The Dharma Dispatch

Rahul Gandhi’s Call for Foreign Interference in India is a Lethal Part of an Old Script Rahul Gandhi's recent outbrust in Cambridge is neither random not original. While it clearly falls in the lethal territory, it has a long history. This history is the Nehru dynasty’s almost-umbilical link with England. Nehru’s Man Friday, V.K. Krishna Menon teamed up with Allen Lane and founded Penguin Books, which published Nehru’s Autobiography, Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India. Royalties from these books went on to subsidise Indira Gandhi’s education in England. Did you know that Indira Gandhi's political career after Emergency was rehabilitated in England? No wonder Rahul Gandhi received a red-carpet welcome at Cambridge. It is part of a very old script. This sort of long-term investment that England made in India’s political elite is unparalleled in history. -- Read the whole power-packed piece! 📑💪📝 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/rahul-gandhis-call-for-foreign-interference-in-india-is-a-lethal-part-of-an-old-script

Fighting Over Wheat in Pakistan is what Happens when Dharma is Destroyed THE VIDEOS OF PAKISTANIS BRAWLING amongst themselves over a 10 kg bag of Atta should ideally linger in our civilisational memory and in our active consciousness as an eternal caution. Of what exactly will happen in a society where Dharma is deliberately slaughtered. Pakistan is what we get when barbarism sanctioned by a book gets a piece of geography for itself and destroys the existing order of Dharma there. Let it be said without fear or favour: if you destroy Dharma, you won’t be able to replace it with anything better. What is the Hindu attitude to food? Anna or food is regrded as Brahman. Nobody can give Anna or food as a bribe. Food multiplies in the home of the person who shares food with everyone including strangers. Contrast this with treating food as merely a consumable or as an ingredient of Bhoga (sensual enjoyment). This immediately robs food of its most profound essence. As a consumable, the status of food remains at the bestial level. As an ingredient of Bhoga, it descends even lower — it becomes a deliberate and cold-blooded exploitation solely aimed at satisfying those fleeting moments that delight the palate. -- Read the full piece! 📑🕉🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/fighting-over-wheat-in-pakistan-is-what-happens-when-dharma-is-destroyed

On April 4, 1948, a man named Bharadwaj was picked up by the United Provinces police. His fault: he criticised the Congress. A TB patient, he vomited blood in jail & in spite of 104° fever, cops didn't take him to the hospital. He died in jail. 😞🙏 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-dead-bodies-that-cemented-the-invisible-nazism-of-the-nehruvian-congress-governments

Men of Might in India Missions: A Bigoted Book as a Mirror to the Decline of the Hindu Society   IN 1901, HELEN H. HOLCOMB PUBLISHED a fat, celebratory volume of bigotry titled Men of Might in India Missions; The Leaders and their Epochs, 1706-1899. It is basically a rogues’ gallery of prominent Protestant missionaries who are profiled and extolled. That’s a list of sixteen eminent Protestant soul-harvesters  spread over a two-hundred-year period.   The noteworthy soul-vultures in this list include Joshua Marshman who lulled Rajaram Mohan Roy into having “intellectual debates” with him thereby placing a prophetic creed, Christianity on equal footing with Sanatana Dharma. Marshman, along with William Carey and William Ward founded the Serampore College.   The other vulture was Alexander Duff, the first overseas missionary of the Church of Scotland to India, and founder of Scottish Church College, Calcutta. It was Duff’s brainwave to convert “upper caste” Hindus to Christianity by introducing English education in India. The brainwave was so influential that it translated into policy and eventually led to the Macaulayisation of Indian education.    Men of Might in India Missions hails India as a great harvest-field.   Missionaries in India have come a long way since Helen Holcomb’s bigoted book was published more than a century ago. They have acquired frightening levels of political power — they are a decisive force in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and in Andhra Pradesh, they have bagged a sitting Chief Minister. And this has happened in “independent” India.  -- Read the whole thing and share this piece widely! 📑🪔☦️🕉🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/men-of-might-in-india-missions-a-bigoted-book-as-a-mirror-to-the-decline-of-the-hindu-society

A short podcast exposing the Far Left politics of TM Krishna. Do tune in and share. 👍🙏🎙️ https://youtu.be/kftVvnA9SYA

Why Don’t we still have any Creative Work on the 1962 Nehruvian Debacle? --- It is stunning and shameful that even after 60 years, there is not a single creative work narrating the dark truths of the 1962 humiliation that India was made to suffer at Chinese hands by Jawaharlal Nehru.   But the sludge of this Nehruvian rot didn’t end even after he died in 1964. When John Dalvi published The Himalayan Blunder in 1968, Indira Gandhi instantly banned it.   On the contrary, look at the sheer volume of work produced in the US about the Vietnam War. A whopping 165 books, 100-plus films across all genres and formats: non-fiction, novels, short stories, poems, plays, feature films, short films, television series and documentaries which explore Vietnam from every conceivable perspective.    We await that talented artist to pick up the Nehruvian betrayal of 1962. If the subject is treated well, it has all the makings of a modern epic. -- Do read the full piece! 📑💪🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/why-dont-we-still-have-any-creative-work-on-the-1962-nehruvian-debacle

