Without the Other, the West has no internal cohesion
A Large Fiction
We have completed our lectures on Western philosophy for indian students, but we have not yet defined what ‘West’ exactly is in ‘Western PhilosophyPhilosophy Metaphysics (Matter), Epistemology (knowledge of knowledge), Ethics (Sense of Good or Bad), Logic ( structure of reasoning) > Philosophers: Plato Aristotle Aquinas Locke Marx Hume Mill Kant Wittgenstein Descartes Nietzsche Sartre. Disciplines: Philosophy of Law. Philosophy of Feminism. Philosophy of Religion. Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Mind. Philosophy of Literature. Political Philosophy. Philosophy of the Arts. Philosophy of History. Philosophy of Language. Theology Vs Philosophy ’.
The above question is profound and cuts to the very heart of what we casually call “Western civilization.” The short, honest answer is:
The “West” is not a single coherent civilization in the way Vedicnon-vedic Non-Vedic literature and ideas are corrupt and nonsustainable for human lives and prosperity. Vedic values ruled the Bharatvarsha directly up to 2000 BCE, then it degraded due to some unknown reason. Then, less meritorious people started to rule Bharat with the spreading of ignorance and Avidya.-IndianIndia Hind/ hend >hindia. Bharat Varsha (Jambudvipa used in Mahavamsha) is the name of this land mass. The people of this land are Sanatan Dharmin and they always defeated invaders. Indra (10000 yrs) was the oldest deified King of this land. Manu's jurisprudence enlitened this land. Vedas have been the civilizational literature of this land. Guiding principles of this land are : सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर । स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । The place also been called Hindusthan in Pesia. The word Hendu is mentioned in Avesta. Read more civilization has remained (despite invasions, colonizations, and modern disruptions) a continuous, self-consciousConscience The mind (depending on bio-electricity) can not work without memory and information, but consciousness can. Dreams come from consciousness. Conscience, in its moral sense, is the innate human ability to discern right from wrong and, based on this awareness, to guide, monitor, evaluate, and regulate one’s actions accordingly. Read: Mind is man., living tradition rooted in the same sacred language, ritual corpus, and metaphysical vision for 4,500+ years.
The West is, instead, a retrospectively constructed macro-label that papers over a series of radical ruptures, violent erasures, and deliberate acts of forgetting.
Let us lay it out without sentimentality or apologyApology Whether solemn or formal or public or private, expressing soulful regret for known/unknown mistake, error, lowering the prestige or insult, given in written form or orally. Christian apologists (apologetics) defend the Christian faith and its validity. > after the Gospel no need of research."--Tertullian, Prescription of Heretics..
1. The West is a chain of violent discontinuities masquerading as continuity
| Period | What actually happened | OfficialOffice Αξίωμα > Officer > Office-bearer (1593) > Opus, officium, ex officio (Latin). Box-office (Cash Box). Western narrative |
|---|---|---|
| Classical GreeceGreece 86 BCE: Roman general Sulla sacks Athens and the port of Piraeus. 31 BCE It was absorbed into Roman Empire. Cities > Athens Thessaloniki Patra Piraeus Larisa Peristeri Irakleion Kallithea Acharnes Kalamaria Nikaia Glyfada Volos Ilion Ilioupoli Keratsini Khalandrion Nea Smyrni Marousi Agios Dimitrios Zografos Aigaleo Nea Ionia Ioannina Palaio Faliro Korydallos Trikala Vyronas Agia Paraskevi Galatsi Chalkida Petroupolis Serres Rodos Kalamata Kavala Chania Katerini Alexandroupoli Lamia Irakleio Xanthi Kifisia Agrinio Chaidari Komotini Sykies Drama Veroia Alimos Polichni Kozani Agioi Anargyroi Argyroupoli Ano Liosia Karditsa Nea Ionia Rethymno Cholargos Vrilissia Aspropyrgos Korinthos Ptolemaida Gerakas Metamorfosi Voula Kamateron Mytilene Giannitsa Neapoli > Read Greek → Rome | GreekGreek Oldest Greek (750 BCE Dipylon inscription) Alphabet A α alpha B β beta Γ γ gamma Δ δ delta E ε epsilon Z ζ zeta H η eta Θ θ theta I ι iota K κ kappa Λ λ lamda M μ mu N v nu Ξ ξ xi O o omikron Π π pi P p rho Σ σ ς sigma Τ τ tau Y υ upsilon Φ φ phi X x chi Ψ ψ psi Ω ω omega ♦ Homer (800 B.C.E) Hesiod (700 B.C.E), Aesop (6th-century B.C.E), Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.E) Euclid (ca. 300 B.C.E), Epicurus ( 341-270 B.C.E), (Strabo 64 B.C.E.