# J. Sai Deepak

Jayakumar Sai Deepak (born 1985) is an Indian Hindutva activist, lawyer, columnist and author. As a counsel, he practices before the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. In 2024, he was designated as Senior Advocate by Delhi High Court along with 70 other advocates.
He writes columns for The Indian Express and The Open Magazine. He has authored two books about decoloniality in relation to India: India That Is Bharat (2021) and India, Bharat and Pakistan (2022) with two mores books to come covering the era of partition.

## Education

Deepak attended St. Anthony's High School, Hyderabad. He then graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Anna University and completed law from IIT Kharagpur's Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law.

## Career

Deepak has been part of Basmati Geographical Indication litigation, as the Special Counsel for the State Govt of Madhya Pradesh, seeking inclusion of MP as part of the Basmati Geographical Indication.
Deepak argued the case for the entry of women to Sabarimala Temple. He argued against the entry, stating that the Hindu deity Ayyappan observes naishtika brahmacharya ("lifelong celibacy"). He was also a counsel in a petition to allow priests of any caste to be priests at Sabarimala, the priesthood at the temple has historically been open to only Malayali Brahmins. The Kerala High Court ruled in favor of the traditional practices.
Deepak represented the Travancore royal family for their right to manage the estates of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The Supreme Court of India ruled in favor of the family.
Deepak was the counsel for Anand Ranganathan in the contempt of court case against the former for endorsing the criticism of Justice S. Muralidhar by S Gurumurthy and Vivek Agnihotri. The Delhi High Court closed the proceedings against Ranganathan.

## Views

Deepak writes two blogs, one named Yukti on constitutional theory and legal philosophy; and one named The Demanding Mistress on civil, commercial and intellectual property law. An article in the latter blog was cited by the Madras High Court in its decision on the TVS Motor Company vs. Bajaj Auto Limited intellectual property dispute.
Deepak is a Hindutva activist. He believes that the several good qualities of the knowledge systems of ancient Hindu civilization, mixed with the good qualities of modern education systems, can be a template for modern Indian education systems, which he considers to have multiple drawbacks. He opposes the Dravidian movement and Periyarite thought, and claims they are Western interventions in Southern Indian societal faultlines. He has written an article, where he discussed limitations imposed by the Indian Constitution against Hindu majoritarian expression. He had criticized the provisions for Hindu majority authority being subject to judicial review and being overruled if it conflicts with constitutional morality.
Deepak's talks on the Karnataka hijab ban at St. Stephen's College, and on minority rights at Jamia Millia Islamia respectively, were cancelled despite receiving permission in what was termed by some journalists as the advent of cancel culture and deplatforming in India. Deepak's talk on the Uniform Civil Code in Bengaluru at a Karnataka Bar Association event was faced with opposition from a group of lawyers who wanted the event to be cancelled in an attempted case of deplatforming, but it wasn't.
Deepak has participated in multiple debates, the prominent ones being with Saurabh Kirpal on same sex marriage; with S. Y. Quraishi and Manish Tewari on the Uniform Civil Code; with Shashi Tharoor on decoloniality; and with AG Krishna Menon and Sanjay Nirupam on nationalism. Deepak is also a frequent orator, having spoken at multiple universities, as well as at literature and cultural festivals.

## Publications
### Books

* India That Is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution. New Delhi: Bloomsbury. 2021. ISBN 978-93-5435-249-2.
* India, Bharat and Pakistan: The Constitutional Journey of a Sandwiched Civilisation. New Delhi: Bloomsbury. 2022. ISBN 978-93-5435-301-7.