Har Bilas Sarda

Har Bilas Sarda (1867-1955) was an Indian academic, judge and politician. He is best known for having introduced the Child Marriage Restraint Act (1929).

Quotes

Hindu Superiority (1922)

[1]

• Sultan Alla-ud-din Khilji burnt the famous library at Anhalwara Patan. The Tarikh Firoz Shahi says that Firoz Shah Tughlak burnt a large library of Sanskrit books at Kohana.
  • 139

• The critics who resolutely deny the existence of the art in Ancient India on the plea that none of the productions of the art are to be found, will do well to consider the fact that even the Vedas would have been lost had the Mohamedan rule continued a century or so longer without giving birth to a Dayanand. When such has been the lot of their most adored possession, what better ‘handling could the poor Art of History have aspired to obtain ?
  • 140

• In the first chapter (Fargard) of the part which bears the name Vendidad of their sacred book (which is also their most ancient book), Hurrnuzd or God tells Zapetman (Zoroaster): “I have given to man an excellent and fertile country. Nobody is able to give such a one. This land lies to the east (of Persia), where the stars rise every evening.” “When Jamshed (the leader of the emigrating nation), came from the highland in the east to the plain, there were neither domestic animals nor wild, nor men.” “The country alluded to above from which the Persians are said to have come can be no other than the North-west part of ancient India—Afghanistan and Kashmir—being to the east of Persia, as well as highland compared to the Persian plains.”‘
  • 159 ff (Theogony of the Hindus)

Quotes about Sarda

• Among the earliest Indic scholars was Har Bilas Sarda, whose book Hindu Superiority, which was published in 1906, apart from being relevant to his times, was way ahead of its time when seen through a decolonial lens. Throughout the book, Sarda uses the term ‘Hindu civilisation’ while referring to ‘ancient India’. In his discussion on the defining feature of the Hindu/Indic civilisation, Sarda underscores the integral and indispensable role of nature in the schema of ‘ancient Indians’, which formed the basis of Hindu laws and institutions. This brings out two significant aspects: (a) that the native identity of Bharat being the Indic/Hindu identity never appeared to be a matter of contestation in Sarda’s discussion, and (b) that a harmonious relationship with nature defines the Hindu/Indic consciousness, from which emanate its worldview and institutions.
  • J Sai Deepak - India that is Bharat_ Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution-_ Bloomsbury India (2021)