India has suffered for a long time. First under the Islamic domination and later under the British. During the Islamic period we were terrorized. We learnt to “mind our own business” in public life. A schism developed in our world – between the public and the private life. We reduced our dharmic concerns to private life and learnt to “behave” in the public realm. Then, under colonial rule, a sense of shame, inhibition and inferiority got added to our already festering wound. We started feeling guilty of our past our ways appeared inferior, backward and uncivil. The “educated” among us tried to cope with the pain by imitating and trying to “become like them” – even in the manner of thought and behaviour. In the process we got alienated from our roots and started developing amnesia. So much so, that today our sense-of-past is missing and our self-image is pitiable. Our categories of perceiving and thinking have changed and we have unknowingly adopted western categories. India has been “wounded“. This trans-generational trauma has had a debilitating impact on us, turning us into a dysfunctional society. The civilizational wound can no longer be ignored, it needs to be acknowledged, addressed and healed.

At SIDH, we are making an attempt to reconnect with our civilizational roots, trying to go beyond the shame and pain to establish a healthy relationship with our past. We believe that the fundamentals of Indian traditions are based on eternal, existential Truth (the sanaatana), therefore it is in harmony with the way Existence IS. The hegemony of Western modernity imposes its own unnatural order on this existential order causing conflict at the individual and societal levels. Our endeavor is to work towards a correction, exposing the myths and falsehoods of modernity, bringing out and establishing the sanaatana and correcting the narrative of Indian civilization, culture and belief systems.

I found “White Sahibs in India” quite by chance in an old bookshop in London in 1998. It was an eye-opener in many ways. To my surprise almost everyone I spoke to had never heard of this book, although a few friends knew of the author. It was written by Reginald Reynolds, whom Mahatma Gandhi used to call his “Angad“. Reginald Reynolds acted as a messenger, carrying letters from Gandhiji to the Viceroy Irwin during their discussions before the famous Gandhi-Irwin pact was reached in March 1931.

This book not only describes the brutality of the British Raj in great detail but also the working of the British mind. For instance, how India was purchased as an asset by the British Government from the East India Company and this amount was debited to the newly formed Government of India in 1858. And then this debt was repaid by collecting taxes from the people of India. So, India was made to pay for itself and for the cost involved in the violence inflicted upon it during the 1857 revolt. This jugglery of accountancy is one instance of the British habit of “justifying” every act whether moral or immoral. The book gives numerous instances of British thievery and cunningness, where they not only looted us but made us pay for the cost involved in looting us.

Another interesting episode of how the British traders dealt with our weavers shows very clearly the two different worldviews-that of the ordinary Indian weaver and that of the British Sahib. Weaving is simply a means of livelihood and expression of a certain art form for the weaver, while the sahib is driven by greed. The sahib discovered that extra money is not an enticement for the weaver to increase production, as the Indians think of wealth as sacred, to be earned and spent with reverence. The sahib started coming to the weaver’s home in his absence and leaving the money with a note demanding a certain amount of production and asking the weaver to keep the material ready by a certain date. When the weaver discovers the note he is in a dilemma (dharam- sankat) as he cannot return the money (ghar aai Lakshmi), as that would be an insult to the Goddess.

We felt it was important to bring out this book so that we are able to have an idea of the kind of people Indians were (their belief systems, their values) and the kind of repression we have suffered which has resulted in the squalor we see around us today. The idea is not to lament or to compare the two different worlds but to see the disease and find its cure.

We are grateful to our colleague Arun Elassery who has gone through the book several times before it went to the printers and to Amitabh Kumar for doing the cover design and layout of the book. We are also very grateful to the Dharampal Shodhpeeth, Bhopal and its Chairperson, Ms. Usha Thakur (Minister of Culture, Government of Madhya Pradesh), Vice Chairperson, Mr. Sheo Shekhar Shukla (Principal Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of Madhya Pradesh) and its Director, Mr. Santosh Verma who have given valuable support in bringing out this publication.

Pawan Kumar Gupta (Director, SIDH)

March 2022

If you wish to purchase this book, please contact Mr Anil Maikhuri on 94101 01490 or anilmaikhuri@gmail.com.

Earlier published as a preface to “White Sahibs in India”.