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Background reading -
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NaMo is bringing in a much needed "Evangelical streak" among Hindus. This should translate into full-fledged Hindu evangelism. Will be useful in the process of assimilation in future. Those in their 20s, 30s and 40s should remember this streak and sharpen it.. Bhaaratmata is going to need it 2-3 decades from today.
A legend tells us that having conquered Kalinga, a certain king which is referred to as Devaanaam Priya Raja Priyadarshi (Beloved of devas, king Priyadarshi), whom modern historians equate with Ashoka Maurya, grandson of emperor Chandragupta Maurya, looked at the battlefield filled with remorse and proclaimed that he shall henceforth conquer the world by the means of Dharma-vijaya and not shastra-vijaya. Dharmavijaya is beautiful Indian counter-word for western word "Evangelism". It does not have the baggage of evangelism, yet captures the zeal to spread and convert aptly. I will henceforth call Hindu-missionaries as "Dharmavijayee" people.
He then trained and sent Indian missionaries all over the world which spread Indian civilizational influence to distant lands. The wheel of Buddha's dharma started rotating throughout Asia. The real catalysts of this revolutionary spread of Hindu soft-power were traders, monks, roaming brahmins and Bhikshuks who were so convinced about their belief in superiority of "Dharma" that the original Vaidik zeal of Krinvanto Vishwam Aaryam received a shot in arm.
Various darshanas in India kept on competing with each other on ideological domain to capture the imagination and following of as many people as possible. This continuous churning which is characteristic of Hindu civilization gave rise to stalwart names like Nagarjuna, Dharmakirti, Ashwaghosha, Adi Shankara, Kalidasa, Ramanuja and many many others in all spheres of life from engineering to poetry, from warfare to philosophy and sciences. While Ashoka himself temporarily paralyzed himself and India due to overemphasis on Ahimsa in political domain, the subsequent Indian kings corrected this course time and again and maintained a fine balance between Shastra-vijaya (victory by arms) and Dharmavijaya (victory by soft-power). If we follow the trajectory of Sungas, Guptas, Pratiharas, Rashtrakutas, Cholas etc, a long spell of dharmavijaya followed after every short-spell of shastravijaya.
The agents of Dharma-vijaya, were able to function and convince others due one simple and fundamental fact - They were living as per "dharma", they were protected dharma and were in turn being protected by dharma, they were tasting the fruits of leading a dharmik lifestyle and thus were convinced (by comparing adhaarmik civilizations through the 4-pramana based tarkashastra) that following dharma will lead to the ultimate happiness of mankind. In fact, it is their ishwara-pradatta karma (godgiven duty) to spread dharma. Hence they even chose to call one of their most prominent and popular dharmashastras as "Maanav-dharmashastra" (The ethics for mankind).
The drive and the qualities described in above paragraph are essential in every civilization hoping to perform a dharma digvijaya. The invasions of past thousand years have eroded this mentality among the Hindus. It is true that post independence, many dvaita-vedantin sects have been successfully propagating and "Evangelizing" their sampradaaya (ISKCON, for example), but this is in very limited context of a small-subset of total moksha-purushartha repertoir which in itself is a quarter of overall purushartha-ashrama based dharmik civilization. For dharmavijaya to show its effect, the thrust has to be on all four purusharthas and all four ashramas from all four Varnas of society. For this to show its effect, people have to have an example, a real experience of living in a dharmik system and leading a principled, prosperous and peaceful lives.
Strange things started happening in Indian society since Indira Gandhi imposed internal emergency in 1975, thus breaking a social-contract which Indians had with Indian National Congress. The civilization struck back, thus giving vital sanjeevani to a long suppressed Dharmik revivalist movement within the society which is now popularly referred to as Hindutva. Throughout the decades of 80s and 90s, this movement grew stronger, although it was severely diluted in my opinion by fixating it on a material object, that is Ramjanmabhumi temple of Ayodhya. The rise of Narendra Modi is against this backdrop.
