspective.” The primary goals of decolonization as articulated by Sai Deepak include an untethering from the moorings of identity politics and a conclusive escape from the entrenched dogmas of exclusionary ethnocentrism (race politics in short). This book ends with the introduction of the Government of India Act, 1919 which the author claims to be the first Constitution of India. Even though the British state claimed to be secular and thus impartial to all religions, almost a quarter of this book is dedicated to list out the instances in which it went out of the way to promote Christian evangelism. The Charter Act of 1833 included provisions for appointing bishops to the presidency towns, with the Kolkata bishop having supremacy over them. The onus for appointing the bishop was on the government. Similarly, the 1919 Constitution specified that the expenditures made for ecclesiastical purposes shall not be submitted to the vote in the legislative assembly and that they should also not be open for discussion. Many more such cases are described in the book. But the utmost harm to Indian society was felt on another arena. The blatantly Christian attempt to understand the fundamental tenets of Hinduism led to the quest for a Moses-like law giver. This quest yielded Manu, author of the Manu Smriti. This treatise in fact constituted only a descriptive recording of customs and practices, rather than religious law, but it is now wrongly treated as the essence of Hinduism by liberal thinkers. In the first two books of the trilogy: ‘ India, that is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution‘ and ‘ India, Bharat and Pakistan: The Constitutional Journey of a Sandwiched Civilisation‘, JSD takes on the path less travelled, expounding how the concept of “coloniality” extends beyond the physical occupation of land and exploitation of resources and is a product of a deep-seated mindset that fuels colonialism. He traces the individual and combined impact of European consciousness through British rule and the Middle East consciousness through centuries of Muslim rule on the Indic consciousness, their role in shaping India’s constitutional journey, and the bloody partition of the country.