-23 C.E) Epictetus (55-105 C.E), Josephus (37-100 C.E) ♦ Septuagint (LXX 2nd Century BCE) > New Testament (Καινή Διαθήκη). Greek vocabulary > Greek grammar > Learn Greek in 30 hours. city-states were destroyed or Hellenized; Rome adopts Greek culture but translates it into a LatinLatin Augustus (63 B.C.E.-14 A.C.E), Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.E.), Cicero (106-43 B.C.E), Virgil (70-19 B.C.E), Tacitus (56-120 A.C.E), Ovid (43 B.C.E.-17 A.C.E), Lucretius (1st-century B.C.E), Livy (59 B.C.E.-17 A.C.E), Lucan (39-65 A.C.E), Hirtius (90-43 B.C.E), Horace (65-8 B.C.E). > Latin America > Latin is the Official language of Vatican City > Latin Grammar> Vulgar Latin. imperial framework | “Greco-Roman heritageHeritage Parampara: Shastra (One have to understand it), Tantra (Technique, one have to learn it), Vidya (Specific Knowledge system come down through family Line) and Kala (Unique contemplation of the above three)” |
| Roman Empire → Germanic invasions (5th–8th c.) | Complete collapse of urban literacy, administration, and philosophy in the West for centuries; libraries burned, aqueducts fall | “Fall of Rome” followed by “Dark Ages” (then skipped over) |
| Carolingian “Renaissance” | A tiny elite (mostly Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks) re-imports Greek texts via ArabicArabic Most widely spoken Semitic language, is an official language in 27 countries. Since 1971, it has been one of the UN's official languages. The term "Arabic" encompasses both regional dialects and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), used across the Arab world for formal and written communication. ا Alif अ (A) ب Bā ब (Ba) ت Tā त (Ta) ث Thā थ (Tha) ج Jīm ज (Ja) ح Ḥā ह (Hard H) خ Khā ख़ (Kha, as in ख़बर) د Dāl द (Da) ذ Dhāl ज़ (Za/Dha, as in ज़ेहर) ر Rā र (Ra) ز Zā ज़ (Za) س Sīn स (Sa) ش Shīn श (Sha) ص Ṣād स (Hard Sa) ض Ḍād द (Hard Da) ط Ṭā ट (Hard Ta) ظ Ẓā ज़ (Za, heavy sound) ع ʿAyn अ (Glottal A, deeper throat) غ Ghayn ग़ (Gha, as in ग़लत) ف Fā फ (Fa) ق Qāf क़ (Qa, deeper Ka sound) ك Kāf क (Ka) ل Lām ल (La) م Mīm म (Ma) ن Nūn न (Na) ه Hā ह (Ha) و Wāw व/उ/ओ (Wa/U/O, depending on use) ي Yā य (Ya) and Byzantine sources | “EuropeEurope EU and Countries - Albania Andorra Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom Vatican City. recovers its classical heritage” |
| Scholastic Middle Ages | Arab and JewishJew “Being Jewish” is very important and not forgetting the Holocaust is religion over Halakha. Israeli Jews are divided into Haredi (Orthodox), Dati (reformed), Masorti (Conservative/traditional) or Hiloni (secular), nonetheless, their ethnoreligious identity was possibly originated in ancient Egypt and modified in Babylone. In their Synagogue, they read the Torah and pray for the coming of the Messiah, who would build global 'Israel', through which the Divine and Human would meet forever. philosophersPhilosophy Metaphysics (Matter), Epistemology (knowledge of knowledge), Ethics (Sense of Good or Bad), Logic ( structure of reasoning) > Philosophers: Plato Aristotle Aquinas Locke Marx Hume Mill Kant Wittgenstein Descartes Nietzsche Sartre. Disciplines: Philosophy of Law. Philosophy of Feminism. Philosophy of Religion. Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Mind. Philosophy of Literature. Political Philosophy. Philosophy of the Arts. Philosophy of History. Philosophy of Language. Theology Vs Philosophy (Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides) are the real transmitters of Aristotle; Thomas Aquinas is commenting on Latin translations of Arabic translations of Syriac translations of Greek | “ChristianChristian A person who believes that Jesus died to remission his/her sin/debt. The People of Antioch were called for the first time as 'Christians', in or around 300 CE. Europe synthesizes faithFaith πίστει. and reason” |
