On Reforming the Hindu Personal Law

You can’t prosper and you can’t protect your life, your property and your society if you don’t know what your Dharma (religion, culture and history) is. 

The Hindu personal law is in need of reform. A major part of what is known as the Hindu personal law is not based on Hindu Dharma or the ancient Hindu texts—it is influenced by the British (Colonial) perception of Hindu theology, philosophy and society. 

In the last fifty years, Hindu personal law has moved further away from Dharma because of the influence of Western ideas. 

Instead of bringing people close to Dharma and strengthening the country, the Hindu personal law is enfeebling the country by driving people towards the worst ideas of Western countries: wokism, progressivism, Marxism and multiculturalism. 

There are much bigger problems in the personal laws of other religious groups in India. It would be better if personal laws of all religious groups were discarded and a Uniform Civil Code was strictly applied on the entire country.

Narendra Modi: In comparison to Thatcher, Xiaoping, Reagan and Gorbachev

Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi seems to be a better reformer and politician than the four other reformist world leaders of the last 50 years: Margaret Thatcher, Deng Xiaoping, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. 

During their tenure as premier, Thatcher, Xiaoping, Reagan and Gorbachev were focused on economic reforms and foreign policy. They did little to strengthen the culture, and the religious identity of their country. Thatcher and Reagan were multiculturalists and globalists. Xiaoping was a materialist anti-Maoist. Gorbachev was a naive dreamer. 

Under Thatcher and Reagan the economy of the UK and the USA grew at a healthy pace, but there was decline in the traditions of conservatism and Christianity. Under Xiaoping and Gorbachev the old communist system was overthrown but no attempt was made to revive the ancient culture (Confucianism in China and Orthodox Christianity in Russia) that existed before the communists had usurped power. 

It can be argued that the policies of Thatcher and Reagan pushed their countries in the direction of globalism, wokism, progressivism, and conservative and religious decline. Gorbachev bequeathed Russia to the KGB oligarchy, and Xiaoping bequeathed China to militaristic CCP tyrants.

In 2014, when Modi became the Prime Minister, there was speculation that, like Reagan and Thatcher, he would be focused mainly on economic reforms. Since 2014, the Indian economy has done reasonably well—GDP has been growing at around 7% every year. In the areas of foreign policy and military strength, there have been some improvements.

But the big success that Modi has achieved is in the area of culture—he has aroused the religious and nationalist sentiments of the masses. For the first time, India has a Prime Minister, who takes initiatives and launches movements to restore ancient Hindu culture, and make people realize what it means to be a Hindu (follower of Sanatana Dharma).

There are no good civilizations and evil civilizations

Laws of morality apply only to individuals, never to civilizations—therefore, there are no good civilizations and evil civilizations. There are only civilizations with a strong sense of culture and religion, and a strong will to survive and thrive. To develop a civilization based on a long-lasting culture, and a vision of God and man’s place in God’s universe—this takes sacrifices and struggles of all the past generations, and this is the greatest achievement that any large group of human beings can aspire for. A civilization’s only true value is to produce men of character and courage who will safeguard their culture and religion.

To be successful a nation needs friends—to be very successful it needs enemies

“To be successful you need friends and to be very successful you need enemies.” ~ Sidney Sheldon, The Other Side of Midnight

This line by Sidney Sheldon applies to nations too. To be very successful a nation needs powerful enemies. History tells us that the citizens of nations, which lack powerful enemies, become complacent, intellectually deficient and morally corrupt. They get deluded into believing that peace will last forever and that they will never have to fight wars to defend their life, property and nationhood. They lose their sense of culture, and slip into nihilism and wokism. They take the world for granted, and fail to take note of emerging geopolitical challenges until it is too late.

The most successful nations in history were those which fought lengthy and brutal wars against powerful enemies. Nietzsche was right when he said, “What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger..” Nations become stronger when they defend their country from powerful enemies. A nation without powerful enemies is doomed.

Territory versus property

Territory is natural. Most animals—dogs, lions, hyenas, wolves, and even humans in a state of barbarism—tend to grab as much territory as they can defend by their own strength or by the strength of their group. 

Property is not natural; it is a product of manmade laws and the enforcement of the laws by a government. Territory does not require the existence of a government, but property cannot exist unless there is a government with the capacity to enact laws and the power to enforce laws. 

The brutes among human beings seek to capture territory, the civilized among human beings seek to acquire property.

History does not repeat itself; the future is unknowable

It is not true that history repeats itself. If history were repeating itself, then the future would be predictable. The future is anything but predictable. 

