India that is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution by J. Sai DeepakMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hooter: An academically rigorous Indic view of the notion of Bharat / India
Coming from a non academic research background, this felt like what people write for their thesis with the amount of factual structure and supporting evidence that Sai adds to put his point forth with the rigor of a lawyer. Starting from the history and context of the European notion of nation, civilisation and secularism in line with the power of the Church, he then moves on to explain how those notions were retro fitted into colonies of these European powers and how his research of Indic authors provides another view of Bharat that existed long before the country united as India against the British colonialisation. A lot of us have gotten our English based education based on British based values and systems and hence he tries to clarify the baseline it has created which we need to be cognisant of before we derive any interpretations around it.
He brings forth the premise of decolonialising the mindset but explaining the reason why the template was first set up to allow for cognitive dissonance around such fundamental concepts that we have been brought up with and taken for granted.
There aren't really any narratives that he seems to be closing out on except putting across his perspective backed by a lot of research and rigor. Honestly this is a very heavy read, aimed at those seriously trying to understand the same from an academic pursuit especially in the current climate.
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