The man belongs to an institution which in turn belongs to an ideology which invokes and tries to work by the very Rigvedic and Ashokan concepts of Krinvanto Vishwam Aaryam OR Dharmavijaya. It has the necessary discipline, pride and mechanisms to train the dharmavijaya agents. What Narendra Modi has done is given some tangible data and evidence to these agents to go out and spread the good news of Dharma among macaulayputras and Nehruvians and common people. Today we see various people arguing with other people who oppose Narendra Modi out of either ignorance about Indian civilization OR hatred towards Indian civilization - both instilled in the minds due to 6 decades of three-pronged Nehruvian education (which comprises of Nehruvian socialism, secularism and westernism). These dharmavijayi people argue and try to "convert" the Nehruvians and fence-sitters with similar missionary-like zeal. This sort of arguments stem from inherent pride which the dharmavijayins have in their civilization and way of life which is buttressed by actual workable material growth models which Modi has demonstrated.
It is not about Modi, the individual. It is about valuable data that he has provided to dharmavijayi people to go out and evangelize and convert people to lead their life under all-encompassing umbrella of Dharma (Hindutva is just a fashionable name of this fundamental Indian characteristic). The critics of this idea has expressed their reservations about this thesis by saying that this is only a temporary swell in the enthusiasm of Hindus which can be easily cauterized by engineering an electoral loss. Yes, in case there is electoral loss of BJP in loksabha elections, there will be some depression among dharmavijayee people. But this will not reflect in states of India which are becoming increasingly prosperous and demanding increasing autonomy to operate and make their own decisions. The very fact that the number of dharmavijayee people and their drive and zeal only went on increasing in past 6-7 years (that is in spite of electoral loss of 2009), is evidence this is not a superficial change in Hindu society.
In many ways, Narendra Modi is like Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of USA. He represents a fundamental shift in Indian political thinking from the London based regimes of internationalist controls. But there is a catch here - One should know that Andrew Jackson actually started the process in 1833 of slow descent of USA towards Civil war 20 years later. America truly became independent from London based regimes of international controls after Lincoln won the civil war and stabilized the two coasts. The nullification crisis of 1833 was a major turning point in American history which is underrated.
India has much to learn from USA. USA, with all its current failures, is a model for India to relearn our ancient genius. The current faults of American policy has arisen because they signed the Atlantic charter in 1941. Churchill somehow managed to sell the English dream of global empire and "Pax Americana" to Roosevelt. Anyways, post 1941 USA has very little to teach India. But the American founding fathers and some great leaders of 19th and earlier 20th century has a lot to teach. By studying them, we can actually find some missing data-points of how India would have been if we had continued on the pre-Islamic trend-line as if nothing happened.
In many ways, Narendra Modi is like Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of USA. He represents a fundamental shift in Indian political thinking from the London based regimes of internationalist controls. But there is a catch here - One should know that Andrew Jackson actually started the process in 1833 of slow descent of USA towards Civil war 20 years later. America truly became independent from London based regimes of international controls after Lincoln won the civil war and stabilized the two coasts. The nullification crisis of 1833 was a major turning point in American history which is underrated.
India has much to learn from USA. USA, with all its current failures, is a model for India to relearn our ancient genius. The current faults of American policy has arisen because they signed the Atlantic charter in 1941. Churchill somehow managed to sell the English dream of global empire and "Pax Americana" to Roosevelt. Anyways, post 1941 USA has very little to teach India. But the American founding fathers and some great leaders of 19th and earlier 20th century has a lot to teach. By studying them, we can actually find some missing data-points of how India would have been if we had continued on the pre-Islamic trend-line as if nothing happened.
The Mughal-British-Congress continuum of Delhi-based centralized governance on India with the coalition of small local regional satraps pandering to a small but united minorities, has induced India into a long comatose tamasik state. To shed this tamas and invoke the inherent Raajasik and Saatvik characteristics in Hindu prakriti, past decade has been instrumental. Now is the time to fan this dharmavijayee zeal among Dharmiks.
My fellow Dhaarmik brothers and sisters, it is our duty to make this world dharmik and aarya by removing the adharma and uncivility rampant. I urge you to not only try and convert the "other" Nehruvians and adharmiks within and outside the geographical confines of India, but also to study, learn, adapt to current times and resurrect all the dharmik models of all spheres of life - from spiritual to economic, from military to political, from sociological to family-related and from individual to entire world. The rest of the world is desperately searching for sustainable solutions to lead a principled, peaceful and prosperous life. They are searching for answers and my fellow dharmik brothers, you are sitting on that treasure trove. You only have to know yourself and spread this goodnews to rest of humanity.
That is your Dharma in this birth !!!!
Shubham astu..
