Part I
THE INHERITANCE: CASCADING FROM CIVILISATION TO COLONIALISM
Chapter 1 Aryans and Mauryans: Legends Merging into History
It reviews the antecedents of the Indus Valley Civilisation and the Aryan pedigree as part of his inheritance together with a more detailed description of the Mauryan dynasty. He sheds light on some historical and literally sources relating to Chandragupta Maurya 1 and his probable links with the Mauryan clan in the region surrounding Siddharthnagar of Uttar Pradesh.
Chapter 2 Ethos of Hinduism: Discovering the Labyrinthine Streams
It is a detailed account of the props that form the genesis of Hinduism and the three distinct paths that provide the umbrella for followers of different hue to remain within its fold. Its core has been tried and tested over the last two millennium and has withstood the onslaughts of Muslim subjugation and British imperialism. The author moans the rise of Brahmanism from the turn of the new Era (20th Century) and believes that the Muslim proselytisation/ conversion of Hindus might have been marginalised if Buddhism had continued to prosper in the land of its birth. The ascendancy and politicisation of instant godheads has eroded the sanctity of Hinduism. In the new age of cynicism, he views the possibility of the death of religion.
Chapter 3 Under the Heels: Mughal Subjugation and British Colonialism
It assails the destructive, iconoclastic fury of the Muslim regimes in India and the acquisitive greed of the Mughals to build ostentatious monuments for their security and self-aggrandisement. The imperial British failed in their attempt to evangelise the population but succeeded in siphoning the wealth of a prosperous subcontinent and reducing it to a pauper state. The industrial revolution had its origin in usurpation of Indian wealth. The resultant poverty drove more than a million Indians to eke out living in distant European outposts. This was one of the positive legacies of the British Empire.
