India, Bharat and Pakistan- The Constitutional Journey of A Sandwiched Civilisation

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India, Bharat and Pakistan, the second book of the Bharat Trilogy, takes the discussion forward from its bestselling predecessor, India That Is Bharat. It explores the combined influence of European and Middle Eastern colonialities on Bharat as the successor state to the Indic civilisation, and on the origins of the Indian Constitution. To this end, the book traces the thought continuum of Middle Eastern coloniality, from the rise of Islamic Revivalism in the 1740s following the decline of the Mughal Empire, which presaged the idea of Pakistan, until the end of the Khilafat Movement in 1924, which cemented the road to Pakistan. The book also describes the collaboration of convenience that was forged between the proponents of Middle Eastern coloniality and the British colonial establishment to the detriment of the Indic civilisation.

One of the objectives of this book is to help the reader draw parallels between the challenges faced by the Indic civilisation in the tumultuous period from 1740 to 1924, and the present day. Its larger goal remains the same as that of the first, which is to enthuse Bharatiyas to undertake a critical decolonial study of Bharat's history, especially in the context of the Constitution, so that the religiosity towards the document is moderated by a sense of proportion, perspective and purpose.

J. Sai Deepak

is an engineer turned litigator, practising as an arguing counsel primarily before the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. A mechanical engineer from Anna University, Sai graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law from IIT Kharagpur’s Law School in 2009, and has carved a niche for himself as a litigator in civil, commercial and constitutional matters. He has been part of several landmark cases, such as those related to the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, the Basmati Geographical Indications and the Marital Rape Exception in the Indian Penal Code. In 2019, Sai was awarded the Young Alumni Achiever’s Award by his alma mater IIT Kharagpur. Apart from delivering lectures on constitutional issues, he writes prolifically for leading newspapers and magazines. He is the author of the bestselling first book of the Bharat Trilogy, India, That Is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution.

The first book of the Bharat Trilogy, India That Is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution, was structured in a manner so as to help Bharatiyas comprehend the construct of European coloniality so that the existence of that state of mind which afflicts the Bharatiya or Indic civilisational consciousness, to the present day, is both identified and acknowledged. To that end, based on primary sources and the work of non-Bharatiya and Bharatiya scholars, the book undertook a focused examination of the religious and racial undergirding of European coloniality and its impact the world over, Bharat being no exception, save for the degree and manner of this impact. In addition to European coloniality, the book introduced the construct of Middle Eastern coloniality and broadly summarised the ways in which it was both similar to and differed from its European counterpart. The rationale behind this was to bring to the fore the fact that unlike the Americas, Bharat has experienced two successive waves of colonisation, in particular settler colonisation, namely Middle Eastern and European, both of which have shaped its contemporary consciousness in their own distinct ways, albeit to the detriment of its indigeneity. In that context, I had taken the position that while seeking to rediscover Bharat's indigenous consciousness and reinscribe it on to its present and future, it is imperative to acknowledge the continuing existence and influence of both forms of expansionist colonialities whose ontology, epistemology and theology (OET)-driven animus towards Bharat's indigeneity is a matter of irrefutable and documented fact.

One of the central objectives of the first book, evident from its subtitle, was to present the birth of contemporary constitutionalism in Bharat as a continuum of the religious, social, political and economic structures established by the European coloniser in Bharat so that the politico-theological framework within which these structures operated became clear to the reader. The framework included the use of international law through application of the 'Standard of Civilisation' as the legal prerequisite for admission of countries to the international comity of 'nations'. It was demonstrated that the reshaping of Bharat into a Constitution-driven 'nation state' was not an isolated product of developments within Bharat as much as it was of Europe's (read the West's) remodelling of the world along European/Western lines. To make this case, British parliamentary debates, the circumstances leading to the establishment of the League of Nations, and the Montford Report on Indian constitutional reforms which led to the enactment of the first British-made Constitution for Bharat, namely the Government of India Act of 1919-were delved into in some detail.

**Contents and Sample Pages**