Soliloquy

As polarizing a book as any I have read so far, Dharmic Nation is bound to divide opinions. Perhaps this is what author Mr Jagannathan intends to do. Trying to draw people of different faiths under one banner of Dharma or Hinduism is not an easy task, despite his repeated pleas that all Indians who follow the path of Dharma are Hindus even if they observe different religious faiths.  

Mr Jagannathan, however, makes a good case for the equality of Hindus on par with other religions, if there is such a thing at all, and spells out that no country can be truly secular, least of all India. What hampers his thinking, I feel, is that being secular in India has meant being Hinduphobic. He, in a way that Savarkar wrote a long time ago, says that a faith that constitutes the majority in a country cannot be debased in the name of allowing minorities to have the lion’s share in the state’s offerings towards them. 

He thoroughly disagrees with the fact that religious minorities in India need to be offered protection or rights that are in accordance with their socioeconomic standing. Although not quite a bigot, Mr Jagannathan’s fears of Hindus being outnumbered in a country which gave birth to the faith and is perhaps the only one where they are in a majority seem to be uncorroborated. I did not agree with most of what he wrote in Dharmic Nation, but I applaud him when he makes points which might appeal to the lay reader in desperate need of an identity given to him/ her by their religion. 

Dharmic Nation does not arouse hate, but is inciteful. To be reducing the Abrahamic religions (Christianity and Islam) that have also made India their home (which Jagannathan quite tastelessly refers to as being non-dharmic religions) as a part of the bigger fold of Hinduism is doing them a great disservice. To be sure, neither of these religions have made themselves proud by fostering terrorism and forcing conversion upon the heathen in this country, and this is where Jagannathan’s fears might actually come true. 

He says that this book is a call to all Hindus to return to the path of dharma, a way of which is to make the religion a missionary one, which, in turn, would be doing this oldest of all faiths the greatest insult there is. It is this lack of missionary zeal that makes Hinduism different from other faiths. 

I would, however, like to highlight Mr Jagannathan’s validity when he says that Hinduism is perhaps the only religion which professes tolerance towards other faiths, where there is no ‘my truth is the only truth and your truth is no truth’ and where non-believers are welcomed into the fold, and where even atheists are accorded respect and acceptance. I enjoyed reading the book, although the points made by Mr Jagannathan did little by way of pushing me towards the right.

Rating: 4/5

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