Originally Published in Madras Courier
Editorial Note
Should ‘Sanatana Dharma’ be ‘eradicated’? We would like to hear from you.
Sanatana Dharma, or ‘eternal order’, is hailed by patrons, adherents, and evangelists of the Hindu faith as the inviolable product of an illustrious nation. It is extolled as an all-encompassing, insuperable, and sacrosanct set of doctrines whose origins are obscure and ambiguous. The faithful unanimously believe these complex codes of conduct to be set deep in antiquity (4000+ years) with a touch of divinity. However, lurking behind its plausible benefit to Indian civilisation reeks one of the most discriminatory social orders in human history and is unfalsifiable by a deft introduction of myths.