The Debt the Hindu Civilisation Owes to Manu   THIS IS THE EIGHTH AND CONCLUDING EPISODE of The Manusmriti Special Series. To us at The Dharma Dispatch, assembling this profound treatise authored by the iconic D.V. Gundappa has been akin to savouring an intellectual opera of the most exalted standard.   Let us remember one basic fact when reading Manu. We owe our ethical refinement of today to the improvement wrought in social conditions through long ages by the very rigours of Manu's provisions. The punitive clauses in the Manusmriti were largely meant as threats rather than as commands literally to be executed.   We have to relate the punitive clauses of the Manusmriti to the psychology of that time. Today, we are like the young boy who, at a rural fair, sits on the shoulders of his tall father and watches the tamasha. He naturally sees more than the father. But if he is a modest boy, he would remember that he could see nothing if the father put him on the ground.  -- It has been a purifying experience to offer this series to our readership and we hope that our readers have found value in it. 📑🛕🕉🪔     https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-debt-the-hindu-civilisation-owes-to-manu

My conversation with Abhijit Chavda on 70 years of secularism hosted by Jaipur Dialogues. Thoroughly enjoyed the session. -- Do tune in 👍👍🙏 https://youtu.be/evheElcXv_8

The Philosophy of Equality in the Manusmriti   When the last Kshatriya king vanished from the face of the earth, all Smrtis lost their operative authority. When the Kshatriya was gone, Manu became a sepoy with both his arms cut off. No court need listen to him today and no council or cabinet need notice him. He may therefore well be left to rest in the tranquil retreats of the obsolete.    The Manusmriti's philosophy of equality can be examined on five planes.   Self-sufficiency is apt to lead to self-isolation which is not Dharma. Dharma is mingling one’s life with the lives of fellow-humans and therein practising the discipline of self-abnegation as the means to a higher self-realization.   In Manu’s scheme of social values, there is no service that can be called unworthy or mean. It is the quality of service and not rank that matters. A butcher carrying on his trade in accordance with the code of Dharma is a higher unit of society than a Brahmana preferring the work of a more remunerative but un-Brahmanical office.  -- Read the whole eye-opening piece! 📑🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-philosophy-of-equality-in-the-manusmriti

There is Nothing to be Apologetic about the Manusmriti ---   The Manusmriti is a bitter medicine for the so-called modern man. He imagines that the good of life is good eating and unfettered pleasure.  In Manu's eyes, the modern man is in a morbid condition, and needs medicine.   THERE IS NOTHING IN MANU ABOUT WHICH ONE NEED BE APOLOGETIC.    In Manu's view, life is lived not on one plane, but on two planes, the physical and the spiritual; that the visible realities of the world have their roots in an invisible field of reality.   To condemn Manu in our day is to beat the air, for he is no longer an active force in the life of the State.    To those who have no care for spiritual values in human life and for historical continuity in social development, Manusmrti can be of no interest except as a museum piece. -- The whole piece is extraordinary. Do read in full! 💪🕉🛕🪔📑 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/there-is-nothing-to-be-apologetic-about-the-manusmriti

Svadharma, Rajadharma, Jurisprudence and the Philosophy of Life in the Manusmriti   This episode contains profound gems from the Manusmriti. A few excerpts follow.   For the sake of earning a living, one should not, in any circumstances, resort to the common ways of the world. One should live in the straightforward, guileless, pure way of life devoted to the pursuit of Brahman. Do not humiliate yourself by thinking of past deficiencies and failures. Strive after good fortune until your death. You should never think success is unattainable The eighth chapter, which is also the longest, concerns itself with legal principles and judicial administration. Punishable offences include the following: cart-drivers who hurt others by their rashness or negligence and the owners of such carts, and of those who are cruel to bird and beast.  The period of the composition of the Manusmrti was one of inter-social fluxion and growth. Conditions had not become rigid.  In which age the process of assimilation ceased and why or how, it is not easy even to guess. And not only did the inter-flow of Varnas into one another stop, but each Varna hardened its borders and went in the opposite direction. -- Extremely illuminating piece. Do read in full! 🪔🪔🕉🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/svadharma-rajadharma-jurisprudence-and-the-philosophy-of-life-in-the-manusmriti

The Exalted Life of Manu and a Chapter-wise Synopsis of the Manusmriti   In this episode, DVG provides a brief sketch of the life of Rishi Manu along with a brief, chapter-wise synopsis of the Manusmriti. --- MANU lived in the part of North India called Brahmavarta, situated between the rivers Sarasvati and Drshadvati, a tract of land he singles out for praise as the home of traditions of worthy conduct. He was a married man and had children. He delighted in music and was proficient in medicine. He performed Yajnas, and taught a large number of pupils.   The greatness of Manusmrti is that, side by side with the antiquated, there is so much in it that belongs to all time and all mankind. It is this universal and enduring part of it that should chiefly engage our attention.   In the case of the Manusmriti, what should command our allegiance is his scheme of values. There is unanimity among the Smrtikaras or law-givers on this point: that no law or code can be the same for all time, and that the substance-material of Dharma should be put in fresh moulds to suit the conditions of changed times. The important requisite is that the substance of Dharma should not be lost. -- Read the full piece! 🛕🕉🪔📑   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-exalted-life-of-manu-and-a-chapter-wise-synopsis-of-the-manusmriti

