Ancient Bharat was a land of great learning and used to anchor great gurukuls and vidyapeeths of learning that spread humanity’s accumulated wisdom, knowledge and culture to students who came to India from all over the civilized world to learn in an intellectually stimulating and open environment. This remarkable time in Bharat’s history was made possible because of Sanathan Dharma which promoted a culture of inquiry and pursuit of knowledge.

Thousands of years before science revealed that we are all basically star dust, the Isha Upanishad made a startling and prescient claim in its first verse:

ईशावास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् । तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्य स्विद्धनम्

īśāvāsyam idaṃ sarvaṃ (Here, everything is pervaded by the divine)

yatkiñca jagatyāṃ jagat tena (Everything that moves is this Universe is also pervaded by the divine) |

tyaktena bhuñjīthā (“let go”, “rejoice” or experience Bliss!)

mā gṛdhaḥ kasya sviddhanam (Do not grab or hold on to anyone’s wealth)

 Unfortunately, invasions from cultures with intolerant and supremacist ideologies, followed by centuries of deliberate suppression of native dharmic sensibilities and values gradually destroyed our stellar educational institutions. These were eventually replaced by colonial era British replicas. In these institutions, Indians let colonizers and co-opted natives define, police and pass authoritative judgements on dharmic religious texts and philosophical traditions.

These academic institutions founded on a Hindu-phobic, colonial interpretation of our culture still largely follow this play book. Even after 75 years of independence, intellectuals trained in such institutes still hoist racist, Hindu-phobic ideas on Hindus. They try to control the discourse, serve as gatekeepers on what is acceptable, dismiss alternative Hindu friendly viewpoints as incoherent ramblings of religious bigots and brainwash our youth to adopt their biased and dubious views of Hindu dharmic traditions, culture and rituals. With each passing generation, these towers of Babel, make it increasingly harder for Hindus to reclaim our dharmic heritage and traditions or shame us when we object to their biases and Hindu-phobia.

As the Hindu diaspora spreads across the world, it will become increasingly important that we Hindus have a shared understanding of our past and take back the discourse of our dharmic past, present and future from  intellectuals with biased and dubious motives.