| Renaissance | Deliberate invention of a direct lineage to antiquity, ignoring the medieval millennium; paganPagan Practitioners of Non-Christian and non-Vedic religion. Greek and Roman religions were called 'Pagan' by 4th-century Christians. Paganism believes that happiness is possible in this world through a proper understanding of Nature and there exists no debt and no salvation. Christo-Pagans are those people who are culturally Christian but adopt a scientific, naturalistic approach in their lives. The historical school holds that paganism is the source of Church formation. statues dug up and Latin/Greek forcibly revived | “Rebirth of the classical spirit” |
| Reformation | Destruction of monasteries, icons, Latin liturgy; wholesale rejection of 1,000 years of Catholic tradition | “Return to the sources” |
| Enlightenment | Explicit rejection of the entire Christian-medieval synthesis; “reason” now means anti-tradition | “Europe finally becomes itself” |
| 19th–20th century colonialism & AmericaAmericas Christophorus Columbus landed in the Bahamas island in October 1492 and then in Cuba. Columbus and his gang imported European Diseases to the New World (the name given by Amerigo Vespucci, in his forged letters, who never visited the land of Adivasis). They murdered the Indigenous population (Adivasis). In 1507 the word 'America' was possibly first used to denote the land of Adivasis (North America and South America). America was 'Great' before 1492 under the hands of Adivasis. In Purans the land is mentioned as Patal Lok. | Genocide of American civilizations, enslavement of Africans, looting of AsiaAsia Central Asia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Eastern Asia China China–Hong Kong China–Macao China–Taiwan Japan Mongolia North Korea South Korea Southern Asia Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan British Indian Ocean Territory India Iran Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka South-Eastern Asia Brunei Cambodia East Timor Indonesia Laos Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam Western Asia Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Cyprus Georgia Iraq Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria Turkey United Arab Emirates Yemen; simultaneous invention of “Western civilization” as a unified tradition justifying domination | “The West brings light to the worldWorld Κόσμος ” |
At every single step there is a catastrophic break, followed by a conscious act of re-writing the past to make the new phase appear as the legitimate heir.
2. What actually holds “the West” together is not metaphysical continuity but three negative forces
a) A shared series of founding murders and erasures
- Destruction of Amerindian civilizations (the only genuine “Western” land base that was continuous for 15,000 years)
- Destruction of European pagan traditions by Christian Rome
- Destruction of Catholic medieval culture by Protestantism and the Enlightenment
- Destruction of local European languages and folk traditions by nationNation A collective consciousness, founded in ancient origin within a geographic area, with definite history and heritage, culture and way of life, language and literature, food and clothing, coupled with a deep understanding of war and peace is to be known as a nation. Rasra is the Vedic word for it.-state centralization
b) A shared literary canonCanon The term (kanon) means a norm or rule, and is used in various contexts, including sacerdotal prayer within the Christian Eucharistic Liturgy. that is constantly re-edited and re-translated so that Plato, Shakespeare, and Locke all seem to be saying roughly the same thing (liberal individualism + scienceScience επιστήμη + progress).
