Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala at 25

Feb19th 2018 will mark the 96th birth anniversary of late Gandhian Historian Sri. Dharampal. This year also marks the 25th year since the publication of one of his most important works, the Bharatiya  Chitta Manas and Kala. 

In several ways, Dharampal in this particular work talks about the need to create an Indian View of the World. He also severely criticizes the western and modern ways of the Indian State, Scholars and Education in very strong terms in this article that was originally published in Hindi and subsequently translated and published by the Centre for Policy Studies in English in 1993.

"the attempt at imitation the world and following every passing fad can hardly lead us anywhere. we shall have no option in the world till we evolve a conceptual framework of our own", says Sri. Dharampal in this major work.

We take the time of 25 years later to look at some of the most significant questions that Dharampalji poses in this text once again starting from the 5th of February 2018. We will pose every day one of the several challenges that he poses in this work.  The idea behind this effort is for us to reflect whether we have moved any further on these questions 25 years hence. Such an reflection perhaps is a most desirable response and homage one can pay to Dharampalji.  

Increasingly, the thoughts and views of Sri. Dharampal seems to be becoming more and more relevant as does the thoughts and of views of his idol, Gandhi. This is particularly so for those involved in Indian political and social action. 

I invite those who are concerned with the Indian society and those who are even mildly interested in the social challenges to do follow and participate in this joint homage to Dharampalji.

Dharampal - an historian who lived and inspired the Indian World View

Dharampal passed away early this evening. As I write this I think of all the time spent with him and what he has meant for me personally and in developing an understanding of the Indian World View, I started learning of these things with him.

He came from a large family near Meerut in UP, got involved with the freedom struggle, married a British women in 1948, his children today live in Britain and Germany, his wife died many years back. His personal life perhaps has to be written in such a single long sentence and the rest is his public life, his ideas often laced with a sense of humour, his utter humility with which he would listen with rapt attention to very simple people. His attention for details, his need for perfection in everything, particularly the written word (he would certainly have looked down at the blog kind of impulsive writing, his every word is weighed so much you often got an impression that he actually weighs it with a small scale or something), his insight into the internatinal politics that made him come up with some amazing predictions about the way the world is and would change...I can go on.

For someone who has spent a large amount of time with him in the past few years, it is a sad day to know that he is no longer going to be around, to argue, to fight, to agree and disagree, to listen to, talk and discuss things, ...he was one intellectual on whom the intellectual label didn't sit very heavy.

He was a gentle Indian teacher, at times very harsh, at times extremely soft. He could not give lectures to big audience like many teachers cannot, he was always best with a small group of people sitting close by and having a long interaction.

Will continue...