Ram Rattan Sharma
internetzonejammu@gmail.com
Indinsation of India is both a need and necessity today, because a culturally rooted decolonized India can be truly sovereign in its mind, not just on paper. Political freedom in 1947 began the journey, civilastional and intellectual Indinisation must complete it.
What is Indinaisation of India?
Indinastion means re-anchoring India’s state, economy, education and culture in India’s own civilizationvalues, languages and knowledge systems, rather than imitating colonial or purely western models. It is not isolationism, It is the assertion that India’s institutions, laws and public life should reflect Indian ethos like pluralism, fraternity, non-violence and respect for diversity.
Hitorically,”Indianisation” also referred to integrating Indians in to higher levels of colonial institutions (like the army) andto the spread of Indian culture to other regions but in today’s context it primarily means decolonizing the mind, the curriculum and governance with in India itsel.In that sense, Indianisation is a project of reclaiming “idea of India” from outside lenses and re-stating it in India’s own voice.
Why is Indinastion a need?
Colonial rule left behind instiutions laws and mental habits that still shape how Indians see themselves often privileging English, Western norms and Macaulay era ideas over indigenous thought. Even after independence, elites often internalized westernization as modernization creating an inferiority complex about Indian languages, and knowledge systems.
This has practical costs overdependence on foreign intellectual frameworks can distort policy ,priorities, weaken social cohesion and make in India Vulnerable to “soft powers” pressures in education ,media and culture. Indianisation is needed to restore confidence in Indian civilization resources so that reforms in economy, administration ,law and education grow from local realities, not borrowed templates
Why is it a necessity?
In a globalized world of intense cultural competition a country that lacks cultural self respect and intellectual autonomy risks becoming a market, not a maker of ideas Indianisation therefore is necessity to build an Atmanirbhar (Self Reliant) India not only infacturing, but also in narratives, scholarship and value systems.
A second reason is social harmony, properly understood.Indainisation emphasis inter-dependence fraternity, trust and acknowledgement of diversity, leaving no space for untouchability or hatred, rooting state and society in these values can counter both imported cultural aggression and internal fragmentation helping India remain united while staying deeply Indian
Indianisation versus Westernization
Westernization describes the adoption of western life styles, instiutionsand values in Indian society, especially among educated classes during and after British rule. It brought positive ideas like rule of law, modernscience, individualrights, anddemocratic instiutions, but it also weakened traditional structures, languages and community bonds.
Indianistaion does not demand rejection of everything western, it demands re-ordering. The goal is to evaluate all ideas –western or Indian. Through the prisms of Indian civilastional values and contemporary needs, accepting what fits and rejecting what distorts, so that India imitates no one but learns from all.
Key Areas where Indianisation is urgent
Education:-Curricula that give due space to Indian languages, philosophies, sciences, arts and freedom struggles while main training scientific temper and constitutional values.
Governance and Law:-Reforming colonial era laws and administrative culture so that institutions are citizen-centric, rooted in local realities and reflective of Indian social diversity.
Economy and Culture:-Promoting Swadeshi-oriented production, local entrepreneurship and cultural industries that project India’s own stories, not copies of foreign models.
In all these fields, Indianisation is not a backward looking slogan but a forward looking civilizational project, necessary to complete decolonization aid to ensure that a rising India remains unmistakably , confidently Indian.
Indianisation is a National necessity because only a decolonizing culturally rooted India can secure genuine self reliance in its institutions, economy, and social fabric, while still engaging confidently with the world. By reanchoring laws, education, governance, and public culture in India’s own civilizational values of pluralism, fraternity and justice.
Indianisation completes the unfinished task of decolonization and transforms political independence in to true intellectual and cultural sovereignty.
(The Author is Former Dy. Librarian University of Jammu)
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