Who Is Raising Your Children? – A Wake-Up Call for Bharat’s Civilizational Guardians
In an era where the battle for Bharat's future is no longer fought merely on borders or in ballot boxes, but within the minds of her children, Who Is Raising Your Children? by Rajiv Malhotra and Vijaya Viswanathan emerges as a critical intervention. This book is not simply a critique of modern education; it is a clarion call to all conscious Bharatiyas to reclaim the narrative that shapes the minds of our youth. It speaks directly to the growing dissonance between our ancient civilizational ethos and the globalized frameworks currently influencing Indian schooling and parenting.
The Crisis of Civilizational Continuity
At the heart of this book is a profound question: who indeed is raising our children? Is it the parents, steeped in dharmic samskāras, who wish to transmit values inherited from millennia of wisdom? Or is it international NGOs, curriculum designers trained in Western liberalism, and multinational agencies with a uniform vision of humanity that often stands at odds with Sanatana Dharma?
Rajiv Malhotra and Vijaya Viswanathan expose how global ideological projects—disguised as “progressive” education—are infiltrating Indian classrooms. These include Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and the United Nations’ model of Global Citizenship Education (GCE). While these may sound benign, the authors painstakingly unpack how these are rooted in a worldview fundamentally disconnected from our native traditions. They are designed not just to teach subjects, but to reengineer values, redefine family, reinterpret dharma, and rewire the emotional compass of the youth.
The Aghasura Syndrome – The Dangerous Allure of Western Norms
The authors use the metaphor of Aghasura—a demon in the form of a giant serpent whose open mouth looked like a cave and who lured Krishna’s companions to enter it. This vivid imagery from the Bhagavata Purana encapsulates the core thesis: Western ideologies, under the garb of inclusion, human rights, and emotional well-being, are becoming subtle but powerful instruments of indoctrination. Just as the cowherd boys saw the cave as an adventure, today’s youth are enticed by Western "freedom" and "modernity," unaware of the loss of rootedness it entails.
CSE, for instance, is presented as a necessary educational reform to combat ignorance and bigotry. But Malhotra and Viswanathan show how it pushes inappropriate and hyper-sexualized content at early ages, often in contradiction to the Bharatiya model of brahmacharya and gradual, contextual understanding of sexuality. SEL programs claim to develop emotional intelligence, but often do so by inserting Western narratives around family, gender, and even mental health. GCE appears to promote world peace and cooperation, yet undermines the cultural uniqueness and civilizational confidence of nations like Bharat.
A Trojan Horse for Neo-Colonialism
What the authors bring out with striking clarity is the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs), global NGOs, and supranational bodies in scripting educational content and influencing Indian policy through backdoor channels. Education is no longer just national—it has been globalized and corporatized. UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, and global philanthropic organizations like the Gates Foundation, along with tech giants, are acting as new colonial agents. Their ideas often lack contextual sensitivity to Bharatiya realities, yet they dictate the tone and content of education in our schools.
This is not an accidental outcome—it is a carefully crafted strategy. By reshaping the minds of the young, the dharmic civilizational foundation is slowly being dismantled. Sanatana Dharma emphasizes sva-dharma (personal duty), varna-ashrama dharma, and moksha as the highest goal. These are incomprehensible to a Western pedagogical framework built on individualism, moral relativism, and linear historical thinking.
The Betrayal of Indian Elites
A particularly stinging observation in the book is the complicity of Indian elites—especially those educated in Western institutions or beholden to global recognition. These elites, many of whom sit in advisory positions in the Ministry of Education or shape university curricula, often act as transmission belts for these foreign ideologies. They dismiss traditional knowledge systems, mock Sanskriti as superstition, and promote a rootless cosmopolitanism that leaves the Indian child alienated from his or her own heritage.
This mental colonization has reached alarming levels. In the name of critical thinking, students are encouraged to question their religion, their ancestors, and even their own parents. In the name of inclusivity, they are taught to blur all boundaries of identity, gender, family, and even nationhood. Under the influence of these curricula, a young Bharatiya is more likely to identify with American celebrities or UN slogans than with Bhishma, Chanakya, or Swami Vivekananda.
Reclaiming Our Role as Cultural Custodians
Rajiv Malhotra and Vijaya Viswanathan do not merely diagnose the problem—they urge a movement of resistance. Their call is to Bharatiya parents, teachers, gurus, and policymakers: reclaim your right to shape the minds of your children. Be vigilant about what they are being taught, what they watch, what values are being celebrated in their textbooks.
This is not a call to isolationism. The authors are not advocating for the rejection of science or modern knowledge. Rather, they are asking for viveka—discernment. Just as our rishis adapted insights from nature and from other cultures but rooted them in dharma, we must do the same today. Bharat does not need a wholesale import of American educational values; it needs a revival of Gurukula-style wisdom adapted to modern needs.
Conclusion: A Manifesto for the Future
Who Is Raising Your Children? is not just a book—it is a manifesto for cultural survival. It should be read, debated, and most importantly, acted upon. Every parent who wants to preserve Bharatiya samskāra, every teacher who wants to impart not just information but wisdom, and every policymaker who still carries a sense of dharmic responsibility should take this book seriously.
In a time where children are the new battleground and education is the new weapon, this book reminds us of our duty as Sanatanis to ensure that our next generation does not become deracinated global automatons, but conscious, confident inheritors of the greatest living civilization on Earth.
Let us not wait until it is too late to ask: Who is raising your children? The time to reclaim that responsibility is now.
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