Ebook: The Hindu Nation: A Reconciliation with Modernity

The book begins with an introduction examining ‘nationhood’ in India and then traces the political conflict to Nehruvian cultural policy after 1947. In today’s world, no religion can claim to be superior to any other. But in pursuing ‘modernity’ and inculcating the ‘scientific’ and ‘secular’ outlook, Nehruvian rationalism created an elite liberal class that was sceptical about the majority religion, but this was not extended to other religions because of a misunderstanding of ‘secularism’. In promoting Westernised education, the preserving of local knowledge was neglected and Hinduism lost respect among the educated elite born into it. The elite class became the intermediary with the West, which now dominates academic study of India. Further, prompted by the sceptical attitude of liberal Indians, Western academics and intellectuals accord Hinduism less respect than to other religions and treat it as ‘superstition’. Traditional Indians who revere Hinduism but are products of the same lop-sided system respond by attributing false value to India’s prehistory and its past.

Hinduism is not a religion but a collection of practices associated with the space now called India. Author M.K. Raghavendra examines what being ‘Hindu’ means and asks whether its practices are reconcilable with global modernity and compatible with justice and egalitarianism. While examining the obstacles a ‘modern Hindu nation’ faces, including the fixed ways of a large public, this extensively researched book also suggests measures to make India successful as a global power and Hinduism widely respected.