Manusmriti as a digest of the Hindu Philosophy of Life   In this episode, D.V. Gundappa examines the Manusmriti from the premises set out by Manu himself. ____   Dharma is individual life lived in harmony with life around us. It is the Bridgeway connecting the temporal with the Eternal, the finite with the Infinite. Herein is seen the distinction of Manu’s Code from the other law books of the world.   The very foundation of Manu differs as wholly from the others’ as spirit from the flesh. It would be erroneous to evaluate Manu by the same canons as are applied to Justinian or Gaius, Maine or Macaulay. Manu’s basic point of view is not theirs at all. He should be judged from the premises he set out.    The Code of Manu is not simply a treatise of personal ethics and duties of varnas and and inter-varna relationships. It is the sourcebook of civil law and canon-law. It is a manual of political economy and government. It is a handbook of etiquette and social decorum and a digest of the Hindu philosophy of life.  ___   Read the full brilliant essay! 🛕🕉🪔   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/manusmriti-as-a-digest-of-the-hindu-philosophy-of-life

Portrayal of Society in K. Viswanath’s Cinema   This episode explores some valuable aspects of the depiction of society in K. Viswanath's movies. -- One of the most striking aspects of Viswanath’s depictions of our traditional and rural society is the seeming effortlessness with which he showcases raw nativity. Subtlety and restraint are their hallmarks. Pain and tragedy are sublime, not loud. Pleasure and joy are endearing, not raucous.   The contrast is the difference between Dhvani (suggestion) and Vachyata (explicitness).    The opulent tapestry of the Godvari-Krishna region's temple traditions, rural beliefs, customs, family and community life, and folk arts became the staple ingredients using which Viswanath served us cinematic feasts.  -- Do read the full piece! 🛕🕉🪔🕉 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/portrayal-of-society-in-k-viswanaths-cinema

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Depiction of Bharatavarsha’s Sacred Geography in K. Viswanath's Movies   K. Viswanath’s acclaimed cinematic corpus exquisitely reflects the timeless conception of Bharatavarsha's sacred geography. This is predominantly portrayed in numerous song sequences and scenes shot in the sacred cultural sites spread across Bharatavarsha.   Because his conviction was rooted in the Bharatiya ethos, he never felt the need to step out of Bharatavarsha. The Alps for example, might be breathtaking for their natural beauty. But no Rishi or Tapasvi has made it his abode.    THE SECOND FACTOR related to Viswanath’s depiction of Bharatavarsha’s sacred geography is the manner in which he blends these locales. These are integral parts of his movies, a feat he accomplishes in an organic fashion.   In no movie does he miss the inseparable connection between Bharatavarsha’s scenic beauty and its spiritual content.   This connection becomes most pronounced in his touching and realistic depictions of the social and family life set in the Godavari region, the artistic life-blood and hub of classical Telugu culture for centuries. The Godavari region in Viswanath’s cinema is also a miniature of the cultural life of Bharatavarsha. -- Read the whole piece! 🙏🪔🛕📽 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/depiction-of-bharatavarshas-sacred-geography-in-k-viswanaths-movies

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Sanctifying Cinema: An Appreciation of K. Viswanath’s Artistry   We begin a new series exploring the art, craft and aesthetics of K. Viswanath's acclaimed body of cinema. This is The Dharma Dispatch's tribute to the legend who joined the ranks of the immortals today. --   Few movies have delivered such widespread cultural and social impact as "Sankarabharanam" did. In an era when the phrase “pan Indian film” is being tossed around with thoughtless and fact-free impunity, it is opportune to remind such folks that Sankarabharanam arguably remains one of the finest pan-Indian movies in the real sense of the term.   The lyrics of the movie’s song, Omkara naadanu… was retained as is when it was dubbed in Malayalam with zero loss in translation. In fact, Sankarabharanam’s success in Kerala almost rivalled its blockbuster status in Telugu.     Almost overnight, the film reopened the eyes of Indians to the greatness of their own classical musical heritage. In the realm of art, great exaggerations contain abiding truths in their womb. Kumbhakarna’s bi-annual ritual of waking up counts as one such exaggeration. Likewise, Sankarabharanam awakened the masses – especially in South India – from their cultural slumber.   This essay series attempts to chart a different course. Of treating Viswanath’s artistic legacy as Bharatiya cinema – a fundamental differentiator from the obscenity known as “pan-Indian cinema.” The simplest definition of Bharatiya cinema is cinema in which art itself is, and transcends the language. -- Read the whole piece! 🪔🛕🕉📽   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/sanctifying-cinema-an-appreciation-of-k-viswanaths-artistry