My Gita

by Devdutt Pattanaik

We must also guard against a masculine view of history based on conflict and triumph alone: natives versus colonizers, polytheism versus monotheism, Hindus versus Buddhists, Christians versus Muslims, Shias versus Sunnis, Shaivites versus Vaishnavites, Protestants versus Catholics, Mughals versus Marathas, democracy versus monarchy, theists versus atheists, capitalists versus socialists, liberals versus conservatives. This has been popularized by Western academics and their love for the Hegelian dialectic, where thesis creates antithesis until there is resolution and a new thesis. This approach assumes that history has a natural direction and purpose. An alternate, feminine view of history looks at every event as the fruit of the past (karma-phala) as well as the seed of future tendencies (karma-bija), without the need to play judge.