India’s Constitution contains no mention of God, no reference to dharmic values — and yet it governs a civilisational state whose people have lived by Sanatana Dharma for millennia.
Prof. Gautam Desiraju, Professor Emeritus at IISc Bangalore and author of Bharat India 2.0, presents a systematic analysis of what “Hindu Rashtra” actually means — disentangling the word Hindu (originally a geographical term for anyone east of the Sindhu, not a religious label) from Sanatani (the more accurate term for practitioners of Sanatana Dharma) and from Rashtra (a civilisational community, not a nation-state in the Western sense). His central argument: India is not a nation-state, it is a civilisational state — and the Constitution must be aligned to that reality, not the other way around.
A striking electoral data point drives the urgency home: constituency breakdowns list Muslims as a single unified bloc while fragmenting Hindus across 54 separate caste communities — the state itself, through its own documents, acknowledges the asymmetry. Desiraju’s prescription is to stress India’s deep civilizational distinctiveness rather than imitate Western governance models — the unique Indian way of thinking is not a handicap but the competitive advantage.

About the Speaker:
Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju is an Indian structural chemist and professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Known for his work on crystal bonding and weak hydrogen bonding, he serves on the Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Advisory Council at the University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, and the Academic Council of Rishihood University, Sonepat. Desiraju has authored numerous commentaries on science, chemistry, and the state of scientific education and research in India. He also explores India’s nature as a civilizational state, contributing valuable books on the subject.