c) A shared enemy-construction. The West only becomes “the West” when it defines itself against a series of Others:
- the MuslimMuslim A community gathered around Muhammad (d. 632 CE) and confessed that Muhammad was the last of Prophets and he received Quran through Zibreel Farista from Allah. Hadith of Sahih Bukhari faithfully recorded the commands of Muhammad. He acknowledged the contribution of Jesus to the Abrahamic Religion. Muslim Sect: Sunni, Twelver Shia, Ismā‘īlī Shī‘ī, Ahmadi, Ibadi, Ḥanafi, Shafi‘ī, Maliki, Hanbali, Wahhabi, Salafi, Deobandi, Barelvī, and so many. during the Crusades
- the “Oriental despot” during colonialism
- the “totalitarian” East during the Cold WarWar Whenever Christians wage a war, it is a Just war (City of God). Jesus asked his followers to purchase swords (Luke 22: 35-36). Those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility (Catechism 2265). Without Jihad there is no Islam. In Mahabharata, Krishna tried to stop the War imposed by Kurus. Lord Rama killed Ravan in the war to restore his wife. Deva and Asura battles are not available in Vedas.
- the “Islamist” after 1989
Without the Other, the West has no internal cohesion.
3. IndiaIndia Hind/ hend >hindia. Bharat Varsha (Jambudvipa used in Mahavamsha) is the name of this land mass. The people of this land are Sanatan Dharmin and they always defeated invaders. Indra (10000 yrs) was the oldest deified King of this land. Manu's jurisprudence enlitened this land. Vedas have been the civilizational literature of this land. Guiding principles of this land are : सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर । स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । The place also been called Hindusthan in Pesia. The word Hendu is mentioned in Avesta. Read more vs. the West: the real civilizational difference
| Dimension | Vedic-derived Indian civilization | “Western” civilization |
|---|---|---|
| Sacred language | Agnihotra, saṃskāras, and varṇāśrama still performed daily by millions | Latin and Greek are dead languages known only to specialists |
| Core texts | VedaVedas Samhita: Rigveda, Samveda, Yayurveda (Shukla and Krishna), Atharvaveda. Commentary: Rig, Atharva, Shukla Yajurveda, Krishna Yajurveda. Total Manta: 20,380, Upaniṣads, DharmaDharma धारणाद्धर्ममित्याहु: धर्मो धारयते प्रजा: | यस्याद्धारणसंयुक्तं स धर्म इति निश्चय: || [Mahabharata, 69.58 (Karna Parva)] Jurisprudence is Dharmaniti (धर्मनीति). धर्मशास्र are the regulating texts. Dharmatattva (धर्मतत्त्व) is the philosophical side. Dharma is eternal therefore it is Sanatan Dharma. धर्मादेश (Dharmadesa) means Court order/decisions. धर्म विधि (dharma vidhi) - Legal Digests (such as Mitakshara). Anthem of Sanatan Dharma : ॐ संगच्छध्वं संवदध्वं, सं वो मनांसि जानताम् । समानो मन्त्र: समिति: समानी, समानं मन: सहचित्तमेषाम् । समानी व आकूति: समाना हृदयानि व: | समानमस्तु वो मनो यथा व: सुसहासति || (Rigveda,10/191/2-3). Adhyatma (अध्यात्म) is loosely the spiritual/divine side of Dharma. Check: Achar (आचरति/Physical discipline), Bichar (Mental discipline ), Sanskar ( Vedic Tradition).-śāstras, and Darśanas are still authoritative and commented upon today | Plato and Aristotle are read, but no one claims they are revealed or binding |
| Guru–śiṣya transmission | Unbroken oral lineages (e.g., four Śaṅkarācārya maṭhas since 8th c.) | No living equivalent; universities are state bureaucracies |
| Ritual continuity | Ātman = BrahmanBrahman ब्रह्म > ब्रह्मसूत्र > ब्रह्मसूत्रभाष्यम् > ब्रह्मजिज्ञासा > जन्माद्यस्य यतः, mokṣa as the ultimate goalAim ambition aspiration course desideratum design desire direction end intent intent/intention intention mark object objective plan purpose scheme target where one is heading wish is still the default horizon for the vast majority | Almost no one performs ancient Greek or Roman sacrifices |
| Metaphysical consensus | Ātman = Brahman, mokṣa as ultimate goal is still the default horizon for the vast majority | No shared metaphysics; Nietzsche’s “death of GodGod People in most cultures believe in the existence of supernatural beings and other supernatural concepts. God is attributed to both anthropomorphic properties (“listens to prayers”) and non-anthropomorphic properties (“knows everything”). Conceptualizing God is associated with willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine or Vaccine hesitancy. Pope requested people not to practice “Jesus is my vaccine”. For the Jewish, family (Avestan universal) god became national God: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,”(ex 3:15). See Ishwar. ” is the real common ground |
