Swadeshi 2.0: Part – 4

Continued from Previous Page

• Who tells you what to think of your own gods, your own scriptures, your own history?
• Why do we still describe the Ramayana as “mythology,” but the Bible as “revelation”?
• Why do we cheer foreign thinkers quoting the Gita, but mock our own scholars doing the same?
• Why is it easier to get funding in Delhi for “climate studies” than for ‘Vedic sciences’ or ‘Sanskrit manuscripts’?
• And above all — when did we stop being the custodians of our civilization and outsource our memory to our colonizers?

The Forgotten Battlefield

When India threw off British rule in 1947, we won our political independence but lost sight of our cultural sovereignty. The economy was poor, yes, but poorer still was our confidence. The British didn’t just take our wealth, they took our self-worth.

Every colonial empire has two weapons: the sword and the pen. The sword seizes land; the pen seizes the mind.

India fought the sword bravely — 1857, the freedom struggle, the Satyagraha. But we surrendered to the pen quietly — English-medium schools, “modern” curricula, Marxist historiography.

Even today, seven decades later, we recite a history drafted by Macaulay’s children, not our own sages. We tell our children that their Itihaasa is “mythology,” their temples were “cultural sites,” and their ancestors were “invaders” on their own soil.

The Cost of Colonial Hangovers

This shadow still lingers in three destructive ways:

Textbook Tyranny

From NCERT to state boards, our history is packaged as if Bharat was a land of caste oppression waiting for outside “saviors.” Our heroes — Prithviraj, Rana Pratap, Lachit Borphukan — are footnotes, while invaders are centerpieces.

Academic Dependency

Why is Indology still dominated by Harvard and Oxford? Why do Western “scholars” decide whether Krishna was “real” or whether Vedas were “tribal chants”? The very knowledge that emerged here is judged legitimate only if stamped by a foreign university.

Media & Cultural Subversion

Bollywood’s villains often wear tilaks, never skullcaps. Streaming platforms mock our deities but never dare lampoon other religions. Newsrooms debate temple rituals, but never church or mosque doctrines. A double standard so visible, it barely needs proof.

The Way Forward: Cultural Swadeshi

If Economic Swadeshi is about production, and Digital Swadeshi about data, then Cultural Swadeshi is about memory, meaning, and mind-space.

Here is how India can reclaim what is hers:

Reclaim Our Itihaasa

Stop calling it “mythology.” Demand curriculum reform that restores Itihaasa to history. Fund archaeology to prove what oral traditions already tell us. Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir and Dwarka’s submerged city are not “beliefs” — they are living records.

Free Indology from Foreign Gaze

Establish centers of excellence in Sanskrit, Puranas, Vedanta, Ayurveda, and Shastras within India. Provide fellowships to Indian scholars — not just to decode texts but to apply them in modern contexts: governance, ecology, psychology.

Media Dharma

Encourage responsible cultural representation. If Netflix dares to mock Shiva, there must be legal and societal pushback. Freedom of speech cannot mean freedom to humiliate faith. Cultural liberty comes with cultural responsibility.

Temple Autonomy

Remove state control from Hindu temples. No other religion tolerates state interference in its sacred spaces. Temples are not ATMs for governments; they are the beating heart of community, charity, and knowledge.

Civilizational Diplomacy

Use culture as soft power. Why not have an “International Gita Day” recognized at the UN, the way Yoga Day was? Why not export Ramayana retellings, Bharatanatyam, and Ayurveda as confidently as Hollywood exports Marvel movies?

Lessons from Others

• Japan preserved Shinto shrines and samurai traditions even while becoming a tech superpower.
   
• Israel revived Hebrew, once a “dead language,” into a national identity.
   
• China teaches Confucius and Marx side by side, ensuring its civilizational narrative is never outsourced.

If they can do it, why can’t India?

The Stakes of Forgetting

A nation can survive poverty. It cannot survive amnesia.

If we forget who we are, we will forever be consumers of other people’s culture — streaming Western shows, citing Western philosophers, repeating Western narratives.

India must stop laughing at her own ancestors while venerating others’. The real colonization today is not of territory, but of truth. And unless Cultural Swadeshi rises, Economic and Digital Swadeshi will remain incomplete.

Along with Economic Swadeshi and Digital Swadeshi, Cultural Swadeshi, which forms the trilogy of Swadeshi thought, together forms the foundation of a sovereign, self-respecting, and self-reliant Bharat.

Final Questions to Leave You With

• What is the worth of an independent India if our textbooks still tell us we were slaves by nature?
• What is the value of GDP growth if our children know Steve Jobs but not Chanakya?
• What is the meaning of sovereignty if our temples are run by governments, not devotees?
• And what is the future of Sanatan Dharma if Hindus themselves mock it as “mythology”?

If this silence continues, our ancestors will not forgive us.

The chains may be invisible, but they are still chains.

The choice is yours: Will you remain colonized in the mind, or will you reclaim the memory that once made Bharat eternal?