New Delhi : In search of Bharata-bodha, Valmiki Study Circle, JNU organized ‘ a conversation on the manufactured faultlines of Bharat’ with J. Sai Deepak in the JNU Convention Centre on 20th December. The event, the second conversation organized under the ‘Bharata Vande Mataram Samvada-series, began at 5:30 PM and continued till 8 PM.
J. Sai Deepak initiated the samvad by explaining the essence of his two books ‘India, that is, Bharat’ and ‘India, Bharat, Pakistan’. Hinting towards the content of his upcoming works, he highlighted the flawed narratives of caste, language, gender, etc., used by the anti-Bharat forces to manufacture social fissures where none exist in Bharat. A 20 minutes monologue was followed by one and a half hours of stimulating discussion with the student audience of JNU. The hall was jam-packed with more than eight hundred students. The event ended with the singing of Vande Mataram and a book signing.
Chirag Dhankhar moderated the conversation. Replying to questions and jignasa-s ranging from caste/linguistic divisions to the ‘aazadi’ gang, Sai Deepak stated that Bharat has been struggling with two forms of coloniality since the past millennia- Middle-eastern and European. He proclaimed that we could not move forward as a civilizational state without understanding these ideological strains that bar us from understanding and practising our traditions and ways of life.
Decoloniality or Dharmic civilizational is a complex continuous process/struggle that needs thorough research from esteemed institutes like JNU. He criticized the use of colonial terminologies like ‘Adivasi’ or ‘Modern’ because while the former was a 20th-century British construction to legitimize the hoax of Aryan Invasion Theory, the latter reeks of anti-indigenous knowledge and anti-dharmic narratives that are controlled by ‘the West’. He confidently stated that the global intellectual community desperately needs normative alternatives. Whether it is in the field of environmentalism or handling diversity without homogenization, Bharatiya knowledge traditions can contribute a lot.
Valmiki Study Circle Convener Arjun Anand stated that “This Samvada-series is not merely a lecture series for us, but rather an intellectual search for our own civilizational roots; a reclamation of our own narratives, and; a rediscovery of our own knowledge traditions, in a university campus infested with colonial (Marxism, Maoism, Post modernism and other Breaking India cults) knowledge frameworks since its inception.”
Co-convener Riya Shah said, “Valmiki Study Circle has been striving for the Bharatiyakarana of the popular discourse in JNU since 2019. We will continue to organize such events in the future too.”
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