The history of every age was different—life in every age was driven by its own challenges, achievements, religious and cultural movements, and wars. The intellectuals and political thinkers in every age were taken by surprise by the major events. 

Today we have access to massive historical records, but this voluminous amount of history will not tell us what the world will be like in 2030, 2040 or 2050. How can we predict the future, when we can’t properly understand today’s political and cultural events? 

Today’s breaking news stories are tomorrow’s big joke. When we fail to judge which contemporary events are important, deserving the tag of breaking news, and which are frivolous, then how can we predict what the world will be like in 10 to 100 or more years. 

We can be certain of only one thing—the future will be unlike anything we can imagine.

Two failed ideologies: socialism & capitalism

Socialism creates tyrannical and nihilistic nations; capitalism creates schizophrenic and woke nations. Socialist nations die from economic and political decline; capitalist nations die from cultural and intellectual decline. If socialism and capitalism are the only two choices, then mankind is doomed.

Journalism: The Frightful Monstrosity and Delusion

“Journalism possesses in itself the potentiality of becoming one of the most frightful monstrosities and delusions that have ever cursed mankind. This horrible transformation will occur at the exact instant at which journalists realise that they can become an aristocracy.” ~ G K Chesterton ("The New Priests”, 1901)

In the atheistic and nihilistic world-order of the twenty-first century, the journalists have become the new clergy. Under the guise of “breaking news,” they preach their daily sermons to brainwash their flock of readers and viewers. The power of the mainstream media to promote pseudo-science as real science, frivolous buffoons as great thinkers, and fake news as the ultimate truth is frightening. 

Chesterton’s view of journalism has become a reality. Journalists have become part of the crooked aristocracy. Journalism is the most frightful monstrosity and delusion of our time.

Rama Rajya: The Civilization of Faith & Reason

The Rama Rajya (Godly civilization) envisioned in the ancient Hindu texts is more magnificent, advanced and happy than the utopia of the communists and the ‘woke AI-world’ of postmodern tech-oligarchy. 

Faith and reason are eternal attributes of the human mind. To create a healthy and balanced society, you need both faith and reason. In Rama Rajya, faith and reason are given equal importance and they balance each other to encourage morality, economic and scientific progress, political stability and social harmony. If a society rejects faith and relies solely on reason, it must fall prey to nihilism, corruption, alienation and decadence. 

There is no room for faith in the communist utopia and the ‘woke AI-world’, which are founded on the idea of supremacy of reason. In the communist utopia, the General Secretary is the biggest repository of reason. Whatever the General Secretary is accepted by all as the voice of reason. In the ‘woke AI-world’, the tech oligarchs have the monopoly on reason. Woke oligarchs like Bill Gates are viewed as the repositories of reason.

“Reason is always a kind of brute force”

“Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.” ~ G. K. Chesterton

The history of the last 250 years shows that the so-called ‘men of reason’ are generally violent, tyrannical, cultish and foolish. The French Revolution of the 18th century was spearheaded by the self-proclaimed men of reason who believed that theirs was the “Age of Enlightenment”. They butchered millions of people with the aim of creating a utopia of reason, secularism and science. 

In the 20th century, tyrannically revolutionaries and warmongers like Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler, Mussolini, Jean-Paul Sartre, Mao and Pol Pot strongly believed that they had the right to rule all of humanity because “reason” was on their side. The American progressives believe that reason is on their side but they are constantly using their country’s economic resources to wage senseless wars. 

The postmodernists and the libertarians proclaim that they have a monopoly on reason. But they are out of touch with reality and their political and cultural opinions are often silly. Pop fiction writer Ayn Rand proclaimed the supremacy of reason but she went on to found a dumb cult, which glorifies adultery, abortion and even non-consensual sex (Howard Roark on Dominque) as a sign of creative individualism. 

I am in full agreement with Chesterton—reason is indeed a brute force. The men of reason are as dangerous, as psychopathic as the religious fundamentalists.

4 Most Powerful Geopolitical Forces in History of Civilization

The 4 most powerful geopolitical forces in the history of civilization are: pandemic, apocalypse, war and belief in one true God. The propagators of these forces are the great movers of history who have forged new empires after destroying old ones. 

In the last 1500 years, the empires of the Middle East and Europe have used the fear of pandemic and apocalypse, the slogans of war and the idea that their God is the only true God to control their own people and conquer and enslave many other lands. 

In the postmodern digital-information society, in which a significant part of humanity lives today, not much has changed. Geopolitics is still being driven by the mass movements related to the forces of pandemic, apocalypse, war and belief in one true God.

The richest and most powerful tyrants in the world today are those who control the mass movements which propagate some aspects of the four geopolitical forces.