Why Fear a Dharmic Nation

By Pragya Singh


The Times Lit Fest 2023 kickstarted with the inaugural session, ‘Why Fear a Dharmic Nation’ on Saturday. The session consisted of eminent scholars like R Jagannathan, Ashwin Sanghi, Pawan K Varma and Sudheendra Kulkarni in conversation with Rahul Shivshankar.
The conversation revolved around the idea behind Jagannathan’s latest book ‘Dharmic Nation: Freeing Bharat, Remaking India’. The Panel debated the fundamental question revolving around what nationhood is and where does dharma and religion fit with the idea of India.
According to Jagannathan, “Dharma is a way of accommodating differences and is certain to keep us together because everyone has to uphold dharma no matter what religion, caste or creed you belong to”. He said that this is because dharmo rakshati rakshita, that is Dharma protects those who protect Dharma.
Jagannathan stressed on the need for all religion to accept the idea that we must live together and accept differences. He said that we must uphold dharma, which is not religion but a larger balance between different ideologies.
Verma furthered this argument, saying that in order to legitimately recognise the achievements of Ancient India some people have automatically conflated it with the glorification of Hinduism, thereby going against our values of secularism.
He said that we are a dialogue in civilization. He quoted the Mahabharata which emphasised that non-violence is the supreme dharma. The Manusmriti, defines dharma as steadiness, forgiveness, self-control, purity, control of sense organs, discrimination, knowledge, truthfulness and absence of anger.
Dharma has no absolute right or absolute wrong. In India needs to be a dharmic Nation. A dharmic nation is one that places due value on the possibility of what is right and wrong. He says that what is right and wrong must be decided by a person in each context.
He gave the example of a man dying of hunger, who breaks into a rich man’s compound to steal an apple. Would this be theft or a legitimate act of survival? He highlighted that in Abrahamic ways there would be an absolute judgement in non-stealing, but Hinduism has refrained from describing dharma in absolute terms but has an ethical framework keeping in consideration all aspects of the situation.
The prime difference between Hinduism and the Abrahamic way is that in Abrahamic belief, there is one true God who must be worshipped while Hinduism is pantheistic with many Gods.
Meanwhile, Sanghi marvels on the tolerance of Hinduism which even worships the Buddha as the ninth avatar of Vishnu. He says that Hinduism is acceptance. One can be religious or an atheist, one can consider a stone a shivling while other calls a shivling a stone; all of these beliefs are equally welcome. Such is the beauty of our civilization.
Taking the discussion forward, Kulkarni said, “believing that Indian civilization is Hindu civilization is wrong because in course of time, our civilization has internalised influences that came from outside... Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism came and they are all part of India. He concluded that Indian civilization should not be equated with Hindu civilization in such a narrow sense.
Ending the dialogue on a fiery note, Jagannathan said that while people say Hindus are in danger, what is really endangered in the country is justice and equality. He stressed on the ‘real challenge’ before Hindu society which is inequality, poverty, and unemployment.

(The writer is a Semester IV student of BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) programme.)