A New Idea of India Quotes

“The writers on Dharma Shastra meant by ‘dharma’ not a creed or religion but a mode of life or a code of conduct, which regulated a person’s work and activities as a member of society and as an individual and was intended to bring about the gradual development of a person and to enable him to reach what was deemed to be the goal of human existence.”
― Harsh Madhusudan, A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State

“The BJP, in its affidavit before the Supreme Court said:


In the event this honourable Court is pleased to declare


Section 377 viz. ‘consensual acts of adults in private’, to be


unconstitutional, no other issue/issues and/or rights are


referred for consideration and adjudication and therefore,


may not be gone into. 54


All these facts surrounding the repeal of Section 377 of the


Indian Penal Code, of course, did not prevent the popular show


Made In Heaven from painting Right-wing forces as the villains who


were against homosexuality and LGBTQ rights. 55


It should be remembered that the RSS or its allied organisations


do not wield any theology-based influence on what Hindus should


think about homosexuality or other issues, whereas the Christian


and Muslim organisations that supported keeping Section 377 and


opposed the Court’s decision have substantial sway over what their


adherents should see as right or wrong. This is a structural


difference between the decentralised, polytheistic Hindu way and the


Abrahamic, monotheistic faiths.”
― Harsh Madhusudan, A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State

“Even two hundred years ago, when the British finally defeated


the divided yet dominant Marathas in the Third Anglo-Maratha War


of 1817, India was a very static place. Most Indians could not have


just packed their bags and easily relocated from Maratha Pune to


Mughal Delhi, or from British Calcutta to Sikh Lahore—much less


from a small fort–town in Rajputana to rural Mysore.


Besides logistics, language was a significant barrier and so


were social acceptance and job opportunities. The average Indian


had almost nothing to fall back on without backing from the biraadri


or gotra. The farm and the local market defined most people’s lives,


punctuated occasionally by a rare long-distance pilgrimage. Large-


scale relocations mostly happened during times of distress. Marrying


contrary to parental wishes was unimaginable. Life was ‘nasty,


brutish and short’, to borrow the famous Hobbesian description, and


solace was found in the Gods.”
― Harsh Madhusudan, A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State

“Introducing the draft


Constitution of India on 4 November 1948, Ambedkar had said:


What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of


ignorance, narrow-mindedness and communalism? I am


glad that the Draft Constitution has discarded the village


and adopted the individual as its unit.”
― Harsh Madhusudan, A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State

“Pseudo


secularism and socialistic economics are two heads of a poly-


cephalic beast that increases its power by feeding on itself.”
― Harsh Madhusudan, A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State

“Despite the carving out of Pakistan (and what is now Bangladesh) in the name of political Islam, and the secessionist insurgency seen in Kashmir due to similar motivations, so-called secular India did not adopt common personal laws. This happened even though Nehru changed, and rightly so, the Hindu personal laws by passing the Hindu code bills in 1955–1956. While the Hindu laws were made progressive, Muslim laws were left untouched.”
― Harsh Madhusudan, A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State