Authors Harsh Gupta Madhusudan and Rajeev Mantri both are investors, investing in various public companies and early-stage technology ventures. Mr. Madhusudan is a dropout from IIT-Delhi who later graduated from Dartmouth College with an AB degree in Economics. Mr. Mantri on the other hand is a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University and holds an MBA degree from Columbia University. Both authors have written extensively about economics, political economy, finance, and various other socio-political issues shaping the new era which Bharat (India) has entered in recent times.
The book revolves around the socio-economic environment of Bharat from the beginning of actual Bharat and not the Bharat post-colonization. The book is very strategically and intentionally titled “A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State”, as it talks in-depth about the real essence of Bharatiya culture and how far we have come. It tells the story about how Nehruvian Socialism and Secularism were added in the preamble of Bharat by her dictatorial daughter during the emergency. It gives us a strong critique of the disastrous steps taken by the previous governments and how the new government can improve in an anti-partisan way.
The book brought ahead an idea of a Bharat that’s pure, untouched, and complete without any distortion by the contemporary left academia. The book does justice to the non-left ideology, which is mostly labeled as “Bhakt Logic” by the people who fail to counter it, and brings it to the table for everyone to understand in a crystal-clear manner.
The authors present everything in an anti-partisan manner without propagating an agenda as done by the left-liberals of our nation. They successfully presented the idea of the non-left by giving examples and stating various facts to give support to the arguments and ideas proposed. The book worked as food for thought to re-think the idea of secularism, socialism, free market, and various other ideas which have been misinterpreted and fed to the people of Bharat. The book gives an optimistic approach towards the future of Bharat but also points out the opportunities we have missed as a nation.
The book unravels the misconceptions around the idea of the Hindu Nation and Hindu State. It explains beautifully how the Hindu religion has always embraced skeptics and respected them, unlike other religions that consider people who try to question those faiths, as infidels.
A major point the book throws light on is how when the current NDA government came into power, the narrative by the opposition painted communalism as the opposite of secularism while, theocracy is the opposite of secularism. The book questions how the meaning of the word, ‘secularism’, has been distorted in society. Secularism means the state does not hold any authority over matters concerning religion, and not that the state treats all religions equally. Contrary to that, there has been minority appeasement since the Nehru era in the nation and massive discrimination based on religion, only favoring the minorities.
It explains the beautiful diversity of our nation, “Kos kos par pani badle, char kos par vaani”. Even though being a diverse land, the nation is bonded by the origin and the idea of Bharat Varsha. The books present how the idea of equality should be based on economic need rather than personal identity of a person. It questions the quota system and how it has been used for minority appeasement and has been a method of generating vote banks by the political parties. They used it as a method to gain power instead of using it to uplift the people who are vulnerable. On homosexuality, the book speaks about how the Hindu religion has always been open to a lot of things which are seen as crimes by other religions, there were no rules or laws which talked ill about the homosexuals.
It strongly critiques the methods used by Nehru to appease the minority by granting them various rights based on religion. One of the major things pointed by the authors is how Hindu Laws were modified but Muslim Laws were not touched because ‘religion is a private matter of an individual’. This is how Nehru’s pseudo-secularism was exposed in the book.
The authors also throw light on how Aadhaar helped overcome a gap by introducing identification for the public, because in a social contract between the government and the public, the government should know who they are serving. The current question by the opposition about the privatization of the PSUs was also beautifully tackled by examples, facts and statistical data from various academic reports and researchers.
Privatization can be beneficial as it’ll lead to an increase in competition among the private players which will ultimately lead to a vast array of choices for the public and things will be more accessible to everyone. For instance, privatization in telecommunication helped erode the class gap and will act similarly in all non-strategic areas. Strategic institutions, however, like finance and defense, should be taken care of by the government.
Towards the end of the book, the authors also point some faults with the collegium system followed by the Indian judiciary. The authors suggest how certain steps taken by the NDA government have helped in boosting Bharat as a world leader, being anti-partisan and unbiased. The authors also suggest the importance of lateral entries which the current government has just initiated, and how public should have access to certain data for them to understand and analyze it.
The book is a beautifully crafted piece which not only talks about public policy but also takes you on a journey of Bharat and the beginning of a new Bharat. We, being 1/6th of the global population, will regain our place in the world and I’d like to conclude by quoting a line from the book, “India is the new kid returning to the table, now India decides the future”.
-By Pulkit Singh Bisht
(To commemorate the 74th Republic Day celebrations, student volunteers of INDgenius from O. P. Jindal Global University review books with nationalistic sentiments and about various socio-political issues)