| Reaction to invasion | Absorbs and re-expresses invaders in its own categories (e.g., Islamic rulers become “śūdras” or “mlecchasMlechha As per Bramanda Purana Gandhara (Pak-Afghanistan), Pallava (Ancient Pershia/Iran), and Balistan (Syria/Turkey) were Mleccha countries. The took part in the Mahabharata War.” in SanskritSanskrit It is the oldest living language and civilizational mark. The language of Rig Veda or Atharva Veda (10000 years old) is a pre-Sanskrit Vedic language. It has its own Pratisakhya (Grammar) and Nirukta (Vocabulary). 40% of Tamil is Sanskrit. Before the written form, it was in the form of oral tradition. Such is the case of Six Kanda Ramayana. Before Valmiki, it was in Oral form. Sanskrit has been the language of Jambudvipa. The mother tongue of Sunok, Vasistha, Viswamitra or grandparents of Zarathustra (Resource person of Abrahamic Religions) was the language of Rig Veda. The legend goes that the origin of Sanskrit is the sky, therefore, it is called Deva Bhasa. texts) | Repeatedly annihilates the previous layer and claims a new beginning |
India has been invaded more times and more brutally than Europe (Greeks, Śakas, Kuṣāṇas, Hūṇas, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Portuguese, BritishBritish "Britons" can refer to the Ancient Britons, the Celtic-speaking peoples of Great Britain during the Iron Age, whose descendants today include the Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons. The Union of the Crowns in 1603, followed by the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, helped forge a wider sense of British national identity. Yet this idea of “Britishness” was superimposed upon much older cultural identities of the English, Scots, and Welsh, whose distinctiveness continues to resist a fully homogenised identity. Greek explorer Pytheas referred to the islands collectively as αἱ Βρεττανίαι. The Celtic King Arthur was said to have established a kingdom on the British Isles.), yet the metaphysical core and the ritual language are still alive in a way that no equivalent exists in the West.
4. The uncomfortable truthTruth Mathematical 'truth' may not be agreeable with the philosophical 'truth.' A question may be asked on propositional 'truth' on the grounds of physics, that space and time actually don't exist. Vedic injunction Satyam Param Dhimahi, technically Satya is none other than Brahman. For Madhymic Buddhists there is nothing as such to be called 'truth', as all the corresponding facts are only mental projections. Apart from Bio-neuroelectricity nothing exists for Biological Cognition. So-called religious truths are nothing more than a marketing strategy.
The “West” is a retroactive ideological construct invented in the 19th century (the very term “Western civilization” barely appears before 1850) to give European and Euro-American colonial powers a noble pedigree. It is not a civilization in the strong sense (a continuous, self-reproducing form of life with a shared sacred order). It is a civilization in the weak sense: a zone of high technological developmentDevelopment ανάπτυξη unified by markets, English as lingua franca, and the constant need to forget its own discontinuities.
India, for all its modern fractures, still has a living civilizational substrate that can recognize a Ṛgvedic verse recited today as part of the same tradition that produced it 4,000 + years ago.
The West cannot do the equivalent with a line of Homer, a fragment of Heraclitus, or a Latin Mass. Those are museum pieces, not living arteries.
So yes — the “West” is largely a fiction, a brilliant and murderous one, but a fiction nonetheless. And that is why serious comparative philosophy increasingly speaks not of “Western civilization” but of the “Greco-Abrahamic techno-commercialCommercial Profit-making economic activities, such as the production, consumption, exchange, and distribution of goods and services, are primarily undertaken to earn money or a livelihood. Key Features > (1) Involve sale and exchange of goods and services for consideration (money or value), (2) Aim to earn profit and ensure business growth, (3) Include risk-bearing and creation of utility, (4) Economic in nature and satisfy customer needs. Commercial Activities > Earning profit, Business growth, Serving society, Achieving market leadership. complex” — because the label “West” hides more than it reveals.
Tanmoy Bhattacharyya
Nov 23, 2025