J Sai Deepak’s India that is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution. Bloomsbury 2021

J Sai Deepak’s India that is Bharat need not have run over 11 chapters. The title is the thesis: there is/was/remains a resolute Indic civilisation – condensed in the denotation Bharat – attacked, marginalised and misconstrued by the colonial Christian civilising mission through the course of British imperial rule in South Asia; this civilisational asset now needs to serve as the basis for a new constitution of independent India. 1 Deepak narrates the heroic tale of this beleaguered yet resilient, incorruptible civilisation (engulfed by the colonial past) in a righteous chorus of global indigeneity championed by Latin American decolonial scholars led by Walter Mignolo. This indigene, the “Hindu,” unblemished by concerns of caste, unencumbered by the fact that it is a majority in the Indian nation-state, 2 this ecumenical decolonial avenger, 3 can then stand proudly next to the Aymaras, Qhichwas, Navajos, Haida, Maoris and claim rightful reparation from history. If we are to believe Deepak, all previous critiques of colonial history penned in the 75 years since Indian independence have been prisoners of a colonial consciousness bereft of any ability to recognise the essence of this Indic civilisation. Deepak’s messianic intervention commands a purge: cleanse your consciousness! 4 The book has three sections: the first deals with the literature on decolonisation. Mignolo, Aníbal Quijano,